OpenCut-app / OpenCut-app/OpenCut
[FEATURE] Enable Playhead Dragging for Video Navigation
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- Dominant language
- TypeScript
- Stars
- 89.8k
- Forks
- 8.9k
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Description
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Currently, there is no way to quickly navigate to specific points in a video by directly interacting with the timeline's playhead. This means we have to play whole video to go to that specific section, which can be inefficient and frustrating when trying to find a precise moment within a longer clip.
Describe the solution you'd like
I would like to request the implementation of a "scrubbing" feature for the timeline playhead. This would allow users to click and drag the red playhead line (as shown in the provided screenshot) horizontally along the timeline. As the playhead is dragged, the video player should update in real-time to display the frame corresponding to the playhead's current position, effectively allowing users to "scrub" through the video content. Releasing the mouse button should set the video's current time to the position where the playhead was released.
Describe alternatives you've considered
Timestamp input: While precise, manually typing timestamps is slow and not intuitive for visual navigation.
Frame-by-frame stepping: This is useful for fine-tuning but too slow for broad navigation.
Fast forward/rewind buttons: These typically operate at fixed speeds and don't offer the granular, real-time visual feedback that scrubbing provides.
Additional context
This feature is a standard expectation in most modern video editing and playback interfaces (e.g., YouTube's progress bar, professional NLEs). It significantly enhances the user experience by providing an intuitive and efficient way to navigate video content. The attached screenshot illustrates the existing timeline and the red playhead.
Contributor guide
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First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by locating the timeline playhead interaction and the video player update path in the TypeScript project. Implement dragging so the displayed frame follows the playhead in real time and releasing it sets the video time to the final position; verify behavior across the existing timeline and playback flows.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- typescript
- Domain
- frontend
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 42/100