42 Best Free Linux Video Software

Last Updated on March 11, 2022

This article needs updating/deleting.

There is an excellent set of free, open source video software available on the Linux platform which is both fully featured and mature. Become a digital video editing master, turn your Linux machine into a Home Theatre box are two options that are explored in this article.

We previously published an article on excellent open source video tools in 2008. Some of the tools featured in that article have ceased development. There were often developed by one or a few developers. They ceased working on the projects, in part because better alternatives sprung forward. Given the length of time that has elapsed, we thought it best to update the article.

There is one application that deserves a separate mention. It’s called Lightworks, an awesome professional non-linear editing system. It is very mature, and has multi-platform support. But it has no source code, and is released under a freemium license. But it’s still anticipated that the source code will be released soon.

Now, let’s explore the 42 video applications at hand. For each title we have compiled its own portal page, providing a screenshot of the software in action, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, together with links to relevant resources and reviews.

Video Software
VLCPortable multimedia player for various audio and video formats
GNOME VideosOfficial movie player of the GNOME desktop environment
SMPlayerQt based MPlayer front-end
mpvBased on MPlayer and mplayer2
MPlayerExtremely powerful movie player
bomiPowerful and easy-to-use open source multimedia player
MiroA platform for Internet television and video
KaffeineFull featured media player for KDE
KodiAward-winning digital media hub and HTPC
MythTVProvides a Home Theatre convergence box
KdenliveNon-linear video editor for KDE
OpenShotNon-linear editor for GNOME, built with Python, GTK, and the MLT Framework
Cinelerra3 main functions: capturing, compositing, and editing audio/video
LiVESVideo Editing System designed to be simple to use, yet powerful
PiTiViNon-linear audio/video editor using GStreamer
Open Movie EditorNon-linear video editor designed for basic movie making capabilities
AvidemuxVideo editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks
ShotcutPowerful cross-platform video editor
FlowbladeMultitrack non-linear video editor
VeejayVisual instrument and realtime video sampler
Blender3D content creation suite
NatronNode-based compositing tool
HandBrakeMultithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 converter
dvd::ripPerl front end for transcode
OGMRipApplication and a set of libraries for ripping and encoding DVDs
avconvPart of libav-tools; fork of FFmpeg
MencoderSimple movie encoder, designed to encode MPlayer-playable movies
FFmpegReal time audio/video encoder/converter, streaming server
transcodeConsole based tools for transcoding video and audio files
DeVeDeNGCreate video DVDs, suitables for home players, from any number of video files
DVDStylerCross-platform DVD authoring application
Q DVD-AuthorGUI frontend for dvdauthor and related tools
GCStarManages personal collections
Data CrowCataloger/media manager
TellicoKDE application for organizing your collections
dvgrabReceives audio and video data from a digital camcorder via an IEEE1394
KazamWell designed and easy to use interface screencasting tool
vokoscreenScreencast creator
MKVToolNixTools for the Matroska media container format
SMTubeSearch, play and download YouTube videos
CheeseUse your webcam to take photos and videos
OBSOpen Broadcaster Software
Best Free and Open Source SoftwareRead our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software.

The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk.

There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more.
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Arnoldus
5 years ago

And the only one I use is ……QMplay2