Monitors

Kdenlive uses two monitor widgets to display and play back your videos, images, titles, animations or audio files:

• Clip Monitor
• Project Monitor

The monitor widgets can be switched on or off by checking Menu ‣ View ‣ Clip Monitor and Project Monitor, repectively. Once activated, they can be selected by clicking the corresponding tab which appears at the bottom of the monitor window.

Kdenlive supports an external monitor display using Blackmagicdesign DeckLink cards.

The Clip Monitor plays the clip selected in the Project Bin. The Project Monitor plays the timeline of the project starting at the position of the playhead.

Controls and Elements

Monitor controls (see this table for more details)

Monitor areas and elements (see this table for more details)

Monitor Display Toolbar

Monitor Display Toolbar and overlay options

The monitor display toolbar appears when you hover over the defined hotspot. By default this is the top right-hand side of the monitor area. Click on to move the monitor display toolbar to the left-hand side or back. You can switch it off altogether by right-click in the monitor area, and selecting Current Monitor Overlay ‣ Monitor Info Overlay.

The toolbar has the following options:

Icon	Description
	Switch full screen
	Change overlay. Click through the different available patterns.
	Zoom in It’s always for the entire clip. Cut it if needed and apply motion tracking only to the resulting pieces where needed.
	Zoom Out
	Add guide
	Remove guide
	Move Toolbar. Click through to move the toolbar from the right (default) to the left and back.

Monitor and Effect Direct Control

Changing clips position and size, enabling grid

Effects which can use direct control in the monitor are effects which have the following parameters: X, Y, Width, Height, Opacity (Alpha, optional) and Rotation.

Once such an effect is applied (either to a clip in the project bin, a clip in the timeline, a track or on master) you can:

Icon	Description
	Enable a grid to which the clip will snap. Changing grid size
	Go to the next keyframe.
	Go to the previous keyframe.
	Add a keyframe
	Add automatic keyframe

• Move and resize. While resizing, holding:

• Shift keep the aspect ratio

• Ctrl keeps the center position untouched

• Project monitor: cycling trough resized clips with Alt+click

Once such an effect is applied, the monitor overlay selection panel does not have the icon anymore (add/remove guide). To show the icon again disable the effects in the effect/composition stack header.

Following effects can be used for direct control:

Effect name
Audio Level Visualization Filter
Audio Spectrum Filter
Audio Waveform Filter
Dynamic Text
Position and Zoom
Pillar Echo
Transform
Crop by padding

Monitor Change Overlay Color and Grid Size

Changing the color of the monitor overlay and grid size

The color of the guide and grid overlay as well as the grid size can be changed in Menu ‣ Settings ‣ Configure Kdenlive ‣ Colors and Guides.

Resizing the Monitor

Resizing the monitor widget

You can resize the monitors by dragging the widget’s edges. Make sure the mouse pointer changes to the sizing shape.

Monitor Zoom Bar

Monitor zoom bar (audio file example)

The timeline rulers of the monitors have zoom bars. To activate, hover over the timeline ruler and use Ctrl+Mouse wheel. A zoom bar will appear with a scrollbar that has handles on the left and the right. At the same time, the timeline ruler scaling marks will change according to the zoom factor. This is helpful when trying to make frame-accurate cuts or setting zones.

Preview Resolution

Preview resolutions

Changing the Preview Resolution speeds up the editing experience by scaling the video resolution of the monitors. It can be used instead of proxies or with proxies. Speed improvement depends on your source files.

Playback speed depends on several factors: source material, use of proxies, type and number of effects, and the CPU capabilities. There is limited to no GPU support for video playback. Preview Rendering is highly recommended if playback speed is lacking.

Multitrack View

You enable the multitrack view via Menu ‣ Monitor ‣ Multitrack view or via right-click in the Project Monitor area and selecting Multitrack View or by pressing F12.

The multitrack view interface allows you to select a track in the timeline by clicking on the project monitor. See the section about multicam editing for using it during Editing.

Clip and Project Monitor in Separate Windows

If you want to have the Clip and/or the Project Monitor in their own individual windows click on the respective tab and drag the monitor widget out into its own window. This undocks the widgets from their space. From there you can move them even to other monitors you may have connected.

Moving Clip and Project Monitor to their own independent windows (undocking)

To put the monitors back into the tabbed view click on the monitor’s title bar (enable it via Menu ‣ View ‣ Show Titlebars) and drag the window on top of another widget. See the Customizing the Interface chapter for more details.

Note

There is low risk that the monitor widget has no title bar (intermittent defect). In this case you will need to reset the Kdenlive settings by deleting ~/.config/kdenliverc (Linux) or C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\kdenlive\kdenlivestaterc (Windows).