Use the Player and Playback Tools

Playback controls

Use the viewer controls or keyboard shortcuts to play and pause, seek, shuttle forward or backward, change playback speed and volume, and step through the video one frame at a time. Loop mode repeats playback, while on-screen feedback confirms changes such as speed, volume, looping, and captions.

Sequence keeps the player aligned with the active variant or programme’s edited timeline. Clicking a transcript word seeks to its corresponding position in the edit; disabled words and removed silence are omitted from edited playback.

Transcript captions in the player

Toggle captions to show the active transcript over the video. The overlay follows the current variant, including transcript corrections, hidden words, and text redaction. This is a playback aid; use the export controls when you need titles or subtitle files.

Picture in Picture and the detached player

Use Picture in Picture when you want the video to float above other windows. For a larger independent viewer, open the Player window. Detaching the player frees space in the main workspace and keeps the active project’s variant tabs available in the player window, including the option to create or switch variants.

Closing or reattaching the player returns the video to the workspace without creating a second playback session.

Audio tracks, subtitle tracks, and chapters

When the media package provides multiple audio or subtitle tracks, select the required stream from the player controls. Chapter navigation is also available when the source contains chapter metadata. The metadata inspector lists the streams detected in the file.

These controls depend on the tracks supported by the current media, so a single-track file will not show additional track choices.

Player track choices depend on the currently loaded media. Use Metadata → Variant for recording-source and composition choices, and Metadata → Audio for a saved audio mix. A temporary player track choice is not a substitute for choosing the audio used by transcription or export.

Timeline and layers

Expand the timeline below the player to see the edit’s source clips and media layers. Zoom controls adjust the time scale and track height. Placed assets have their own lanes; reference audio lanes and Multi-Cam picture-in-picture lanes can be locked to the edit that owns them.

Drag reusable images, video, or audio from the library’s Assets section onto the timeline or workspace player. Both place an overlay at the playhead, not at the pointer’s horizontal drop position. See Layers and Reusable Assets for placement, trimming, and live linked edits, or Multi-Cam Editing for angle and inset editing.

Trim the retained source range

1. Choose Project → Trim Media, use the timeline's Trim Media action, or right-click the player scrubber and choose Trim Media.
2. Drag the start and end handles to keep the required source range. The trim controls show the full source, not just the shortened edit.
3. Choose Confirm Trim to save or Cancel Trim to discard the draft. With the player focused and no text field active, Return confirms and Escape cancels.

Reset Trim in the scrubber's context menu restores the full source range. Trimming is non-destructive and belongs to the active variant or programme. It does not delete media files.

The Clips tab can show Trimmed Start and Trimmed End rows for excluded source material. Use the available restore action to include it again. Markers outside the retained range remain listed as Outside trim, but cannot be selected as playback or range-creation targets until they are inside the trim again.

Capture the current frame

Choose Project → Export Current Frame… to save the current video frame, or Project → Copy Current Frame to place it on the clipboard. Frame export is also available in the Export inspector. The default Capture Current Frame shortcut is ⌘⇧F, and the preferred image format can be changed in Settings.

Frame capture is available when the current video can supply a frame. Audio-only projects do not have a video frame to capture.

Markers and watch position

Add a marker at the current playback position with M while the player has focus. Switch the transcript pane to Markers to review them. Right-click a marker to Edit its name and time, Jump to Marker, or Delete it.

Select at least two valid markers to define a passage between the earliest and latest selected times. The context menu offers Create Variant to pull that range into a separate edit and Create Clip to define it in the current edit. This also works for recordings without transcript words. A grouped In/Out marker pair can be used as a range; deleting a marker does not delete its source media.

Sequence remembers a separate playback position for each variant or programme, so switching versions does not replace another version's watch position.

If playback behaves unexpectedly, copy the playback diagnostics from the player menu and include them with an issue report. The summary uses the media filename rather than its full path, but may include error details. Review it before sharing.