VPT 8 uses an FFmpeg video engine so it plays virtually any codec without transcoding

VPT (Video Projection Tool) by HC Gilje is a free multipurpose realtime projection tool for Mac and Windows. VPT 8 (released May 2018) is built in Max 7, is 64-bit only, and abandons QuickTime for an FFmpeg-based video engine. The practical payoff of the FFmpeg engine is codec-agnostic playback: H.264, HAP, ProRes and most other formats decode directly, so projection artists no longer have to transcode footage to a QuickTime-friendly codec before loading it. This removes a major friction point that dominated earlier projection workflows. Playing several large video files at once can still tax the machine, so VPT lets you render at a sensible size or lower a source’s playback resolution.

Examples

Drop an H.264 MP4 into a VPT video source and play it directly, no transcode step. A ProRes or HAP clip works the same way.

Assessment

Explain why VPT 8 dropped QuickTime and what that changes about which video files you can load. Name one thing you can still do to keep playback smooth with large clips.