While editing, I find myself wanting to play back the project at much slower speed so I can check for editing errors. I can’t seem to find a way to do this.
As a workaround, I can render the video, play it back in mpv and adjust the speed with { and }, but of course this is less than ideal.
How do I play back my project at 1/2 to 1/4 speed?
Hi @occupationsaura, You can go faster than 1x by repeatedly pressing/clicking the rewind or fast forward - each press makes the playback go faster. To go slower, there is no automatic feature as yet, as far as I know.
I would offer it as a suggestion.
However, as a workaround you could press the right arrow key repeatedly.
Personally I use an Auto Hotkey script I wrote, to automate the pressing of the right arrow key. My script is customizable so you can change 1) the speed that the right arow key is pressed, 2) the number of key presses before the script stops, and 3) the hotkey set to activate the script.
The script also works for slowing down backwards (reverse) playback, but note - the speed of the video might be slower than forwards playback, because reverse seek times are slower.
(NB this will not be so much of a problem if you use Proxy editing).
I took a screenshot of the script in action. The video begins with 1x playback, then I repeatedly trigger the reverse and forward playback by using the hotkeys CTRL+SHIFT+0 (Forwards) and CTRL+SHIFT+9 (Reverse) playback, and space to revert to 1x playback.
Here’s a screenshot of part of the script:
Note: Auto Hotkey is for Windows users only. You need to download and install the AHK program first, also download the file below. Remove the fake .txt extension and double-click the .ahk file to run it. Then on the timeline you’re ready to press one of the hotkeys.
Shotcut play at slower speed.ahk.txt (803 Bytes)
How do I create a feature request? This seems like a pretty useful feature to have.
In the mean time, the right arrow method is a good workaround. I’m on Linux, not Windows, but I appreciate that! (I can throw something together with xdotool)
Hi @occupationsaura - just post again with pretty much the same wording as your opening post, but mark it as a “suggestion”. Or possibly, you could just re-categorise this thread as a “suggestion” (not “Help/How to”). Not sure which one of these options Dan (@shotcut) would prefer though.
I would vote for your suggestion. Maybe Ctrl+ Play (Ctrl+space) could be made to produce x0.75, x0.5, x0.25 speeds when pressed repeatedly?
I changed it to the category. BTW computers have key repeat. Press and hold left or right, but your mileage may vary.
