The sad truth is that all the open source video editors are like that depending on what you're doing (with the possible exception of OpenShot, which I found to

The sad truth is that all the open source video editors are like that depending on what you're doing (with the possible exception of OpenShot, which I found to be reliable but limited). In short, I found no FOSS video editor that did what I needed reliably out of the box. Given that problem, Cinelerra at least came close, the code was readable, and the design sound. Its biggest problem is that its file loaders/exporters are all old and bitrotting so they have become unreliable and crash-prone. For my stuff, I use raw video and so don't hit those problems. In the process of making Episode 2, I wrote a new compositor resampler and a new color grading filter for Cinelerra (named Blue Banana). These should be appearing officially in the next major release. I hope to have some more file loader work done by then too :-)