Spark Gap Video Editor for ffmpeg
The Zippy Clipper
Installer
The following installer has been tested on Linux Mint: {Mate, Cinnamon and XFCE}
version 22.1 (Xia) and Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble Numbat). It may work with other Debian
based systems based on Ubuntu Noble
To install other versions, see source code distro below.
md5sum 8b0b9e9f51a91ab1d3c563a80c1b6e42
April 12, 2025
To install, on many systems, from an explorer window, double click the .deb file.
Alternatively, in the directory containing the .deb file, do the following
(there may be errors indicating missing packages. Step 2 will fix this):
sudo dpkg -i sgr-zippy-amd64.deb
sudo apt install -f
Or, the following:
sudo apt install gdebi
sudo gdebi sgr-zippy-amd64.deb
Both will install the package and resolve dependencies.
This installer file has been checked with current (22.1 Xia)
versions of Linux Mint {Mate, Cinnamon, and Xfce} and Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble Numbat).
It should work on other similar recent Debian based systems.
If not, try a re-build from the full source code below.
After installation, a desktop launcher can be copied to your desktop from:
/usr/share/applications/zippy.desktop
Alternatively the application can be launched from a terminal with the command:
zippy.
The zippy directory will be created in
/home/YOU/zippy/ when you run the application the first time.
Place videos you wish to edit in /home/YOU/zippy/videos/.
FFmpeg is a free and open-source software project consisting of a suite of libraries
and programs for handling video, audio, and other multimedia files and streams. At
its core is the command-line ffmpeg tool itself, designed for processing video and audio
files. It is widely used for format transcoding, basic editing (trimming and concatenation),
video scaling, video post-production effects, and standards compliance. (Wikipedia).
Unfortunately, ffmpeg is, as noted, accessed as a command-line application with a sysntax that
places it out of reach of most people.
The purpose of this code is to introduce a graphical user interface front-end
for several popular ffmpeg capabilities. The ffmpeg GUI is written in C and uses
GTK 3, Glade, VLC libraries as well as ffmpeg and related code.
The user selects files, settings and other options from the GUI and the code
translates these into an ffmpeg command which is executed.
For example, to join two video clips with a wipedown overlap, the GUI user selects two videos
from a list by checking boxes and then clicking the wipedown button. This translates to something
like this:
Which is executed and the resulting video (tmp.mp4 in the above) is renamed to a filename based
on the input.
Many common video operations have been encoded and more will be added. Suggestions welcome. The code is
under development and seriously messy. Try not to look too carefully for style. There isn't any...
Notices
The interface has been simplified and some content is hidden until requested. See the buttons
in the box on the lower right of the main screen These cause other frames to appear/disappear.
A new panel showing a frame from each video in a tiled arrangemnt is now available. Click
the Video Tiles button on the main screen, center bottom. This will display the tiles page.
You may drag/drop tiles as needed.
Please click the Re-Scan Dir button to update the tiles, entry boxe and times when ever you add or seriously modify
the contents of the video directory.
This project is unaffiliated with ffmpeg. All errors, mistakes, and stupid code are mine alone.
The HowTo videos are stored on a server in order to minimize the size of the distro and to permit
updates as needed that can be seen by all. Clicking the HowTo button loads a list of
URLs from the HowTo directory. You may play these in the Zippy Clipper directly if you have internet access.
Click the Re-Scan Dir to restore access to local videos.
The main development platform is Linux Mint with Mate. The present version of Mint is 22. The Mint X theme with WinMe borders.
Other platforms are checked and updated when time allows. Due to systems update, etc., they may not all work
at the same time.
License and Acknowledgements:
This code is licensed under the GPL 2+ & MIT licenses. The code uses ffmpeg runtime routines as well as VLC library APIs which themselves have various open source licences.
The Linux version was developed on Linux Mint with Mate (21). It assumes library names and locations
consistent with a Debian/Ubuntu based system. The installation script uses apt.
