[Bf-funboard] OpenML and NLE

[Timothy Baldridge]

	I know this has been touched on in the past, but I thought I'd cover 
this one more time and see what everyone thought.

	The open source community is in need of a free NLE video program. 
Looking at blender it has many of the features needed to be used as a 
base for a program like Final Cut Pro, or Avid. I work with FCP on a 
regular basis, so here is what I think would need to be done to the 
sequencer to bring it up to speed.

(1) Better real-time support (it is slow compared to FCP)
(2) make it read all data from the HD instead of hogging memory via 
caching
(3) Rethink the timeline. Each clip should be able to be trimmed, and 
the user should be able to set IN/OUT points for each clip, in addition 
to Blender storing information on what reel the tape came from, the 
time-code, etc.
(4) Better effects engine, and integration with the timeline. Basically 
this would allow effects to be on the same line as the clip they are 
modifying.
(5) Vector-scopes, Waveform viewers, etc.

	All the basic functionality is all ready in blender. the GUI, the File 
support, and the basic timeline. It just needs to be extended. 
Admittedly, Firewire would need to be added, but if we were to 
integrate OpenML in Blender, it would allow us to not only to be 
platform independent, but the entire video engine could then be 
transparently hardware accelerated, as in OpenGL.

	I know this would mean expanding what blender's role in the past has 
been. However, the market would also expand.

	Some may be thinking why we just don't create a fork. Well, this could 
be done, but it would probably end up splitting the development 
community up, as well, as make things like GUI changes harder. We don't 
want another Gimp/CinePaint type war (for those who know what I mean).

	Anyway, any ideas are welcome!

		tbaldridge