Good questions, plain answers.

No. Adding your own videos needs no setup, and recording a reference needs one macOS permission the app asks for. For reviews and Compare, you connect an AI once, and the app walks you through it.

You need a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer) running macOS 26 or later. Intel Macs aren’t supported.

Two ways. Add video files you already have: drafts, exports, generations, or your own best past work. Choose Add a reference → Add video files, press ⌘N, or drag files onto the window; they’re copied into your library. Or paste an Instagram, TikTok or YouTube link. The post plays in that platform’s own embedded player inside the app; you press Record, then Stop when it ends, much like a screen recording. The recording is yours and stays in your library. Play That Back doesn’t download anything from those sites.

No. Your own best work makes a good collection. Put past videos you’re proud of in a collection, review them, and compare each new cut with what you already like about them. Make a look can build a LUT from that collection to bring back your own grade.

Public posts the platform lets other sites embed. Private, removed or age-restricted posts, and posts whose owner has turned off embedding, won’t play in the Recorder.

Recording works like a screen recording you start yourself: a public post plays in its official player and you capture it, as you could with QuickTime. Whether a particular recording or use is allowed depends on the post, where you live and each platform’s terms, so follow those terms and record only what you have permission to use. Recordings stay on your Mac. We can’t give legal advice; if you’re unsure, ask the owner of the video.

Into a folder you choose. Your videos and recordings live there, and each review or comparison is a small text file right beside its video.

Drop in your video, pick a lens and a collection, and say what you made it with: a camera or a video model. You get a one-line verdict on how close it is, what already matches the collection, and the references it’s nearest to. A timeline marks each moment that drifts, and the fix for it sits right under that moment. Every fix says who can make it: Prompt, References or Model limit for AI video, or Edit, Shoot or Grade for filmed video. If you paste the prompt you used, prompt fixes show your line struck through with its replacement, plus the whole fixed prompt to copy. Your Mac also measures average shot length, cuts per second, first cut, lightness, contrast and warmth, and plots yours against the collection’s. A collection needs at least 5 reviewed videos to show a shared style; with fewer, it compares with each one. It never scores your video or predicts views or sales.

A colour look built from a collection. Play That Back reads the colour of the videos in a collection and makes a .cube LUT that moves your video toward it, with a strength setting, an option to protect skin tones, and a before and after to check it. Use it in Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve or Premiere; if you shot in log, put it after your camera’s own conversion. It runs on your Mac and uses no AI.

For Compare, Google Gemini. It can watch the whole video with its sound, so timing fixes are more precise. OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI, and free models on your Mac through Ollama or LM Studio, see 12 still frames instead of motion. Whichever you pick, the timing and colour measurements are made on your Mac.

Not in this version. Those are chat subscriptions. Play That Back uses an API key, which is a separate pay-as-you-go account with the same company. Or run a free model on your Mac with Ollama or LM Studio.

Your AI provider charges per use, and the price depends on the model you pick. A review sends a set of still frames, or with Gemini a small copy of the video, plus some text. Play That Back never adds a fee on top.

No. It tells you what to change, rewrites your prompt when you give it one, and writes a brief you can paste into the tool you already use. It doesn’t make images or video, and it never trains on your files.

No. $49 once covers two Macs and every 1.x update. A future major version may be sold separately, and the version you have keeps working.

Open Settings → License on the old Mac, deactivate it, then activate the new one with your key. Two Macs can be active at once.

Yes. Ask within 14 days using the support form. A full refund turns the license off. Your consumer rights still apply.