Which video formats play?
Broadly: whatever AVFoundation can read, plus Matroska, WebM, AVI, WMV/ASF, MXF, MPEG-TS, MPEG program streams, FLV and Ogg through a bundled LGPL FFmpeg build. There is no extension whitelist for the common formats - a file plays if one of those two decoders can actually decode its first frame.
Which one won is reported per source as AVFoundation or FFmpeg · <codec>. Full detail in
Media formats.
Why did my video get rejected with a message about colour?
Because the decoder refuses to guess. If a file's YUV matrix, range or chroma siting is unspecified and there is no declared profile for it, the app rejects it rather than picking a default that would be silently wrong.
There is exactly one substitution policy - the Windows Media profile, which applies to WMV1/WMV2/WMV3/VC-1 streams and only fills in absent fields with BT.601, MPEG limited range and MPEG-2 chroma placement.
Everything else missing metadata is either substituted from that codec's own specification (VP8, VP9, DNx) or rejected. HDR PQ/HLG and BT.2020 are rejected outright. Interlaced video is rejected too.
Is there a file size limit?
There is no universal byte-size cap, but there are format-specific limits. In particular, separate-poster APNG input above 256 MiB is rejected. Decoder dimensions, per-frame memory, concurrency and deadlines also matter; see Import limits.
Can I animate GIFs and APNGs?
Yes, and nothing else. GIF and APNG are the only animated-image formats recognised. Animated WebP or HEIF fall through to the video decoders, which will not open them.
APNG timings are read from the raw file chunks rather than ImageIO's rounded floats, so exact centisecond values do not drift. One case is explicitly unsupported: a separate-poster APNG whose first frame is partial.
Why do some clips show a waveform and others do not?
Only audio-only files draw a measured waveform. A video with a soundtrack shows video frames - it is not an audio-only file, even though it has sound.
The waveform is measured from decoded samples and covers the whole file, while the tempo estimate only looks at the first 120 seconds. They are different windows for different purposes.
How do I add columns?
Use Composition → Edit layers, columns and banks… → Add column. Import and duplication can also grow the grid. Insertion can append an empty trailing column; explicitly removing the last empty column can leave the bank without one. Ordinary batch paste must fit the grid.
You can rename, trigger and remove a column from Composition → Edit layers, columns and banks….
How many effects can I stack?
16 instances per target scope: clip, layer, group and master. Each stack runs top to bottom. Grouped layers feed group processing (inner group then parent), followed by Master. See Layer groups.
Which blend modes are available?
22 for effect instances, and a different 14 for layers. This trips people up, so it is worth
memorising: effect blending is richer than layer blending, and Chaser and Mask exist in the model but are
rejected for effect instances.
The …50 modes also have their own fader profile: they sweep background→midpoint across the whole wet
range instead of reaching their halfway point at 50%.
What does Wet amount actually do?
It is that instance's blend opacity, not a classic dry/wet control.
At wet 1 with blend Alpha, the processed image replaces the input. Below that, the app dissolves between
input and processed image in a way deliberately chosen so that keyed-out pixels stay keyed out. With any
other blend, the blend is evaluated and then alpha is re-mixed between original and processed coverage.
Two useful consequences: Wet amount 0 skips the effect entirely, the same as bypassing it.
Can I animate any parameter?
Numeric effect controls, including Wet amount, offer Animate. Kaleidoscope's Black background is a toggle and has no Animate disclosure in the editor. Nine driver sources are available: Sine, Saw, Triangle, Square, Random hold, Clip position, Envelope, Audio level - plus Off.
Animation is evaluated into a temporary per-frame copy and never written back to your authored value, which is why turning a driver Off restores exactly what you set by hand.
Why does my effect say "unavailable"?
Because its payload could not be decoded in this build - usually because the set came from a newer version or another application. It is kept as opaque data rather than substituted, so your settings survive and will load correctly in a build that understands them. Bypass or remove the instance to continue.
The same rule applies to presets written by newer versions, and to RenderWave shader data this build cannot read.
Can I use third-party plug-ins?
No. There is no plug-in hosting - no FFGL, no ISF, nothing third-party. All 27 effects are built in.
Can I copy an effect setup from one clip to another?
Yes, two ways:
- Right-click a populated clip → Paste attributes copies effects, transform, opacity and audio settings while the target keeps its own source, transport and name. It requires populated, distinct targets.
- Save preset… / Load preset… in the Effects tab saves a
.uvjfxholding the whole validated ordered stack, including animation drivers. Loading replaces the entire stack of the current scope and leaves the other scopes alone.
Not verified
- How each effect looks when rendered. Parameter labels, ranges and defaults were read from the definitions; no effect was rendered or measured.
- Which specific HAP or DXV variants play - the code knows only the decoder names, not product variants.