VidPreview high-performance Quick Look extension for macOS that enables video previews in Finder for formats not natively supported by macOS.

VidPreview brings full video playback capabilities to macOS QuickLook (press Space in Finder) for any file that libavcodec can decode. It seamlessly integrates with Finder to generate thumbnails for all your videos and provide a native-like experience for playing them.

• Uses libavformat for demuxing, supporting MKV, WebM, AVI, Ogg/Theora, and more
• Hardware video decoding whenever possible, falling back to libavcodec to play anything under the sun
• Pixel-perfect colour reproduction, identical to QuickTime
• HDR support including system-level Dolby Vision (Profiles 5 and 8)
• Audio track selection with display of comprehensive information
• Support for bitmap and text subtitles, including positioning and advanced substation alpha effects
• Generates thumbnails for unsupported video formats in Finder

VidPreview is powered by VidCore, a Swift-based video playback framework built on FFmpeg and VideoToolbox.

• macOS 15.6 or later

brew install ptaru/tap/vidpreview

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/ptaru/VidPreview.git
   cd VidPreview

2. Build VidCore: VidPreview is powered by VidCore. You must build it before the main application, following the instructions in its README.

3. Embed VidCore framework: Ensure VidCore.framework is properly embedded in the VidPreview targets:

   • For VidPreview, VidPreviewQuickLook, and VidPreviewThumbnail targets:
     • Go to General → Frameworks, Libraries, and Embedded Content
     • Ensure VidCore.framework is added and set to Embed & Sign

4. Build the project:

   • Select VidPreview scheme
   • Build (⌘B) and Run (⌘R)

5. Enable the QuickLook extension: After building and running once:

   • Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Extensions → Quick Look
   • Enable VidPreview

1. Enable the extension in System Settings (see step 4 above)
2. Navigate to a video file in Finder (MKV, WebM, AVI, or Ogg)
3. Press Space to open QuickLook
4. Video will play automatically with full playback controls

• Hardware decoding for all formats supported by VideoToolbox and AudioToolbox
• Software decoding for all formats supported by libavcodec (dav1d used instead of libaom for AV1)

• Advanced Rendering: ASS/SSA (Advanced Substation Alpha) via libass
• Text: SRT (SubRip)
• Bitmap/Image-based: PGS (Blu-ray) and VobSub (DVD)

• Internally supports all standard libavformat demuxers, but the Quick Look and thumbnail extensions register themselves for mp4, m4v, mov, mkv, avi, webm, flv, wmv, asf, ogv, ogm, ogg, ts, mts, m2ts, vob, vro, divx, xvid, 3gp, 3g2, dv, mxf, gxf, rm, rmvb, wtv, xesc, mpg, mpeg, m2v, tod, mod, nsv, nuv, rec, dvr-ms, dvdmedia, flc, and bdav

1. Rebuild and run the app at least once
2. Check System Settings → Privacy & Security → Extensions → Quick Look
3. Enable VidPreview
4. Restart Finder: killall Finder

You can test video playback by dragging any video file into the VidPreview help window (the one you get if you launch the app directly). Please submit issues here for any bugs or issues.

• FFmpeg - libavformat and libavcodec

Made by Tarun