How to trim/cut clips with VLC

I am running VLC 1.1.5 64-bit on Mac OS X 10.6.6. On the web I found instructions saying I should click on Video->Advanced Controls in the menu bar to reveal options that let me trim and cut video clips. However, there is no such option in my copy of VLC.

What I want to do is cut a ~2 minute portion from the middle of a two hour footage (in MXF format that QuickTime can't open) that I've got.

Is there another way to trim and cut clips of videos in VLC? Or should I use other (preferably free, Free, and open source) software? Thanks.

hpy

Posted 2011-02-25T20:41:14.003

Reputation: 5 269

Answers

For some reason VLC has removed options to stream a partial clip from their transcoding and streaming wizards. But the options are still available at the cli.

Here's how I stream a portion of a file, while keeping the original audio and video streams intact (no transcoding done). Times are given in seconds:

vlc in.avi --start-time 65 --stop-time 95 :sout=#file{dst=/home/myser/Desktop/out.avi} :no-sout-rtp-sap :no-sout-standard-sap :sout-keep

With transcoding:

vlc in.avi --start-time 65 --stop-time 158 :sout='#transcode{vcodec=mp2v,vb=4096,acodec=mp2a,ab=192,scale=1,channels=2,deinterlace,audio-sync}:std{access=file, mux=ps,dst=/home/myser/Desktop/out.mpg}'

More info on transcoding here.

noobish

Posted 2011-02-25T20:41:14.003

Reputation: 361

Since vlc is probably not on your PATH in OSX, you must call it from its app bundle like /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC or set an alias (temporary or in your .bashrc) like alias vlc="/Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC" – Hraban – 2016-07-17T21:04:30.060

1... but that doesn’t help, since you need some CLI version "cvlc", that I couldn’t find. :( – Hraban – 2016-07-17T21:23:13.180

1Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface, and if you update .bashrc by vlc="/Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC", use source ~/.bashrc to force reload after your modification. – Mike Castro Demaria – 2018-04-09T15:04:18.330

Yes, Using VLC player on mac to cut a part of the video is possible..

Goto

"Playback" in top menu while playing the video and at the point where u want to start cropping, click on

"Record", the tick mark beside Record in the sub menu indicates that the recording is happening, click again when u have to stop the cropping.

OPTION + COMMAND + R to start cropping
OPTION + COMMAND + R again to stop cropping

the cropped video saves to home directory by default in mp4 format

Vamsi Krishna Pinapala

Posted 2011-02-25T20:41:14.003

Reputation: 451

1For me the default was ~/Music (home music folder) – k00k – 2015-05-20T12:13:47.887

2BUT it produces stucky video and we have to wait for the recording. So it is not technically "cut the video" – Sibbs Gambling – 2015-05-28T06:52:16.940

5I'm on El Capitan 10.11.1 with VLC 2.0.4 and my default directory was ~/Movies. – Zach Rattner – 2015-10-24T18:01:35.237

Works - sort of - as I don't get audio on the recorded clip... – JJarava – 2016-10-25T08:01:35.763

1how to trim the video in one shot? (without having to read the whole video) – JinSnow – 2017-02-11T14:50:37.400

This records only sound (.wav), any idea why? – EliadL – 2019-01-28T16:09:59.783

14This works on a Mac, but only if you first go into your Preferences and choose what the default folder is for any recorded files. – Asparagirl – 2013-12-24T01:54:40.707

9In order to set the recorded file's location, go to Preferences > Input / Codecs / Record directory or filename. I also had to restart VLC to make it work. – Simon Woodside – 2014-05-27T04:01:52.520

If you're up for other software, just try QuickTime, it has very nice and easy trim controls, you just drag the sliders at the video progress bar and then there's a trim option (I believe it's Cmd+T).

slhck

Posted 2011-02-25T20:41:14.003

Reputation: 182 472

1Unfortunately it is an MXF file and QuickTime can't open it (I will edit my question to reflect that), any other ideas? – hpy – 2011-02-25T21:46:19.673

If you were on Windows, I'd suggest VirtualDub, but I haven't come across MXFs yet.. – slhck – 2011-02-25T22:22:09.467