Interview with Edward Hervey, maintainer of the PiTiVi video editor

[ Thanks to Christian Schaller for this
link. ]

“There are many goals for PiTiVi, but I’d say the
fundamental goal from which all other goals derive is to be a video
editor framework without any limitations (unlike all other editors
that have got very specific limitations to what they can do or
support).

“Getting rid of the limitations of formats, devices, filters,…
we can support is brought to us through the use of the GStreamer
multimedia framework. All other editors have hardcoded this,
whereas we can for example be proud in being the only Free editor
not tied to any patent-encumbered libraries ! This also means that
if a company makes a proprietary GStreamer plugin for a specific
format/codec/device … you also get it for ‘free’ in PiTiVi
without having to do anything. This is the one limitation barrier
we solved thanks to our design choices.

“We also don’t want to have a video editor whose
functionnalities are static, that’s why we chose to (re)write
PiTiVi in python, and make the whole design very modular. The UI is
not tied to the core backend, in fact you can even use it without a
UI. The way the core backend is designed, you could also write
different ways to represent the Timeline, some might be better
suited depending on your level of expertise or what you would like
to concentrate on most (which depend on where you’re located in a
production workflow).

“The end goal is for PiTiVi to bring the basic editing tools
without putting in any restrictions. That, unfortunately, comes at
a cost : having to make sure all bugs/issues/limitations are
fixed/removed at the proper level instead of adding hacks over
hacks. And that takes time…”

Complete
Story