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Shotcut for Mac

Free open-source video editor.

Free
In English
4.3
Based on 26 user rates

Shotcut overview

Shotcut is a free, open-source, cross-platform video editor.

Features:
  • Supports oodles of audio and video formats and codecs thanks to FFmpeg (or libav as-built)
  • Supports many image formats such as BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, SVG, TGA, TIFF, as well as image sequences
  • No import required - native editing
  • Frame-accurate seeking for many formats
  • Multi-format timeline: mix and match resolutions and frame rates within a project
  • Network stream playback (HTTP, HLS, RTMP, RTSP, MMS, UDP)
  • Frei0r video generator plugins (e.g., color bars and plasma)
  • Blackmagic Design SDI and HDMI for input and preview monitoring
  • JACK transport sync
  • Deinterlacing
  • Detailed media properties panel
  • Recent files panel
  • Drag-and-drop files from file manager
  • Save and load trimmed clip as MLT XML file
  • Load and play complex MLT XML file as a clip
  • Audio signal level meter
  • Volume control
  • Scrubbing and transport control
  • Flexible UI through dock-able panels
  • Encode/transcode to a variety of formats and codecs thanks to FFmpeg (or libav as-built)
  • Capture (record) SDI, HDMI, webcam (V4L2), JACK, PulseAudio, IP streams, X11 screen
  • Stream (encode to IP) files and any capture source
  • Batch encoding with job control
  • Create, play, edit, save, load, encode, and stream MLT XML playlists
  • Unlimited undo and redo for playlist edits including a history view
  • Connect to Melted servers over MVCP TCP protocol
  • Control the transport playback of Melted units
  • Edit Melted playlists including suport for undo/redo
  • OpenGL GPU-based image processing
  • Multi-core parallel image processing when not using GPU (and frame-dropping is disabled)
  • Video filters: blur, color grading, crop, glow, mirror, saturation, sharpen
  • 3-way (shadows, mids, highlights) color wheels for color correction and grading
  • Eye dropper tool to pick neutral color for white balancing
  • Translated to Spanish, French, Czech, and German

What’s new in version 24.08.29

  • Added a wide-ranging support of using and working with subtitles.
  • Added a Power (W) ( #gps_power#) field to the GPS Text video filter.
  • Now Enter or Return in Filters > search changes focus to the search results.
  • Now Up or Down in Help > Actions and Shortcuts > search changes focus to the search results.
  • Changed the Softness to 0 in the Obscure With Blur and Obscure With Mosaic filter sets.
  • Fixed the Linux portable, AppImage, and Snap fail to launch on some systems (e.g. Ubuntu 24.04) with Qt 6 and Wayland.
  • Fixed occasional audio pop/click with some media files especially with uncompressed audio.
  • Fixed lag in Filters > search.
  • Fixed a disabled Crop: Circle or Crop: Rectangle video filter becomes enabled when reselected.
  • Fixed the hevc_toolbox hardware video encoder fails detection on some Intel Macs.
  • Fixed file dialogs open slowly in the Linux AppImage.
  • Fixed overriding Properties > Rotation on a proxy video whose default is not 0 exports with wrong rotation. This bug affected the creation of the proxy and thus requires making a new proxy, which is easier said than done on Windows due to file locking. Properties > Proxy > Disable Proxy on the affected clips is a workaround if you do not turn off proxy completely.
  • Fixed Properties > Proxy > Make Proxy does not override a DJI- or GoPro-provided proxy video.
  • Fixed 59.94 fps in Matroska falsely identified as variable frame rate (broke in v24.06).
  • Fixed mono audio assets not playing through both stereo channels (broken in v24.06).
  • Fixed Open Other > Audio/Video Device > Video Input on macOS (broke in v24.06).
  • Fixed spinboxes on Settings > Theme > System on Windows takes too much space from the numeric field (broke in v24.06).
  • Fixed many audio filters missing for Windows on Arm computers (broke in v24.06).
  • Fixed setting the audio language in Export > Other using alang=.
  • Fixed right Alt key (AltGr) for text input in some languages instead keyboard shortcuts/actions in Windows.
  • Fixed the Convert dialog when dropping hangs Windows Explorer until the dialog is closed.
  • Fixed Add Keyframe at Playhead for some filters, for example Color Grading.
  • Fixed enabling keyframes in Color Grading adds 2 keyframes.
  • Fixed the modal font dialog on Linux can be behind main window making Shotcut not responsive.
  • Upgraded MLT to version 7.26.0.
View older Shotcut versions

Shotcut for Mac

Free
In English
Version 24.08.29
Write a detailed review about Shotcut

What customer like

Value
Performance
Stability

What needs improvements

Design

Shotcut qualities

Value
5.0
Ease of use
4.0
Features
5.0
Reliability
5.0
Customer support
5.0

Write your thoughts in our old-fashioned comment

MacUpdate Comment Policy. We strongly recommend leaving comments, however comments with abusive words, bullying, personal attacks of any type will be moderated.
4.3

(27 Reviews of Shotcut)

  • Comments

  • User Ratings

jbilak12
jbilak12
Jul 25 2024
24.06.26
0.0
Jul 25 2024
0.0
Version: 24.06.26
I've tried almost every video editor and find Shotcut the best of the free or low cost editors. I use the full featured DaVinci Resolve at times and while it can do everything, I'm not comfortable with its complexity. Shotcut, on the other hand, can easily do 95% of what I need. It's not as pretty as some of the other low cost or free video editors but it outshines all of them in performance and features.
Aargl
Aargl
Mar 6 2022
22.01.30
4.0
Mar 6 2022
4.0
Version: 22.01.30
I used to be a pro video editor on Avid MediaComposer, decades ago, and amongst the free ones Shotcut is the first one I find that resembles a professional tool — and that works (OpenShot seems interesting but always freezes and crashes). It's a bit limited and stutters or doesn't always play additional audio tracks correctly until you reload the project, but hey, it's free! It's good enough for an occasional amateur job.
Derekcurrie
Derekcurrie
May 4 2021
21.05.01
4.0
May 4 2021
4.0
Version: 21.05.01
The link above is for ARM64 ('Apple Silicon') version ONLY, useful on M1 Macs, which of course require macOS 11.x. --> Intel X86 Macs must use the link for 'shotcut-macos-unsigned-210501.dmg' @ https://github.com/mltframework/shotcut/releases/download/v21.05.01/shotcut-macos-unsigned-210501.dmg - - IOW: NO combined version is being offered at this time.
Marko85
Marko85
Feb 11 2021
21.01.29
5.0
Feb 11 2021
5.0
Version: 21.01.29
This app seems quite useful even if you have some other video editing app... you could use it to convert videos to lots of different formats... including QuickTime Animation with an alpha channel and WebM with an alpha channel... for both of those, you just choose one of the included presets. You could also make your own preset for ProRes with an alpha channel if you choose the ProRes preset, make sure "Advanced" is selected, go to "Other" and change the text in the box to these lines: mlt_image_format=rgb24a pix_fmt=yuva444p10le vprofile=4444 vendor=apl0 movflags=+write_colr+faststart Then, just save that as a preset. It seems good for converting videos to HEVC and AV 1 too... it has the "Quality-based VBR" option were you can set the "Quality" and it changes it to CRF... HandBrake recommends something between 18-28 for HEVC (setting the "Quality" to something between 65% to 47% in Shotcut would set the CRF to that)... so the "Quality" set to 55% (CRF 23) will probably be a good balance for most videos and for more high quality videos you can raise it a bit or lower it a bit for lower quality videos... for lower resolution videos that would be upscaled, it would be a good idea to use somewhat higher quality settings than for 4k, if it's a high quality SD video. If you want a "slow" preset for HEVC or H.264 (to encode it more slowly to get a somewhat higher quality), just change one of the existing presets (just change the "preset=medium" to "preset=slow" under "Other") and save it as a new one. Also, you can edit WebM and even WMV directly in it, without having to convert it first. The interface maybe seems kind of "clunky", like it often seem to be the case with apps that are ported from Linux... but it's a useful app. So 5 stars for the usefulness... although the interface could probably be significantly improved... but at least it doesn't require XQuartz like Linux ports sometimes do... so it seems like a relatively decent Linux port.
Geography Is Destiny
Geography Is Destiny
Sep 15 2020
20.09.13
0.0
Sep 15 2020
0.0
Version: 20.09.13
The following statement in your overview is no longer true, so you might think about removing it: "Note: Since the application is not signed, you need to Control-click the app icon and choose Open from the context menu the first time you run it."
fallenflower
fallenflower
Jun 19 2024
24.04.28
5.0
Jun 19 2024
5.0
Version: 24.04.28
mo dape
mo dape
Nov 1 2023
23.09.29
5.0
Nov 1 2023
5.0
Version: 23.09.29
admin-250
admin-250
May 12 2023
23.05.07
5.0
May 12 2023
5.0
Version: 23.05.07
makareim
makareim
May 9 2023
23.05.07
5.0
May 9 2023
5.0
Version: 23.05.07
Derekcurrie
Derekcurrie
Sep 29 2022
22.09.23
4.0
Sep 29 2022
4.0
Version: 22.09.23
Aargl
Aargl
Mar 6 2022
22.01.30
4.0
Mar 6 2022
4.0
Version: 22.01.30
mervyn.s
mervyn.s
Nov 3 2021
21.10.31
5.0
Nov 3 2021
5.0
Version: 21.10.31
viniskate
viniskate
Aug 25 2021
21.06.29
5.0
Aug 25 2021
5.0
Version: 21.06.29
fernandez.bruno
fernandez.bruno
May 24 2021
21.05.18
5.0
May 24 2021
5.0
Version: 21.05.18
Marko85
Marko85
Feb 11 2021
5.0
Feb 11 2021
5.0
Version: null
PRjohnson
PRjohnson
Apr 25 2019
5.0
Apr 25 2019
5.0
Version: null
Ervins Strauhmanis
Ervins Strauhmanis
Jan 19 2019
5.0
Jan 19 2019
5.0
Version: null
artymex
artymex
Aug 16 2017
5.0
Aug 16 2017
5.0
Version: null
Noivad
Noivad
Jan 18 2017
3.5
Jan 18 2017
3.5
Version: null
smіlеyyу
smіlеyyу
Dec 6 2016
5.0
Dec 6 2016
5.0
Version: null
Madmacmad
Madmacmad
Dec 5 2016
5.0
Dec 5 2016
5.0
Version: null
Eviandem
Eviandem
Jan 2 2016
5.0
Jan 2 2016
5.0
Version: null
Enkaytee
Enkaytee
Sep 3 2015
4.5
Sep 3 2015
4.5
Version: null
Basti79
Basti79
Apr 5 2015
4.5
Apr 5 2015
4.5
Version: null
jstump137
jstump137
Jan 7 2015
5.0
Jan 7 2015
5.0
Version: null
macmarx
macmarx
Nov 7 2014
5.0
Nov 7 2014
5.0
Version: null
Emile-b
Emile-b
May 13 2014
1.0
May 13 2014
1.0
Version: null
Moeb
Moeb
Apr 4 2014
3.0
Apr 4 2014
3.0
Version: null
Jobst
Jobst
Dec 24 2013
0.5
Dec 24 2013
0.5
Version: null
flash1296gmailcom8977
flash1296gmailcom8977
Dec 24 2013
0.5
Dec 24 2013
0.5
Version: null
anonymous-worm-6968
anonymous-worm-6968
Jul 16 2013
5.0
Jul 16 2013
5.0
Version: null