Open EDL files in your browser
The edit decision list editors hand to colorists, sound mixers and online editors. See its events laid out as a timeline right here, with their reels, timecodes and dissolves. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your project opens as its timeline: the tracks down the left, and their clips along it with the pictures and waves of the media dropped with it, under its markers.
- Every track and clip • Zoom from the whole edit to a frame
- Media • A tab of every file it uses, missing ones marked
- Titles and transitions • Their words and lengths on the clips
- Export • Save the clips and the media list as CSV
About EDL
An EDL is text, a line an event, after the CMX 3600 format CMX Systems’ editing machines used in the 1970s: its number, the source reel, the tracks it’s on (V, A, A2, AA), a cut, dissolve or wipe with its length in frames, and the source and record timecodes, often with the clip’s name and file in comments beneath. Premiere, Resolve, Avid and Final Cut all write it, as it’s the one list every app reads.
Filepeek lays the events out on their tracks, from the first record timecode, each clip by its name, a dissolve on the clip it leads into, and Resolve’s LOC markers along the top. A clip whose source file is named finds it among the files dropped with the list.
An EDL never says its frame rate, so Filepeek takes the lowest that its timecodes’ frames fit: 24, 25, 30 or 60, and 29.97 when it says drop frame.
Edit Decision List
.edl
Format
- MIME type
- text/plain
- Made by
- CMX Systems, and every editing app since
Inside the file
- Holds
- Events, reels, tracks and timecodes
- Transitions
- Cuts, dissolves and wipes
- Format
- Text, CMX 3600
- Made by
- Every editing app
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens CMX 3600 EDLs in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. On their own, browsers show them as text.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open EDL
- WindowsDaVinci Resolve, free • Premiere Pro and Media Composer, paid
- MacDaVinci Resolve, free • Premiere Pro and Media Composer, paid
- iPhone and iPadNo app opens it
- AndroidNo app opens it
Questions
How do I open an EDL file?
Drop it on this page or press Peek an EDL. It opens as a timeline in your browser, on Windows, a Mac, an iPhone or Android, with nothing to install.
What frame rate does my EDL use?
An EDL doesn’t say. Filepeek takes it from the frames its timecodes count up to, and shows it in the corner and Show details.
What do V, A and AA mean?
The tracks an event is on: V for video, A or A1 for the first audio track, A2 for the second, and AA for both. B is video and audio together.
What’s a D 030?
A dissolve of 30 frames into this event’s clip, from the one before. W and a number is a wipe, and C a cut.
Can I see the text of the EDL?
Yes, it’s plain text, so any text editor opens it. Here it’s laid out as the edit it describes.
Why does my timeline start at 01:00:00:00?
Editors often start their timeline at one hour. Filepeek starts at the first event and says where the timecode began.