Shotcut 26.6 has been released as the latest version of the free, open-source, cross-platform video editor, with a key feature being the restored support for using an additional system display as an external monitor.
As part of this change, the External Monitor submenu has moved from Settings to the top-level Player menu. The developers note it is not compatible with the new “Use Old Video Output” fallback option, which is available if the updated video output system causes issues.
Regarding HDR, Shotcut 26.6 adds a new “Player > External Monitor > Preview Window (HDR)” option, which can be set to fullscreen. While it supports SDR content, HDR preview requires a properly configured HDR display, HDR video sources, and either Native 10-bit CPU or Linear 10-bit GPU/CPU processing mode.
Linux users should note that the HDR preview window is currently not functional, as full support is still in development.
Dynamic Range settings have been added to custom video modes and Timeline Properties, with options for SDR, HLG HDR, and PQ HDR. Shotcut now supports PQ HDR (HDR10) for External Monitor > DeckLink, and HDR export is available based on the selected video mode and 10-bit processing mode.
Moreover, HDR10 metadata dialogs are now available for DeckLink output and Export > Codec. Currently, HDR10 metadata embedding during export is limited to the libx265 and libsvtav1 video codecs, with no hardware encoder support.
Shotcut 26.6 also introduces initial support for external plugins, including OpenFX image effect plugins and VST2 and LV2 audio plugins. However, this implementation is still in its early stages and remains limited.
For Linux users, Shotcut 26.6 adds a new “Settings > Display Method > Vulkan” option, providing an additional display backend. Additionally, the Linux Snap package now uses the desktop environment’s file dialog where possible, improving the native file selection experience.
Among the other new features, Shotcut 26.6 adds a “Reduce Noise: Audio” filter based on RNNoise, providing a new built-in option for cleaning up noisy audio. The release also adds support for .lot Lottie animation files handled by Glaxnimate support loading custom filter UIs installed under the App Data Directory’s extensions/filters path.
Several key components have been upgraded as well, including MLT 7.40.0, FFmpeg 8.1.2, libspatialaudio 0.4.0, and frei0r 3.2.2.
Finally, the release includes numerous fixes addressing issues with filter UIs, timeline gaps, DeckLink output deadlocks, subtitle actions, project conversion prompts, marker actions, aspect ratio detection during export, and more.
For additional details, see the changelog. Shotcut 26.6 is now available on the project’s GitHub release page, with builds for Linux, macOS, and Windows.
