Frame-accurate video review notes for editors and reviewers on Windows. Pause on a frame, press a key from 1 to 6, mark the element and type a line: every note lands on the exact frame with an After Effects style timecode, in a notes folder next to the render. Drag notes along the timeline, add general notes for the whole video, and pack the review into one zip to send. Plays H.264, HEVC, ProRes, DNxHD, VP9 and AV1 through the mpv engine with exact frame stepping. One portable exe, no installer, no account; updates itself from GitHub Releases.

_{Pause on a frame · press a key from 1 to 6 and mark the element · type the note.}

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Why Retake

• One key per note, no mouse. 1 fix, 2 add, 3 remove, 5 like, 6 dislike, 4 a note about the whole video. The video pauses, the note takes the current frame, you type one line and press Enter.
• Point at the thing. Drag a rectangle around the element on the frame, or click to put a point. The note gets a PNG of that frame at full size with the mark drawn on it, so "this title" needs no description.
• Exact frames on real deliverables. Mezzanine and long-GOP renders open as they are, and every seek, step and note lands on the exact frame, also at drop-frame rates and on files whose video starts late.
• Timecodes the editor can use. 0:00:12:07 as in the After Effects timeline (drop-frame 0;00;12;07 for 29.97 and 59.94), computed from the file's real frame rate.
• One folder next to the video. promo_v3.mp4 gets promo_v3_notes\ with the notes as a plain text file, the same notes as a Markdown file with their frame images, and the frame images. Done packs them into one zip, and the notes copy as plain text that reads the same in any chat.
• Free, open source, portable. GPL-3.0, one exe with a data folder next to it. No account, no telemetry; videos and notes never leave the machine.

Quick start

1. Download Retake.exe into a folder of its own, for example D:\Apps\Retake\.
2. Run it and drop a video onto the window (or press Ctrl+O, or use "Open with" in Explorer).
3. Play, pause on a frame, press 1, 2, 3, 5 or 6 (or click the note buttons under the video), drag a rectangle around the element if it helps, type the note, press Enter. The notes are saved after every change.

Requirements: Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. The video engine is inside the exe; no codec packs, no installer, no admin rights.

Note

The executable is not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may warn on first start (More info → Run anyway).

Features

Built-in engine	Containers MP4, MOV, MKV and WebM, decoded by mpv inside the exe with hardware decoding where the GPU has it; no codec packs or Windows extensions.
Shuttle and stepping	Arrow keys step one frame, Shift ten, J / K / L shuttle up to 8x; dragging in the ruler scrubs. The full key map is one ? away.
Frame rate	Read from the file and checked against the player; a wrong or missing rate is overridden per video, and the timecodes of its notes follow.
Mini timeline	Ruler with timecodes, playhead and one tagged marker per note; resting on a tag shows the note and its frame image, a drag moves the note to another frame, the wheel zooms.
Note types	FIX, ADD and REMOVE for change requests, LIKE and DISLIKE for reactions, and general notes about the whole video; each type has its key, colour and icon.
Notes list	General notes for the whole video first, then every frame note with its type icon and thumbnail; ↑ / ↓ move through them, F2 edits, Delete removes.
Right-click menus	Notes, the video, the timeline and the list offer their actions with the key of each, so nobody has to learn the keys first.
Send the review	Done packs the notes (plain text and Markdown) and their frame images into one zip; the notes folder keeps the Markdown file with the reviewer's name, ready for any Markdown viewer; Ctrl+Shift+C copies the notes as plain text for a chat or an e-mail; a click on any timecode copies it for the time field of After Effects or Premiere.
Any window size	Resize the window or maximize it; the video takes the room, and the size is remembered.
Recent videos	The start screen lists recent videos with their note counts and opens them at the frame they were left on.
Glass look	Crystal Black and Crystal Sky themes and a Scale setting from 100 to 200 % for the whole window.
Self-updating	New releases are found in the background, downloaded, verified by size and SHA-256 and installed on Restart to update.

Documentation

Document	What it covers
User guide	Install, usage, keyboard, settings, the notes file, timecodes, supported video, data folder, updates, FAQ
Build	Prerequisites, the build script, libmpv, tests, end-to-end update tests, releasing
Release notes	What changed in every version
Third-party components	What is bundled into the exe, with licences and sources

Building from source

Requirements: Windows, the .NET 8 SDK, the .NET Framework 4.8 Developer Pack, PowerShell 5.1, Git; 7-Zip on the first build (it unpacks the pinned libmpv).

git clone https://github.com/softoblivion/retake.git
cd retake
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File build\build.ps1

The script checks the tree, fetches and verifies the pinned libmpv, runs the tests and produces release\Retake.exe with release\SHA256SUMS.

Task	Command
Run from source	dotnet build Retake.sln -c Release, then src\Retake\bin\Release\Retake.exe [video]
Unit tests	set RETAKE_HOME=%TEMP%\retake-tests then tests\Retake.Tests\bin\Release\Retake.Tests.exe
Control gallery	src\Retake\bin\Release\Retake.exe --gallery [--theme sky] [--scale 150]

Disclaimer

After Effects and Premiere Pro are trademarks of Adobe. Retake is an independent tool, not affiliated with Adobe; it only writes timecodes in the form those applications display.

License

Released under the GNU General Public License v3.0. Any distributed copy or derivative work must stay open source under the same license and keep the copyright notices.