Video Editing in Blender 2.49b & 2.52alfa2 using ogv input files

In the past when on Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04Lts) and Blender 2.45, you could use the ogg/ogv files created by "RecordMyDesktop" and process them as pleased.

upgraded to Lucid (Ubuntu 10.4Lts) that by default comes with Blender 2.49b in the repositories, You can't use ogv files in blender VSE. (created by "RecordMyDestop").

But there is a workaround:

1. convert the ogv file to avi first as follows:

mencoder -idx inputfile.ogv -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -o outputfile.avi

you can use the avi file in blender, but it seems that the quality is very poor (grainy) so do also step 2 and prevent poor quality video processing.

2. extract the AVI file to a sequence of images (png files):

ffmpeg -i inputfile.avi -r 15 -s 1280x1024 -f image2 outpufilename-%05d.png

3. Import the image sequence, and do your editing. The quality will be very high (pretty much loss-less editing this way).

NOTE:

although this procedure will allow you to produce high quality editing, it will require extra steps and time to get the job done, AND lots of drive space. (example. avi file at 15 frames /sec and +/- 20 min long, took about 10 GB and 20000 images)