Dragged in video not playing correctly
Videos are complex, and sometimes they don't play well. Here's an easy fix
If you're trying to use a video in another app, like Rotato, and it just doesn't play right, or is jittering, stuttering or acting strange, it might be because of the way the file was written and compressed.
Videos are big, so they’re often compressed to save space. When this happens, some key frames, called “i-frames,” are removed. These i-frames contain the full picture, and the other frames only describe how they’re different from the i-frame. Without enough i-frames, the video still plays fine, but skipping or scrubbing through it can feel glitchy or jumpy because the video has fewer “full pictures” to work with. So what we need now is to add back some i-frames, and thus, increasing the video's size a little.
Ways to solve this
With Finder
- Find the video in Finder
- Right click and choose Services then Re-encode video
- Choose H264 and the relevant resolution (typically the highest one will get you closer to the original in most cases)
Your new video will now be saved next to the original, and it will most likely work as expected in other apps.
With the app that created the video
If you produced the video, go back to the app you used, like Final Cut. Then export the movie again, but this time, choose a format that is either lossless (like ProRes), or a less aggressive compression.
With a video tool
You can download an app like Compresso (made by the Rotato team) and choose a low compression level, which will distribute the i-frames while keeping the new compression invisible.
If it's a small video, we have a free online tool that compresses and re-encodes the video right in your browser without uploading to a server.