Craftora v0.5.0

What's new

Better

• Smaller. FFmpeg's two programs now share one copy of their libraries instead of carrying a
  full one each, and two whisper files Craftora never used are gone: about 135 MB less on disk, and
  the installer is a third smaller (about 100 MB instead of 150). Updating removes the old copies.
• Less to load at start. The stream player is loaded only when a stream preview needs it, which
  halves the code Craftora reads when it opens.
• Less memory in the background. While Craftora is minimized (say, during a long download or
  export), it gives back about 55 MB of memory it only needs on screen.
• The queue gets out of the way. It opens when a download or export starts and folds down to
  its one-line header when everything is done (it stays open if something failed). The arrow still
  opens and closes it.
• Pages line up. Home and every sidebar page share one centred column, and long explanations
  wrap at a comfortable width.
• Previews of links play the best quality the video has (up to 4K). They used to pick YouTube's
  only file with sound built in, which is 360p and looked blurry full screen. A new quality picker
  next to the speed (Best, 1080p, 720p…) lowers it for slow Wi-Fi; exports keep their own quality.
  The Smooth/Sharp setting is gone. At the same size, YouTube's sharper VP9 file is preferred.
• Know what you'll get before it's queued. Add to queue shows a short summary first: picture
  quality, whether it's copied as is or re-made, length, file name and size, where it's saved, and
  whether captions are drawn in. (Ctrl+Enter still adds straight away.)
• Plain error messages. A slip inside Craftora now says "Something went wrong inside
  Craftora…" instead of showing programmer text.

New

• Themes. Settings → Theme: Classic (the look you know, still the default), Dark glass
  or Light glass. The glass themes are see-through panels over a soft glow that takes the
  colours of the video playing and eases into each new one.
• Smoother everywhere. Switches slide to the option you pick, buttons give a soft press,
  changing the theme fades over, and the mouse wheel scrolls with a gentle glide.
• Fix caption text. In the Transcript tab, search a wrong word or name and Replace all
  changes it in every caption at once; the pencil on a line retypes just that caption (Enter keeps
  it, Escape drops it). The preview, exports and the Transcript all show the fix, and Ctrl+Z undoes it.
• Report an AI reply. Report a reply under the assistant's chat opens a short form to tell us
  about a wrong or inappropriate answer (it names the AI and model; you paste the reply yourself).

Fixed

• "Fetch this video" fetched the episode before. After a player's "next episode" (or any new
  video on the same page), it fetched the video that played first. It now fetches the one playing
  when you click it.
• "Is this link safe?" was missing from the installed app. Check is back next to Fetch:
  add your own free VirusTotal key once in Settings → Links (Check takes you there), and
  Craftora tries it before keeping it in Windows Credential Manager.
• YouTube previews stuck on a blurry picture (or "can't play in the preview"): YouTube sometimes
  refuses the file it has just listed, and the preview showed only the video's cover picture.
  Craftora now checks the file first and plays the next best one if it's refused.
• ">>" before captions whenever someone starts talking (YouTube's mark for a new speaker) is
  gone from the preview, exports and the Transcript.
• Export size showing 0 MB after changing the preview quality or reopening a project: YouTube can
  list the same quality under another format the next time. The export keeps the quality you
  picked (or 1080p if it's gone).
• Microsoft Store version: it now includes Deno and whisper.cpp like the GitHub installer, so
  YouTube and captions from the sound work there too.
• Exporting with captions: captions no longer count toward the 150-clip limit, so long videos
  with hundreds of captions export (up to 5,000 texts and captions).
• Windows Security blocking downloads and exports: with Controlled folder access on, Windows
  blocked FFmpeg and yt-dlp from writing into Videos and the download started over. They now work
  in Craftora's own folder and only Craftora saves into Videos; if Windows blocks that too, Craftora
  says how to allow it. A save folder named Downloads no longer gets a second Downloads inside.
• No more "Saved info" list popping up under the link box and other fields.
• Captions made from the sound show up with the words, not seconds before them, and go away
  when the talking stops instead of staying through the silence. (Under music the timing stays as
  before.)
• Captions from the sound only when you ask. They no longer start by themselves (they kept the
  processor busy for minutes): press CC on the preview, or Make captions from the sound in the
  Transcript tab. It also
  redoes captions made before this version, with the better timing. The Settings choice is gone.
• Music notes (♪) and Khmer in exported videos showed as empty boxes; they're drawn now.

Download

Get Craftora_0.5.0_x64-setup.exe below and run it. Installed copies update themselves.

The installer isn't code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may say the publisher is unknown. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Bundled software

• FFmpeg (GPL v3): ffmpeg version n9.0.2-39-g7adfbe40dc-20261031 Copyright (c) 2000-2026 the FFmpeg developers. Its source code and build scripts are attached to this release. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.
• yt-dlp (Unlicense).
• Deno (MIT), which yt-dlp uses for YouTube, and whisper.cpp (MIT), which makes captions from the sound.