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Shotcut

DESIGN
Velocity2.5

Free cross platform video editor

shotcut.org ↗

A video plumbing rewrite let Shotcut restore external monitor output lost three years ago.

video-editingexternal-monitorplugin-supportopenfxtoolkit-debt
◆Current state
Shotcut ships on a monthly date-versioned cadence with a beta preceding most releases. The significant event in this window is the return of external monitor output to a second system display, which the project lost when it upgraded its UI toolkit three years ago and recovered only after reworking the video plumbing. Around it sit precision fixes that matter to finishing work: color corruption in dissolves under linear 10-bit processing, off-by-one frames in subtitles, and RNNoise misbehaving at non-48 kHz sample rates.
◆Where it's heading
Two threads. The first is Shotcut paying back debt from its toolkit migration — external monitor support restored, DeckLink deadlocks fixed, Qt updated to fix Wayland popups. The second is a cautious opening toward third-party audio and video plugins: VST2 and LV2 support restored across all builds, and initial OpenFX filter support shipped with unusually frank warnings that most plugins do nothing or produce black video. Both threads point the same way — extending what the editor can plug into rather than what it does natively.
◆Prediction
OpenFX support shipped explicitly labelled as limited, so the most likely next step is broadening that compatibility rather than new built-in filters; the video plumbing change that restored external monitor output is also the kind of foundation that tends to produce follow-on playback fixes.

◆Recent moves

  1. 19d ago

    Restores VST2 and LV2 plugin support, fixes 10-bit dissolve color

    Restores VST2 and LV2 audio plugin support, which was missing from every build, and clears three precision bugs: corrupt dissolve colors in linear 10-bit CPU mode, RNNoise breaking at non-48 kHz export rates, and off-by-one subtitle frames. The plugin fix quietly re-opens the whole third-party audio effect ecosystem.

    View source ↗
  2. 1mo ago

    External monitor on a system display returns after a video plumbing rework

    ⚡ SPARK

    The release that undoes the most-missed regression of Shotcut's toolkit migration: a second system display can serve as an external monitor again, three years after the UI library upgrade removed it. It required reworking the video plumbing, which makes it a structural change rather than a restored menu item.

    View source ↗
  3. 2mo ago

    v26.6 beta adds initial OpenFX filters and fixes DeckLink deadlocks

    A beta carrying initial OpenFX filter support, described with unusual candor: limited compatibility, with many plugins unavailable, inert, or producing black video. It also fixes a DeckLink and UltraStudio deadlock over HDMI and SDI, which sits alongside the external monitor work as part of the same output-path attention.

    View source ↗
  4. 3mo ago

    v26.4 gathers timeline handling and zoom refinements

    A release explicitly framed as accumulated small work: symmetric transition resize via trim handles, drag and drop from Recent to the timeline, less erratic timeline and keyframe zoom, lower memory for waveforms, and rebound track navigation keys. Individually minor, collectively the timeline feeling less awkward.

    View source ↗
  5. 3mo ago

    v26.4.29: Upgrade Qt to 6.10.3 for Linux

    A Linux-only Qt bump to 6.10.3, fixing popup windows for menu buttons under Wayland. Toolkit maintenance of the sort that recurs throughout this feed.

    View source ↗
  6. 3mo ago

    v26.4 beta unbundles Glaxnimate and fixes waveform sync

    Stops bundling Glaxnimate, launching it from the Microsoft Store on Windows instead, and fixes an intermittent audio waveform sync problem that had been present since v26.2. Unbundling shifts a dependency onto the user's system while keeping the integration.

    View source ↗