The Most Effective Video Review Right in Your Pocket
August 23, 2019

The Most Effective Video Review Right in Your Pocket

Joel McAfee | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Frame.io

I have a boutique video production company that utilizes Frame.io across the organization. We use Frame.io for internal video review as well as video review and versioning with clients. It serves as an excellent solution to the problem of collecting, organizing, and filtering feedback on video reviews. It's easy to edit access uniquely for each video and saves significant amounts of time when sharing edits and receiving feedback when collaborating on a video project.
  • Simple UI. Its drag and drop interface makes uploading and organizing something that happens inherently. Versioning is a huge issue when reviewing videos and frame allows you to keep old versions while prioritizing updated edits on the same link.
  • Frame.io allows you to make accurate notes on a video down to the frame - including drawing on a frame to indicate exact details your notes refer to. This allows for your post team to know exactly what the note-maker is referring to.
  • Privacy settings. Frame has an easy way to manage sharing by providing a "review link" and a "presentation" - this allows you to limit whether a reviewer has access to provide notes or just to review an edit. Simple password protection is an option for any review as well as the option for allowing a file to be downloadable.
  • The Frame.io platform is not as functional on an iPad. There is no iPad app and though the browser version of the software has been improved, it's still not up to snuff with the iOS app for iPhone. This is a huge miss on Frame.IO's part as we use iPads for review regularly and have issues playing back and managing note making in Frame.
  • Bang for the Buck. The pricing structure is quite limiting. 100 gigs of uploads is hardly enough for a team who regularly produced video, but that seems to be what Frame.io thinks is the sweet spot for upload limits for the professional team price package. The next plan up is an absurd $224 more per month for only 4x the upload limit. We produce half hour episodes of TV for public television so this limit is frustrating as our budget is not huge.
  • The limit on 5 team members for the team package is a bit frustrating as well - though there are plenty of collaborators for the price. It's the kindof thing that varies per project and Frame seems to be built for either very small teams or very large teams - but nothing in the middle.
  • One negative impact has been the assumed role of post-management that Frame seems to remove from a small team/project. Often a single editor will upload a cut and then when reviewers begin to provide feedback, the editor instantaneously feels the obligation to proceed with making changes - often before note-making is done. Frame is so easy to communicate notes on, you can often forget the protocol of making sure all notes have been made and approved before proceeding. This is one area that Frame could be improved.
  • I don't know that you can allocate a number to how much ROI there is with Frame in place, but we used to use Trello to make notes - which was great except you had to have 2 windows open and then type out timecodes for each note. This clearly takes time - on both ends. Now, your notes are tied to the timecode and the editor can see very quickly where the notes are in regards to context of the video. It's direct feedback.
  • One of our primary business objectives is to always improve on the quality of our work. Frame.io is specifically built for video review, not for consumption of content but for contemplation of content. This is something that is essential in a mobile work environment where edit sessions aren't always something we're privy to. It allows for the edit suite to live in your pocket, anywhere - which inherently provides for more opportunity to give great feedback when inspiration strikes.
I've used other video review systems, Frame was the only one I didn't question how they allowed you to review - I just started reviewing. It's that simple. It's easy to set up projects, invite collaborators, and then provide a final cut for download. It's naturally built for the kind of work that TV/Film & video production companies do.
The few times I have needed support I have received a quick response - though the one major complaint I have had is regarding the omission of an iPad app - supposedly it is in the works but I haven't seen it release yet. We do have issues with the browser being buggy - especially on slow internet. Whether or not that is something support has failed me on, i'm not sure - but they are responsive, but don't always provide immediate results.
Frame is easily the most efficient video review service of the options i've tried. Wipster is a close second, followed by Vimeo. Trello is listed only b/c it can be tailored for whatever need you have - though I recognize it isn't a true video review system. Wipster's drawbacks when I used it were primarily technical - it regularly didn't work like it was supposed to and was limited. I believe it's come a long ways - though at the time it did not have an iOS app, which was a huge plus for Frame. Vimeo seems like it's playing catchup and though they've really improved, their organization is a bit convoluted and confusing.
By far Frame is the best video review service out there mainly due to how easy it is to introduce to new users, including on the client side. There is not much instruction required in order to share and edit with a client and ask them to start providing feedback - the system is designed to invite users to give notes and that alone is worth the money.