diff --git a/fastplotlib/layouts/_figure.py b/fastplotlib/layouts/_figure.py
index 70a4d41be..e8df9c21d 100644
--- a/fastplotlib/layouts/_figure.py
+++ b/fastplotlib/layouts/_figure.py
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 import os
 from itertools import product, chain
-from multiprocessing import Queue
 from pathlib import Path
-from time import time
 
 import numpy as np
 from typing import Literal, Iterable
@@ -13,7 +11,6 @@
 
 from rendercanvas import BaseRenderCanvas
 
-from ._video_writer import VideoWriterAV
 from ._utils import make_canvas_and_renderer, create_controller, create_camera
 from ._utils import controller_types as valid_controller_types
 from ._subplot import Subplot
diff --git a/fastplotlib/layouts/_video_writer.py b/fastplotlib/layouts/_video_writer.py
deleted file mode 100644
index b7e111b50..000000000
--- a/fastplotlib/layouts/_video_writer.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,82 +0,0 @@
-from pathlib import Path
-from multiprocessing import Queue, Process
-
-
-def _get_av():
-    try:
-        import av
-    except ImportError:
-        raise ModuleNotFoundError(
-            "Recording to video file requires `av`:\n"
-            "https://github.com/PyAV-Org/PyAV"
-        ) from None
-    else:
-        return av
-
-
-class VideoWriterAV(Process):
-    """Video writer, uses PyAV in an external process to write frames to disk"""
-
-    def __init__(
-        self,
-        path: Path | str,
-        queue: Queue,
-        fps: int,
-        width: int,
-        height: int,
-        codec: str,
-        pixel_format: str,
-        options: dict = None,
-    ):
-        super().__init__()
-        self.queue = queue
-
-        av = _get_av()
-        self.container = av.open(path, mode="w")
-
-        self.stream = self.container.add_stream(codec, rate=fps, options=options)
-
-        # in case libx264, trim last rows and/or column
-        # because libx264 doesn't like non-even number width or height
-        if width % 2 != 0:
-            width -= 1
-        if height % 2 != 0:
-            height -= 1
-
-        self.stream.width = width
-        self.stream.height = height
-
-        self.stream.pix_fmt = pixel_format
-
-    def run(self):
-        av = _get_av()
-        while True:
-            if self.queue.empty():  # no frame to write
-                continue
-
-            frame = self.queue.get()
-
-            # recording has ended
-            if frame is None:
-                self.container.close()
-                break
-
-            frame = av.VideoFrame.from_ndarray(
-                frame[
-                    : self.stream.height, : self.stream.width
-                ],  # trim if necessary because of x264
-                format="rgb24",
-            )
-
-            for packet in self.stream.encode(frame):
-                self.container.mux(packet)
-
-        # I don't exactly know what this does, copied from pyav example
-        for packet in self.stream.encode():
-            self.container.mux(packet)
-
-        # close file
-        self.container.close()
-
-        # close process, release resources
-        self.close()