SlashmadFFmpegGUI GTK4 frontend for FFmpeg maintained by slashmad, focused on timelapse, capture, review, trimming, cleanup, and export workflows.

Repository: https://github.com/slashmad/SlashmadFFmpegGUI

License: GPL-3.0-or-later

Features

• FFmpeg encode (Timelapse) workflow with hardware-acceleration detection.
• Dedicated Capture tab for VHS, USB, PCI, and PCIe capture devices.
• Dedicated Edit tab with in-app playback, trim controls, frame stepping, and export.
• Live video and live audio monitoring with independent mute and volume control.
• Capture profiles for archive, delivery, and proxy outputs.
• Analog source input selection for devices exposing Composite / S-Video.
• Explicit FFmpeg command preview for capture and export jobs.
• Flatpak support with host-device discovery via flatpak-spawn --host.
• Compact custom dark GTK styling tuned for capture, review, and long-session editing.

Edit Workflow Notes

• Load a captured file in Edit.
• Use the built-in player transport (Play, Pause, seek timeline) to inspect the source.
• The trim bar uses one combined range with start and end handles.
• Use the dedicated -1f / +1f buttons under the trim bar for manual frame-accurate start/end adjustment.
• Default export mode is Keep source streams, which trims/remuxes without re-encoding.
• Switch to Re-encode when applying denoise, deinterlace, color correction, sync changes, or new codecs.

VHS Capture Notes

• For em28xx-based hardware, Live during capture = Stop live view is still the most stable path.
• Auto-fallback can be used if you want monitoring during capture and accept fallback to lighter preview behavior when needed.
• The app keeps default archive capture as raw stereo with no tonal cleanup enabled by default.
• Prefer stable ALSA identifiers shown in the UI (plughw:CARD=...,DEV=...) over boot-dependent hw:X,Y numbers.
• Typical use case: digitizing VHS on Linux from a Magix USB capture device or similar USB analog-video hardware.

Suggested archive baseline:

• Profile: VHS Archive (FFV1 + PCM)
• Container: MKV
• Video codec: ffv1
• Audio codec: pcm_s16le
• TV standard: PAL
• Input format: YUYV mapped to FFmpeg yuyv422

Approximate size rates shown in the UI:

• VHS Archive (FFV1 + PCM): about ~19.4 GiB/h
• VHS Delivery (H.264 + AAC): about ~2.6 GiB/h
• VHS Proxy (MJPEG + PCM): about ~9.0 GiB/h

Magix S-Video Fix (em28xx card=105)

If Composite works but S-Video is black, force em28xx board profile 105.

Temporary test:

sudo modprobe -r em28xx_v4l em28xx_alsa em28xx
sudo modprobe em28xx card=105 usb_xfer_mode=1
sudo modprobe em28xx_v4l

Permanent setup:

sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/em28xx-magix.conf >/dev/null <<'EOF2'
options em28xx card=105 usb_xfer_mode=1
EOF2

Reload modules:

sudo modprobe -r em28xx_v4l em28xx_alsa em28xx
sudo modprobe em28xx
sudo modprobe em28xx_v4l

Run Locally (Fedora)

Typical dependencies:

• python3
• python3-pip for pip install -e .
• python3-gobject
• gtk4
• ffmpeg (includes ffprobe)
• v4l-utils
• alsa-utils for arecord
• pulseaudio-utils for pactl
• gstreamer1
• gstreamer1-plugins-base
• gstreamer1-plugins-good
• gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free
• gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-gtk4

Optional but useful:

• pipewire-utils for extra PipeWire diagnostics outside the app
• flatpak
• flatpak-builder

Run in development mode:

./dev_run.sh

Or install locally and run:

python3 -m pip install -e .
slashmad-ffmpeg-gui

Flatpak

Build and run with Flatpak Builder:

flatpak-builder --force-clean --install-deps-from=flathub --user build flatpak/io.github.slashmad.SlashmadFFmpegGUI.yml
flatpak-builder --run build flatpak/io.github.slashmad.SlashmadFFmpegGUI.yml slashmad-ffmpeg-gui

Notes:

• Inside Flatpak, hardware probing uses host commands via flatpak-spawn --host.
• Capture discovery for v4l2-ctl, pactl, and arecord is executed on host.
• The included Flatpak manifest grants the permissions needed for capture workflows:
  • --share=network
  • --share=ipc
  • --device=all
  • --socket=pulseaudio
  • --filesystem=/run/udev:ro
  • --filesystem=/mnt
  • --filesystem=/media
  • --filesystem=/run/media
  • --filesystem=xdg-download
  • --filesystem=xdg-videos

The app now ships its own compact dark styling, so a separate Flatpak dark-theme override should normally not be needed.

Search Terms

This project is intended to be discoverable for common Linux video digitizing and timelapse searches, including:

• Timelapse Linux
• Magix capture Linux
• Magix USB Videowandler Linux
• USB to VHS capture Linux
• PCI, PCIe to VHS catpure Linux
• VHS capture Linux
• VHS digitizing Linux
• S-Video capture Linux
• Composite capture Linux
• analog video capture Linux
• FFmpeg VHS capture GUI
• Linux USB video capture GUI

Screenshots