Make Clips Playable: AV1 and VP9 videos this Mac can’t play

Applies to 0.11Updated 11 Nov 20261 min read

A clip of an AV1 or VP9 video can stay empty on the timeline when your Mac can’t decode it. Make Clips Playable converts just the part you use, so it shows and plays.

Why a clip can stay empty

• Some MP4 or WebM files hold AV1 or VP9 video. Macs before the M3 chip can’t decode AV1, so macOS refuses the file and its clip shows nothing.
• Your original file is never changed.

Make the clips playable

• Choose Clip › Modify › Make Clips Playable. Each such clip on your timelines gets a small playable piece: only the part you use, plus 1 second on each side, converted to H.264 with its sound. One undo step.
• The pieces go in a folder Playable Pieces beside the project file, and in a Playable Pieces bin in the project. A piece already made is reused.
• If a whole long AV1 video is on the timeline, its piece is the whole file, so trim the clip first.

Clean up

• Clip › Modify › Remove Unused Playable Pieces puts the pieces no sequence uses in the Trash.

The conversion uses VideoLAN’s free AV1 decoder (dav1d), built into the app. Nothing is sent anywhere.