Editing video
Video regions behave like every other region on the Grid: select, drag, trim, split and colour them, with one shared undo history for everyone in the space. This page covers what is specific to video. The general region tools are in Regions.
Cutting and arranging video needs the Pro plan or higher.
Work in frames
Section titled “Work in frames”Set the snap mode in the transport bar to Frames so every drag, trim and cut lands on a frame boundary of the project frame rate. The rate itself is set under Settings → Grid → Timecode.
| Action | Key |
|---|---|
| Step one frame back | , |
| Step one frame forward | . |
| Play / stop | Space |
Cuts are frame-accurate: a region trimmed to frame 1 203 starts on frame 1 203 in playback and in every export.
Cutting
Section titled “Cutting”- Put the playhead where the cut should be. Frame-step with , and . to land exactly.
- Right-click the video region and choose Cut at Playhead. With several regions selected the item reads Cut Selected at Playhead and cuts all of them.
- Delete the part you do not want, or drag the parts apart.
Merge Selected joins adjacent regions from the same clip back into one.
Video and audio stay linked
Section titled “Video and audio stay linked”An imported clip arrives as a video region plus a linked audio region. Moving, trimming or cutting one does the same to the other, so sync cannot drift.
To treat them separately, right-click the video region and choose Unlink Audio. Plinken asks “Unlink audio from video?” before it separates them. Select both again and choose Link Regions to re-link them.
Typical reasons to unlink: replace location sound with a mix, mute the camera audio while keeping the picture, or slip the audio a few frames.
Colours and track colour
Section titled “Colours and track colour”Right-click a region and pick a swatch to colour it. Each track also has a colour swatch in its header menu; new regions on that track take the track colour.
Exporting a cut without re-rendering
Section titled “Exporting a cut without re-rendering”Right-click a video region and choose Export original quality…. Plinken cuts the original file you imported, copies the untouched frames as they are, and re-encodes only the short stretch around each cut. The result keeps the source quality and container.
- In the browser this needs Chrome, Edge or Safari 17+. On other browsers the menu item explains why it cannot run.
- With Plinken Run connected the runner does the cut instead, on any browser.
- One clip per export. To export several clips, run the command once per region, or render a normal MP4 from the Bounce panel.
The same export is available as the Original quality type in the Bounce panel, where you can choose a time range across the whole project.
Watching while you edit
Section titled “Watching while you edit”Open the video monitor with the Toggle video monitor button in the transport bar. Its Program panel shows the composited output at the playhead. See Video monitor & compositor.
Everyone in the space edits the same timeline. A peer can move the region you are trimming; the Grid re-draws from the shared document, and Undo reverts your own last change, never theirs.