- [ ]**Cut / Mute sections** — select a time range and choose to cut (remove entirely) or mute (silence audio while video continues). Cut sections show as red overlays, mute sections as transparent blue overlays on the timeline over the transcript text and audio waveform. Backend: `ffmpeg -af volume=0` for mute, time-based cutting for removal.
- [ ]**Silence / pause trimmer** — detect and auto-remove pauses longer than X ms. One backend endpoint (`/audio/remove-silence`) + a button in the UI. Saves enormous time in podcast/interview editing.
- [ ]**Volume / gain control** — per-selection or global audio gain slider. Every editor has this. Descript users constantly complain it's missing. Backend: `ffmpeg -af volume=Xdb`.
- [ ]**Speed adjustment** — slow down or speed up a selection or the whole clip. Backend: `ffmpeg -filter:v setpts` + `atempo`. Common use case: slightly speed up boring sections.
- [ ]**Cut preview** — before committing a delete, play what the audio will sound like with that section removed (pre-listen across the edit point). Pure frontend using Web Audio API — splice the AudioBuffer and play the join.
- [ ]**Timeline shows output length** — deleted regions should visually collapse (or show as narrow gaps) so the user sees the *output* duration, not just the source duration.
---
## 🟡 Medium Priority — Widely expected features
- [ ]**Transcript search (Ctrl+F)** — find words/phrases in the transcript and highlight matches. Pure frontend. Critical for long-form content. Jump between matches with Enter.
- [ ]**Mark In / Out + delete (I / O keys)** — keyboard shortcuts to mark a time range on the timeline, then delete it. Faster than click-dragging words. Store the in/out points in state, `Delete` removes them.
- [ ]**Low-confidence word highlighting** — WhisperX already returns `confidence` per word. Words below a threshold (e.g. <0.6)shouldbevisuallyunderlinedortintedsotheuserknowswheretodouble-check.
- [ ]**Re-transcribe selection** — if Whisper gets a section wrong, let the user select a word range and re-run transcription on just that segment (optionally with a different model or language).
- [ ]**Word text correction** — allow editing the transcript text of a word without affecting its timing. Whisper gets homophones/proper nouns wrong constantly. Pure frontend state change; no backend needed.
- [ ]**Named timeline markers** — drop named marker pins on the waveform (like Resolve markers). Store as `{ id, time, label, color }` in the project. Rendered as colored triangles on the timeline canvas.
- [ ]**Chapters** — group markers into named chapter ranges. Useful for podcasts and lectures. Exportable as YouTube chapter timestamps in the description.
---
## 🟢 Lower Priority — Differentiating / power features
- [ ]**Audio normalization / loudness targeting** — single "Normalize" button that targets a LUFS level (-14 for YouTube, -16 for Spotify). Backend: `ffmpeg -af loudnorm`. Very high value for podcasters, ~2–3 hours of work.
- [ ]**Background music track** — a second audio track for background music with volume ducking. Major gap in Descript that TalkEdit could own. Backend: `ffmpeg` amix + `asendcmd` for auto-ducking.
- [ ]**Video zoom / punch-in** — scale and position the video (crop, zoom, pan). Used constantly on talking-head videos for emphasis. Backend: `ffmpeg -vf crop/scale/zoompan`.
- [ ]**Multi-clip / append** — load a second video and append it to the timeline. Even without a full multi-track timeline, "append clip" is a heavily used workflow.
- [ ]**Clip thumbnail strip** — video frame thumbnails along the timeline so users can navigate visually, not only by waveform. Backend: `ffmpeg` thumbnail extraction at regular intervals.
- [ ]**Batch silence removal** — full-file scan + remove all pauses above threshold in one click. Distinct from the manual trimmer above; this is a "fix the whole file" operation.
- [ ]**Export to transcript text / SRT only** — some users just want a clean `.txt` or `.srt` of the edited transcript without rendering video.
---
## 💡 TalkEdit competitive advantages to lean into
These aren't features to build — they're things to make more visible in the UI and README:
- **100% offline / no account required** — CapCut requires login and sends data to servers. Descript is cloud-first. TalkEdit never leaves the machine.
- **Local AI models** — Ollama support means no API costs and no data leaving the device.
- **Word-level precision** — editing by deleting words (not dragging razor cuts) is faster for talking-head content than any timeline-based editor.
- **Works on long files** — virtualized transcript + chunked waveform handles 1hr+ content that bogs down CapCut.
