The game player
Open a team, then a game. The video at the top plays the first clip and loops it until you move on.
- Next and Prev under the video move between clips, and so do the ← and → keys. The count in the middle shows where you are.
- The list at the bottom shows every clip with its play type and tags. Click any row to jump to it.
- The panel between them shows the current clip's title, play type, and who is tagged in it.
Looking closer
The row of small controls under the player is for the plays worth arguing about.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| − / + / Reset zoom | Zoom the picture up to 4x. The scroll wheel over the video zooms too. |
| Click the video while zoomed | Recenters on the spot you clicked, so you can follow a player across the field. |
| « 5s / 5s » | Jump back or forward five seconds inside the clip. |
| ‹ Frame / Frame › | Step one frame at a time. , and . do the same. |
| Speed menu | 0.25x to 2x. Slow motion for the big hit, 2x for scanning. |
| HD | Plays the untouched original film, at the quality the camera recorded. It turns on by itself the first time you zoom in, on clips that have an HD copy. It is a bigger download, so give it a moment on a slow connection. |
| Enhance | Sharpens edges and adds contrast, to help read jersey numbers. It changes only what you see, never the clip, and it can't undo motion blur: step frame by frame to find the clearest moment. |
| AI enhance (coaches) | Pauses, then has AI rebuild the middle of what you are zoomed in on at 4x, in about 5 to 10 seconds. It opens beside the same spot simply enlarged. Zoom in and click the number to center it first. |
AI enhance is a guess. The AI fills in detail that looks right, so a blurry 3 can come out looking like a sharp 8. Use it the way you would a second opinion: check what it shows against who could be on that spot, and step a few frames either way for a clearer look. Wiping the camera lens before the game helps more than any of this: water or a smudge on the lens can't be fixed afterwards.
While zoomed in or with Enhance on, the normal video controls are replaced by a plain play/pause button, since the controls would otherwise scale off the screen. Zoom level carries over from clip to clip; the pan position resets.
Player reels
Players in the top menu lists everyone on the roster with their clip, award, and photo counts. Open a player to see:
- their award tally for the season,
- every clip they are tagged in, newest game first, with the awards they earned in each,
- every photo they are tagged in.
Play reel plays their clips one after another, scrolling to each as it starts. Pause any clip and the reel stops there.
Downloading a clip
Every clip has a Download button: in the panel under the game player, and on each clip on a player's page. It saves the clip to your device, named after it, in 720p, which is small enough to text or post. Download original (Original on a player's page) saves the untouched film for that play instead: full quality and a bigger file, and it can start up to a second before the mark. On a phone it lands wherever your browser puts downloads, usually Files or Downloads.
Data saver
Clips play a 720p copy made for phones, which starts quickly and stays sharp enough to pick out players on wide game film. On a slow connection or a small data plan, turn on Data saver (on the game player, or next to Play reel) to play a smaller copy that uses about half the data. It is remembered on that device until you turn it off. Zooming in on the game player still switches to the original film, so jersey numbers stay readable.
The awards board
Awards in the top menu is one row per player, one column per award, with totals for the season. Click a player's name to open their page. The Show menu narrows it to a single game, which is what coaches use to read out stickers after the game.
On a phone
Everything above works on a phone or tablet in the browser. Turn the phone sideways for the game player, pinch to zoom in on it, and drag to move around while zoomed. Lists of clips show a still from each play and only load the video you tap, so a page of clips doesn't eat your data. Tables such as the awards board turn into one card per player.
You can add Sideline to your home screen from the browser's share or menu button. Clip film works on a phone too, though a computer is quicker for a whole game; see Clip film.