Free tools for show media
Everything runs on your own computer. Nothing is uploaded, ever.
Theatre Cue Player › Tools
Why won't my video play in Chrome?
Almost always one of two things. Either it is an HEVC / H.265 file, which
is what newer phones and cameras record by default, or it is in a container Chrome will not
open — usually .mkv or .avi. Both play perfectly well in VLC on
your own laptop, which is exactly why the problem tends to surface for the first time in the
booth, on the night.
The fix is to convert it to H.264 MP4. Drop the file into Will this file play? above and it will tell you which of the two you have, and what to do about it.
Why does my video stutter when it is projected?
Usually because the file is far bigger than anything the projector can show. A 4K clip off a phone carries four times the pixels of a 1080p projector, and a Chromebook's decoder cannot keep up — so you get dropped frames on a picture twelve feet wide, with an audience watching.
Re-exporting it near the size it is actually shown at fixes it, and nobody in the house can tell the difference. Shrink a video does that here, with nothing to install.
Nothing here is uploaded
Every one of these tools runs inside your browser, on your own machine. Your files are never sent anywhere — not to this site, not to anybody else's server. That is not a privacy slogan, it is the only way a tool like this is usable on a district-managed laptop, where sending student media to an unknown website is usually against policy outright.
It also means they keep working with no internet connection at all, once the page has loaded.
Made for school theatre
These exist because Theatre Cue Player spent a year telling teachers to "convert it to H.264 MP4" and then leaving them to work out how — on a Chromebook, with nothing installable and no admin rights. They are free, and they are useful whether or not you ever run a show with the cue player itself.
Will this file play in my show?
Find out now, not in tech. This is the question behind most "it worked on my laptop" disasters — a file that plays fine in one program and refuses to open in the browser.
Checked in your own browser, so the answer is the truth for this machine. If your booth computer is different, check it there too.
Trim a video
Most clips arrive with a few seconds of nothing at each end — a logo, a countdown, the moment someone reaches for the camera. Cut them off here and the cue starts where you want it to.
Play the video, and when you reach the spot you want, press one of those buttons. You can also drag the two handles on the bar.
Make a video loop endlessly
A background that has to hold for a whole scene — flames, rain, drifting cloud — gives itself away with a jump every time it restarts. This blends the end back over the beginning, so there is no join to see.
Play the video, find a moment you are happy to start and end on, and cut there — or just drag the marker. Everything after the cut plays first, everything before it plays second, and the two original ends meet in the middle where the blend hides them.
Make a title card
A slide that says Act Two, or Intermission — 15 minutes, or nothing at all in pure black. Type it, and you get a picture at exactly the size your projector wants.
Press Enter for a new line. Leave it empty for a plain colour card.
This is exactly what the file will look like.
Get the sound out of a video
Sometimes the effect you need only exists inside a video — a clip off a phone, a song under a trailer. This lifts the sound track out whole and hands it back as an audio file you can drop straight onto a cue.
Shrink a video
A 4K clip will often play on your laptop and then stutter through the projector. Re-encoding it near the size it is actually shown at fixes that, and nobody in the audience can tell.