When I want to rewatch my favorite part of some good movies or TV shows, I change the playback speed so I can find the part fast. Sometimes, I miss an important twist in a show, and I have to rewatch it again. In that case, I speeded up the movie to get through it faster.
Some applications, like Netflix, have playback speed options available, but many others do not, so, in this article, I will show how to change video playback speed on PC, Android, or iOS mobile devices.
Change Playback Speed with Developer Tools
Recently, I used my Chromebook a lot, so first, let’s talk about how to speed up video playback with Chrome browser only. You don’t need to download anything, and you can change the playback speed as fast or slow as you want.
Step 1. On the webpage where the video is playing, right click and select Inspect to get the Chrome Developer Tools.
Step 2. From Developer Tools, click on the Console tab and then paste the code below:
var videos = document.querySelectorAll("video");
for (var video of videos) {
video.playbackRate = 1.5;
}
completion(videos.length);
Step 3. You should change the number 1.5 to any playback speed that you want and then press Enter.
Voila, the video is playing at a different speed. As you can see from the screenshot, you can use this method to change Netflix playback speed. This applies to any web pages that are written in HTML5 including YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, etc.
It is the same for Firefox and Safari. You can even use it to play your local videos at a faster or slower playback speed. You just need to open the video in Chrome or Firefox.
Change Playback Speed with Chrome Extension
If you don’t like to paste the code, you can also use a Chrome Extension. The one that works great for me is called Video Speed Controller. It works the same as the method above but is more convenient.
If you use Firefox, you can use this one. More importantly, this extension is available on an Android device.
Speed up Video on Android
For Android devices, you can use the Firefox web browser because it allows you to run an extension on Android. I prefer Firefox Nightly because I can also use it run Tampermonkey scripts on Android or iOS. If you also install Tampermonkey add-on, you can easily find a Tampermonkey script to change speed on Android.
For example, you can get this HTML5 Video Player Enhancement script to speed up videos on Hulu or other video streaming sites. Now Hulu allows you to change speed while playing on Hulu Web player.
Adjust Video Playback Speed on iOS
For iOS devices, you can use also use the Tampermonkey script method on Safari. As long as you can play the video on Safari, you can change its playback speed on your iPhone or iPad. Additionally, you can also use a custom shortcut to do so.
The Shortcuts app is a built-in app for automation. If you are using iOS 13 or new versions, it is already on your device by default. For iOS 12, you need to download it from AppStore for free. By the way, previously it was called Workflow and it was a paid app before acquired by Apple.
Once you get the Shortcuts app on your iOS device, you can follow the steps below to adjust video playback speed. You can also watch the video to see how it works.
Step 1. Get this shortcut Change Playback Speed by opening the link in Safari.
Step 2. Play the video on Safari and tap the Safari Share button.
Step 3. From share sheet, select the shortcut Change Playback Speed to run it.
Step 4. You will be asked to select the video playback number. You can select as fast as 8 or as slow as 0.1.
You need to allow it to run on Safari. After that, you are watching the video at your desired speed.
Wrap up
That’s how you can change online video playback speed as flexible as you want. For playing local videos, VLC Media Player for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS is probably your best choice because it allows you to set variable playback on all those platforms.
On iOS, you can also use Shortcuts to speed up or slow down a video on iPhone and save it separately.