Frequently Asked Questions

See Also

What are the minimum system requirements?

Operating system: 64-bit Windows 10 (build 1809) - 11, Apple macOS 12 - 27, or 64-bit Linux with at least glibc 2.35.

CPU: x86-64 Intel or AMD, or 64-bit ARM e.g. Apple Silicon or Qualcomm Snapdragon X; at least one 2 GHz core for SD, 4 cores for HD, and 8 cores for 4K.

GPU: OpenGL 2.0 that works correctly and is compatible on Linux, Direct3D 11 on Windows.

RAM: At least 4 GB for SD, 8 GB for HD, and 16 GB for 4K.

NOTE: If your computer is at the lower end of CPU and RAM requirements, you should use both the Preview Scaling and Proxy features to help reduce preview lag.

Hard drive: yes, get one; the bigger, the better :-)

Network: Shotcut does NOT require access to the network to activate, check a subscription, or send usage analytics. However, some links in the Help menu do link out to this web site. If you have files on a fast (at least 1 Gb/s) network share you can access them from there through your operating system.

Why does it crash on Windows upon launch?

Is this a new - for the first time ever - installation of Shotcut? If NOT, and it used to work, then you may need to delete your Shotcut registry entries and try again. The registry keys are stored at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Meltytech\Shotcut.

One Windows 8.1 user reported he needed to change the following in the Compatibility tab of the Properties for the Shotcut icon/exe: Run in compatibility mode for “Windows XP (Service Pack 2)”, and “Run this program as administrator.” However, not every one needs to do that, and we are not sure why he needed it.

I have trimmed my video and/or created my project, now how do I save or share it?

If you just want to save your changes to re-open it later in Shotcut, you can save your project as a MLT XML file by clicking Save on the toolbar at the top of the window. If you want to upload the video to a web site or somehow share the result with someone as separate video file, then choose File > Export > Video… from the menu.

By default, if you have made a playlist Export uses the Playlist unless you have put something into the Timeline, in which case, it uses the timeline. Otherwise, it will Export the clip or live source (stream, device, screen, etc.). However, you can control what is used for the source of the export using the From control at the top of the Export panel.

Which Export preset should I use?

It all depends; that is why there are so many of them! But here are some suggestions:

  • Upload to a video-sharing web site: H.264 High Profile or YouTube
  • Extract the audio: Ogg Vorbis, FLAC (lossless with compression), or good old MP3
  • Save to an intermediate file to use with another tool: DNxHR HQ or ProRes 422 - really depends on what the other tool accepts