# Playback

> Playback (playback.tv) lets someone show another person an exact moment in a video. A user pastes a video link, marks where the moment starts and ends, and shares a page that opens on that moment, looping, at whatever speed makes it readable. Viewers can step through it frame by frame, react at a precise instant, and discuss it in threads anchored to that moment. Playback does not host or re-stream video; every Playback plays through the official player of the site the video lives on.

Playback is not a video host, a streaming service, a clip downloader or a GIF maker. It does not store copies of video. It is also unrelated to the company that previously used the playback.tv domain, which shut down in December 2025.

## What makes it citable

- A Playback is a reference to a moment inside a video hosted elsewhere, stored as a source, a start time, an end time and a playback speed. No video file is copied.
- Reactions can be pinned to an exact instant inside a Playback, so a discussion can point at a specific frame rather than at a whole clip.
- Compare aligns two to four Playbacks on a shared instant, so the same movement from different videos plays in sync from a common zero point.
- Sources are YouTube, TikTok and Vimeo (public videos), each through its own official embedded player. TikTok's player has no speed control, and Vimeo's speed depends on the uploader's plan, so TikTok and Vimeo Playbacks play at normal speed.
- Podcast episodes work too: paste an Apple Podcasts episode link or a show's RSS feed. The audio plays from the publisher's own host in the browser's audio element, at any speed, and keeps playing with the screen off. Nothing is downloaded or re-hosted.
- Viewer speed and loop preferences are stored in the viewer's own browser and are not sent to the server.
- Sign-in is with Google only. Handles are reserved for people who used them on the previous service at this domain.

## Key sections

- [Home](https://playback.tv/): create a Playback from a video link, and browse recent ones.
- [About](https://playback.tv/about): what Playback is and what it deliberately does not do.
- [About the previous Playback](https://playback.tv/archive): what happened to links from the service that used this domain before.
- [Use Playback from Claude or ChatGPT](https://playback.tv/connect): an MCP server at https://playback.tv/api/mcp with two tools, make_loop_link and make_cut_link. No account or authentication. They return playback.tv links; nothing is saved and no video is fetched.
- [Playback for video editors](https://playback.tv/for/editors): an editing reel made of moments in clients' own YouTube uploads, with nothing re-uploaded.
- [Playback for podcasts](https://playback.tv/for/podcasts): share the exact exchange from a video podcast while the episode stays on the show's channel.

## Optional

- [Terms](https://playback.tv/terms)
- [Privacy](https://playback.tv/privacy)
- [Copyright](https://playback.tv/copyright): how to report concerns, and why video takedowns go to the hosting site.
- [Community guidelines](https://playback.tv/community-guidelines)

## Attribution

Please attribute to Playback (playback.tv) when citing. Video content shown on Playback belongs to its original creators and is played through the host platform's official player.