1. What is the HDD (or SSD) where the file is stored? You say Raid 0, but don't say what type of storage.
2. Compression of file (or absence of) can have big impact. Some devices that create files on the fly, use codecs that encode quickly, to the detriment of decoding that will take longer.

Advice for 1 : Use a dedicated SSD for video editing media files.
Advice for 2 : Convert the file to a different format, codec, or even... uncompressed, before editing. In some editing software it can make huge differences.

I'm using two SATA hard disks (7200 RPM) at 500 Gb each in RAID 0. I also have a non-RAID drive in there at 1 Tb. I don't actually use it, I may just pull it out as I have a server I grab all the files I want to edit, make videos, and then the completed videos along with the assets I use go back on the server. Both OSes are on the same RAID 1 setup anyhow.

I thought about your second point a little after I posted this -I found that not all formats are created equally. I will have to do some research into compression vs. stream quality and optimize my setup. I don't need 4K resolution (hell 1080p is fine, otherwise people can see how hideous I really am 😜) or anything too fancy. I could also change the format of them before I do any editing as you mentioned.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

What kind of hardware/software do you guys use, out of curiosity? I was very briefly like, damn, do I need a Mac for this or something? 😊

You definitely DON'T need a Mac to do video editing. That said, I DO use a 2013 iMac, lowest model with Core i5 and 8GB of RAM to edit my videos. They are all 1080p and editing is super smooth and fast. Export takes about 25-50% of real time though. So a 20 minute video will usually export in 5 minutes. All this using iMovie.

I do concur that you should probably use a SSD for editing though, since the transfer times are so incredibly better and you have virtually no seek times.

Still, OpenShot does have a hardware accelerated branch: https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/tree/ … ardware-support

You might want to try that out. Since you DO have NVIDIA graphics cards, it might just work with your setup. Should also help with encoding times.

I'm not sure what to do with that link's content. These are some kind of files for developers? The zip file has .dmg files here and there, is it for a Mac?

I get to here

Instructions
OpenShot Video Editor 2.x supports Linux, Mac, and Windows. But due to the many dependencies required to run OpenShot, we recommend using an installer for your operating system. Please visit http://www.openshot.org/download/ to find your correct installer.

so I just install the program from the terminal window? I already have 2.4.3 on there, will I have to remove it to reinstall one that has the hardware support for the GPU?

I'll try this when I get home:

$ sudo python3 setup.py install

I tried OpenShot on Windows but at the time I tried it, it seemed flakey and prone to crashing to desktop. I ended up using Davinci Resolve [the free version] from Blackmagic Design; I don't use it often but I like(d) the workflow/interface, it's packed with features and there are plenty of tutorials on youtube.

This was/is running on a Phenom II X4 965/8gb ram/Windows 10; it's available for linux. I don't think the version of Resolve I use(d) took advantage of the GPU, and as I recall some tasks do take a while to run.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/products/davinciresolve/

That's the real site. NCH software seem to be trying to hijack it in search engine results. Well worth a look imho.

I have tried OpenShot on Windows, and I did not like it . On Linux though I highly enjoyed it. KDEnlive is a great video editing software on Linux, but personally I am not fond of it. But do not let that discourage you from using it. If you find fitting and great. So as others have said, you do not need to use a MAC to editing video.

Hey so I just tried to simply import two project files into OpenShot and the computer is having trouble with that... There has simply got to be a better way to edit video. I have spent over 8 hours editing down a 28min clip to a 3 min accelerated one with one or two pauses in the middle. I had to break it up into smaller pieces, remove the gibberish audio, do a fade in and a fade out. Exporting times were very lengthy (I got some assignments done in between, some house chores, changed my oil, etc) and the whole process seems like trying to boot Windows 3.1 on an 8088. But worse. Maybe on a 6510.

It seems that if there was a wrong way to edit video, I am following that path 100%. My channel has been slow to content because I have a massive backlog of footage that is just waiting to be edited. This is heartbreaking...

I'm going to level with you guys - I'm not a programmer, not nearly close to a developer. On a good day my Linuxing is 4/10.

I followed this thread :

https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues/1190

And it mentioned hardware support for GPUs (Nvidia) - it led me to the same link as above. I downloaded the large zip file and extracted it.

I have absolutely no idea what to do with this.

Maybe I need another Xeon for this computer... Brute force this mofo.

*Edit - seemed to catch a good groove, played around with different formats. I added a title and ending slide overlay and exported - lost half the video content in the middle of the file (no video, just my background music playing in the final export - retrying export so I have the whole footage only to add the title/end frames later - what an incredibly tedious process... Youtube videos make it look so easy...)

I can't be the only one who is having immense problems with this. This software won awards apparently? I guess it is free....

(looking into a used Mac 🤣)

After many, many hours of experimenting, here's what worked:

-Exclusive use of MTS format as project files
-Exporting to MP4 (H.264) when completed editing videos and effects EXCEPT TITLES
-Adding sound (narration, background music) - re-exporting
-Adding any labels or titles, re-exporting final.

I find that titles inexplicably drop video clips from the project and result in black segments (audio OK). I'm going to see how the "new" processor affects operation.

Alright, so the new E5649 6 core Xeon came in. I had to update the BIOS to get it to work (A02 to A18) and it made a difference.

Tips if anyone else is struggling:

-Do a BIOS update
-Go into said BIOS and TURN ON ALL THE THINGS! Multicore was disabled. Turbo was disabled. Some other performance options were disabled. I am not sure if these were always disabled, but they're on now.
-Upgrade the CPU.
-Latest version of OpenShot.

It's still a buggy program for sure (using the cut tool crashes it sometimes), so frequent project saving is a must. I am now compiling a new video with a few layers (labels, effects, fades, speed ups, etc) and it seems to be taking it quite well!

Additionally, watching Youtube vids while exporting - they don't skip nearly as much anymore. The real test will be the quality of the export when I play it back. That process is still quite slow, but at least I can do more in one shot now.

If it is still crappy, I'll try the suggestions for other software.

Thanks guys!

With that being said, back to editing!

I know you have already found an editing software that works for you, but I recommend you try Movavi. It's probably the best mp4 editor.
It has an intuitive and easy-to-use interface where you can easily merge videos, add transitions, etc.

I'm using it for my Instagram Reels, and I edit my videos in max 5 mins. The best to use is their automated transitions mode, which works very smoothly. Also, it got an Ai background removal. It holds large formats and keeps a great quality after exporting.

kdenlive. it takes a few hours to get used to it, its very similar to the old windows movie maker, with a few extra features (such as moving and rescaling layers around even as the video plays).

Keep in mind the first gen processors that use this socket is no faster than C2D that was replaced. For this reason, I skipped both first gen and second gen (Sandy Bridge) and went straight to Ivy Bridge Xeon E3-1680 V2 on Z220. From Optiplex 780 with E8600 was my long term PC starting with XP, then 7 then Win 10. How I know? I played with T410 and knew how much performance was had even using i7-640M and had T420 as well , not much bump in performance.

Most performance boost is with Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge stuff and still compatible with XP which you're based on and as cheap too. Z210 takes Sandy Bridge i7 or Xeon. Another one is Z220 takes either i7 or Xeon using Ivy Bridge. Suggest Z420 if you want to keep XP and if your requirement is more than 32GB ram.
Cheers,