What reaches the screen, and how Stoic explains the decision.
Stoic reads the current display's headroom and maps highlights to it. When you move the window to another display, it checks again instead of holding on to the old assumption.
Find it — More playback tools → HDR mode, or open Details for the live readout.
Dolby Vision Profiles 5 and 8.x are handled frame by frame so the dynamic metadata can shape the picture rather than being treated as ordinary HDR.
Find it — Open a compatible local file; Details identifies the stream and colour path.
HDR10, HDR10+ and Hybrid Log-Gamma are recognised alongside SDR transfer functions. Stoic exposes the source tags and flags values it had to infer.
Find it — Details → Video / Colour.
See primaries, transfer, matrix and full or limited range rather than having to trust a filename. BT.601, BT.709, BT.2020 and BT.1886 are part of the colour path.
Find it — More playback tools → Details.
Fit, fill, zoom and source-aspect choices let you place the picture deliberately. Subtitle positioning follows the actual picture area, including when the frame is cropped.
Find it — More playback tools → Picture.
A statistics overlay reports the facts that matter during playback, including format, output cadence and dropped-frame information.
Find it — More playback tools → Details / statistics.
Tracks, levels and listening controls without leaving the film.
Every audio stream carried by the file is listed by name. Switch language, commentary, stereo or surround tracks while the video continues playing.
Find it — Player controls → Audio and subtitles button. Choose the audio track at the top of the menu.
Use the built-in equalizer and preamp controls without blindly pushing an already-loud signal into clipping; Stoic applies gain protection downstream.
Find it — More playback tools → Equalizer.
Slow a scene down or get through a lecture faster. Speech keeps its pitch, and the picture stays in step with the sound at every speed.
Find it — Player controls → speed label.
Nudge sound earlier or later when it doesn't match the picture. Stoic remembers the offset for each output, so AirPods and your speakers can each keep their own.
Find it — More playback tools → Equalizer → Audio delay.
Select, correct, search and create captions around the file you have.
Pick from embedded subtitle tracks or add an external SRT, WebVTT or ASS/SSA file. Text, ASS/SSA and bitmap subtitle formats are treated according to what they contain.
Find it — Player controls → Audio and subtitles → Add subtitle file…
Move captions 0.5 seconds earlier or later, then reset their offset. This applies to the currently selected subtitle track while you are watching.
Find it — Player controls → Audio and subtitles → timing controls.
For text subtitles, choose System, Rounded, Serif or Mono type, plus size, colour, weight, outline, background and bottom margin. The settings are based on picture height, so they remain consistent as the window changes size. ASS/SSA keeps its authored styling; PGS and VobSub are image tracks.
Find it — Settings → Subtitles → Appearance.
Show a second subtitle track above the first, for learning a language or watching with someone who reads another. The second track has its own timing offset, and the two never overlap.
Find it — Player controls → Audio and subtitles → Second subtitle.
Set preferred languages and let Stoic choose a matching subtitle track when a file carries more than one. You can turn automatic selection off at any time.
Find it — Settings → Subtitles → Preferred languages.
Search OpenSubtitles by the local file's content hash first, then by title. You provide your own free OpenSubtitles API key; Stoic sends nothing to the service until you search.
Find it — Player controls → Audio and subtitles → Find subtitles online…
Generate a subtitle track from the file's audio on your Mac, then press ⌘F to search every line and jump to it. Turn on Meaning to search by describing a moment rather than quoting it. Picture-based subtitles can't be text-searched.
Find it — Player controls → Audio and subtitles → Transcribe; ⌘F to search.
Tools for looking closely, navigating precisely and keeping your hands on the work.
Pause and move through a shot one frame at a time, forward or back, to check a cut, a flash frame or a subtitle change.
Find it — More playback tools → review controls.
Mark an in point and an out point, then keep the chosen passage looping until you clear it. Useful for dialogue timing, a colour transition or a single cut.
Find it — More playback tools → Set / clear A–B loop.
Hover or scrub the timeline for visual previews, and use the file's chapters when they are present to reach a section without dragging through the whole programme.
Find it — Timeline and chapter controls in the player.
Copy the current frame to the clipboard with ⇧⌘C, or export the A–B loop (or the previous 15 seconds, if no loop is set) as a clip.
Find it — Player controls → scissors button; Playback menu → Copy frame.
Scroll sideways over the picture to seek, up and down to change the volume, and pinch to zoom. Turn it off if your mouse sends stray scroll events.
Find it — Settings → Video → Trackpad gestures.
Press ⌘K and type what you want—open, subtitle, speed, HDR mode and more—instead of hunting through menus. Playback shortcuts can be reviewed and changed in Settings.
Find it — ⌘K, or Settings → Keyboard shortcuts.
Move playback into macOS Picture in Picture, or use Stoic's compact notch player when you want the video present without keeping the main window open.
Find it — More playback tools → Picture in Picture; window controls for notch player.
Local media management that keeps the original files where they are.
Add local videos and organise them into folders. Continue Watching and last-opened information help you return to a file without changing where that file lives on disk.
Find it — Library sidebar → Add video or folder.
Mark a folder private and unlock it with macOS Touch ID or your Mac password. Stoic does not create or store a second passcode, and locked folders do not expose their contents in the library.
Find it — Library → folder menu → Make private.
When you open a file from a folder, Stoic can build a sensible adjacent-file queue while excluding hidden files and subtitle files. It keeps episodic folder order useful across seasons.
Find it — Open a video from a folder; use previous / next controls.
Removing a video from Stoic clears its local Stoic data such as artwork, generated subtitles and cached transcripts. Your source video stays on your Mac unless you explicitly move it to the Mac's Trash.
Find it — Library item menu or Settings → Library & privacy.
A native Mac player that meets more local files where they are.
Stoic opens common and specialist local containers including MKV, MP4, MOV, WebM, TS/M2TS, MXF, AVI and FLV, with hardware decoding where the Mac supports it and software decoding otherwise.
Find it — See the searchable format catalog for the build-specific list.
Stoic can be set as the default application for supported video files through macOS, so double-clicking a file can open it directly in the player.
Find it — Settings → General / default player.
Move playback to a connected monitor or connect an AirPlay Display through macOS, then put Stoic's window on that screen. HDR headroom and refresh-related decisions are revisited when the playback window moves. AirPlay speakers also appear in macOS audio outputs.
Find it — More playback tools → External display → Connect AirPlay Display…
Clear boundaries on what stays on your Mac and what requires your choice.
Stoic is built around local playback and a local library. It does not require a content account, cloud library or media-server connection to play your files.
Find it — Open a local file or add it to Library.
Online lookup is opt-in. It needs your own OpenSubtitles key and begins only when you choose to search; that distinction is visible in the subtitle settings.
Find it — Settings → Subtitles → Online subtitle search.
Stoic surfaces source metadata and tells you when it inferred a missing or broken value. It is designed to make the colour path inspectable rather than silently presenting a best guess as fact.
Find it — More playback tools → Details.