Rendering

RENDERING

How to use the Render dialog
How to stop rendering
How to render for your friend's Microsoft Windows computer
How to render for your friend's Mac computer
How to render you project to OGG format
How to render your project to VOB format
How to join VOB video files
How to join RawDV video files

How to use the Render dialog

Open the Render dialog by going to File -> Render...
In the first text box enter the filename of the file you are going to create. Don't worry about the extension: it's written automatically. The arrow on the right opens a dropdown menu with recently used files. The magnifier on the right opens a dialog that can help you finding the location for your file.
The Fileformat box let you choose the container format for your video. Note that the formats listed in the drop down menu are not ordered alphabetically.
Audio and Video checkboxes determine if audio or video or both are to be rendered. By default they are both unchecked.
The wrench icons next to the checkboxes go easily unnoticed but are very important because they let you set the compression, that is the codec for the stream. Tooltips say Configure audio compression and Configure video compression.
The checkbox Create new file at each label enables the rendering splitting the project in many separated files. It assumes you have set labels in the Program window to define the starting point of every file.
Render range lets you define which portion of the project you want to render. The default setting is Project: the whole project is rendered. By checking Selection only the highlighted area will be rendered. Check In/Out Points if you want to render the area defined by In/Out Points.
Tell Cinelerra what to do with the rendered file by selecting the Insertion strategy. Very likely you don't want the rendered file to go back into the project. Insert nothing is the most commonly used option.
Render profile box is there for your convenience. It helps you by keeping note of your favourite rendering settings. You can use it, for instance, for memorizing the rendering of the video stream when you render for DVD. Select YUV4MPEG Stream as File Format. Click on the Render video tracks checkbox. Select Insert nothing as insertion strategy. Write DVD video stream in the Render profile box. Click on the Save Profile button. Now, change some settings, just to mess things up. Open the Render profile drop down menu by clicking on the arrow on the right side of the Render profile box. Select the DVD video stream option you have just created and... voillà! You get all your settings back!

How to stop rendering

To interrupt a rendering operation in progress click on the cancel operation cross-shaped button on the bottom right of the program window.

How to render for your friend's Microsoft Windows computer

To show your masterpiece to your friend you must render your project to a format playable on his/her computer.

Method one: mymasterpiece.mpg

Windows Media player has no DVD decoder (MPEG-2 decoder) by default. It is a plug-in sold separately. However most computers with a DVD player device have also the MPEG-2 decoder installed and are able to play VOB-like files. For instructions on rendering your project into VOB format, see How to render your project into VOB format. This method ensure the best quality.

Method two: mymasterpiece.avi

You can re-encode your video file into a format supported by Windows Media Player using ffmpeg, a command line program. This methods will slightly decrease quality and increase size. The resulting file format is not supported in Cinelerra.

Install ffmpeg. In Ubuntu, just open a terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

Copy and paste in the terminal the following command. Replace mymasterpiece.ext with the filename and the extension of your video. Press ENTER to start the encoding.

ffmpeg -i mymasterpiece.ext -vcodec msmpeg4v2 -sameq mymasterpieceforwin.avi

Note:
If you have compiled ffmpeg and extended the codec support (see this dedicated page), you can use also the following command:

ffmpeg -i mymasterpiece.ext -vcodec msmpeg4v2 -acodec libmp3lame -sameq mymasterpieceforwin.avi

Method three: mymasterpiece.ogg

Tell your friend to download (here) and install the current stable version of Directshow filters, the free plug-in that makes Windows Media Player be able to play Ogg Theora/Vorbis encoded files. For instructions on rendering your project into OGG Theora/Vorbis format, see How to render your project to OGG format.

Method four: mymasterpiece.ogg

Make your friend happy and tell him/her to download (here) and install VLC, the open source media player that support virtually every video and audio format. S/he will be very grateful. You can then render to any format. VOB has good quality but quite a big size. I recommend OGG: it's an open format, you still get reasonably good quality but with a smaller file size. For instructions on rendering your project into OGG Theora/Vorbis format, see How to render your project to OGG format.

How to render for your friend's Mac computer

To show your masterpiece to your friend you must render your project to a format playable on his/her computer.

Method one: mymasterpiece.mpg

Apple QuickTime Player has no DVD decoder (MPEG-2 decoder) by default. It is an add-on sold separately. However most computers with a DVD player device have also the MPEG-2 decoder installed and are able to play VOB-like files. This method ensure the best quality. For instructions on rendering your project into VOB format, see How to render your project into VOB format. This method ensure the best quality.

Method two: mymasterpiece.mov

You can re-encode your video file into the QuickTime format using ffmpeg, a command line program.

The package available in Synaptic doesn't support the encoding of AAC audio codec, so you need to compile ffmpeg yourself. For instructions on compiling ffmpeg from source code see this dedicated page.

To convert your file use the following command.Replace mymasterpiece.ext with the filename and the extension of your video.

ffmpeg -i mymasterpiece.ext -sameq mymasterpieceformac.mov

Method three: mymasterpiece.ogg

Tell your friend to download (here) and install the current stable version of Xiph, the free QuickTime Component that makes any QuickTime-based application be able to play Ogg Theora/Vorbis encoded files. For instructions on rendering your project into OGG Theora/Vorbis format, see How to render your project to OGG format.

Method four: mymasterpiece.ogg

How to render you project to OGG format

Open the Render dialog and choose OGG Theora/Vorbis as File Format. You can improve the video quality clicking on the Configure video compression wrench icon and moving the Quality slider, but remember that you are increasing the file size as well. Selecting Fixed quality instead of Fixed bitrate decrease the file size with no quality loss.

How to render your project to VOB format

If you want to make a DVD of your movies, you need them in VOB format that is very much like standard MPEG-2.
Cinelerra can't render your project directly into VOB format. She need the help of other program-friends.
Here are two possible ways of getting a VOB file.

Using the Graphical User Interface - Kino

1. Render your project to DV format. That is:
Open the Render dialog by going to File -> Render...
In the first text box enter the filename of the file you are going to create (mymovie for instance). Don't worry about the extension: it's written automatically. The arrow on the right opens a dropdown menu with recently used files. The magnifier on the right opens a dialog that can help you finding the location for your file. If no path is specified, the file will be stored in your home directory.
Choose the Fileformat by clicking on the arrow and selecting Raw DV.

Note that DV format needs at least one video track and two audio tracks. Only videos with resolution of 720x576 pixels and a framerate of 25 fps (PAL) can be rendered to Raw DV (or 720x480 pixels at a framerate of 30 fps for NTSC). If you have different resolution, use the command line.

Change the insertion strategy to Insert nothing.
The other settings are the right ones by default.
Click on the green tick to start the rendering process.
Cin should give you a file called mymovie.dv.

2. Install Kino. In Ubuntu you can easily do that using Synaptic package manager.

3. Start Kino. To load your file in Kino go to File -> Open to open the dialog box. Browse your files and double click on mymovie.dv.

4. Click on the Export tab on your right. The window you just opened has six tabs at the top (to view all maximize Kino window). Click on the MPEG tab. Enter the filename for the final file. Select 8 - DVD as File format. Leave all the other settings as they are. Press the Export button to start the conversion. Kino will create two temporary files, an audio file with .mp2 extension an a video file ending with .mpv. At the end of the conversion they will be replaced by a single .mpeg file.

This final file mymovie.mpeg is a VOB-like file that can be used for DVDs.

    Using the Command Line - ffmpeg

You have to render audio and video in Cin separately and then use ffmpeg to mux the two streams and produce a single VOB file. ffmpeg is a command line application that you use bt typing in the terminal instead of clicking on icons. It's much easier than it looks and is very flexible (e.g. you can change standard).

1. Render you project to get the audio stream.
Open the Render dialog by going to File -> Render...
In the first text box enter the filename of the file you are going to create (mymovie for instance). Don't worry about the extension: it's written automatically. The arrow on the right opens a dropdown menu with recently used files. The magnifier on the right opens a dialog that can help you finding the location for your file. If no path is specified, the file will be stored in your home directory.
Choose the Fileformat by clicking on the arrow and selecting Microsoft WAV.
Change the insertion strategy to Insert nothing.
The other settings are the right ones by default.
Click on the green tick to start the rendering process.
Cin should give you an audio file called mymovie.wav.

2. Render you project to get the video stream.
Follow the above procedure changing only the Fileformat to YUV4MPEG Stream, deselecting the audio, selecting the video checkbox and setting the insertion strategy to Insert nothing.
You should now have a video-only file called mymovie.m2v.

3. Install ffmpeg. In Ubuntu, just open a terminal and type:
    sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

4. It's now time to mux the two streams in a single file. Copy and paste in the terminal one the following commands, depending on your standard. Replace mymovie with your filename. Press ENTER to start the encoding.
    for PAL DVDs:
ffmpeg -i mymovie.wav -i mymovie.m2v -target pal-dvd mymovie.mpg
    for NTSC DVDs:
ffmpeg -i mymovie.wav -i mymovie.m2v -target ntsc-dvd mymovie.mpg

You final file mymovie.mpg is a VOB-like file that can be used for DVDs.

    Notes:
1. The audio codec of the final VOB-like file is AC3. In the ffmpeg Ubuntu package the support for AC3 encoding is off by default for legal reasons. To avoid the intermediate encoding to WAV you need to compile ffmpeg from source code and enable full AC3 support.
For step by step instructions see this dedicated page.
2. When muxing audio and video streams, you can also change standard in the same pass using one of the following commands:
    From PAL to NTSC:
ffmpeg -i mymovie.ac3 -i mymovie.m2v -target ntsc-dvd -s 600x480 -padleft 60 -padright 60 mymovie.mpg
    From NTSC to PAL:
ffmpeg -i mymovie.ac3 -i mymovie.m2v -target pal-dvd -s 720x480 -padtop 48 -padbottom 48 mymovie.mpg

How to join VOB-like .mpg video files

It is recommended to keep your projects as small as possible, splitting it in several separated scenes.
Once rendered they can be merged in may ways.
If you are going to put your video on a DVD:

you can keep the scenes separated and author them as chapters of the same title. To make DVDs from chapters I recommend the CL program dvdauthor or the GUI program Qdvdauthor.
you can merge the scenes with Avidemux (not with cat)

Using the Graphical User Interface - Avidemux

Avidemux can be easily installed using Synaptic Package Manager. It will be listed under Applications -> Sound & Video menu.
Launch Avidemux.
Click on Open to browse your video files.
Select the first .mpg file of your list. Click on Open.
You'll be asked:
This look like mpeg. Do you want to index it? Answer: Yes!
Indexing will take few minutes, depending on the file size.
There is several mpeg file, append them? Answer: Yes! This option is useful only when the .mpg files to be merged are in ordered sequence inside the same folder.
Otherwise, you'd better use the Append command available in the File menu. This way you can manually append every single file.
Once the indexing and the appending are done, you can preview the video with the transport controls at the bottom left.
Choose the format of your destination file, using the controls on your left.
Video: Copy
Audio: Copy
Format: MPEG PS A+V
Click on Save to actually save the single, merged file.
Select the destination name and click on Save.
Check that during encoding the streams are just copied (and not re-encoded) and the Container is MPEG DVD
The operation is usually pretty quick. If the encoding seems stuck you may have not enough space left on disk.
Always check that all the files are appended.
The resulting .mpg file is a DVD compliant MPEG-2 video streams and can be used for DVD authoring.

Using the Command Line - cat

cat is a command for conCATenating files. For other uses of cat see the Linux Information Project.
This is the most reliable way to join files.
Here is a terminal command you can use. Replace the filenames with the names of your video files.

cat myfile1.mpg myfile2.mpg myfile3.mpg > mytotalfile.mpgThe quickest way of writing the list of files to be joined is:
Highlight the list of files on the File Browser window
Drag the selected list and drop it anywhere inside the terminal.

If a file exists with the same name of the destination file, that file will be mercilessly overwritten with no warning.

Since MPEG-2 compression uses keyframes, .mpg files have headers that contains supplemental data. Thus concatenating files is not enough to produce correct DVD compliant MPEG-2 video streams.
.mpg files joined by cat can be played back but can't be used for DVD authoring.

How to join RawDV .dv video files

    Using the Graphical User Interface - Kino

Install Kino. In Ubuntu you can easily do that using Synaptic package manager.
Go to Applications -> Sound & Video and launch Kino.
File -> Open lets you import a video file.
Use File -> Insert after to load a second video file. You can also use Insert before or change the order of the files by dragging them around in the left panel.
Append all the files, one at the time.
Go to Edit -> Join to join the highlighted scene with the following one.
When finished, click on the Export tab on your right.
Select the DV File tab at the top.
In the File field enter the output filename (path included) without the extension.
Make sure that Raw DV is checked under File Type.
Under Other File Options uncheck Auto Split Files and uncheck Resample Audio.
Click on Export to produce a single video file.
Your original files will remain untouched.
Check the resulting file. If the audio is distorted, re-export enabling Resample Audio.

    Using the Command Line - cat

cat is a command for conCATenating files. For other uses of cat see the Linux Information Project.
This is the most reliable way to join files.
Here is a terminal command you can use. Replace the filenames with the names of your video files.

cat myfile1.dv myfile2.dv myfile3.dv > mytotalfile.dv

The quickest way of writing the list of files to be joined is:
Highlight the list of files on the File Browser window
Drag the selected list and drop it anywhere inside the terminal.

If a file exists with the same name of the destination file, that file will be mercilessly overwritten with no warning.

Raffaella Traniello - last edited on 28 March 2008