October 2026 - Cin - Cinelerra-GG Mailing Lists

Traditional CinGG AppImages newly available
by Phyllis Smith 31 Oct '26

31 Oct '26

With FFmpeg updated to 9.0.2, there are new AppImages now available for download. Release notes of what has changed is below. ***************** GIT for Cinelerra-GG has the following changes from 09/01/2026-10/31/2026 *FFmpeg* has been updated from 8.1 to 9.0.2. It was discovered since version 8.x, a new requirement that in addition to the "-hwaccel_device" option, the "-vaapi_device" option has to also be included. So pending ongoing analysis, rendering using any of the “vaapi” video formats will give an error message. Any formats that have been known to crash were temporarily removed. The previously deprecated AVCodec pix_fmts, sample_fmt, and supported_framesrates was removed from ffmpeg/libavcodec requiring fixes to fileac3, fileffmpeg, and ffmpeg.C at 9.x. Updated ffmpeg.git.patch# files for building with git to check out current non-released ffmpeg code. Added -latomic and disabled vsx in x264 for case where it does not work on older PPC processors so it is now automatic. Mods provided by *Andrew-R*. Patch submitted by *Tarceri* (Mesa drivers support person) partial fix now frees gl fb cfgs pointers correctly on destruction.

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Cinelerra-GG Qt6 alpha 2026-10-29: zoom grips, AI remote control, fixes from your reports
by Sam 31 Oct '26

31 Oct '26

Hi everyone, a new Qt6 alpha is online, built on 2026-10-29. It brings zoom grips on the timeline scrollbars, hints in the footer, a first version of remote control for AI assistants, and the fixes for what you reported since the alpha of 2026-10-27. Thank you, Terje, Andrea, Rob and Andrew, for testing and for the detailed reports. Download (sorted by date, the newest on top): download.cinelerra-gg.org <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/?path=qt6-alpha&sort=date_desc> * CinGG-qt6-alpha-20261029-x86_64.AppImage <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/files/qt6-alpha/CinGG-qt6-alpha-20261029-…>, sha256 |bbc89ef9e26b38468addb30775339b79aeb332d40a60d2fec7395620bc8b7912| * CinGG-qt6-alpha-20261029-anylinux-x86_64.AppImage <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/files/qt6-alpha/CinGG-qt6-alpha-20261029-…> for older systems (it brings its own glibc), sha256 |0b41d7b0144449d76e9a78b14839fdd236a7b82094779352eec56c71c34006e8| The source is public: git.cinelerra-gg.org <https://git.cinelerra-gg.org/?p=sam/cinelerra-gg-qt6.git;a=summary>, branch main, 59 commits since the alpha of 2026-10-27. 1. Zoom grips on the timeline scrollbars Premiere, Kdenlive and VEGAS let you zoom right on the timeline scrollbar, and Cinelerra can do that now, too. Each end of the scrollbar thumb has a round grip. Drag a grip and the view zooms smoothly, while the other end stays where it is. When you let go, the grip stays under the mouse. Drag the middle to scroll as before, and a double-click shows the whole project. The vertical scrollbar beside the tracks has the same grips. There a grip changes the height of all tracks at once, audio and video alike, and a double-click fits all tracks into the window. The footer now tells you what the mouse can do: over a clip, over the time ruler, over a scrollbar. While you drag a clip, it says what the drop will do, move it, or with Shift, overwrite. If you don't want the hints, a right click on the footer turns them off. The E key toggles the editing mode again. Video, 1:32, English with subtitles: zoom grips and footer hints <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/files/qt6-alpha/videos/cinelerra-qt6-zoom…> Video, 1:32, English with subtitles: zoom grips and footer hints <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/files/qt6-alpha/videos/cinelerra-qt6-zoom…> 2. Remote control for AI assistants (MCP), an early version Professional editors are adding a way for AI assistants to work in the edit. DaVinci Resolve Studio has a built-in MCP server for this. Adobe has an official connector for quick video jobs in the cloud, while control of the Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro timeline still takes add-ons from the community. Cinelerra now has its own MCP server, built into the program, free and open source. It is off by default. Turn it on in Settings, Preferences: search for remote control and tick Allow AI tools and scripts to control Cinelerra (local socket). Cinelerra then opens a socket in a private directory, only for your user. Every call is written to api.log in the configuration folder, and every change is one undo step. Then register Cinelerra with your assistant. For Claude Code that is one line: |claude mcp add cinelerra -- /path/to/CinGG-qt6-alpha-20261029-x86_64.AppImage --mcp| Codex works the same way, with an entry in ~/.codex/config.toml. The README in the repository has both setups. The video shows a very simple example, just to see what it can do: load a clip, cut out two ranges, add Brightness/Contrast and look at the frames on both sides of the cut. The terminal on the left is re-enacted, the Cinelerra on the right is the real program, driven through the socket with the same calls a real session made. The assistant can do a lot more: * Effects: add, remove, move, switch on and off, set single parameters, apply and save presets, reset, open and steer the Effect Inspector. * Project: list tracks, clips and media, select clips, arm tracks, save the project under a new name. * Timeline: read and set the position, select ranges, and through the command table jump to edits and labels, set in and out points and much more. * Seeing and events: a frame of the compositor at any point, and a notice of every change to the project. * In all there are 45 verbs, and over 300 commands of the command table can be run. Prepared, but not available yet: rendering, inserting, moving and trimming clips, and automatic editing. Scene detection comes next. This is the first step, and more will follow. Video, 2:46, English with subtitles: remote control for AI assistants <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/files/qt6-alpha/videos/cinelerra-qt6-ai-c…> Video, 2:46, English with subtitles: remote control for AI assistants <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/files/qt6-alpha/videos/cinelerra-qt6-ai-c…> The film in both videos is Tears of Steel, (CC) Blender Foundation, mango.blender.org, licensed CC BY 3.0. All videos with .srt subtitles: qt6-alpha/videos <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/?path=qt6-alpha%2Fvideos>. 3. Fixes from your reports Terje (GNOME): * A floating Compositor stayed above the main window, and the main window could not be brought in front of it. Settings, Preferences, Appearance has a new row Floating panels: Stay above the main window (the default, as before) or Separate windows, where every panel is a window of its own. * Interface Scale could only be set for the platform that was running. Both rows, X11 and Wayland, are shown now, and the one in use is marked. Andrea: * VAAPI did not start in either AppImage (no function __vaDriverInit_1_0). The cause is not your graphics card: the AppImage brought libva 2.20, which cannot load the VAAPI drivers of newer distributions. The normal AppImage now takes libva from your system and keeps its own copy only as a fallback. The anylinux AppImage is unchanged for now. Rob (Debian 13, openbox, two screens): * The waveform of a clip was incomplete on the first load. It is complete now as soon as the index of the clip is built. * Dragging a floating panel by its title bar often resized it instead. Only the top 4 px of the title bar resize now, the corners keep their wider grip. * With Separate windows, the window manager moves a floating panel, so it can go to your second screen without docking on the way. A double-click on its title bar docks it again. * Dialogs did not stand out from the main window without a compositing window manager. Every dialog now has its own background and a thin frame. Found in our own tests: * The mouse wheel changed number fields and lists while you scrolled a page, for example the channels in the Info panel. On scrolling pages, a field now takes the wheel only after you clicked it. The effect panels keep the wheel as before, there it is wanted. * Keys of the classic main window that did nothing in the Qt6 build so far work again. They run through the command table and can be changed in the keyboard editor. Andrew, Terje: VAAPI with ffmpeg 9 is still open. I will come back to you with a test build. How this is made As before, the code is written with Claude. What I rely on is testing: automated tests that run the real program, code reviews of each larger change, and my own check of every feature before it is pushed. That does not make it free of bugs, so please keep the reports coming: bug.cinelerra-gg.org <https://bug.cinelerra-gg.org> or this list. Sam

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OT: Capture 576i50 analog S-video with v4l2 and PCIe Magewell Pro Capture AIO in 10-bit 4:2:2?
by terjejhanssen＠gmail.com 30 Oct '26

30 Oct '26

It's been quite a while since my last post, but I've been keeping up a bit in the background ....... In the past, we had some posts about capture devices, some few standalone or pcie based, but most usb of course. After earlier S-video to DV capturing (which was in 8bit 4:2:0 using Datavideo DN300), my plan has been to recapture all my S-video tapes to 10bit 4:2:2 in Prores LT for the final archive. In fact I tested this 10 years ago for 5 Hi8 tapes (which still work using ffmpeg) using a Blackmagic Analog to SDI mini-converter and a Hyperdeck Shuttle-2 SSD recorder. Some months ago I tried to resume this capture project, but had to conclude that the BMD converter didn't work. I ordered a new one, 2nd gen (EOS), but unfortunately its new chips seemingly require a studio-quality video signal. The Shuttle-2 didn't get a valid signal to record, even though it works perfectly fine when recording HD video from my HDV camcorder via HDMI. So at last I had to give up on this BMD analog route. And I don't wont to trust Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro 4K on Linux -- a card I previously mentioned in an old post https://tinyurl.com/2nuj7hfk There is however another option, —costly, yes—for Linux that I was not aware of and therefore didn't mention in my old post above Magewell Pro Capture Aio - One-channel HD capture card But I have yet to find user posts confirming it is capable to record SD video in 10bit 4:2:2 with v4l2, and especially on openSUSE Tumbleweed-Slowroll. Any tip or thoughts about how risky this Magewell option may be with regards to success or failure ? Here follows just my collections of Magewell urls: https://www.magewell.com/products/pro-capture-aio https://www.magewell.com/kb/detail/000020047/pro-capture https://www.magewell.com/kb/pro-capture?page=1 https://www.magewell.com/downloads/pro-capture https://www.vision-dimension.com/en/blog/video-capture/magewell/magewell-is…

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future of cinGG UI?
by Rob Prowel 29 Oct '26

29 Oct '26

I've been away for a while dealing with family stuff but I noted that the last AppImage of the traditional UI cinGG is from august and more recently the app has a Qt interface. I hope we are not seeing a switch from the traditional UI semantics, without continuing the power user functionality that existed for so long. For a long time I considered that a UI based on a popular toolset was a good idea but abandonned that goal after looking at how heavily the old UI was embedded into the code. Qt was an obvious choice. So don't get me wrong, I congratulate the author's update, but would like to point out a few issues that should be addressed. * The traditional UI accepted immediate mode commands entered from the keybord. While possible in Qt, it seems that operational mode is not active in the current Qt version. When I type (q) on the timeline I want to see the "quit" dialog. Likewise, <shift>R should immediately pop up the render dialog. * I understand the current popular "wayland" position that apps should each be managed by a single top level window and that somehow IPC between windows is a "cough cough" security bug...but! The workflow of content creation in a single window UI is greatly crippled by cramming everything in a single top level window. I contend that each major function: timeline, compositor, and asset-management should have their own independent top level window. I use a dual monitor configuration and need to be able to place function windows on independent monitors to space things out. * color themes need to be better considered. The default theme is fine, but when you introduce a popup like the global settings over top of the full screen app window, the content gets lost in the haze. I'd contend that popups should use a different background color so their content becomes more ovbious. * the new Qt UI is polished and very pretty. PLEASE, don't favor pretty fluff over power user functionality though. having to click a series of pulldown menus to reach a frequently used function is unpleasant. Sometimes keyboard commands are "better" than point and click. * a bug that seems to be prevalent in cinGG is that upon opening a clip, the default timeline doesn't fully render the audio tracks, but only for about half of the visible clip. The full rendering doesn't take place unless I zoom in or out on the timeline time range. Truth is that I am impressed with the Qt UI, but we need to maintain a aire of power user friendliness so that productivity doesn't take a backseat to asthetics. I've always maintained that WYSIWYG is a bad concept and I prefer, "you aksed for it, you got it!" For now I'm hoping the traditional UI app continues to be the main dev branch and receives ALL fixes and enhancements for the foreseeable future. On a final note I recently pulled down the full git repo and tried to do a default build (use cinGG 3rd party libs) but the "build install" fails with a recurve out of memory error when trying to install certain plugins: I think ladspa stuff? -Rob

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Cinelerra-GG Qt6 alpha 2026-10-27: patchbay and footer styles, fixes from your reports
by Sam 29 Oct '26

29 Oct '26

Hi everyone, a new Qt6 alpha is online, built on 2026-10-27. It brings two new features, the patchbay styles and the footer styles, and the fixes for what you reported since the alpha of 2026-10-22. Thank you, Terje, Igor, Andrea and Thomas, for testing and for the detailed reports, videos and screenshots. Download (sorted by date, the newest on top): download.cinelerra-gg.org <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/?path=qt6-alpha&sort=date_desc> * CinGG-qt6-alpha-20261027-x86_64.AppImage <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/files/qt6-alpha/CinGG-qt6-alpha-20261027-…>, sha256 |fdd3de0172e3f2712aad0ff674d5c33a52034697b4e5143e4fd413b7a4b8377a| * CinGG-qt6-alpha-20261027-anylinux-x86_64.AppImage <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/files/qt6-alpha/CinGG-qt6-alpha-20261027-…> for older systems (it brings its own glibc), sha256 |8465fa6e4a8dfcf976954e74198ee73660f778efac004ab96be9c9d3c7f206b6| The source is public: git.cinelerra-gg.org <https://git.cinelerra-gg.org/?p=sam/cinelerra-gg-qt6.git;a=summary>, branch main, 69 commits since the alpha of 2026-10-22. 1. Patchbay styles The patchbay can now be set up the way you like it: like DaVinci Resolve, like Kdenlive, like Premiere or Avid, or entirely your own. A right click below the tracks lists the styles: Classic, Compact and Single row. The patchbay also adapts to its width: drag it wider and the faders and fields grow, drag it narrower and it hides what no longer fits, step by step. In the Patchbay Styles window you build your own styles by dragging elements: the track label as a column over the full height, short (V1, A1) and upright; a new row for gang and master; a fader and a level meter standing upright at the right edge. A preview shows the style on a low, a default and a tall track. There are also new elements: a vertical fader, the fader value, a Solo switch (plays and renders only the soloed tracks) and an effects switch that turns all effects of a track off and on again. Video, 2:17, English with subtitles: the patchbay styles and the style editor <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/files/qt6-alpha/videos/cinelerra-qt6-patc…> Video, 2:17, English with subtitles: the patchbay styles and the style editor <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/files/qt6-alpha/videos/cinelerra-qt6-patc…> 2. Footer under the timeline, and its styles The footer below the timeline is one row now: the selection fields (start, length, end), the zoom, the curve range and a message slot on the right. Messages fade out after a while, errors are counted, and a click shows the history. The Display button opens a small window for the track heights, the waveform, the title bars and the curve ranges, where a click on a curve's colour mark picks its colour. The Up and Down keys zoom again, with Ctrl the waveform, with Alt the curve range. Like the patchbay, the footer has styles. Classic shows it as in the old Cinelerra: duration, waveform, track heights, curve range and the selection fields. Modern is the new default. In the Footer Styles window you make a copy and drag the elements into the order you need. A right click on a free spot of the footer switches between the styles. Video, 1:35, English with subtitles: Classic, Modern and the Footer Styles editor <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/files/qt6-alpha/videos/cinelerra-qt6-foot…> Video, 1:35, English with subtitles: Classic, Modern and the Footer Styles editor <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/files/qt6-alpha/videos/cinelerra-qt6-foot…> The film in both videos is Tears of Steel, (CC) Blender Foundation, mango.blender.org, licensed CC BY 3.0. All videos with .srt subtitles: qt6-alpha/videos <https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/?path=qt6-alpha%2Fvideos>. 3. Fixes from your reports Terje (GNOME, native Wayland): * The interface was too small on a 27-inch WQHD screen. Settings, Preferences, Appearance has a new row Interface Scale, one value for X11 and one for Wayland. Terje, set Interface Scale (Wayland) to 1.40, that is what QT_SCALE_FACTOR=1.4 did for you. It applies after a restart, which Cinelerra offers. * The X in the title bar of a floating window (Compositor and the other docks) closes it again. * A docked window dragged by its title bar comes loose on Wayland. This is tested on KDE only. Terje, could you try it on GNOME? * Window, Show Compositor and the other Show entries carry a check mark while the window is shown. Igor: * A drop from the Resources panel onto the Viewer or the Compositor works. * Draw media in the patchbay hides the media of the clips. * A track that is not armed keeps its keyframes, the mouse no longer adds or moves them there. * The pointer shows the I-beam over the timeline in Cut and Paste mode. * The transport buttons: Settings, Preferences, Appearance, Icon size sets their size. Thomas (video of 2026-10-20, private email): after a click on a patchbay switch, moving the mouse over the same switch of another track switched it as well. The switches now act on the press, and dragging across tracks only works while the button is held. Andrea: * The knobs of plugins such as Motion: the needle sat off centre and turned strangely with the theme images. Needle, blue arc and the drag angle now take the centre of the knob. * The reset button that every effect has in its header in the Effect Inspector (the circular arrow) works now. It sets the effect back to the plugin's factory defaults at the current keyframe, as one undo step. If an effect cannot be reset, the footer says so. * QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland always gave X11: that is on purpose while an X11 display is there, the variable for Cinelerra is CIN_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland. The log now says so. Easier still: see the new setting below. * h264_vaapi crash (Assertion pic->nb_dpb_pics < 16): the AppImage uses ffmpeg 7.1, and that assertion is in line 62 of hw_base_encode.c only from ffmpeg 8 on. Which build did you use, and what does ffmpeg -version say? * The fontconfig warnings of the anylinux AppImage: could you send the exact lines? 4. Two new settings for everyone * Display platform: Settings, Preferences, Appearance has a row Display platform with Automatic, X11 and Wayland. Automatic is the default and behaves as before (X11 when there is an X11 display, also XWayland). It applies after a restart. CIN_QPA_PLATFORM still wins when you set it. * Own configuration folder: the AppImages now keep their settings in ~/.bcast5-qt6, so an installed Cinelerra keeps ~/.bcast5 to itself. On the first start the AppImage copies your ~/.bcast5 there, without the index files of your media. Nothing is lost, and the two programs no longer read each other's plugin index. This came from Thomas, who wrote a start script for exactly this. Set CIN_CONFIG if you want another folder. 5. VAAPI with ffmpeg 9 Andrew, thank you for all the work you put into ffmpeg in Cinelerra over the years. You wrote that you hope AI assistants can help here. I would like to try exactly that. The part that burned you out, chasing every API change of ffmpeg, is the part an AI does tirelessly. What it cannot do is know where Cinelerra's ffmpeg code hides its traps, and that knowledge is yours. So if you ever feel like it, no pressure and no deadline: a look at a patch, or a one-line hint like the MLT patch you pointed us to, already helps a lot. Phyllis, I would like to help with VAAPI and ffmpeg 9. One thing I noticed: the MLT patch fixes a hwupload/buffersink filter graph, and Cinelerra does not use that graph for encoding. It sets up the hardware frames itself (ffmpeg.C, av_hwframe_ctx_alloc and av_hwframe_transfer_data), so the fix will probably look different. The catch: I have no hardware for VAAPI encoding, only an NVIDIA card, so I cannot test it myself. Terje, your Arc A750 encodes h264_vaapi and hevc_vaapi with ffmpeg 9.0.2. Your test shows that the driver and ffmpeg 9 work on your system. It goes through the hwupload filter, though, and Cinelerra takes another way to the GPU, so only a Cinelerra build can show whether its encoding works. Would you run test builds if I prepare a patch? Anyone else with an Intel or AMD GPU is welcome too. How this is made As before, the code is written with Claude (every commit carries the Co-Authored-By line). What I rely on is testing: automated tests that run the real program, code reviews of each larger change, and my own check of every feature before it is pushed. That does not make it free of bugs, so please keep the reports coming: bug.cinelerra-gg.org <https://bug.cinelerra-gg.org> or this list. Cheers, Sam

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reference patch in MLT tree for ffmpeg 9
by Andrew Randrianasulu 26 Oct '26

26 Oct '26

https://github.com/mltframework/mlt/pull/1281/changes/68bceba12a3c3278ce690… of course ffmpeg devs invented yet another way to get supported sample/pixel formats out of codec internals .... Will try to make mplayer work first, then may be cinelerra.

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Qt6 Alpha 2026-10-22 ready for testing, native Wayland included
by Sam 26 Oct '26

26 Oct '26

Hi everyone, A new Qt6 alpha build is up, dated 2026-10-22. It is ready for you to test. Download (two AppImages, pick one): https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/?path=qt6-alpha&sort=date_desc - CinGG-qt6-alpha-20261022-x86_64.AppImage: for current distributions (glibc 2.38 or newer, e.g. Fedora 40+, Ubuntu 24.04+). - CinGG-qt6-alpha-20261022-anylinux-x86_64.AppImage: brings its own glibc and runs on older systems as well (tested on Ubuntu 16.04, 22.04 and Debian 12). A .sha256 file sits next to each. Help → About should show "built: Oct 22 2026". What's new since 2026-10-19: - Native Wayland support. This is the main thing we'd like you to try. - Mirror effect: no more garbage when the reflection center is near 50 %. - Sketcher and plugin parameter panels: one line per parameter, no horizontal scroll bar, theme accent colours. - Floating docks can be docked again from their title bar menu. How to test native Wayland: By default Cinelerra still starts through XWayland, even in a Wayland session. To run natively, start it like this: CIN_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland ./CinGG-qt6-alpha-20261022-x86_64.AppImage The terminal prints which platform was chosen. Please tell us which desktop you used, e.g. KDE Plasma, GNOME, Sway or Hyprland. So far we have only tested under KWin, so the others matter most to us. Things worth trying under Wayland: - dragging clips from Resources to the timeline, the viewer and the bins - floating docks: detach, move, re-dock, restart - dialogs and popup menus: do they open in the right place and stay in front? - Alt+T drag box, colour picker, right-click menus in older plugin windows - fullscreen Known issues, no need to report them: - Screen capture does not work under native Wayland yet. - On exit under Wayland, cin may print a "core dumped" message. - A floating dock can flicker once at startup. - Once the mixer window is behind the main window, there is no menu entry to bring it back. Please report bugs in the "Qt6 Alpha" category of the bug tracker: https://bug.cinelerra-gg.org Please include your distribution, your desktop, whether you ran native Wayland or X11, and the terminal output if something goes wrong. Thanks a lot for testing! Sam

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Re: QT6 AppImage feedback discussion
by Sam 20 Oct '26

20 Oct '26

Hi Andrea, hi Igor, hi Andrew, this time one mail for both threads, so nothing gets lost in between. The new AppImages of 2026-10-19 are online, and the source in the git repository is at the same state: |https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/?path=qt6-alpha&sort=date_desc| Andrea, your reports of the last days led to five fixes, and all of them are in these AppImages. Mirror: two things came together. The sliders and number fields of the Reflection Center only work while "Enable Reflection Center" is checked. That is the same in CinGG 5.1, but in the Qt6 build a disabled slider still looked active. Disabled sliders are grey now, in every plugin. The second one was a real bug: digits typed into a number field of a plugin went to the main menu, so "2" or "7" switched views of the timeline instead of changing the value. Now the field gets them, Ctrl+A included. One thing remains, and it is the same code as in 5.1: Mirror rewrites its field after every key, so a number typed digit by digit can come out wrong. The mouse wheel over the field and the slider work fine. Window sizes: you found a bug. The program saved the sizes on exit but lost them at the next start, because it restored the layout before the main window had its final size. Now the sizes come back after a restart, and each workspace keeps its own. With "Save Layout..." you can also store a layout that "Reset to Saved Layout" brings back at any time. Tool bar of the timeline (Mantis #679): when the Compositor takes the space, the buttons that don't fit move behind the » button at the right end of the bar. On the dark theme that button was nearly invisible. Now you can see it, and a click shows the hidden buttons, Drag and Drop and Cut and Paste among them. A second row of buttons I have not done. Sketcher: it works in the Qt6 build now and is in the new AppImage. Chroma Key: I have noted your suggestion. Wayland: you were running on XWayland. The AppImage always starts on X11, also in a Wayland session, and it ignores QT_QPA_PLATFORM on purpose, because native Wayland is not tested enough yet. To try native Wayland, start it like this: |CIN_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland ./CinGG-qt6-alpha-20261019-x86_64.AppImage| One way to tell the difference: run xprop in a terminal and click into the Cinelerra window. On XWayland it prints the properties of the window. A native Wayland window it cannot pick, so nothing happens. Older systems (Igor's Ubuntu Studio 16.04, and Andrea's idea of a Flatpak): we went the Anylinux way that Andrew suggested. There is now a second AppImage that brings its own glibc and all libraries, so it does not depend on the libraries of the system: |CinGG-qt6-alpha-20261019-anylinux-x86_64.AppImage| In containers it starts, loads all plugins and renders on Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora rawhide and Ubuntu 26.04. A real Ubuntu 16.04 machine with its old kernel I could not test. Igor, if you like to try it, I would be glad to hear whether it starts on your system. Andrea, so there is no need to build a Flatpak yourself. Now to the patches for the stable version, from the thread "Cherry-pick from cinelerra-qt6?". Andrew, thank you for applying them to master and testing them in your VM, and for showing Andrea how to apply them with git am. About MPEG I have to correct my last mail. I wrote that 1280x720 on 4 processors should break. That is only true for progressive frames. By default the encoder works interlaced, and then 720 lines become 46 macroblock rows, which split into 4 bands of 12 without a gap. So your file would have been fine without the patch too. I checked it here: 1280x720 in 4:2:2, with and without the patch, on 4 and 16 processors (a small shim made the encoder see 4), interlaced and progressive. Only one of the eight files is broken, the progressive one without the patch on 4 processors: ffmpeg reports 149 errors ("overread", "MVs not available"). With the patch the same file is clean. By the formula, 352x288 and 176x144 on 8 processors and 720x576 on 5 or 7 break in both modes, so those make better tests. Every progressive file, with and without the patch, also gets "interlaced frame in progressive sequence, ignoring" from ffmpeg. That is an older problem and has nothing to do with the patch. The index-related errors I could not reproduce. CinGG 5.1 and the Qt6 build loaded all eight files without a single error message, through FFmpeg and through libmpeg3. Could you send me the exact lines? Then I can look where they come from. Andrea, thank you for building with the patches, that helps a lot. MPEG 4:2:2 working on your machine is good news. DPX: the error comes from the FFmpeg preset DPX.dpx, not from the patch. That preset writes a sequence of images and needs a numbered file name, as its own comment says, for example: |/home/paz/puppa/aereo_test%05d.dpx| The patch is for Cinelerra's own DPX writer. To test it, choose "DPX Sequence" as the file format in the render dialog instead of FFMPEG. GIF: the same applies here. gif.gif is an FFmpeg preset, and FFmpeg writes that GIF itself, so the patch is not used. To test it, choose "GIF" as the file format instead of FFMPEG. Opened in a browser, the GIF should then play at the speed of the project and loop. Without the patch it runs too fast or shows only the first image. Sam

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Cinelerra-GG Qt6 alpha: Sketcher now draws right in the Compositor
by Sam 19 Oct '26

19 Oct '26

Hi everyone, Sketcher, the drawing effect of Cinelerra-GG, works quite differently in the Qt6 alpha now. You draw and edit right in the Compositor, the way you would in a drawing program, and all settings sit in one panel of the Effect Inspector. Here is a short tour with pictures. The AppImages of 2026-10-19 have it: |https://download.cinelerra-gg.org/?path=qt6-alpha&sort=date_desc| The film in the pictures is the Sintel trailer, © copyright Blender Foundation | durian.blender.org, licensed CC BY 3.0. 1. Getting started Put Sketcher on a video track like any other effect and open it in the Effect Inspector. The Compositor then shows a green *Sketcher* button and the Sketcher tool bar. A click on the green button pauses Sketcher, so the other Compositor tools get the mouse again. The switch *Edited in compositor* at the top of the panel does the same. The main window: Sketcher on the timeline, three curves in the Compositor, the Sketcher panel in the Effect Inspector For this picture I used the FX workspace and made the right column a little wider. Everything is docked. 2. The tool bar The green Sketcher button and the Sketcher tool bar of the Compositor From left to right: *Select (V)*, *Pen (P)*, *Freehand (B)*, *Rectangle (R)*, *Ellipse (E)* and *Arrow (A)*. The letters work while the pointer is over the Compositor. Then come the two modes of the pen, the buttons that show the handles and the box, and colour and width. Colour and width change the selected curve. With nothing selected they are the defaults for the next new curve. The second row holds smoothing and stabilizer for Freehand. 3. Drawing * *Pen:* a click sets a corner, a drag pulls out handles, a click on the first point closes the shape. Enter, Escape, a double click or a right click finishes the curve, Backspace takes the last point back. In the mode *Auto* every click sets a point that rounds itself. * *Freehand:* just draw. The stroke comes out smooth, and ending near the start closes it. * *Rectangle, Ellipse, Arrow:* drag to draw. Shift gives a square, a circle or a 45° line. A plain click makes a shape of default size. After a curve is finished, the Select tool is active again. The pen draws a curve: one corner, one point with handles pulled out, a dashed preview up to the pointer The line at the bottom of the Compositor always tells you what a click or a drag does right now. 4. Editing Point at something and it reacts: a point grows, and the hint line names what a click, a drag or a double click will do. The pointer over a point of the ellipse, the point has grown, the hint line explains the mouse buttons * Drag a point to move it, drag a handle to shape the curve. * Drag an edge to bend it. Shift + drag moves the edge parallel. * A double click on an edge inserts a point and leaves the shape as it is. A double click on a point switches between a sharp corner and an automatic round point. * Drag a frame around several points to select them. A box with 8 handles appears: a handle scales, just outside a corner you rotate, inside the box you move. The cross in the middle is the pivot, and you can move it. * Arrow keys move the selected points, Shift + arrow in steps of 10. Delete removes them, Escape deselects. * Ctrl+D duplicates the selected curve. * Every finished action is exactly one Ctrl+Z step. Three points of the ellipse selected with a frame, the box with its 8 handles and the pivot The handles show the point type: a corner is a diamond, smooth is a square, symmetric is a square with a dot, automatic is a circle. If you find them too small, Settings → Handles in the panel has Large and Very large. A right click on a point opens a menu with everything for the point and its curve: The right click menu: point type, round corner, delete point, closed, fill, arrowhead, duplicate, order, hide, lock, delete curve 5. The panel The Sketcher panel in the Effect Inspector with the groups Layers, Selection, Curve, Track motion, Point list and Settings * *Keyframe row:* jump to the previous or next keyframe. The diamond sets a keyframe at the playhead. * *Layers:* one row per curve, the top row is in front. Drag a row to change the order. The eye hides a curve, the lock protects it, a double click renames it. A click on a row selects the curve in the Compositor, and the other way round. * *Selection:* buttons for the point type and for straight or curved edges, plus insert, delete, break and join. The line below explains the button under the pointer. Position X and Y place a point exactly, Round corners rounds a corner. * *Curve:* colour (with an eyedropper that takes the colour from the picture), opacity, width, the tip of the line, open or closed, fill, arrowhead and write-on. With nothing selected this group is called "Defaults for new curves". * *Track motion:* follows the selected points through the picture and writes keyframes, either on every frame or reduced. One run is one undo step. * *Point list:* the old table of points, folded away. A click on a row selects the point. * *Settings:* anti-aliasing and the size of the handles. Both apply to all curves. 6. Animating with write-on Write-on draws a curve bit by bit. Set a keyframe where the drawing should start and pull "to" down to 0 %. Set a second keyframe where it should be complete and put "to" at 100 %. In between, Cinelerra draws the curve step by step, and the arrowhead travels with the tip. The arrow half drawn at 0:00:01:18 and complete at 0:00:02:00 And this is what the render looks like, without any handles: A rendered frame: a yellow arrow points at the young dragon, a red ellipse around it, a white line below 7. Old projects Projects with Sketcher from CinGG 5.1 load and look exactly as before. There is one intended change: three or more automatic points exactly on one line now give a straight line instead of a small bulge. Closed shapes, fill, arrowheads and the round tip are new. How an older CinGG shows a project that uses them has not been tried yet. Known things * The mouse wheel over the picture steps frames as before. Zoom with the zoom control. * While Sketcher edits and the pointer is over the Compositor, V and B pick Select and Freehand. Splice and Overwrite don't react to them there. * Wide translucent lines look almost opaque, the same as in CinGG 5.1. * So far it has been tested on virtual X displays. Real desktops and HiDPI screens are where your help counts most. If something behaves differently from what I describe here, please tell me what you did, what you expected and what happened. A screenshot helps a lot, and so do your distribution and desktop. Sam

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QT6 AppImage feedback discussion
by Phyllis Smith 19 Oct '26

19 Oct '26

Starting new queue for QT6 discussion (so ii does not end up under "Silly Question" que!). Downloaded the AppImage and really enjoy how moving the windows works. Played my standard test video/audio all the way with no issues. It looks and feels so much more flashy and not as stodgy. More to follow. THANKS SO MUCH to Sam for all of his current work and there is probably a much longer way to go!

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