Shotcut 24.02 Open-Source Video Editor Released with Ambisonic Audio Support
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This release also adds support for the AMD AV1 hardware encoder on Linux (av1_vaapi).
The open-source, cross-platform, and free video editor Shotcut has been updated to version 24.02, a release that introduces Ambisonic spatial (spherical) audio support, as well as some improvements and bug fixes.
Coming a month after Shotcut 24.01, the Shotcut 24.02 release is here to add support for the full-sphere surround sound format called Ambisonic in Settings > Audio Channels. Ambisonic audio is often used with 360° video and can be output as spherical or reframed to a rectangle.
This is possible thanks to a new Ambisonic Decoder audio filter in Shotcut, which provides users with a simple way to record Ambisonic audio and convert it to 5.1 surround sound. In addition, the new audio filter can be used to convert Ambisonic audio to binaural or stereo sound for headphones.
The Ambisonic audio support also comes with Ambisonic metadata to “Set Equirectangular” if there is a track with 4 audio channels, as well as a new “Copy Parameters” option to 360 video filters, which can be used with the Ambisonic Decoder > Paste Parameters option.
Shotcut 24.02 also adds support for the AMD AV1 hardware encoder on Linux (av1_vaapi) and Windows (av1_amf) systems, adds automatic vertical scrolling to the timeline when moving a track, and adds support for changing the duration of image clips on the Timeline, which depends on Ripple.
Some other enhancements in this release include improved selection in Timeline after various operations, improved behavior changing Properties > Speed when Timeline > Ripple is enabled, improved speed of opening a timeline project, and better handling of audio and video clips when detaching audio so that they are no longer grouped automatically.
A dozen bug fixes are also included in this release to improve various functions and features of the application, including adding audio filters in reverse order, converting HLG HDR to Rec, the Mixdown audio filter, the Normalize: One Pass audio filter, Loop Selection on the timeline, the Wave video filter, incorrect gamma in preview player, and more.
Check out the release notes for extra reading and technical details about the changes included in this update. Meanwhile, you can download Shotcut 24.02 from the official website as a universal AppImage or portable Linux binary, or install it as a Flatpak app from Flathub.
