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I turned a DJ deck into a video player. Every control does a real player job: the jog wheel scrubs, the tempo fader sets playback speed, eight hot-cue pads jump between chapters and light the current one, and the waveform strip is the seek bar, built from the film's real audio peaks.
The deck sits below the video, never on it, and anyone finds play, volume and fullscreen in a second.
I built it on Video.js v10 in plain CSS and 4 KB of TypeScript, with no images or web fonts. It's keyboard-operable, respects reduced motion, contrast and forced colors, and re-brands through a few tokens.
The look is my own Baltic palette: deep green deck, cream labels and amber LED glow.
Try it: https://videojs-cdj-skin.vercel.app, also live on my site: https://modestasgrz.github.io
Film: Tears of Steel © Blender Foundation, CC BY 3.0, streamed from Mux (playback ID lNg95EGnssc00hkLLQSCG02an2R3Ss702005HBDpEXYPBZk).
Hot-cue pads for chapters and a real audio waveform, every control earns its place.
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NOCTILUCA — an abyssal Video.js v10 skin that turns playback into an expedition. Original bioluminescent jellyfish artwork and a custom 8-second motion study set the scene; spectral cyan and violet controls emerge from a glassy, low-profile rail, then recede so the picture stays in focus. Built from Video.js v10 media components with responsive layout, accessible labels and focus states, keyboard shortcuts (Space, M, F, ←/→), reduced-motion support, seek, time, mute and fullscreen controls. The player is ready to explore at the links below.
Cutframe: one frame, different worlds
I started Cutframe with a simple idea: a video player should feel like part of the page it lives on.
A website already has its own visual language. Its typography, surfaces, links, and accents establish an atmosphere. I wanted those decisions to carry naturally into the player, reducing the work of designing and maintaining a separate player palette.
The page sets the tone. With page adaptation enabled, Cutframe reads the rendered styles of surrounding text, links, controls, and surfaces. It groups related colors, selects roles with contrast checks, and carries the page’s typography into its controls. Developers can start with the design they already have, with styling overrides available when they want more control.
The cut is the visual language. The frame, controls, menu highlights, and time lens share the same cut-corner geometry. Those shapes remain consistent as the colors and typography change. This gives Cutframe a recognizable identity across different environments.
The time lens turns seeking into exploration. When looking for a moment in a video, someone might remember a picture or a topic more clearly than a timestamp. The lens brings those cues together. Press and drag the timeline, and it unfolds upward from a narrow cut at the seek point, revealing a real video frame, chapter context when available, and precise source time.
Everything is organized around one central axis. The fine ruler moves beneath a fixed cursor. Near either end of the timeline, the panel stays inside the player while a short diagonal connection leads back to the actual seek point. On release, scrubbing ends immediately and the lens folds back into the timeline. A new drag can interrupt that return. Reduced-motion preferences remove the animation.
The demo makes adaptation visible. Journal, Studio, and Cinema have different layouts, typography, and content density. Switch between them during playback: the same video element stays in place, playback continues, and the controls take on the surrounding page’s appearance.
It is built to be reused. Cutframe uses Video.js v10 HTML components with authored CSS and JavaScript. Developers provide their own HLS or MP4 source and can add subtitles and chapters. The time lens can decode the playback source directly; a separate lightweight preview video is an optional optimization.
The page provides the visual language. Cutframe gives seeking its own character.
A player that borrows the page's own visual language is a smart idea.
SIDE A - Press Play Like It's 1985.
What if a video player felt like something you could actually touch?
SIDE A is my take on a Video.js v10 skin, inspired by vintage tape decks and the tactile experience of analog technology.
I wanted to move away from the usual minimal video interfaces and create something with personality. Mechanical-style playback buttons, a rotary volume knob, aged brass details, retro typography, and subtle CRT effects all come together to make the player feel like a physical object rather than just another interface.
But the idea wasn't simply to make something nostalgic. I wanted to show that an unconventional design can still be intuitive and accessible. SIDE A is built with responsive controls, keyboard navigation, visible focus states, touch-friendly interactions, and reduced-motion support. In fullscreen, the tape deck transforms into a minimal control tray, keeping the focus on the content.
The result is a balance between old-school character and modern functionality.
Because sometimes pressing play should feel as good as watching what's playing.
Built with Video.js v10 and released under Apache License 2.0.
Press play like it's 1985, love the tape deck feel.