A player and exporter for video, audio and images, by Jesper GB Henriksen.
Open a file, play it, set an in and out point, crop the picture, and for audio files change the level over parts of the waveform. Then write a new file containing exactly that. One clip at a time: no timeline, no layers, no project file.
New in 0.4.0 — the image editor
Open a single image and edit it in place. Crop it, adjust brightness and contrast, hold Original to compare, and undo or Reset to get back.
Remove Background runs locally, through Apple Vision. Nothing is uploaded and there is no model to install. Transparent areas show on a checkerboard, and a cutout exports as a transparent PNG. Restore Background puts it back.
- Export always writes a copy. Saving over the original is refused, and an existing output is only replaced once the new file is written
- Adjusted images come out 8-bit SDR
- Undo covers brightness and contrast, background changes and Reset. Crop drags do not get their own undo entries yet
- Original is a preview comparison; it does not change what gets exported
- Background removal depends on the image and on system support. If it is unavailable or finds no subject, every other control still works
Tested on Apple Silicon with networking denied: background removal finished on a 1920×1080 frame in 0.54 seconds and produced an alpha-bearing PNG. That is one sample, not a guarantee. Clean-machine first run and native Intel background removal are not yet verified.
Also in this release
- MKV plays directly, no converting the whole movie first. Export a selection or the whole file to MP4 or MOV. Pick the audio track under Playback → Audio Track; the export uses that choice. No VLC, FFmpeg, Homebrew or codec pack to install
- GIF export with size and frame rate, silent and looping, and a warning past 45 seconds
- Timeline zoom by pinch or
+and−. Fit restores the whole movie, and the overview strip pans without moving your trim or the playhead - MP3 export alongside WAV, AIFF and M4A
Known limits
MKV subtitles, LUT preview, frame grabs, image-sequence export and audio-only export are not supported. HDR, rotated and anamorphic MKV video exports are rejected. HDR GIF export is unavailable. Seeking a paused MKV may leave the picture unchanged until playback starts — playing and pausing first usually helps.
Install
Quit any running copy of Kipowi, open the disk image and drag Kipowi to Applications. If you are replacing an older version, keep a copy of the old app first.
Requires: macOS 14 or later. Universal for Apple silicon and Intel. Signed with a Developer ID certificate, notarised by Apple and stapled, so it opens without a Gatekeeper warning even offline. 68.4 MB to download, 140.5 MB installed.
83 automated tests passed with no failures.
Source code
Kipowi-0.4.0-Sources.tar.xz below is the matching source archive for the open-source media components the app bundles — VLC, VLCKit, FFmpeg and LAME — with the patches, dependency sources and build recipes. You do not need it to run Kipowi. It is here because the licences of those components require the corresponding source to be available beside the binary. All 49 upstream archives inside it were verified during packaging. Third-party notices are in the app under Kipowi › Media Component Licenses.
Checksums
b118dc425f13afe77e83cced30a7734efd7011aa97fcd861d6c5737883dc6ae3 Kipowi-0.4.0.dmg
cac9ea60e229d253e53d0e81bdf92ebe7078bf577e49983522327ce31aec1c94 Kipowi-0.4.0-Sources.tar.xz
Project page: https://jesperh.cv/apps/kipowi.html