PiTiVi version 0.13.4 |
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| Original author(s) | Edward Hervey |
| Developer(s) | The PiTiVi development team |
| Stable release | 0.15.0 / September 28, 2011 |
| Development status | Active |
| Written in | Python (GTK+) |
| Operating system | Linux |
| Type | Video editor |
| License | GNU LGPL |
| Website | www.pitivi.org |
PiTiVi is an open source, non-linear video editor[1] developed by Collabora and contributors from the worldwide community.[2] It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. PiTiVi is designed to be intuitive video editing software that integrates well in the GNOME desktop environment. It aims to be "a powerful, flexible video editor that can appeal to prosumers and professionals." [3]
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Edward Hervey started working on PiTiVi in 2004 as an end-of-studies project at the EPITECH engineering school in Paris.[4] Initially written in C, the PiTiVi code base was rewritten in Python eighteen months later.[5]
After his graduation, Edward was hired by Fluendo to work on GStreamer for the following two years,[5] after which Edward co-founded Collabora's Multimedia division in order to improve PiTiVi, GStreamer and the GNonlin plugins.[6]
In the past there have been several video editors available for Linux, but, they were considered difficult to use.[7] Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon stated "Back in 2006, the video editing situation was looking far more exciting. Michael Dominik was working on the hugely exciting Diva project and Edward Hervey was working on PiTiVi. Both combined exciting technologies, being built on the formidable foundations of GTK, GNOME, GStreamer, and Cairo. Diva was developed using Mono, and PiTiVi using Python. With the video buzz in the air, Michael and Edward both demoed their projects at the Villanova GUADEC to rapturous applause".[7]
Bacon also noted that PiTiVi has taken a long time to mature: "For Edward to have created the first incarnation of PiTiVi he needed to ensure that GStreamer and GNonLin were mature and stable enough to use for his application".[7]
In April 2010, with the launch of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, PiTiVi version 0.13.4 became the first default movie editor offered as part of the Ubuntu ISO CD.
In May 2011, it was announced that PiTiVi would be no longer part of the Ubuntu ISO, starting with Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot's release in October 2011. The reasons given for removing it included "poor user reception, lack of fit with the default user-case for Ubuntu, lack of polish and the application's lack of development maturity". PiTiVi will not be replaced on the ISO with another video editor and will remain available to users for installation from the Ubuntu repositories.[8][9][10]
In response to this, Jeff Fortin, one of the project developers raised concerns regarding the reasons given for removing PiTiVi from the set of default applications and voiced disappointment in Canonical/Ubuntu not supporting the application as they would have been expected to.[11]
Edward Hervey announced the availability of GStreamer Editing Services (GES) at the end of 2009.[12] Further confirmations of intentions to migrate PiTiVi to GES came at the Meego conference in 2011[13] but it was not until the 0.15 release that it was officially announced that the next release would be based upon GES.[14]
PiTiVi inherits its capabilities for importing and exporting (rendering) media from the GStreamer framework, or plugins for the GStreamer framework. PiTiVi supports simple media editing capabilities such as trimming, snapping, splitting and cutting of clips. Audio mixing is supported by curves, visualised as line segments drawn over an audio waveform. PiTiVi has the ability to step through a piece of media using scrubbers or keyboard shortcuts. Audio and video clips can be linked together, and treated as a single clip. Initial support for video mixing (compositing and transitions) has been added in late 2009 but is still under heavy work. A more exhaustive list of features can be found on the PiTiVi website.[15]
Jean-François Fortin Tam gave a talk at Libre Graphics Meeting 2009, discussing how usability became a major focus for the PiTiVi project,[1][16] and how design considerations impacted PiTiVi's user-interface, with examples such as the use of subtle gradients in timeline objects, drag and drop importing and direct manipulation, native theme integration, and reducing complexity by carefully evaluating the need (or lack thereof) to impose preference choices onto users.[16] Another talk, focused on the economics of open source video editors, was given by Jean-François at Libre Graphics Meeting 2011.
The PiTiVi project also has a user manual that covers the usage of the application. PiTiVi has been translated and localized for several languages by the GNOME i18n teams.
Through GStreamer, PiTiVi is the first open source video editor to support the Material Exchange Format (MXF).[17][18]
As part of a Google Summer of Code project to "Permit Pitivi users to add effects to the videos they are editing", Thibault Saunier implemented video effects in the development version of PiTiVi. This work was initially anticipated to be included starting with PiTiVi 0.13.5[19], but was announced as being deferred to the 0.13.6 release.[20] These features were finally released as version 0.14.0-2 on 1 June 2011. Aside from improved and expanded effects this version included a new welcome screen, a redesigned project settings dialog box and a simplified rendering dialog. In reviewing this version for OMG! Ubuntu! writer Joey Sneddon said of the new rendering that it "totally wipes the floor with its competition: it is so incredibly simple to use."[21][22]
At the end of 2008, Collabora Multimedia decided to fund the development of PiTiVi throughout 2009 by assigning Edward Hervey, Brandon Lewis and Alessandro Decina to improve PiTiVi and GNonlin.[17][23][24] [25]
Development has also been funded through the Google Summer of Code program.[26]
In an interview with gnomedesktop.org Edward Hervey discussed the state of PiTiVi and Linux Video editing; at one stage Edward notes that "there's a total lack of cohesion between all the various multimedia applications/libraries/device-support on Linux which is IMHO the reason why we're not yet the reference platform for multimedia creation".[27] This point of view is further expanded on in another article showing Edward believes that "if the Linux desktop was going to have a nice and easy to use video editor any time soon, we needed to do something to increase the pace of development significantly".[25]
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