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Shawn Conway edited this page Jun 14, 2023 · 20 revisions

Table of Contents

General

How do I get the tabs back?

You can choose either "Simple View" or "Advanced View" from the View > Views menu to restore the interface to a standard layout. You can also right-click over the tool-bar (right to the Big Red Button of export) or over the main menu and choose the dock pane you wish to show/hide from the list. https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues/3503

Why are my audio file crashes OpenShot

(Some) MP3 files containing cover art cause OpenShot to crash on Preview/Export. If audio files without art work fine for you, try extracting the art or the audio in a third-party program before import. issue3043

Why is the 'Timeline' tutorial popup extending off the bottom edge of the screen?

For some users running OpenShot on smaller displays, the automatic positioning of the third Tutorial popup may cause it to extend off the bottom edge of the screen, making it impossible to hit the Next button and advance to the next step in the tutorial. Workarounds for Known Bugs

Add to timeline / add in files sorted filename

When I select files and add them to the timeline, an 'Add to Timeline' dialog appears but my files are not in same order as they where in the 'Project files' window. What's happening?

'Thumbnails' view, which is set by default, can introduce confusion to some users. It is best to show them in "Details View" instead of "Thumbnails View", in which the files are inserted in the correct order. issue741

How can I export small clips?

This tutorial by Andrew Bullen explains how. The frame number will simply be displayed in the interface in the next Openshot version.

Imported video with a non-square Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) gets distorted. Why?

Known bug

Ferdnyc wrote Yeah, it looks like we're not applying the pixel aspect ratio to the imported video. Fortunately, there are two easy solutions to this: Since you're working with a 16:9 output profile, if you change the Scale mode of the video from "Best Fit" to "Stretch", OpenShot will automatically fit it to the output frame, which should make it the correct size. Or, you can correct it manually. A pixel aspect ratio of 64 : 45 works out to 64 ÷ 45 = 1.422222, so you can adjust the video's Scale X property to 1.4222 to give it the correct dimensions. (The Scale X control looks like it can't go higher than 1.00, but if you double-click on the slider it'll let you manually type in a value, and it'll accept larger numbers like 1.42.)

issue3117

Can I use Mosaic screen with more then 4 clips?

Yes, take a loot at this tutorial by Andrew Bullen https://www.reddit.com/r/OpenShot/comments/fsuftx/mosaic_screen_with_multiple_videos_simultaneously/fnkr1i7/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

Hardware (threads, GPU/CPU, RAM, etc.)

Which hardware acceleration is supported?

You can find a table with theoretically supported hardware decoders here. here However it may vary on a system by system basis. In general Linux has better support then Windows. Hardware acceleration is not available in sandboxed versions like app-image and Windows Store editions. For more information , see also the discussion under the issues https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues/2877

Can I script OpenShot to render on another PC/server?

OpenShot does not directly support a client/server setup. You can edit your project locally and then move your project to a different machine for rendering. It could theoretically be done if you improve the program. https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues/3102

My video is too HD. How do I improve performance?

See https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues/960 for tips.

Which encoder/settings should I use?

To set the default video profile for your project (such as 720p or 1080p), click the film icon on the top ribbon, and choose the appropriate profile. If you're exporting the final project, there's a setting to which format you would like to export (this includes MP4, OGV, WEBM, and so on).

Blender

Which version do I need?

Before 2.4.4, you need a Blender earlier than 2.8. After OpenShot 2.5, you need 2.8 or above.

How can I make my own Blender scripts?

These user tutorials may help:

Why can I only render animated titles in one font?

Fonts for animated 3D titles are currently limited to 'Bfont'. It is a bug that other fonts are offered in the interface issue3269

Why can I not render Asian letters?

This is a combination of a limit of OpenShot to only support Bfont, and the limit in Blender that requires a different font that supports Asian letters, because Bfont does not.

'see issue 3269'

Do limitations exist in fonts?

The Title editor uses SVG-based fonts. If they are not available, fonts may not be rendered, and titles can 'disappear'. The templates use the Ubuntu and Bitstream Vera Sans Fonts. It is recommended to install them if they are not available on your system. NB: On Windows, make sure you install them as Administrator. (Right mouse button, install for all users.) Otherwise the font may show up, but will fall back to 'Times New Roman' (see #4503. To verify, under 'Control Panel' > 'Fonts', choose 'Properties' to check if the install location is \Windows\fonts )

While OpenShot allows you to choose a different font, not all fonts support SVG rendering. PostScript Type 1 format is generally not supported. Please do a test before you create many titles in a custom font.

https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues/3462 https://www.dafont.com/bitstream_vera_sans.font

Can I search in or translate title files?

Yes, Openshot uses SVG for its title files. They are text-based XML files and allow such operations. However, be very careful not to change any of the markup code, or it will break the file. For translating many titles, you can use programs like OmegaT

Inkscape

While Inkscape allows for more complex text creation, be advised that the SVG implementation is limited. Not all features by Inkscape are supported, and may break the resulting SVG from being recognized by Openshot. You can always export them to PNG or other image formats to be included. The limitation on font types applies here as well, they need to be availeble to the system and support SVG rendering. For this reason, SVG's created by other programs may trow up issues too.

Flowroot text

One 'advanced' feature of Inkscape is the support for flowing text. This never made it into the official SVG standard, and is not supported by Openshot. It will break the connection. It is a known issue for Inkscape, and they are working on fixing it. You can use the "text>unflow text" or "text>convert to text" in the Inkscape menu.

https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/-/issues/337 https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues/3367 https://www.reddit.com/r/OpenShot/comments/fyhpar/documentation_how_to_create_title_templates_from/

How can I get latest daily?

On the Openshot Home page, click on Download and scroll down. Under "Looking for a different download?", click on Daily build. Despite the name, they are not created daily, but automatically when changes are merged. Before you report an issue with a daily, please make sure that the issue is not occurring in the regular version, and try the second-last version to see when the problem first appeared.

When using daily version, it is recommended to disable the auto-save to prevent program faults that break your project from automatically overwriting your working version.

Linux

AppImage limitations

Hardware accelleration is not supported, and connections with Blender and Openshot will not work. issue3036

flatpack limitations

Hardware accelleration is not supported, and connections with Blender and Openshot will not work. https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues/3296

New install shows older version

If you are on Linux,, you are actually launching the 'native' Openshot that ships with your distro. The Appimage (that you downloaded) when it launched should have asked if you wanted to create a desktop shortcut. If you look thought your start menu items,,you should see two Openshot shortcuts( providing your chose to create a shortcut icon) for the newly downloaded Appimage when you launched it. "issue 3541"

Blender

dr0i wrote: https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues/2550

"On ubuntu 20 and OpenShot version 2.4.3 and blender 2.78 I discovered that an absolute path doesn't work - openshot always seems to append the path to blender to your home directory. So, only relative paths (starting from your home directory) are working."

Windows

Windows Store Issues

NB: We are unsure how OpenShot made it into the Microsoft Store, it was probably done by a third party. You need regular Blender and OpenShot to use them together. Third party Store software is running in sandbox. The location points to a virtual environment that probably isn't even accessible until Inkscape is launched and it gets mounted from whatever archive/container format the application is distributed in.

issue3136 issue3412

I can't start OpenShot!

Sometimes, the .exe (especially the daily) may not start the program. It could be blocked by Windows Defender. Try running a virus scan on the program directory, and run the program again. More complex reasons why it may not start can be found here: Windows Launch Issues (cx_Freeze errors)

Can I run OpenShot on the Linux Subsystem for Windows?

Probably not. Feel free to give it a try, let us know if things do work. But we're not responsible if the error log gives you nightmares. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/directx-heart-linux/

Audio issues

Why is there no sound?

At this time, OpenShot can only handle one audio output device per session on Windows (see #4303). Wrong settings may introduce several sound problems, which can include unexpected elimination of sound during playback in the interface or during encoding, or even mute sound in third-party programs while OpenShot is running. If an output device is disconnected while in use by OpenShot, performance issues can occur.

Refer to Windows Audio Issues for troubleshooting.

Why is the audio popping so hard?

Multiple audio/video tracks can result in clipping of the project. Try adjusting mixing mode. See #1069 for additional discussion.

Hardware acceleration issues

General discussion on hardware acceleration is at #3404. A test version from SuslicV with experimental support for NvENC can temporarily be found in this thread: https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues/3448.

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