Is there a way to trim many videos all at once?

[locutus85]

Hi. First, I'm not sure "crop" is the right word. I want to keep only the first portion of a video and dump the rest. I also want to process many files all at once. For example, I might have a folder with 50 videos of different lengths. Those that are less than a minute would remain untouched but for all the rest I only want the first 60 seconds. So, all the input files could be in a folder that I would specify in the program as well as the output folder. I then start the process, come back later and it's finished. I tried googling for a program to do this but I couldn't find one. What program can I use to do this? Free or cheap software would of course be best.

Also, it's a little off topic but while we're on the subject of videos, what happened to the filter button on YouTube? Youtube is where I'll be getting the videos and I'm going to need the filter button so I can search for "creative commons" videos. I'm sure it used to be under the Search bar. Now I can't find it. I tried googling for its location but I couldn't find any helpful info.

Thanks

[butterw]

The correct word is trim not crop, please correct your title.
In the case you describe it's possible without re-encoding the files.

batch processing files can be done with command line tools such as ffmpeg or via scripting in Avidemux.

[krykmoon]

"trim" is the precise word here.

To "crop" means to remove a physical area of a video/image (for example to remove black borders), to "trim" is to cut a specific portion of a video (from frame x to frame y)

I don't know how you can do this for many video at once (without creating some kind of custom batch file using ffmpeg, I mean).. since I never had any need for a thing like this.

[jagabo]

Put this in a batch file. Put the batch file in a folder with a bunch of MKV files. Double click on it.

md Trimmed
for %%F in (*.mkv) do ( ffmpeg -t 00:01:00.000 -i "%%~dpnxF" -c copy "%%~dpF\trimmed\%%~nxF" )
pause

New 1 minute MKV files with the same name will be created in a subfolder called Trimmed. Videos shorter than one minute will be copied (remuxed) to the folder.

[johns0]

I changed your thread title so more people can help you.

[locutus85]

Thanks for the info.