Question :
I have some MP4 videos of online courses that contain a lot of blabla… if they were Youtube videos, I would be able to increase the playback speed to 1.5x (150%) or even 2x (200%) to increase my efficiency. However, these online courses were delivered to me for offline playback in QuickTime on macOS, but now I can’t find the button (or maybe ‘the trick’ ?) to increase the playback speed… so I seem to be stuck on having to watch them at the ‘normal’ s…l…o…w… playback speed…

Is there any way to speed this up ?

Answer :

Yes, there is !
Even though it’s a little more hidden than you are used to with YouTube videos, QuickTime is able to increase (or decrease) the playback speed in three ways, that differ in the range and number of playback speeds available :

1. the basic method :
– when de video is open in QuickTime, click on the screen to make the control panel appear
– then click on the >> button (top right on the control panel)
– from the popup list that appears, select “Playback Speed“
– then, select the desired speed from the 5 options that appear :
   0,5x  ( half speed )
   1,0x  ( normal speed )
   1,25x ( 25% faster )
   1,5x  ( 50% faster )
   2,0x  ( double speed )

2. the precise method :
– when the video is open in QuickTime, click on the screen to make the control panel appear
– then hold down the ALT-key (on your keyboard) while clicking on the DoubleArrow-button (the FastForward-button on the right or the SlowBackward-button on the left) to increase (or decrease) the playback speed in small steps of 10% :
   1,1x  ( 10% faster / slower )
   1,2x  ( 20% faster / slower )
   1,3x  ( 30% faster / slower )
   1,4x  ( 40% faster / slower )
   1,5x  ( 50% faster / slower )
   1,6x  ( 60% faster / slower )
   1,7x  ( 70% faster / slower )
   1,8x  ( 80% faster / slower )
   1,9x  ( 90% faster / slower )
   2,0x  ( double speed / half speed )

3. the hyper speed method :
– when the video is open in QuickTime, click on the screen to make the control panel appear
– then hold down either the CMD-key or the SHIFT-key or the CTRL-key (on your keyboard) while clicking on the DoubleArrow-button (the FastForward-button on the right or the SlowBackward-button on the left) to increase (or decrease) the playback speed in huge steps :
   2x  ( double speed forward or backward )
   5x  ( 5x faster = 5 seconds per second forward or backward )
   10x  ( 10x faster = 10 seconds per second forward or backward )
   30x  ( 30x faster = half a minute per second forward or backward )
   60x  ( 60x faster = one minute per second forward or backward )

That’s it !
enjoy 😉