How to use the Video Editor in Pimloc Redact
The video editor is where you review a video and check that every person and piece of personal data is redacted before you export it.
When a video has finished processing, its card on the project page shows Ready for review. Click the card to open it in the editor. If you haven't uploaded a video yet, see How to upload a file.
The editor has four areas:
The Navigation bar shows the project and video name, with Export and Help on the right.
The Sidebar (tools on the left) open panels for resolving people, audio, the transcript, search and redaction settings.
The Video Player sits in the middle, with the playback controls underneath it.
The Timeline and Audio Timeline sit at the bottom.
Boxes in the video
Each redaction box on the video marks something to redact.
Select a box by clicking it. A small toolbar appears next to it. From here you can:
Rename it, or move it to another person or object
Redact or unredact it (keyboard shortcut: R)
Track it from this frame onwards (keyboard shortcut: Shift + T)
Use Merge (keyboard shortcut: I)
Delete it from this frame (keyboard shortcut: Delete or Backspace)
Move or resize a box by dragging it or its edges.
Draw a new box by pausing the video and dragging on an empty part of it.
Move a box with the person by holding it while the video plays. See How to manually track a person or object.
Video Player
The playback controls are under the video. Hover over any control to see its name and keyboard shortcut. To jump to a point in the video, click or drag along the video progress bar above the controls.
Play / Pause (keyboard shortcut: space or K) = Starts or stops the video
Back 5s (keyboard shortcut: J) = Goes back five seconds
Forwards 5s (keyboard shortcut: L) = Goes back five seconds
Previous frame (keyboard shortcut: left arrow) = Pauses and steps back one frame. Hold to keep stepping
Next frame (keyboard shortcut: right arrow) = Pauses and steps forward one frame. Hold to keep stepping
Mute / Unmute (keyboard shortcut: M) = Turns the sound off or on. Hover to show the volume slider
Playback speed (keyboard shortcut: O and P) = Plays from 0.1x to 4x. At 4x the video will play through 4 times faster than normal play back. 0.1x will play through 10 times slower than normal speed.
The right-hand end of the controls shows the current time and the frame number, for example 0:12.480 | Frame 312.
Both update as the video plays. Use the frame number when you need to tell a colleague exactly where something happens. You can't type into them. To move to a frame, use the frame buttons or the progress bar.
Preview shows the video as it will look when you export it, with every redacted box hidden in the redaction style you've chosen. Use it to check your work before you export.
Click Preview under the video, or press B. Click it again to go back to editing.
To change how the blur looks, open Redact Settings in the Sidebar. Changing a setting turns Preview on so you can see the result.
SD and HD, under the video, set the quality of the video you're reviewing. The editor starts in SD, which loads faster. Switch to HD when you need to see small details, such as a distant face or a number plate.
This only changes what you see while reviewing. SD also plays back more smoothly if your internet connection is slow. It doesn't change the quality of the exported video.
Show labels shows the name of each box on the video, such as "Face 13". It's on when you open a video. Turn it off to see the video without the labels in the way.
Labels are hidden while Preview is on, so you see exactly what will be exported.
To zoom in, scroll with your mouse wheel or pinch on your trackpad over the video. It zooms in towards your pointer, up to 20 times. When you're zoomed in, a zoom control appears in the bottom right of the video. To move around, click Pan or hold Alt, then drag the video.
Sidebar
The Sidebar tools each open a panel next to the video. Click a tool to open its panel, and click it again to close it. Drag the edge of the panel to make it wider or narrower.
Merge = Merge the tracks of the same person or object into one Timeline row, so you can label and redact them throughout the video. Press I on a selected box. See How to merge tracks.
Audio ranges = List, add and edit the parts of the audio you're redacting. See How to add and edit audio ranges.
Transcript = Read, search and edit the transcript, and redact words or sentences in it. See How to redact speech using the transcript.
Search = Find boxes by label. Where available, also search the video by description or find text on screen.
Redact settings = Set how the whole video is redacted. See Redact settings.
Track settings = Change the label and redaction of one track, or spotlight it. See Track settings.
Track settings and Merge are only available when you've selected a box or a track.
Timeline
The timeline at the bottom shows every track in the video as a bar. Each bar shows when that person or object is on screen. One Timeline row per person or object.
The Timeline Toolbar (right) lets you split, add, track and delete tracks. For more about tracks, rows and the Timeline Toolbar, see How to use the video timeline.
To give the video more room:
Click the arrow at the top left of the timeline to collapse it. Click it again, or click a tab, to bring it back.
Click Pop out timeline to move the timeline to the right of the video. Click Dock timeline to put it back.
Drag the edge of the timeline to make it taller or shorter.
Audio Timeline
Click the Audio tab next to Timeline to see the video's sound as a waveform. Here you can mark parts of the audio to mute or bleep. For audio ranges, drawing on the waveform and the Audio Toolbar, see How to redact audio on the audio timeline.