diff --git a/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/components/extended_video_player.js b/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/components/extended_video_player.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 009c0d559a..0000000000
--- a/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/components/extended_video_player.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,63 +0,0 @@
-import React from 'react';
-import PropTypes from 'prop-types';
-
-export default class ExtendedVideoPlayer extends React.PureComponent {
-
-  static propTypes = {
-    src: PropTypes.string.isRequired,
-    alt: PropTypes.string,
-    width: PropTypes.number,
-    height: PropTypes.number,
-    time: PropTypes.number,
-    controls: PropTypes.bool.isRequired,
-    muted: PropTypes.bool.isRequired,
-    onClick: PropTypes.func,
-  };
-
-  handleLoadedData = () => {
-    if (this.props.time) {
-      this.video.currentTime = this.props.time;
-    }
-  }
-
-  componentDidMount () {
-    this.video.addEventListener('loadeddata', this.handleLoadedData);
-  }
-
-  componentWillUnmount () {
-    this.video.removeEventListener('loadeddata', this.handleLoadedData);
-  }
-
-  setRef = (c) => {
-    this.video = c;
-  }
-
-  handleClick = e => {
-    e.stopPropagation();
-    const handler = this.props.onClick;
-    if (handler) handler();
-  }
-
-  render () {
-    const { src, muted, controls, alt } = this.props;
-
-    return (
-      <div className='extended-video-player'>
-        <video
-          ref={this.setRef}
-          src={src}
-          autoPlay
-          role='button'
-          tabIndex='0'
-          aria-label={alt}
-          title={alt}
-          muted={muted}
-          controls={controls}
-          loop={!controls}
-          onClick={this.handleClick}
-        />
-      </div>
-    );
-  }
-
-}
diff --git a/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/components/gifv.js b/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/components/gifv.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..83cfae49c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/components/gifv.js
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+import React from 'react';
+import PropTypes from 'prop-types';
+
+export default class GIFV extends React.PureComponent {
+
+  static propTypes = {
+    src: PropTypes.string.isRequired,
+    alt: PropTypes.string,
+    width: PropTypes.number,
+    height: PropTypes.number,
+    onClick: PropTypes.func,
+  };
+
+  state = {
+    loading: true,
+  };
+
+  handleLoadedData = () => {
+    this.setState({ loading: false });
+  }
+
+  componentWillReceiveProps (nextProps) {
+    if (nextProps.src !== this.props.src) {
+      this.setState({ loading: true });
+    }
+  }
+
+  handleClick = e => {
+    const { onClick } = this.props;
+
+    if (onClick) {
+      e.stopPropagation();
+      onClick();
+    }
+  }
+
+  render () {
+    const { src, width, height, alt } = this.props;
+    const { loading } = this.state;
+
+    return (
+      <div className='gifv' style={{ position: 'relative' }}>
+        {loading && (
+          <canvas
+            width={width}
+            height={height}
+            role='button'
+            tabIndex='0'
+            aria-label={alt}
+            title={alt}
+            onClick={this.handleClick}
+          />
+        )}
+
+        <video
+          src={src}
+          width={width}
+          height={height}
+          role='button'
+          tabIndex='0'
+          aria-label={alt}
+          title={alt}
+          muted
+          loop
+          autoPlay
+          playsInline
+          onClick={this.handleClick}
+          onLoadedData={this.handleLoadedData}
+          style={{ position: loading ? 'absolute' : 'static', top: 0, left: 0 }}
+        />
+      </div>
+    );
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/features/ui/components/focal_point_modal.js b/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/features/ui/components/focal_point_modal.js
index d5c9e66aeb..f5ecf77b93 100644
--- a/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/features/ui/components/focal_point_modal.js
+++ b/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/features/ui/components/focal_point_modal.js
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import UploadProgress from 'flavours/glitch/features/compose/components/upload_p
 import CharacterCounter from 'flavours/glitch/features/compose/components/character_counter';
 import { length } from 'stringz';
 import { Tesseract as fetchTesseract } from 'flavours/glitch/util/async-components';
+import GIFV from 'flavours/glitch/components/gifv';
 
 const messages = defineMessages({
   close: { id: 'lightbox.close', defaultMessage: 'Close' },
@@ -41,6 +42,36 @@ const removeExtraLineBreaks = str => str.replace(/\n\n/g, '******')
 
 const assetHost = process.env.CDN_HOST || '';
 
+class ImageLoader extends React.PureComponent {
+
+  static propTypes = {
+    src: PropTypes.string.isRequired,
+    width: PropTypes.number,
+    height: PropTypes.number,
+  };
+
+  state = {
+    loading: true,
+  };
+
+  componentDidMount() {
+    const image = new Image();
+    image.addEventListener('load', () => this.setState({ loading: false }));
+    image.src = this.props.src;
+  }
+
+  render () {
+    const { loading } = this.state;
+
+    if (loading) {
+      return <canvas width={this.props.width} height={this.props.height} />;
+    } else {
+      return <img {...this.props} alt='' />;
+    }
+  }
+
+}
+
 export default @connect(mapStateToProps, mapDispatchToProps)
 @injectIntl
 class FocalPointModal extends ImmutablePureComponent {
@@ -60,6 +91,7 @@ class FocalPointModal extends ImmutablePureComponent {
     description: '',
     dirty: false,
     progress: 0,
+    loading: true,
   };
 
   componentWillMount () {
@@ -242,8 +274,8 @@ class FocalPointModal extends ImmutablePureComponent {
           <div className='focal-point-modal__content'>
             {focals && (
               <div className={classNames('focal-point', { dragging })} ref={this.setRef} onMouseDown={this.handleMouseDown} onTouchStart={this.handleTouchStart}>
-                {media.get('type') === 'image' && <img src={media.get('url')} width={width} height={height} alt='' />}
-                {media.get('type') === 'gifv' && <video src={media.get('url')} width={width} height={height} loop muted autoPlay />}
+                {media.get('type') === 'image' && <ImageLoader src={media.get('url')} width={width} height={height} alt='' />}
+                {media.get('type') === 'gifv' && <GIFV src={media.get('url')} width={width} height={height} />}
 
                 <div className='focal-point__preview'>
                   <strong><FormattedMessage id='upload_modal.preview_label' defaultMessage='Preview ({ratio})' values={{ ratio: '16:9' }} /></strong>
diff --git a/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/features/ui/components/media_modal.js b/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/features/ui/components/media_modal.js
index d61c69f692..c7d6c374c9 100644
--- a/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/features/ui/components/media_modal.js
+++ b/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/features/ui/components/media_modal.js
@@ -3,13 +3,13 @@ import ReactSwipeableViews from 'react-swipeable-views';
 import ImmutablePropTypes from 'react-immutable-proptypes';
 import PropTypes from 'prop-types';
 import Video from 'flavours/glitch/features/video';
-import ExtendedVideoPlayer from 'flavours/glitch/components/extended_video_player';
 import classNames from 'classnames';
 import { defineMessages, injectIntl, FormattedMessage } from 'react-intl';
 import IconButton from 'flavours/glitch/components/icon_button';
 import ImmutablePureComponent from 'react-immutable-pure-component';
 import ImageLoader from './image_loader';
 import Icon from 'flavours/glitch/components/icon';
+import GIFV from 'flavours/glitch/components/gifv';
 
 const messages = defineMessages({
   close: { id: 'lightbox.close', defaultMessage: 'Close' },
@@ -149,10 +149,8 @@ class MediaModal extends ImmutablePureComponent {
         );
       } else if (image.get('type') === 'gifv') {
         return (
-          <ExtendedVideoPlayer
+          <GIFV
             src={image.get('url')}
-            muted
-            controls={false}
             width={width}
             height={height}
             key={image.get('preview_url')}
diff --git a/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/styles/components/modal.scss b/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/styles/components/modal.scss
index 716796af9d..75bddeefc2 100644
--- a/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/styles/components/modal.scss
+++ b/app/javascript/flavours/glitch/styles/components/modal.scss
@@ -878,7 +878,8 @@
   background: $base-shadow-color;
 
   img,
-  video {
+  video,
+  canvas {
     display: block;
     max-height: 80vh;
     width: 100%;