Loop a video

Making the repeat invisible

A loop works when the end of the clip flows into its start. Look for two moments that match: a wave at the same point, a flame, a spinning logo coming round again, traffic passing. Trim the clip to begin and end on those moments, then play across a join; with the playhead there, ← and → step frame by frame over it.

Leave fades off looped clips. A fade at each end makes the picture dip to black at every repeat, which suits a slideshow but breaks a seamless loop. If the ends will not match, choose a calmer stretch of the clip: small movements hide a join better than big ones. Short loops of 2 to 10 seconds are the easiest to make seamless, since less changes between their first and last frame.

Every copy keeps the clip's settings, its speed, zoom, color and volume, so set those before you duplicate. Change your mind afterwards and you change each copy, or delete the copies and duplicate again.

Repeating the music too

A looped video often needs a longer sound bed than the clip had. Three ways to get one:

• Keep the clip's own sound: it repeats with each copy. Turn its Volume down before you duplicate if music will play over it too.
• Switch on Mute before you duplicate, so every copy is silent, then drop one song long enough for the whole loop on the Music lane. The song stops where the video does, so give it a fade out.
• Loop a short music piece as well: click it on the Music lane and press Ctrl D. The copy lands right after it, so the repeats line up end to end.

Think in clip lengths to plan the result: a 6-second clip in ten copies makes exactly one minute, and a 4-second beat repeated fifteen times covers it.

GIFs loop by themselves

When the loop is for a chat, a web page or a slide, a GIF does the repeating for you: a GIF exported from Octoolo plays again and again for as long as it is on screen. You only need one copy of the clip on the timeline; more copies would only make the GIF bigger. To check the loop before you share it, open the exported GIF in a web browser and watch the join go round a few times.

Keep it short, since GIFs grow fast: at up to 15 frames a second and 640 pixels wide, a few seconds is the sensible length. GIFs have no sound. Video to GIF covers sizes, captions and keeping the file small.

The converter's animated WebP and APNG loop forever in the same way and keep more color than GIF; MP4 to GIF explains its settings.

Looping while you watch is a player setting

If you only want a video to repeat while you watch it, you need no new file: the Media Player app in Windows has a repeat button, and VLC has a loop button too. Those settings live in the player, though, and do not travel with the file. Presentation apps work the same way: PowerPoint, for one, can set a video on a slide to loop until stopped.

A looped file is for when the repeat has to go with the video: a background for a stream or a presentation, a product turning on a shop screen, an MP4 for a site that does not repeat videos itself.

An MP4 always has a set length, so even a looped MP4 stops after its last copy. Make it longer than anyone will watch, or use a GIF if it must never stop. And where you control the player, as on your own shop screen, a short looped MP4 set to repeat keeps the file small however long it runs.