[Updated Feb. 14, 2024]

The raw video download function is an ancillary feature allowing you to download raw video recordings of your own broadcasts. Full replays within in app are coming but this is being made available as a first step.

BEWARE recordings may be deleted any time beyond 24h after your broadcast. (If you want to keep them available, you can pay for a Heckle storage subscription.)

An (i) button will appear beside your relevant past broadcasts within a minute or two of the broadcast ending. Tap on it to copy the URL to allow you to download the broadcast recording file in another app, or send to a computer to download there.

NOTE: The raw videos do not have video orientation set correctly and do not have comments, but allow you access to footage if you wish to use for other purposes.

The format is .webm which is NOT natively playable on iOS. To view/edit the files:

  1. Download the free VLC viewer for iOS. Once you have it running, go to the Network tab, then Open Network Stream, then paste in the URL. The playback may start off with black screen but video will appear eventually. You can of course take screenshots from here.

  2. Copy the URL over to a computer, and view in Chrome on macOS or Windows.

  3. Upload to YouTube. You can of course keep your video private if you don’t want others to see it.

  4. Download the file on Windows and use the free Heckle Replay Converter tool generously created by @BrisWiz.

  5. (Advanced) Use command-line tool FFmpeg to convert the recording to another format that is more widely viewable and loadable in video editors. One example set of instructions follows, courtesy of @BrisWiz:

    Requirements:

    • FFmpeg v4.4 (April 9, 2021) Available for both Windows and MacOS
    • MediaInfo is optional. Available for both Windows and MacOS
    • Familiarity with working in a command line.

    NOTE: Don’t skip Step 1.

    Step 1.

    First you’ll need to determine the “Overall bit rate” (in kb/s) of the WebM file. This is very simple to find out. You can either use FFProbe.exe (it’s part of the FFmpeg package) if you know how, or MediaInfo to find that Overall bit rate. Next you’ll need to enter that bit rate in 2 places in the ffmpeg command. Here –> -b:v (Video Nominal bit rate in kb/s) and here –> -maxrate (Video Maximum bit rate in kb/s)

    For example, if the Overall bit rate of the WebM file was around 1600k, simply enter 1600k for -b:v and -maxrate, as seen in the ffmpeg command at the end of this document. This ensures quality and filesize is kept optimal.

    Note: You can experiment by dropping the bit rates if you wish. Dropping both by no more than 100kb can achieve a slighly smaller filesize with occassionally almost no discernable difference in video quality which will all depend on many factors within the original WebM file that you are transcoding. If you are unsure, don’t drop the bit rate. Just remember, dropping it more than 100kb, quality suffers.

    Step 2.

    Before running the ffmpeg command shown below, first replace input_filename.webm with your webm filename and replace output_filename.mp4 with a name you want for your mp4 file. Also make sure your WebM file resides in the same folder as FFmpeg.exe.

    ffmpeg.exe -loglevel quiet -y -i input_filename.webm -c:v libx264 -profile:v high -preset slower -r:v 25 -vf scale=960:540 -b:v 1600k -maxrate 1600k -bufsize 4M -bt 256k -refs 1 -bf 3 -coder 1 -me_method umh -me_range 16 -subq 7 -partitions +parti4x4+parti8x8+partp8x8+partb8x8 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qcomp 0.6 -trellis 2 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -b-pyramid 1 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -ar 44100 -rematrix_maxval 1.0 -ac 2 -af "aresample=async=1000" -metadata Title="Heckle Replay" output_filename.mp4

    Beware this is very CPU intensive. The time it takes to transcode your file will depend not only on how powerful your computer is, but also the quality and length of your WebM file. There are many more commands that can take advantage of high end graphics cards etc, offloading the stress on the CPU and making even shorter work of transcoding, but I left these commands out since everyone’s computer/laptop is different.

    Please note: The above command is for the current WebM files which are encoded with a variable frame rate and set to run at 25fps. When future WebM become the standard 30fps, you’ll need to replace -r:v 25 with -r:v 30. Failing to change this will end up with a stuttery video. Omiting it altogether will crash the transcoding.

    If your replays are playing sideways or upside down, this can be corrected during transcoding by using one of the commands listed below instead:

    Which way do you want to rotate the video?

    90 degrees Clockwise

    ffmpeg.exe -loglevel quiet -y -i input_filename.webm -c:v libx264 -profile:v high -preset slower -r:v 25 -vf scale=960:540,"transpose=1" -b:v 1600k -maxrate 1600k -bufsize 4M -bt 256k -refs 1 -bf 3 -coder 1 -me_method umh -me_range 16 -subq 7 -partitions +parti4x4+parti8x8+partp8x8+partb8x8 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qcomp 0.6 -trellis 2 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -b-pyramid 1 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -ar 44100 -rematrix_maxval 1.0 -ac 2 -af "aresample=async=1000" -metadata Title="Heckle Replay" output_filename.mp4

    90 degrees Anti-clockwise

    ffmpeg.exe -loglevel quiet -y -i input_filename.webm -c:v libx264 -profile:v high -preset slower -r:v 25 -vf scale=960:540,"transpose=2" -b:v 1600k -maxrate 1600k -bufsize 4M -bt 256k -refs 1 -bf 3 -coder 1 -me_method umh -me_range 16 -subq 7 -partitions +parti4x4+parti8x8+partp8x8+partb8x8 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qcomp 0.6 -trellis 2 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -b-pyramid 1 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -ar 44100 -rematrix_maxval 1.0 -ac 2 -af "aresample=async=1000" -metadata Title="Heckle Replay" output_filename.mp4

    180 degrees (Upside down)

    ffmpeg.exe -loglevel quiet -y -i input_filename.webm -c:v libx264 -profile:v high -preset slower -r:v 25 -vf scale=960:540,"transpose=2,transpose=2" -b:v 1600k -maxrate 1600k -bufsize 4M -bt 256k -refs 1 -bf 3 -coder 1 -me_method umh -me_range 16 -subq 7 -partitions +parti4x4+parti8x8+partp8x8+partb8x8 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qcomp 0.6 -trellis 2 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -b-pyramid 1 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -ar 44100 -rematrix_maxval 1.0 -ac 2 -af "aresample=async=1000" -metadata Title="Heckle Replay" output_filename.mp4

  6. Use an online converter such as https://cloudconvert.com/webm-to-mp4 (We cannot vouch for this one in particular, but there are plenty to choose from. Please report your experiences to us on Twitter and we will update this FAQ.)