SeekframeHow to find a specific scene in a video
To find a scene in your own videos, describe what's on screen and let an app search inside the videos for you. Seekframe searches every video in the folders and drives you add and opens the right one at the moment the scene appears. Otherwise, you scrub through the timeline by hand or, for videos in the Photos library, search in Photos with Apple Intelligence.
Updated
Scrub through the video by hand
Select the video in Finder and press Space to preview it, or open it in QuickTime Player, and drag the playhead until you see the scene. That's fine for one short video you already know. For one moment somewhere in a hundred clips, it can take all evening.
Search videos in the Photos library
If the video was imported into Photos and Apple Intelligence is on (a Mac with M1 or later and macOS 15.1 or later, in a supported language and region), type a description of the moment into the search field in Photos. Photos can find specific moments inside the videos in its library. Videos kept in folders or on drives are outside the library, so Photos doesn't see them.
Find the scene in any folder with Seekframe
- Open Seekframe and add the folder with your videos: click Choose Folder… or drop the folder on the window.
- Seekframe goes through each video, checking a frame every couple of seconds and keeping it when the picture has changed. On an M1 Pro an hour of video takes about 26 seconds, and you can search while it works.
- Type the scene as you remember it:
a dog jumping into a pool
,candles on a birthday cake
,a plane taking off
. - Each video result shows the time of the scene. Select a result and press Space to watch from there, or Return to open the video in Seekframe's player at that moment.
Getting closer to the right moment
- Only videos: press ⌘3 to hide the photos.
- Several moments in one file: a long video can appear more than once, each time at a different scene that matches.
- Similar scenes: select a result and choose More Like This (⌘L) to find scenes that look like it in other videos.
- The exact frame: with Seekframe Pro, the app checks the frames around the moment and opens the video on the best match.
- Tell someone where it is: right-click a result and choose Copy Path and Time.
Questions
Can it find what people say in a video?
No. Seekframe searches what you can see on screen, not speech or subtitle tracks.
Which video formats does it search?
MP4, MOV and M4V, including HEVC and ProRes. MKV, WebM and AVI files are counted in the sidebar but not searched, because QuickTime Player can't open them.
How exact is the time it shows?
Seekframe checks a frame every couple of seconds and keeps a new one when the picture changes, so the time shown points to the right scene, though not always to its exact frame. Seekframe Pro then checks the frames around it and jumps to the best one.
How many videos can the free version search?
Up to 10 hours of video in one folder on your Mac, plus all its photos. Seekframe Pro, a one-time $19.99, searches all your video, on external and network drives too.
Are my videos uploaded?
No. Your videos stay where they are, and the model that analyses them runs on your Mac.