CineForm HD Is Being Worked On For Linux/Open-Source Desktop Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: CineForm HD Is Being Worked On For Linux/Open-Source Desktop Support

Kieran Kunhya with some documentation in hand and a lot of reverse engineering has been working on allowing support for the GoPro Cineform HD codec from the open-source Linux desktop...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GoPro-CineForm-HD-RE

[89c51]

The thing is that we still don't have a video editor worth mentioning. Most people -amateur to semipro i am aware of- doing editing work with Macs.

[Deavir]

The thing is that we still don't have a video editor worth mentioning. Most people -amateur to semipro i am aware of- doing editing work with Macs.

Playback in VLC and conversion in Handbrake would have value though.

[johny007]

Exactly. Imagine me, I want to take my H.265 files from my camera, load them on my NAS where it's gonna be back up and converted into ProRes or it might also be this GoPro Cineform HD codec in the future. Of course won't edit on Linux, but sure as hell appreciate H.265 decoding support for Linux and other video features like this.

[mike4]

Ahh that's why I couldn't watch GoPro movies and have returned all for around 500.-. Got a much better Mobius cam for 80.- now!

[mike4]

The thing is that we still don't have a video editor worth mentioning.

I'm very, very happy with Kdenlive.

[SystemCrasher]

I'm very, very happy with Kdenlive.

Unfortunately it inclined on being KDE-only, and so, unlike, say, Qt apps, using KDE apps on other DEs is a very suboptimal experience, to say the least. And speaking for myself, I dislike KDE. It bugged like hell, laggy, plasma craplets aren't really usable, it spawns dozens of processes for all occasions like PIM, indexing and so on, and no real way to get rid of this crap I do not want to use. And if I'm not ok with such experience... kde apps are really bad choice. So, somehow, I have to admit point about lack of good video editors under Linux is, unfortunately, valid. Somehow, that's nearly the only kind of program where I failed to find any program I would like.

[Imroy]

Ahh that's why I couldn't watch GoPro movies and have returned all for around 500.-. Got a much better Mobius cam for 80.- now!

No. As stated in both the summary here and the linked article, this codec/format is produced by video editing programs. It has nothing to do with GoPro actioncams. GoPro simply bought the company that created the codec.

[anda_skoa]

Unfortunately it inclined on being KDE-only

Assuming "KDE-only" refers to requiring to be run from a KDE shell, e.g. Plasma, then this is a common misconception.

Applications created by the KDE community have been used with other shells, even on proprietary ones, for years.
Very wide spread examples were K3B back when optical media where still widely in use, others include Digikam, Okular, Konsole and Krita.

The latter might even be used more on non-KDE shells due to its quite large Windows user base.

Cheers,
_

[SystemCrasher]

Assuming "KDE-only" refers to requiring to be run from a KDE shell, e.g. Plasma, then this is a common misconception.

Applications created by the KDE community have been used with other shells, even on proprietary ones, for years.
Very wide spread examples were K3B back when optical media where still widely in use, others include Digikam, Okular, Konsole and Krita.

The latter might even be used more on non-KDE shells due to its quite large Windows user base.

Cheers,
_

It means the following: program using KDE runtime behaves very poorly when it comes to system integration if you launch it on anything but KDE. E.g. Qt on its own would generally use GTK+ themes to render, respects system settings, and changing system settings takes effect on Qt programs as well, etc. Though Qt can also look custom and some programs provide this as option, but default user experience is more or less consistent with rest of system.

But from my attempts to use KDE programs outside KDE it proven it is not a case for KDE programs using KDE runtime. They have very own idea on this, and generally if my system is built around, say, XFCE or other GTK+ environment, it going to be a major trouble. Sure, it would launch.

But...
1) KDE runtime is rather intrusive and usually attempts to bring a plenty of stuff I do not need or want, up to some indexing daemons, which should burn in hell since I never use this "feature".
2) It mostly disregards current system settings. Qt does a good job integrating with various systems, trying to look natively, behave natively, etc. KDE runtime is entirely different story. They think everything should look their way. I can't reconfigure appearance using my system settigs, I have to install their progs, and like a half of KDE. Nope, thanks!

At the end of day, my experience with KDE and KDE programs suggests KDE programs are only ok in KDE. And very bad choice for any other environment. They would launch, but user experience is going to be really bad. Not to mention it makes system much heavier and slower. I really do not want to deal with their super-ultimate PIM framework, bringing whole MySQL, granted it only used by third-rate mail program and some crappy IM client, I do not need 'em both and I'm not a DBA either, so I'm not fond of this bloatware bringing me some unwanted services and databases. At the end of day, I can easily end up with Win Vista experience, where my system lags all the time due to being busy with various KDE stuff, taking plenty of memory and killing disk cache all the time with stupid reindexing and so on. There're some use cases where I may want "central" PIM APIs, e.g. on phones and tablets, but KDE with their MySQL DBs and other bloat is quite poor option. Yep, I've used KDE .. but not anymore. XFCE does all I need from DE, much faster/lighter and I do not have to waste my time on getting rid of indexers and databases. And in XFCE, nm appleit is nm applet. I can just connect to wireless net. Not struggle vs brand new laggy plasmoid which is really unusable with notebook's touchpad, etc.

Sorry, but I do care about consistent user experience, usability and I also like fast computers. KDE programs in GTK environments are very opposite of this. At least it looked like this when I've gave it a shot, so I'm really not in mood to use Kool Kde Programs in GTK-based desktop. And I've got fed up with KDE landing all sort of stuff on my head, be it PIM, indexing/search, SQL databases or something. I want DE to be a DE, all I need is actual desktop, system settings, menu, tray, etc. I would use my favorite programs to send emails, chat, view PDFs, type in console, etc. I'm really ok with XFCE terminal, which is faster and lighter than Konsole, even if haves a bit less of features. I'm ok with evince as pdf viewer and it does not requires KDE runtime while I fail to find any disadvantages. In XFCE I'm really better off without KDE programs. Because they just do not work here reasonably. They launch, but then it looks like a really foreign program. It just as bad as Java or something, where programs are looking and behaving utterly foreign to the rest of OS.