Two of the main open source video editors released updates on September 27.

Shotcut 26.9

Hardware encoding on Linux. The VA-API HEVC hardware encoder is improved. VA-API is how Intel and AMD GPUs expose video encoding on Linux, and HEVC export on the GPU is many times faster than software encoding for long projects. Our Linux GPU drivers guide covers getting VA-API working.

FFmpeg 9.0 support, plus:

• Automatic audio ducking, lowering music under dialogue, with volume controls
• An audio level indicator on timeline tracks
• Adjustment clips to apply filters across composited video tracks
• Audio kept as 32-bit float internally instead of converting to 16-bit
• Faster clip moves and undo, and a refreshed look with rounded corners
• Fixes for subtitle import on Windows and the Draw filter, and security fixes for PGM and wipe file reading in the MLT framework
• Detection of plugins that hang at startup

Shotcut is available as an AppImage, on Flathub, and as native installers.

OpenShot 4.0.1

The first update after OpenShot 4.0:

• Official Snap packaging, alongside the AppImage
• A reworked Razor tool that previews the frame at the cut, snaps to timeline targets, and can remove footage while closing the gap
• Timeline zoom keeps clip controls, titles, and menus visible while you scroll into a long clip
• Faster colour wheels, more responsive keyframe editing, and smoother preview seeking while trimming
• Native file dialogs return with better desktop portal support on Linux
• Better screen-recording audio sync and Linux webcam discovery

For quick conversions rather than editing, our ffmpeg guide and ffmpeg command builder are often faster than opening an editor at all.