Change speed: settings and best results

What does Change speed do?

Change speed makes videos play faster or slower, on your own computer. In the app the tool is called Video Speed. Use it to tighten a slow tutorial, turn a long screen recording into a quick demo, or slow down a moment for effect.

The sound changes speed with the picture and keeps its natural pitch, so voices still sound like the same person. Every clip in the batch gets the same speed, and each one is saved as a new MP4.

02Step 2: Choose the speed

The panel is called Change speed settings. Click one of the quick choices, 0.25×, 0.5×, 1×, 1.5×, 2× or 4×, or drag the Speed slider for anything in between, in steps of 0.05. The tool starts at 2×.

• Above 1× the video plays faster and gets shorter. 2× takes half as long.
• Below 1× it plays slower and gets longer. 0.5× takes twice as long.

The large number at the top shows your choice, with a short line under it such as "1.5× faster". For a slow-down it shows the speed itself, so half speed reads "0.5× slower".

12345

1. 11.5×
2. 20.25×
3. 3Speed
4. 4Audio is sped up or slowed
5. 5Run change speed

03Step 3: Run, then check the result

Check where the files will go: Default output folder saves them in your workspace’s output folder, in a speed folder with a subfolder for today’s date, such as 10-15. Click Change to pick another folder for this run. Then click Run change speed.

Each video shows Done when it is ready. Click View to check a result, and Open folder to go to the copies. They keep their original names and end in .mp4. See See and compare your results and Where your files are saved.

1234

1. 1Done
2. 2View
3. 3Saved to
4. 4Open folder

Every setting, and when to change it

Video Speed has one setting. The quick choices and the slider set the same value.

Speed

How fast the video plays. Above 1× it gets faster and shorter; below 1× slower and longer. The sound follows and keeps its pitch.

• Range0.25× to 4×, in steps of 0.05
• Default2×

How do I get a good result?

• For talking tutorials, try 1.25× to 1.5×. Speech stays easy to follow and the video feels tighter.
• For screen recordings and timelapse-style clips, use 2× or 4×. Speech is hard to follow at these speeds, so they suit clips where the picture matters more than the words.
• For slow motion, start from footage filmed at a high frame rate, such as 60 or 120 frames per second. Ordinary 30 fps footage looks steppy at 0.5× and below.
• Trim first. To speed up only one part, cut it out with Trim video, then change its speed.
• Try one clip first when you are unsure of the speed. Run a single video, watch it, then run the rest with the same setting.

Why does a result disappoint?

• Slow motion looks choppy. Hangar shows each frame for longer; it does not create new in-between frames. Use footage filmed at a higher frame rate, or a smaller slow-down such as 0.75×.
• Voices are hard to follow. Keep talking videos at 1.5× or below. The pitch stays natural, but very fast speech is still hard to understand.
• The file is bigger than expected. Every video is saved again as a new MP4 at high quality, and a sped-up video keeps every frame, so its size can change a lot. Shrink it afterwards with Compress video.
• The result is an MP4, not my original format. Video Speed always saves MP4. To get another format, use Convert video on the result.
• A video failed. The file may be damaged or use a format Hangar cannot read. Check that it plays in another app. See A file failed: what to check.

Limits

• Speeds from 0.25× to 4×.
• The whole clip changes speed. There is no start and end point.
• The sound always keeps its pitch. There is no option for the higher or lower voice you get from playing a tape faster or slower.
• The result is always an MP4. The picture and the sound are both saved again, even at 1×.
• For audio files, use Audio speed.
• Everything runs on your computer. Nothing is uploaded.

Use Change speed in a chain

Change speed is available as a step in chains, under the Video steps, with the same quick choices and slider as the tool. Every video in a chain gets the same speed.

Put Change speed before Add Audio in a chain. If you add music first, the music is sped up along with the video. A common chain resizes videos for social media, speeds them up and then compresses them. A chain also remembers your settings; see Run a chain on many files.