Changelog
Every Video Commander release in one place. Major features are covered in depth on the blog.
- Score HDR video against its SDR version. A new Dynamic Range setting converts HDR video to SDR before VMAF scoring, using the broadcast-standard BT.2390 curve or a choice of others, and warns you before you start a run with an HDR and an SDR file.
- Compare analyses side by side. The new Compare tab puts up to three analyses next to a baseline, showing how scores, bitrate and file size changed, frame by frame differences, and the moments that got worse.
- Netflix’s newer VMAF v1 models are available and used by default when your FFmpeg supports them, with the earlier v0.6.1 model kept for comparing with older results.
- Analyses use every processor core when your FFmpeg allows it.
- The Summary is a complete quality report: percentiles, a score distribution, the lowest-scoring moments and a side-by-side of the source and encode, exportable as a PNG image or a PDF.
- Add PSNR, SSIM, MS-SSIM and CAMBI to any analysis, or score every second, fourth or eighth frame for a quick first look.
- Much faster AV1 encoding with the SVT-AV1 encoder, now available in MP4 and MKV as well as WebM.
- The FFmpeg the app installs on Mac encodes 10-bit and 12-bit HEVC; the previous version quietly produced 8-bit video. Settings → FFmpeg → Check for Updates installs it.
- A native menu bar, release notes that cover every update in a release, and job details that show the settings used and explain failures in plain language.
- Inspect compares the color information in a file’s container with the video itself, and opens transport streams, MXF, HLS and DASH segments and Windows network paths directly.
- A security update to the component that handles secure connections for app updates and cloud storage.
- The app-managed FFmpeg is now 9.0.1, up from 8.1 on macOS and 8.1.2 on Windows. Settings → FFmpeg reports the update and installs it over the old build. The macOS build gains SVT-AV1, dav1d, LAME, zimg and FreeType/HarfBuzz, adding AV1 encoding, MP3 output, zscale/tonemap and drawtext there for the first time.
- The title bar has a Sources button, a cloud icon beside the settings cogwheel, and Remote Files and the Remote File Browser can both open the dialog from a cog beside Refresh. The browser’s “no sources configured” message is now a link, and its connection list follows changes while it is open.
- Text can be selected and copied throughout the app. Selection is on everywhere except the chrome that would sweep a selection during a drag: the title bar, sidebar, tab strip, status bar, and the Structure and project trees. Inspect’s copyable values sit beside their copy button rather than inside it, so they can be selected too.
- MP3 output works on macOS with the app-managed FFmpeg. The previous macOS build had no LAME encoder, so Convert’s MP3 jobs failed with “Unknown encoder ‘libmp3lame’”.
- Dragging in the VMAF frame comparison holds on to the pointer. Panning applies each movement to the current position, the wipe divider keeps the offset it was grabbed at, and the zoom buttons zoom the middle of the pane rather than its top-left corner.
- Inspect names MP3 audio instead of showing a bare mp4a. MP3 in an MP4 uses the same mp4a sample entry as AAC, so the codec now carries the esds object type, reporting mp4a (MP3) beside mp4a (AAC-LC) in both the app and vc inspect.
- The Player says why a stream will not load, covering the video with the reason instead of a black frame. DRM failures name the cause: the webview offers only its platform key system, so Widevine and PlayReady streams cannot play at all.
- Inspect’s Samples tab reports a file it cannot read, showing the reason from the parser instead of spinning on “Loading sample data...”.
- The app-managed FFmpeg’s checkmark refreshes after an update, and the status bar reports the FFmpeg version you switched to in Settings → Local Tools.
- The workspace content area reaches down to the status bar, and the project tree’s file menu no longer shows the workspace through it.
- Resolved security advisories in bundled dependencies. @xmldom/xmldom, which video.js uses to parse DASH manifests, moves to 0.8.15 for an XML fragment injection fix. The rest were build-time only.
- Finished jobs raise a toast above the bell in the bottom-right, carrying View job. Successes clear after fifteen seconds, failures and warnings wait to be dismissed, and the bell keeps a history of the last 200 notifications.
- A command palette on Cmd+K searches the four workspace views, your open tabs by filename or path, Settings sections, and Labs features, and can open a file or save the active tab to a project.
- A status bar along the bottom of the window shows the current encode with progress, speed against realtime, and time remaining, the number of running and queued jobs, the active tab’s source summary, a warning while debug logging is on, and the detected FFmpeg version. Every item is a button that navigates to the job, view, or Settings section behind it.
- Convert, Analyze, and Delivery now start from a run toolbar pinned to the top of the view, with Stop appearing beside Run while a job runs. The queued confirmation dialog is gone, replaced by the status bar and a toast.
- The first launch after an update opens a What’s New tab with the release notes for the version you just installed. The notes ship in the binary, so nothing is fetched.
- Analyze can compare any frame of a VMAF run against its source, with a draggable wipe, an amplified difference map, and an A/B blink. Zoom and pan stay locked across both images.
- Tables, dialogs, menus, and form controls are cleaner and more consistent throughout the app. Data tables are more compact and every dialog has a close button, but nothing has moved or changed how it works.
- Manifest validation checks trick-play thumbnail tracks for a missing sprite URI or resolution, a malformed tile grid, a missing tile duration, an interval that changes partway through, and tiles that do not cover the playlist duration. vc validate --probe-tiles goes further and checks the sprite sheets themselves against their declared grid.
- A vc command-line companion ships alongside the app, running inspect and manifest validation from a shell over the same engine, with no desktop install needed. Both commands can exit non-zero on findings you name, and QC findings now carry stable codes such as DRM_TENC_MISSING to match on.
- The FFmpeg installer finishes on a slow connection, and a failed install reports what went wrong: a blocked connection, a stalled transfer, a rejected checksum, or a bad archive.
- The remote file browsers have an up control and a parent row, and a directory with no entries keeps its listing instead of being replaced by a message.
- Keyboard shortcuts fire only in the tab on screen, so a Player in a background tab no longer keeps playing and Cmd+Return no longer reaches every encode view you have opened.
- DRM reports for MKV and AVI include their findings list.
2026.10.2
August 8, 2026- Updates now install when you restart the app instead of while they download. Replacing the app while it was running broke the Mac file dialogs for the rest of the session, so Browse, Open, and Save could quit the app.
- Opening a new file in the Player shuts down the previous one. Every file you opened used to leave its player, media element, and event handlers running for the rest of the session.
- The audio and subtitle menus stay attached to the track that is playing instead of going unresponsive after the Player redraws.
- Inspect handles MP4 files with deeply nested containers without hanging. Files nested far beyond anything a real file uses now stop at a depth limit and report it as a parse issue, showing the partial tree the same way as any other damaged file.
2026.10.1
August 5, 2026- The Windows installer is signed with a verified publisher signature. Windows and Microsoft Defender no longer warn that it comes from an unknown publisher or flag it as unsafe.
- Inspect now classifies color and HDR in a new Color tab, covering HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision. It shows the evidence behind the verdict, including the mastering display metadata and the Dolby Vision profile, rather than just a label.
- A new Subtitles tab decodes the actual cue text out of tx3g, WebVTT, and TTML/IMSC tracks, and finds CEA-608/708 captions carried inside the video that nothing in the file announces. It flags tracks with no cues, timing defects, cues that run past the end of the video, and missing language tags.
- A new Events tab lists every event message in a file and decodes SCTE-35 ad markers, showing the splice point, the break duration, and whether each marker starts a break or returns from one.
- A new DRM tab reports the encryption scheme, key IDs, and pssh boxes for every track, then cross-checks them against each other to catch the packaging mistakes that make protected content fail silently in players instead of raising an error.
- A new Tools section includes a standalone PSSH decoder. Paste a blob from a manifest or a license log and read it without needing the file it came from.
- Save your own Convert presets, then export and import them to share a house encoding ladder across machines. The preset list is now searchable and grouped, and you can enter a custom codec or container for formats the app does not recognize.
- Settings now lets you choose which FFmpeg build to use: the one already on your system, a verified build the app downloads for you, or any path you point it at. Each source verifies as you select it and shows which encoders it supports, and you can delete the app-managed copy at any time. Automatic install now works on Windows as well as Mac.
- Container and manifest inspection now runs in your browser. Try it on the playground without installing anything.
- Inspect shows decoded box fields inline and highlights the matching bytes in the hex viewer, and the GOP table now pages through every frame instead of stopping at 200.
- Remote storage now works with AWS SSO and login-session profiles, and gives clearer messages when a connection fails.
- The file parsers are now fuzzed and hardened against malformed and untrusted input, and the security advisories in bundled dependencies are resolved.
- Renamed the test-build channel from canary to preview, and fixed PSSH box details rendering twice.
- Inspect MP4 files down to the individual frame — see the timing and position of every sample, with a preview of the raw data behind it.
- MP4 inspection now shows more about each file, including audio track details, whether the file is optimized for fast streaming, and a summary of any content protection. Files that are slightly damaged now open more reliably.
- Inspecting is faster on repeat visits, and each tab remembers where you left off when you switch between files or streams.
- Settings is easier to get around with a new side navigation.
- If the app ever runs into a problem, it now shows a recovery screen you can restart from instead of going blank.
- Links now open reliably in your web browser.
- Login details in remote file URLs are kept out of logs and error messages for better privacy.
- Browse Amazon S3 buckets right in the sidebar and open files into Inspect, Player, or Analyze — no need to download them first. Sign in with your existing AWS profiles, or paste an s3://bucket/path into the source bar.
- Settings and Sources now open as panels inside the app instead of separate windows, with a settings gear added to the title bar.
- The sidebar can now collapse to a slim icon bar to give your work more room, and remembers your choice between sessions.
- The app now reopens at the same size and position you left it.
- Updates no longer restart the app while you are working. When a new version is ready, an Update button appears in the title bar — click it whenever you are ready, or it applies the next time you open the app.
- Added a privacy toggle in Settings to opt out of anonymous usage and crash reporting, which helps us improve the app. No personal data is ever collected.
- Added an option in Settings to turn on debug logging and open the log folder, to make reporting issues easier.
- Refreshed the app accent color from indigo to blue.
- Target VMAF encoding mode — automatically binary-searches for the lowest-bitrate CRF that meets a user-specified VMAF score (default 93), using a 30-second probe clip from the middle of the source.
- VMAF model selector in the encoding UI — choose HD / Default, 4K, or Phone to match the libvmaf model to the intended playback target.
- Job detail surfaces the full Target VMAF result: CRF found, achieved VMAF score, output file size, and bitrate.
- Preview (30s) encode — encodes a short clip to a temp directory without queuing a full job; the Player tab opens automatically when it completes.
- Player tab auto-opens after any encode job completes, with an "Open in Player" button in the job completion banner and job detail view.
- AVI inspection — all inspection views (overview, tree, graph, samples) now support AVI files.
- Fixed completed job status label to show terminal state (Complete / Failed / Canceled) rather than the stale last-progress label.
- Temporarily disabled the FFmpeg auto-installer on Windows while a fix is being worked on. Windows users can still install FFmpeg manually.
- MKV inspection — Video Commander can now inspect MKV/EBML files, including sample parsing, powered by the new built-in vc-mkv library.
- FFmpeg 8.1 builds are now available for both macOS and Windows.
- The generated FFmpeg command in the Convert view now has syntax highlighting and tooltips explaining each argument.
- Fixed local file validation on Windows that was incorrectly rejecting valid file paths.
- Tabs now close when middle-clicked.
- Batch encoding — add multiple source files to the encode queue and process them sequentially, each with independent progress tracking.
- Expanded FFmpeg controls: additional options surfaced in the UI, a new filter chain builder, and stream mapping controls for selecting audio, video, and subtitle streams.
- Job completion notifications — system notification when a job finishes.
- Updated progress bar surfaces encoding speed, bitrate, fps, and time remaining.
- Container and codec compatibility enforcement — incompatibilities are surfaced before a job starts with a clear explanation.
- VMAF report export — analysis results can now be exported as a report file.
- Fixed VMAF progress bar accuracy during trimmed-source analysis runs.
2026.6.2
April 6, 2026- Updated the sample video on the welcome screen.
- Updated the sample video on the welcome screen.
- Video Commander is now available on Windows.
- Job detail logs can now be copied to the clipboard.
- Fixed VMAF analysis on Windows.
- Added built-in DASH/HLS stream validator in the Inspect view — parses manifest trees, runs conformance checks, and surfaces findings categorized by Error, Warning, and Info severity.
- Selecting a finding highlights the relevant node in the manifest tree, navigable down to individual segments and representations.
- Segment probing: selecting a segment or representation fetches and analyzes that resource, reporting codec, container, duration, and detected anomalies. Bulk probing across all addressable segments is supported.
- Files can now be dragged directly onto the app window to open them as a new source tab.
- Refreshed progress bar visual style to better fit the dark UI theme.
- Upgraded mp4box dependency to v0.7.0 with improved MP4 parsing accuracy and bug fixes for fragmented and progressive MP4 files.
- Added automatic FFmpeg installer on macOS Apple Silicon — downloads, verifies SHA-256 checksum, and stores the binary path without manual setup.
- FFmpeg availability is checked once at app startup and shared across all views via a provider context.
- Settings > Local Tools shows the installed FFmpeg version and checksum, with a Check for Updates button.
- Installed FFmpeg version and checksum are preserved across app launches.
- Added 19+ built-in encoding presets to Convert: H.264, H.265, VP9, and AV1 at common resolutions, plus platform presets for YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter/X, Discord, TikTok, and Instagram Reels.
- New Command Preview panel in Convert shows the reconstructed FFmpeg command before queuing, with copy-to-clipboard.
- Fixed remote URL encodes saving to the temp directory instead of the Desktop.
- Fixed preset selection clearing the output path directory prefix.
- Fixed the Reveal button not opening the correct output directory.
- Fixed hardcoded video/mp4 MIME type being applied to non-MP4 output artifacts.
- Error and warning lines in job detail logs are now highlighted in red and yellow respectively.
- Added "See full log →" link on analysis failure to navigate directly to the job detail view.
- Added Settings > Data Management with a Clear Work Data action that resets projects, tabs, job history, and analysis results while preserving license, FFmpeg config, and cloud settings.
- Jobs and job events are now stored in separate files (.jobs.json, .job-events.json) to keep the main store lean.
- About dialog updated with Lucide icons, platform label in the version string, a Check for Updates button, and expanded to xl size.
- Complete UI retheme — deeper dark background across the shell, sidebar, title bar, and tab strip with subtler borders and improved contrast.
- Replaced floating JobsDock and bottom dockbar with a dedicated Jobs panel in the sidebar, featuring a live badge for queued and running jobs.
- Jobs panel uses a split-panel layout: job list on the left, full job detail with inline log output on the right.
- Removed the separate ConsoleDock — all log output is now surfaced per-job inside the Jobs panel.
- Sub-tab state retention: each source now remembers which tool tab was last active when switching between files or streams.
- Preview player now autoplays only on first load; re-navigating to an already-loaded source no longer triggers unwanted autoplay.
- Cloud Encoding section in Settings now checks license status on load and shows an upgrade prompt for non-Pro users.
2026.3.6
March 9, 2026- Expanded inspect overview details to surface more media context at a glance.
- Fixed license key sanitization to prevent character omission during activation.
- Improved Box Tree UI and added Box Graph flat/hierarchy views with drill-in behavior and right-click load-to-graph.
- Enriched manifest inspect views with codec humanization (H.264/H.265/AV1/VP9/AAC/Dolby/DTS/Opus/subtitles) and raw codec tooltips.
- HLS master playlists now show bitrate ranges, video range (SDR/HLG/PQ), HDCP columns, and session data tables.
- HLS media playlists now include segment duration stats (min/avg/max), init segment URI visibility, and detailed encryption key panels.
- DASH manifests now parse ContentProtection into DRM names (Widevine, PlayReady, FairPlay) and show DRM badges across overview/tree/table views.
- Added Copy buttons to URI cells across variants, renditions, segments, init segments, and key URIs.
- Routed HLS and DASH playback to Shaka Player; Video.js now handles progressive sources only.
- Upgraded Shaka debug tooling with ABR switch history and segment request logs (status, size, RTT), plus reset-on-source-change behavior.
- Unified player controls and styling with shared UI components and consistent panel styling.
- Fixed DASH manifest copy button behavior, refined sample source/welcome layout, removed stale listeners, and reduced redundant IPC fetches.
2026.3.5
March 7, 2026- Release distribution migrated to the new GitHub repo: video-commander/releases.
2026.3.4
March 6, 2026- Improved overall stability in day-to-day media workflows.
- Fixed minor UI issues and consistency gaps reported after 2026.3.3.
- General quality improvements to keep the app responsive during longer sessions.
2026.3.3
March 6, 2026- Improved overall stability in day-to-day media workflows.
- Fixed minor UI issues and consistency gaps reported after 2026.3.1.
- General quality improvements to keep the app responsive during longer sessions.
- FFmpeg configuration now lives in Settings and is shared across Convert, Analyze, and Delivery — set a custom binary once and ffprobe is resolved from the same directory.
- Improved VMAF Analyze flow with clearer reference-versus-distorted file setup, browse actions for both files, file-difference validation, and recent job output surfacing.
- Convert and Delivery now point users to global FFmpeg settings when FFmpeg is missing.
- Delivery engine panel makes it clearer which packaging engines are unavailable in the current build.
- Wording updates, job/progress presentation improvements, and sidebar layout spacing fix.
- Added interactive per-frame VMAF timeline graph in the Analyze view — plots quality scores across the full video duration to pinpoint encoding issues.
- Built-in license activation flow — enter and activate a license key in Settings, with license badge shown in the title bar and About dialog.
- Substantially expanded Preview player debug overlay: buffering state, dropped frames, current bitrate, resolution, and improved quality/bandwidth selector controls.
- Range of UI polish, bug fixes, and internal refactoring for stability and maintainability.
2026.2.2
February 20, 2026- Added Analyze feature with VMAF video quality assessment.
- Added Delivery & Packaging support for FFmpeg HLS/DASH workflows.
- Added Manifest Inspection for HLS and DASH manifest files.
- Various UI/UX improvements, bug fixes, and performance enhancements.
- Media inspection for video and audio files, including tracks and metadata.
- MP4 structure visualization with tree and graph views of box hierarchies.
- Track and sample analysis for deeper insight into timing and layout.
- Conversion workflows powered by FFmpeg.