How to compare video files on Linux with Identity
Identity is an exciting program for Linux that allows Linux users to take two video clips and compare and contrast them. If you’re a video editor that uses Linux, this could be a useful program. Here’s how to use it.
Installing Identity on Linux
Identity is a handy tool, but it does not come pre-installed on any Linux operating systems (that we know of). For this reason, we must demonstrate how to set up the Identity app on Linux before continuing with this guide.
There are three ways to get the Identity app set up on your computer. The first (and arguably best) way is Flatpak. However, if you do not like the Flatpak app store, you can install it through the Arch Linux AUR or even the source code.
To start the installation of Identity on your Linux PC, launch a terminal window on the desktop. Once the terminal window is open and ready to use, follow along with the installation instructions outlined below that corresponds with the instructions, you prefer.
Flatpak
To install the Identity app on your Linux PC as a Flatpak, you will first need to enable the Flatpak runtime on your computer. The Flatpak runtime is required to run Flatpak packages, so it is essential.
Installing the Flatpak runtime isn’t tricky. To do it, install the “flatpak” package on your Linux PC the way you typically install programs. If you can’t figure out how to set up the Flatpak runtime, follow our guide on the subject.
Once the Flatpak runtime is up and ready to go on your computer, the next step is to set up the Flathub app store. To do that, execute the following remote-add command in a terminal window.
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
After adding the Flathub app store to your Linux PC, the installation of Identity can begin. Using the flatpak install command, download and install the Identity app from the Flathub app store and onto your computer.
flatpak install flathub org.gnome.gitlab.YaLTeR.Identity
Arch Linux AUR
If you’re an Arch Linux user, you’ll be able to install the Identity application on your computer through the Arch Linux AUR. To start the installation, run the following Pacman command to install both the “Git” and “Base-devel” packages.
sudo pacman -S base-devel git
Following the two packages’ installation, you will need to install the Trizen AUR helper with the commands below. This program will make the installation of Identity automatic so that you do not have to fiddle with source code or anything like that.
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git cd trizen makepkg -sri
With Trizen set up on your computer, you can quickly install the Identity application on your computer using the trizen -S command below. Keep in mind that installation may take a few minutes to build it from the source code!
trizen -S identity
Source code
If you cannot use Flathub or the Arch Linux AUR, Identity is also available as a download (source code) from the developer’s website. We do not recommend this method of installation, as most Linux users have access to Flathub. However, if you must build from source, click on this link and follow the developer’s page’s instructions.
Compare video files with Identity
To compare video files with Identity, start by launching the app on your Linux PC by searching for it in the app menu. Then, follow the step-by-step instructions down below.
Step 1: First, locate the “Open” button in the top-right corner of the Identity window. By clicking on this button, a pop-up window will appear on the screen. Using this pop-up window, locate the first video file you wish to add to the Identity app to compare.
Step 2: After adding the first video to the Identity app, click on the “Open” button in the top-left corner a second time. The pop-up window will appear on the screen like before. Once again, use it to browse for a video file to compare to the first one.
As soon as you open up the second video, you will notice that Identity doesn’t add the videos side-by-side but in different tabs. Each video’s filename denotes these tabs.
Step 3: To compare video files in Identity, click on the first video tab in the title bar, and click on the play button. Selecting this will start the playback of the first video.
Step 4: While the first video is playing, select the second video in the title bar to access it. Then, select the play button to begin the playback of the second video.
While both video files are playing, you can click on the title bar to swap between videos one and two to compare them. To quickly pause or play videos, tap the Spacebar on the keyboard.
