How to Go Frame By Frame on YouTube Videos

If you are a geek like me then you would want to play a video frame by frame on YouTube to inspect every aspect of your favorite movie trailer to not miss out on any details. Maybe you are practicing for a dance step but wish to get a closer look to learn something properly. Whatever the case, having the option to check every frame of a video can come in handy. If you’re looking for a way to do so then keep reading as we explain how to do that in this article.

Play Video Frame By Frame With Keyboard Shortcuts

The most straightforward method that you should use if you want to play a YouTube video 1 frame at a time. It involves nothing fancy, just using some keyboard shortcuts while watching the video on the site.

1. To do this, open a video on YouTube and then pause it.
2. Now press “.” or the right arrow key to seek the video forward frame-by-frame.
3. Press the “,” or left arrow key to seek the video backward frame-by-frame.

This will let you watch every single frame of the video at a time. Since the video is paused, you won’t have to worry about holding down the key. You just have to press it once and then release it.

Download the Frame By Frame Chrome Extension

Another way to watch videos frame-by-frame is to install an extension of the same name in your web browser. Yes, you can install the frame-by-frame extension to play the video one frame at a time on YouTube. It also shows you other useful information at a glance like total frames, time, duration, and total framerate. Here is how you can install and use it.

1. Head to the Frame-By-Frame extension in the Chrome Web Store.
2. Here, click on Add to Chrome, and in the browser pop-up, click on Add extension.
3. Open the video you wanted to watch on YouTube.
4. Hover the cursor over YouTube’s video player. You will know the extension is working if a border appears around the video with a small transparent info box.
5. Now, press the right arrow key to go forward a frame or press the left arrow key to go backward a frame.

It’s similar to the keyboard method except you don’t have to pause the video. If you hold on to the arrow keys then the video plays 10 frames at a time.

Slow Down Video By Reducing Playback Speed

In case you just want to focus on a detail within a video that is in motion then you can change the video’s playback speed. You can opt to run it at a quarter of the original framerate or 0.25x. This means if a video is playing at 30FPS (Frames Per Second) then slowing its playback to 0.25x will play it at 7.5FPS. This should be slow enough to highlight the thing you were looking for.

1. To change a video’s playback settings on YouTube, navigate to the video you want to watch.
2. Click on the gear icon at the bottom right side of the YouTube player.
3. Here, choose the Playback speed option.
4. Then select the 0.25 option.
5. If you want to change back to regular speed, choose the Normal option with Playback speed.

This method also allows you to inspect any video in slow motion on your Android or iOS smartphones.

These were some of the methods to help you watch a YouTube video frame-by-frame. Given that YouTube compresses the videos down from their original quality, having the option to go through the entire thing one frame at a time can come in handy to spot errors or any other objects and details.

Hopefully, you found the methods discussed in this topic helpful, and if you have any other queries or methods to check video frames then share them with us in the comments below.