video external player and editor

[paulgodard0]

Hi

I am struggling to set up an external editor to play and trim video (mp4 & mov) from LR CC.

When I go to preferences/external editing, I can chose Quicktime Player which then become QuickTime 7 Edit Video (edited) but the file format and other variables below are not for video.  Is that normal? Anyway, if I select an mp4 video clip in the gallery and right click on it to edit in..., all the options are greyed out including QT 7.  So there is no external editor setup there.  BTW, video often do not play smoothly in LR.  Can someone help?

[luny2000]

Is there any way to play a video in an external player?

The Lightroom video player is useless as you all know.

[SeanMcCormack]

I wouldn't say useless, but it's not as efficient as others. If I need to play in other apps, I usually select the video, then use the shortcut Command/Control + R to show it in the Finder/Explorer and right click to choose a playback app. 

[luny2000]

Command/Control + R to show it in the Finder/Explorer

By @SeanMcCormack

Handy, thanks!

[Conrad C]

To open a video in an external player in just one quick gesture, I keep a video player alias (shortcut) in the macOS Dock, and when I want to play a video outside Lightroom Classic, I drag the video thumbnail from the Grid view or Filmstrip and drop it on the video player alias, so that it opens in that application.

You can take advantage of the settings of the video player you use. For example, I use VLC, which can be set to play on open and also play in full screen by default. So when I drop a video on it that I dragged from Lightroom Classic, the video begins playing full screen.

I am not sure how well this technique works in Windows, because some drag-and-drop tricks don’t work as well there.

[Rob_Cullen]

@Conrad C  Windows-11: Drag&Drop to a taskbar app icon does not work for me.

My work-around is to use an Export Preset that 'chooses' my video editing app -