FrameQuery 1.2.3: Guided First Run, Steadier GPU Indexing

FrameQuery 1.2.3 is out. New users get a short guided tour of video search, the first Process click asks whether to enable people search and bib-number detection, and indexing verifies its GPU decode path with a real test. Sign-in at launch is faster.

What's new in 1.2.3

First-run tours: the search page and the video page walk you through plain-English search, @people, find similar, and NLE export on your first visit. Two clicks to dismiss, never shown again.
Faces and bib numbers, offered at first process: your first Process click asks whether to enable people search and bib-number detection, with the privacy details shown.
Verified GPU decode: indexing runs a real decode test on NVDEC, D3D11VA, or VideoToolbox before relying on it.
Instant sign-in: the app starts signing you in the moment it launches, before the window loads.
Recent fixes in the menu: the logo menu lists fixes included in the version you are running.
Fewer "session expired" errors: simultaneous requests share a single token refresh.
Steadier progress on long jobs: stuck-job detection watches frame progress rather than elapsed time, and progress bars no longer drift on footage with embedded preview tracks, like DJI ProRes.

See what your footage can do on day one

Most new users did not find FrameQuery's main tools in their first session: searching by describing the shot, pulling every clip of a person with @their name, jumping from one scene to lookalikes across the library, and exporting selects to Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, or an EDL.

The first time you open search, a short guide shows the three ways to query your footage, drawn as miniatures of the real interface. The first time you open a processed video, a second guide shows find-similar, scene selection, and the export menu. Small markers sit next to the real controls until you have used them once. Dismiss any of it and it stays gone.

When you first click Process, FrameQuery asks whether you want people search and bib-number detection, so the choice applies from the first clip. Face and voice recognition remains consent-gated and on-device, as before. Either can be turned on later in Settings.

Existing installs do not see the tours or the prompt.

Why indexing is faster on some machines now

FrameQuery has decoded on the GPU across platforms for a while, but it trusted the driver's word that a decode path existed. On some Windows machines the driver reports NVDEC support that fails the moment a real frame goes through, and indexing fell back to CPU decode for the entire library.

1.2.3 runs a test decode at startup and walks the ladder: NVDEC first, then D3D11VA on Windows, VideoToolbox on macOS, CPU last. Whichever rung passes the test is used. Machines that were stuck on CPU decode get faster indexing with no settings change. Machines already on a working GPU path see no difference.

A job is now considered stuck only when frame progress stops, and frame-rate detection ignores the embedded preview tracks that made progress bars drift.

What's fixed

The app could sit signed out for up to ten seconds after launch. Silent sign-in now starts when the process does.
Opening the dashboard right as your session token expired could throw several "session expired" errors at once. One refresh now covers all of them.
Progress bars drifted on drone footage and other files with embedded preview tracks. Frame rates now come from the main video track.
Jobs on slow network storage were sometimes flagged as stuck while still making progress.
The welcome card promised a demo library that was not bundled. It no longer does.
Cached extraction files from removed videos are now cleaned up.

How to update

FrameQuery checks for updates on launch, or grab the build for macOS (Apple Silicon) and Windows from the download page. Libraries, people, and projects carry over untouched, and there is nothing to re-index.