Frame Player updates

Frame Player 1.32.0

2026-10-22T00:00:00.000Z

The player now speaks Simplified Chinese, and the mouse wheel can seek instead of changing the volume.

New

The mouse wheel can seek instead of changing the volume. A new setting under Playback makes the wheel seek, with Shift and the wheel then changing the volume, and a second one sets how far each notch of the wheel seeks: 1, 5, 10 or 30 seconds. Volume stays the default. While casting, the wheel is still the television’s volume.
The player speaks Simplified Chinese. Choose 中文 under Settings → General, or let the player pick it up from a Chinese system. Every menu, setting and message is translated, including the macOS menu bar, and the catalog then shows titles and descriptions in Chinese. A system set to Traditional Chinese still starts in English.

Improvements and fixes

The HDR setting explains itself on a Mac. Its hint used to say that Windows HDR has to be on; on a Mac it now says what HDR output actually needs there, brightness headroom on the display.
Subtitle search finds Chinese, Portuguese and Azerbaijani subtitles. Searching in any of these three languages used to come back empty, because the subtitle site names each of them by region or script. Chinese now finds both Simplified and Traditional subtitles.

Frame Player 1.31.1

2026-10-22T00:00:00.000Z

Fast frame-by-frame stepping now works on 4K videos and on torrents that have finished downloading.

Improvements and fixes

Fast frame stepping now covers 4K videos and downloaded torrents. Stepping back frame by frame was still slow on 4K files and on anything opened from the torrent list, because the fast path left both out. It now applies to them too: after a short first wait, each step back takes about as long as a step forward. A torrent qualifies once it has fully downloaded. While you step backward the sound track is switched off, which makes getting started about three times quicker, and it comes back when you press play.

Frame Player 1.31.0

2026-10-22T00:00:00.000Z

Stepping back one frame at a time is now quick even on videos where it used to take seconds.

New

Stepping back frame by frame is fast on files that used to crawl. On videos with keyframes seconds apart, typical of downloads from video sites, each step back used to take a second or more. The player now decodes in software while you step, which alone makes a step back several times faster, and on files where it is still slow it decodes the stretch back to the keyframe once and keeps it in memory, so every step after that is instant. Hardware decoding comes back when you press play, which can take up to a second and a half on those same files. The memory this uses is capped at a quarter of your machine’s, and it can be switched off under Settings → Video.

Frame Player 1.30.0

2026-10-21T00:00:00.000Z

The audio and subtitle buttons now show which language is playing and whether a file has subtitles.

New

The audio and subtitle buttons say what is playing. A small tag on the audio button shows the language of the track you hear, or how many are mixed together. The subtitle button shows how many subtitle tracks the file has while they are off, and the language once one is on; with no subtitles at all it stays plain. Hovering either button names the track and where it sits among the others, and the tags carry over to the playback panel when the window is too narrow for the buttons.

Frame Player 1.29.1

2026-10-20T00:00:00.000Z

On Windows with display scaling, the "Size" window option now opens videos pixel for pixel, as mpv does.

Improvements and fixes

“Size” opens the window pixel for pixel on Windows. With display scaling above 100 %, the “Size” choice and the 50/100/200 % window sizes made the window larger than the video by the scaling factor: at 175 %, a 1280×688 film opened in a window about 2240 pixels wide. On Windows they now count screen pixels, so the film opens at exactly 1280×688, as it does in mpv, and the picture is shown without being rescaled. On macOS nothing changes.

Frame Player 1.29.0

2026-10-19T00:00:00.000Z

The window can now open at the video's own resolution, the way mpv does.

New

The window can open at the video’s own size. “Window to video” now has three choices: Off, Aspect (the window keeps its size and takes the video’s shape, as before) and Size, which opens the window at the video’s resolution, the way mpv does. With Size, a 720p file opens in a 1280×720 window and a 4K file in a window as large as the screen allows. A size you pick by hand carries over to the next episode of the same resolution. It is in Settings → Window, in the right-click menu under Window and in the View menu on macOS.

Improvements and fixes

The player says once that it was installed. On its very first start, a new installation sends one request to the Frame Player site saying whether it runs on Windows or macOS, so the site can show how many people have installed it. Nothing else is sent: no identifier, no files, nothing about what you watch, and the request is never repeated. Installations from before this release do not send it.

Frame Player 1.28.5

2026-10-17T00:00:00.000Z

The player now starts on Windows computers without a Vulkan driver, and says why when it cannot start at all.

Improvements and fixes

The player starts on Windows computers without a Vulkan driver. On a virtual machine, a computer whose graphics driver is not installed, or one with an older graphics card, the player stopped at “Could not start mpv” and told you to look for files in a folder that does not exist in an installed copy. It now brings the one missing system component with it, and if the player still cannot start, the message names the file Windows could not load and why.

Frame Player 1.28.4

2026-10-10T00:00:00.000Z

While watching together, a pause or a seek pressed at the wrong moment could make the whole room play slightly fast — 1.04×, then 1.14× — without anybody having changed the speed.

Improvements and fixes

A shared room no longer speeds itself up. While watching together, a pause or a seek pressed at the wrong moment could make the whole room play slightly fast — 1.04×, then 1.14× — without anybody having changed the speed. The room now keeps the speed somebody actually chose.
Leaving for the start screen cancels a torrent that is still opening. Going back to the start screen while a torrent was still being found could leave the loading note standing there, or let the film start by itself a moment later. Leaving now drops everything that was on its way.
A torrent opened from the catalog no longer waits in a black window. Opening a release from the catalog, or a torrent from “continue watching”, could leave the window black — no controls, no loading note — until the first frame arrived. The loading note and the controls now stay up for the whole wait.

Frame Player 1.28.3

2026-10-07T00:00:00.000Z

A slow device on the network no longer hides DLNA televisions.

Improvements and fixes

One slow device on the network no longer hides every DLNA television. When something on the network announced itself and then did not answer, such as a NAS reachable at only one of its addresses, the cast picker could keep saying it was still searching and never list a television that had answered at once. Each television now appears as soon as it has answered, whatever the others do.

Frame Player 1.28.2

2026-10-06T00:00:00.000Z

DLNA televisions show up in the cast picker again on macOS.

Improvements and fixes

Televisions on DLNA are found again on macOS. On some Wi-Fi networks the search for a television kept saying it was still looking and never listed a DLNA set, even one that had already answered. It now appears within a few seconds.

Frame Player 1.28.1

2026-10-05T00:00:00.000Z

A steadier audio menu while tuning a speaker's offset.

Improvements and fixes

The file’s audio delay no longer flickers while you tune the speaker’s offset. Pressing − or + on the output device’s offset in the audio menu made the file’s own delay above it jump by the same step for a moment and back. It now stays put.

Frame Player 1.28.0

2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z

The installer now offers a checkbox on the page where you choose the folder: keep settings and watch history in that folder rather than in your user profile.

New

The installer can set up a portable copy too. The installer now offers a checkbox on the page where you choose the folder: keep settings and watch history in that folder rather than in your user profile. It is the same thing the portable archive does, so you no longer have to unpack a zip by hand to get it — and re-running the installer over such a folder arrives with the box already ticked, so leaving things as they are takes no thought. Uninstalling removes that data only if you ask it to, exactly as it treats the settings it keeps in your profile. A copy set up this way still opens video files and invitation links the way any installed copy does, so the switch for that is gone from its settings — the installer handles it, and uninstalling undoes it.

Frame Player 1.27.0

2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z

A second Windows download: an archive you unpack anywhere, which keeps its settings, watch history and downloads in its own folder rather than in your user profile.

New

A portable version for Windows. There is now a second Windows download: an archive you unpack wherever you like — a USB stick, a folder on another drive — which keeps its settings, watch history, previews and downloads in its own folder instead of in your user profile. Move the folder and the player moves with it, remembering every position and every chosen audio track. It updates itself the same way the installed version does, by replacing its own files. Two things are worth knowing: it registers itself for video files and for watch-together invitation links, because Windows offers no way to do that from inside a folder — there is a switch in Settings if you would rather it did not, and turning it off puts back whatever was there before — and if the Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime is missing from the computer, the player installs it on first run, though it is already present on essentially every Windows 10 and 11.

Frame Player 1.26.0

2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z

Watch-together rooms show how well each person keeps up, and Bluetooth speakers get an audio offset of their own.

New

An audio offset for each speaker and pair of headphones. Bluetooth speakers and headphones play sound a little late, and the picture runs ahead of it. The audio menu now has a second offset under the file’s delay, kept for the device the sound is going to: set it once for your speaker and it applies to every video while that speaker is connected, and goes away when the sound moves back to the built-in speakers.
See how well everybody in a room is keeping up. A dot beside each name in a watch-together room says whether that person is in step: green when all is well, yellow or red when their connection is slow or uneven, or when their playback keeps slipping behind because the source cannot keep up. Hover it to see which, and on your own row the ping to the room server.

Frame Player 1.25.0

2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z

The player now downloads the new version and replaces its own files, then reopens the window where you left off.

New

Updates on Windows no longer run an installer. The player now downloads the new version and replaces its own files, then reopens the window where you left off. There is no installer window to wait for, nothing is uninstalled first, and the video you were watching comes back at the same frame. If an update cannot be applied that way — because the program is installed somewhere it is not allowed to write, or because that release moves files around — it falls back to the installer, as before. macOS is unchanged; it has always worked this way.

Frame Player 1.24.3

2026-10-03T00:00:00.000Z

Switching off "Several tracks" now keeps the track you chose playing.

Improvements and fixes

Turning off “Several tracks” no longer leaves the video silent. If a track had been picked by hand before mixing, switching the mode off could leave no track selected and no sound, and clicking that track again did nothing. It now plays the track you kept.

Frame Player 1.24.2

2026-10-02T00:00:00.000Z

Holding Shift while rolling the mouse wheel now seeks through the film, a gesture that used to need a trackpad.

Improvements and fixes

Seeking with the wheel now works on a mouse. Scrolling sideways over the picture moves through the film — a gesture a trackpad can make and a mouse cannot. Holding Shift while rolling the wheel is now the same thing: one notch is five seconds, down for forward and up for back.

Frame Player 1.24.1

2026-10-02T00:00:00.000Z

Cleaner start: no wrapped labels on the start screen and no blink when resuming a video.

Improvements and fixes

Opening from “Continue watching” no longer blinks. The controls and the “Resuming” note used to appear, vanish at once while the window took the video’s shape, and fade back in. They now come in once, after the window has settled.
Button labels and the app name no longer break onto two lines. Right after launch, “Open file (O)” on the start screen and the name in the title bar’s corner could wrap onto a second line in a window with plenty of room. The edge of the Catalog button’s outline is also as thick on the right as on the left again.

Frame Player 1.24.0

2026-10-02T00:00:00.000Z

Several audio tracks at once, external dubs and subtitles from a release's folders, and settings in sections.

New

Play several audio tracks at once. The audio menu has a “Several tracks” switch: with it on, ticking tracks makes them play together, each at its own level — for a recording that keeps the game, the microphone and a call in separate tracks. The next file opens on one track as usual.
External dubs and subtitles in a release’s subfolders load by themselves. Audio tracks shipped beside the video are now picked up the way subtitles already were, and both are found in nested folders such as one per studio or subtitle group. Each one is named after its folder in the track menu, and the choice is remembered for the rest of the season.
Choose whether the seekbar preview switches to the exact frame. When the cursor rests over the seekbar, the preview changes to the frame a click would land on. That can now be turned off in the settings to keep the nearest storyboard frame instead.

Improvements and fixes

Settings are grouped into sections. Each tab now groups its options into labelled blocks, the window options from the context menu are also in the settings, and the version and licenses moved to an About section.

Frame Player 1.23.1

2026-10-02T00:00:00.000Z

Noticeably less memory while a video plays, and much less over a long torrent.

Improvements and fixes

Uses about 200 MB less memory while a video plays. Once the controls have faded out they are no longer drawn at all. Until now they were only made transparent, so the seekbar kept being redrawn on every frame of the video. On macOS that alone held around 200 MB of graphics memory for as long as the film played. On macOS the player also no longer keeps a hidden helper window that only Windows needs.
Torrents use up to 500 MB less memory during long playback. A torrent no longer keeps hundreds of megabytes of already-watched video in memory for seeking back, since those parts are on disk anyway. On a 4K episode that saved about 500 MB after a few minutes of playback. Streams from links keep the larger buffer, where seeking back would otherwise download again.