Ableton Live preset # Prepare video for Ableton Live Keyframe every frameH.264 MP4Constant frame rateSize budget Live's help centre asks for a keyframe on every frame, or at least every second one, so the timeline can scrub and loop without stutter. That is the opposite of what every compressor produces. Drop the file, see what Live will object to, and get back an MP4 in the shape the help centre asks for, without opening HandBrake. ### Keyframes What the Ableton Live help centre asks for. Largest file. Lock the frame ratePlaces every frame on a fixed clock. Ticked for you when the report says the rate is variable. Live 11 or earlier on WindowsThose versions rely on Haali Media Splitter, which Ableton says cannot decode pictures above 1920 by 1080\. Tick this and anything taller is scaled down. Remove audioKeep only the picture, for footage you will score or sound design yourself. Keep the output underOne gigabyteTwo gigabytesFour gigabytesNo limit Ableton's article warns that files with a keyframe on every frame may use significant disk space, and sets no size limit for video. The two gigabyte default keeps the file practical. With a budget set, the page measures the real size as it encodes and restarts at a smaller picture when the encoder will not go low enough. If even the smallest picture is over, it says so. ### Drop the video to check and prepare or click to browse Supports MP4, WebM, MOV, AVI up to 2048MB ## What Live asks for, and why Ableton's own guidance for video is short. Use MOV or MP4, use H.264, and, in its words, "we recommend using videos with a keyframe every frame, or at least every two frames. Lower keyframe amounts may result in stuttered or glitchy playback." The last rule is the one that trips people up, because nothing produces files like that by default. A camera, a phone or an export from an editor writes a full picture every one to ten seconds and stores only differences in between, and Ableton's troubleshooting article explains that decoding such a file "incurs a high CPU demand" in Live. The help centre's answer is to look up the frame rate in QuickTime Player or the Windows file properties, open HandBrake, pick the Production Proxy preset, and type a value, "in most cases the video's fps", into the Additional Options field. This page does that step with one click and shows you the result. It reads the file index first and lists what Live will object to: keyframes too far apart, a codec other than H.264, a container Live does not list, a frame rate that wanders, or a picture too tall for Live 11 and earlier on Windows. Everything runs inside the browser tab on your own machine. The picture is decoded and encoded again by the browser's own video decoder and encoder, the audio is copied across when it is already AAC and encoded to AAC otherwise, and the finished MP4 is written to a private folder inside the browser and downloaded from there. Expect the file to grow: a full picture on every frame costs several times the bitrate of a normal upload. The expected size is shown before you start. When you set a size budget, the page measures the real size while encoding, because browser encoders do not always go as low as asked, and restarts at a smaller picture if the run is heading over. It tells you what it did. ## What Ableton Live asks for, and what this page writes | Setting | Value | Notes | | ---------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Container | MP4 | Ableton lists MOV and MP4 on both platforms, plus M4V on Mac and AVI on Windows, and recommends MOV or MP4 "for the best compatibility". | | Video codec | H.264 | The codec Ableton recommends. Live 12 no longer needs a third-party codec for it on Windows; Live 11 and earlier need Haali Media Splitter there. | | Keyframes | Every frame (default) or every second frame | Quoted from the Ableton help centre: a keyframe every frame, or at least every two. | | Frame rate | Kept, or locked to the nearest standard | Lock it when the report says the rate is variable. Ableton's articles do not cover variable frame rate; this is the page's own advice. | | Size budget | Two gigabytes by default | Ableton sets no size limit for video; its two gigabyte limit applies to audio files in Live 11 and earlier. Kept by measuring the real output and restarting smaller when needed. | | Picture height, Live 11 and earlier on Windows | One thousand and eighty pixels at most | Ableton: Haali Media Splitter "cannot decode files with dimensions greater than 1080p". | | Audio | Kept as AAC, or removed | Copied without re-encoding when it is already AAC, otherwise encoded to AAC. Its timing is not changed either way. Remove it when you only want the picture as a guide for your own sound. | ## Where this helps #### Scoring to picture A director sends a cut as a large HEVC file. Where the browser can decode HEVC, and the report says so before you start, run it through here and import a file that scrubs instantly, with the exact frame rate shown in the report. ProRes cannot be decoded by any browser; ask for an H.264 or HEVC export instead. #### Syncing a performance video Phone footage of a take rarely sits on a fixed frame clock. The report tells you, and the lock puts every frame on one, so the picture's timing cannot be the cause of a sync drift. #### Visuals for a live set Clips that stutter in the Video Window because they were exported for the web. Re-encode with a keyframe on every frame and they scrub and play without stutter. #### Sound design to footage Strip the original audio so Live plays only your work under the picture, and keep the picture at full size. ## Problems a file change cannot solve These come from settings inside Live or on the computer, as described in Ableton's troubleshooting article. The fix is a click there, not a new file. #### The Video Window menu item is greyed out Ableton: no video has been imported, or it went into Session View, where video files are treated as audio. Video is only supported for files imported to Arrangement View. #### Create Video is greyed out when exporting Ableton: enable the Encode PCM button in the export dialog and select WAV, AIFF or FLAC. Create Video becomes available once that is set. #### The picture is black but the sound plays, on Windows Ableton: update the graphics driver; if that does not help, switch Live from the dedicated to the integrated graphics card in the graphics control panel, and try with a single monitor. #### Video cannot be imported on Windows Ableton: Live only supports videos that can be played in Windows Media Player, and a "forbidden" cursor on import means Live is running as Administrator while File Explorer is not. #### Live hangs or crashes while exporting video on Windows Ableton, for Live 11 and earlier: set Bit Depth to 16 in the export settings. If export still fails, this page's own suggestion is to export only the audio from Live and marry it to the original picture in an editor. ## Frequently asked questions ### Why is video playback glitchy or sluggish in Ableton Live? Ableton's troubleshooting article: "Using a highly compressed video with a low keyframe interval incurs a high CPU demand. This may result in glitchy or sluggish playback in Live." Re-encoding with a keyframe on every frame, which this page does, is the fix the help centre recommends. ### Ableton's two articles name different keyframe settings. Which one does this page use? The Using Video article asks for a keyframe every frame or at least every two frames. The troubleshooting article says to type a value into HandBrake's Additional Options field, "in most cases the video's fps", which gives one keyframe per second. This page defaults to the stricter one, every frame, and offers every second frame as the smaller option. ### "Could not decode video" appears in the Video Window Ableton, for Live 11 and earlier on Windows: Haali Media Splitter cannot decode files with dimensions greater than 1920 by 1080\. Tick the Live 11 or earlier on Windows option and the output is scaled down to fit. ### "The file could not be read. It may be corrupt or not licensed" Ableton, for Live 11 and earlier on Windows: uninstall all codec packs and install only Haali Media Splitter. Live 12 no longer needs third-party codecs on Windows. A clean H.264 MP4 from this page is the kind of file both setups are built to decode. ### Live crashes when I import a video Ableton's advice is to re-encode the file to H.264 in HandBrake with the Production Standard preset. That is what this page does, with the keyframe setting from the Using Video article applied as well. ### "An error occurred while rendering the video" on export Ableton: Live may not have permission to write to the chosen export location, so pick another, such as the Desktop; and confirm the imported file actually plays back in Live. For the second case, prepare the file here, import the output and export again. ### Why is my video out of sync with the audio in Live? Ableton's articles do not cover this. One cause this page can rule out is a variable frame rate, which phones and screen recorders produce: the report says whether your file has one, and the lock places every frame on a fixed clock with the audio timing unchanged. If the file was constant already, the cause is elsewhere. ### Which HandBrake setting does this replace? The Production Proxy preset, the value typed into the Additional Options field, and the step of looking up the frame rate in QuickTime Player or the Windows file properties beforehand. The page reads the frame rate itself and sets the keyframes accordingly. ### How big will the file be? Usually several times larger than the source, because every frame carries a full picture. The expected size is shown next to the settings before you click. The two gigabyte budget is on by default: the page plans a smaller bitrate or picture when needed, then measures the real size as it encodes and restarts at a smaller picture if the encoder is heading over, since browser encoders do not always go as low as asked. If even the smallest picture cannot fit, it says so instead of pretending. Every second frame roughly halves the growth and still meets the help centre's rule. ### Does Live Intro or Live Lite support video? Ableton: "Live 10 Intro and Live Lite do not support video." No file preparation helps there. Privacy by architecture ## All processing happens locally in your browser, and your files never leave your device. No upload step, no server queue, no waiting. Verify in 30 seconds 1. 01`⌘⌥I` Open DevTools and switch to the Network panel. 2. 02 Filter to fetch and XHR requests. 3. 03 Drop your file in and start the tool. 4. 04 You will see the app itself and, on your first visit, the video engine download. Nothing involving your file. How this works Video and audio processing runs through FFmpeg compiled to WebAssembly. Hardware decoding goes through the browser's WebCodecs API. Speech recognition runs against a Whisper model that downloads once and caches in your browser, never streamed from a third-party server. ## Related Tools and Resources #### [Video keyframe checker](/video-keyframe-checker) Only read the file and see its keyframe spacing and exact frame rate. #### [Convert variable frame rate to constant](/variable-frame-rate-to-constant) The same fixer with settings for ordinary editing timelines. #### [Extract audio as WAV](/audio/extraction) Pull the sound out of a video as a WAV at 44.1 or 48 kilohertz. #### [Trim video](/trim) Cut a long recording down to the part you score before preparing it. --- Source: [https://vidstudio.app/prepare-video-for-ableton-live](https://vidstudio.app/prepare-video-for-ableton-live)