Extract part of a video with a one-line command

Question

If I have a video, normally avi, but could be any, and I want to create another one in the same format but just a part, the position i seconds to f seconds into the video, what is the one-line command to do this?

Answer 1

This can be done using mencoder or ffmpeg.

mencoder

Say that you want to cut out a part starting at 00:00:30 into the original file with a 5 seconds length and that it shouldn't be reencoded (if you want to re-encode it you'll have to replace copy with audio and video codecs, for a list of available audio codecs issue mencoder -oac help, for a list of available video codecs issue mencoder -ovc help), then you issue:

mencoder -ss 00:30:00 -endpos 00:00:05 -oac pcm -ovc copy originalfile -o newfile

You'll have to replace orginalfile and newfile with actual file names, the latter is the name of the file that is created to hold the cut-out part.

ffmpeg

Say that you want to cut out a part starting at 00:00:30 into the original file with a 5 seconds length and that it shouldn't be re-encoded (if you want to re-encode it you'll have to replace copy with audio and video codecs, for a list of available codecs issue ffmpeg -formats -E), then you issue:

ffmpeg -ss 00:00:30 -i orginalfile -t 00:00:05 -vcodec copy -acodec copy newfile

You'll have to replace orginalfile and newfile with actual file names, the later is the name of the file that is created to hold the cut out part.

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_{For reference see http://lazyxiong-tech.blogspot.com/2007/05/using-mencoder-to-cut-out-pieces-of.html and "7. Copy Only A Part Of Video" in http://segfault.in/2010/10/ffmpeg-tricks-you-should-know-about/}

Answer 2

Do you need to cut video with re-encoding or without re-encoding mode? You can try to following below command.

Synopsis: ffmpeg -i [input_file] -ss [start_seconds] -t [duration_seconds] [output_file]

use FFmpeg cut mp4 video without re-encoding

Example:
ffmpeg -i source.mp4 -ss 00:00:05 -t 00:00:10 -c copy cut_video.mp4

use FFmpeg cut mp4 video with re-encoding

Example:
ffmpeg -i source.mp4 -ss 00:00:05 -t 00:00:10 -async 1 -strict -2 cut_video.mp4

If you want to cut off section from the beginning, simply drop -t 00:00:10 from the command

Answer 3

medipack is a very simple command-line app as a wrapper over ffmpeg.

you can achieve trimming your video using these commands:

medipack trim input.mp4 -s 01:04 -e 14:08 -o output.mp4
medipack trim input.mp4 -s 01:04 -t 13:04 -o output.mp4

you can view options of trim subcommand as:

srb@srb-pc:$ medipack trim -h
usage: medipack trim [-h] [-s START] [-e END | -t TIME] [-o OUTPUT] [inp]

positional arguments:
  inp                   input video file ex: input.mp4

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -s START, --start START
                        start time for cuting in format hh:mm:ss or mm:ss
  -e END, --end END     end time for cuting in format hh:mm:ss or mm:ss
  -t TIME, --time TIME  clip duration in format hh:mm:ss or mm:ss
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT

you could also explore other options using medipack -h

srb@srb-pc:$ medipack --help
usage: medipack.py [-h] [-v] {trim,crop,resize,extract} ...

positional arguments:
  {trim,crop,resize,extract}

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v, --version         Display version number

you may visit https://github.com/srbcheema1/medipack and checkout examples in README.

Answer 4

To be more precise you can: MANUALLY Open the file in a media player that will frame by frame advance (potplayer my favorite but MPC-HC works)and play an AVISynth file with data such as:

DirectShowSource(("C:\Downloads\Video\Do you want him.flv"), Pixel_Type="yuy2").Crop(0,0,-0,-0)
Subtitle("C:\Downloads\Video\Do you want him.flv", font="Arial", size=24, text_color=$ff0000, align=3)
ShowFrameNumber(scroll=true, x=336, y=27, font="Arial", size=24, text_color=$ff0000)

ShowTime(x=398, y=44, font="Arial", size=24, text_color=$ff0000)

Then cut with the EXACT time format:

ffmpeg -i "Path\do you want him.flv" -ss 00:00:05.240 -to 00:00:08.360 -vcodec libx264 -acodec libvo_aacenc "Path\Do you want him1.flv"

and

ffmpeg -i "Path\do you want him.flv" -ss 00:00:10.240 -to 00:00:14.360 -vcodec libx264 -acodec libvo_aacenc "Path\Do you want him2.flv"

If you wish to join, make a txt file with the video files with contents like:

file 'C:\Downloads\Video\Do you want him1.flv'

file 'C:\Downloads\Video\Do you want him2.flv'

Run ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -f concat -i FileList.txt -c copy "Path\NewName_joined.flv"

PROGRAMMATICALLY I wrote a program but have no level 10 to show it, sorry