VIDEDTR v1.0
00:00:00.00 / 00:00:00.00
Timeline zoom
No clips

Export

~8 Mbps
Nothing to export yet.
Export is the slow part. The app steps through your timeline one frame at a time, seeking each source video to the exact moment it needs. Expect roughly real-time or slower. Keep this tab visible — background tabs get throttled by the browser.

Project settings

Canvas size is the shape of your finished video. Clips are fitted inside it, so a vertical clip in a wide project will have bars at the sides until you scale or reposition it in the Inspector.
Project files do not contain your video. They only record your edits, which keeps them tiny. Select the original media files again and they will be matched up by name and size.

VIDEDTR — help

Everything happens on this device. Your video is never uploaded. The page is not even permitted to make a network connection — that is enforced by the browser, not just promised by the code.

Installing it

Served over https, this installs as an app: look for the install icon in Chrome or Edge's address bar, or use Share → Add to Home Screen on iOS. It then opens in its own window with no browser furniture. Dropping the optional sw.js beside this file adds the automatic install prompt and lets it open with no network at all.

Getting started

  1. Drop video, audio or image files into the Media Pool.
  2. Click a tile to see its name and details, download it, or add it at the playhead. Drag one onto a track instead and a dashed outline shows exactly where it will land before you let go.
  3. Drag a clip's ends to trim it; drag its middle to move it.
  4. Select a clip and drag it straight on the preview: corners resize, edges crop, and the handle on the stem rotates.
  5. Select a clip and use the Inspector to size, crop, fade or adjust volume.
  6. Reorder tracks by dragging a track header, or with its up and down arrows. The track at the top is drawn in front of the ones below it, so that is how you put a caption or a logo over your footage.
  7. Press Export when you are happy.

Keyboard shortcuts

SpacePlay / pause
KPause
J / LStep back / forward one second
← / →Step one frame
Home / EndJump to start / end
SSplit the selected clip at the playhead
Ctrl+Shift+SSplit every track at the playhead
DeleteRemove the selected clip
TAdd a text overlay at the playhead
CCapture the current frame into the Media Pool
IImport media
TabMove between clips on the timeline
← / →With a clip focused: nudge it one frame
↑ / ↓With a clip focused: move to the track above / below
+ / −Zoom the timeline
Ctrl+ZUndo
Ctrl+Shift+ZRedo
Ctrl+SSave project
Ctrl+OOpen project
Ctrl+EExport
?This help

On the timeline

Clip bodyDrag to move it, along the track or onto another one.
Clip endsDrag to trim. The clip gets shorter; nothing is thrown away.
Top cornersThe small squares set a fade. The white ramp drawn across the clip shows how long it is and which way it goes.
Track nameDouble-click to rename it. Enter keeps the change, Esc abandons it.
Amber diamondsWhen a clip animates, these are the two marks. Drag them to change when the move starts and finishes.
Track orderDrag a header, or use its arrows. The top track draws in front.
Duplicate a trackThe copy button in the header. The copy lands directly below the original with all its clips, crops, filters and fades intact.

Handles on the preview

The handles and the Inspector sliders change the same numbers. Use whichever suits the moment - handles to rough something in, sliders when you want an exact value or are working from the keyboard.

Inside the boxDrag to move. Hold Shift to snap back to centre.
Corner squareResize evenly. The clip keeps its proportions.
Edge barCrop that edge. The opposite edge stays where it is.
Stem handleRotate. Hold Shift for 15° steps; it snaps to square on its own near 0, 90 and 180°.

Sizing and cropping

ContainFits the whole picture inside the frame. Bars appear if the shapes differ.
CoverFills the frame completely. Whatever hangs over the edge is cut off.
StretchSquashes the picture to the frame exactly. Distorts it, but occasionally useful.
Crop to frame shapeTrims evenly from opposite edges until what is left matches the project shape. This is how you get a wide photo into a vertical video without bars.
Trim slidersCut into each edge by hand. Nothing is written to your file - cropping just narrows the window we look through.

Moving a clip while it plays

Select a clip and turn on Motion in the Inspector. Pick Start pose, drag the picture where it should begin; pick End pose, drag it where it should finish. It travels between the two amber diamonds on the clip, which you can drag to change the timing. This is how you slide a webcam inset out of the way to reveal what is behind it, without cutting the clip in two and having it jump.

Hiding something: the blur track

Blur on the timeline toolbar adds a blur region on its own track. It hides whatever is on the tracks below it, so drag the track up or down to choose what it covers. Drag the handles on the preview to place it, and round the corners all the way to get a circle. The strength slider has a floor: the weakest setting is still a real blur, so it cannot be turned off by accident.

Colour

Video and image clips get a COLOUR section in the Inspector: eight one-click looks, then sliders for brightness, contrast, saturation, black and white, hue and blur. The graphics card applies these while drawing, so the preview and the export are the same thing rather than two guesses at it. A clip with colour adjusted carries a small wand badge on the timeline.

Four ways out

Video fileRenders the finished thing to .mp4, or .webm where H.264 is unavailable. The cut is baked in.
Project fileA few kilobytes of JSON holding your edit. Reopen it here later; it asks you to point at the media again.
Premiere / ResolveFinal Cut Pro 7 XML. Tracks, cuts and source ranges transfer frame-accurately; effects are best-effort. Both applications have read this format for years.
EDLOne track of straight cuts as plain text. No effects, but readable by essentially every editing system ever made.

Known limits