Whats a good lossless video trimmer / cutter in 2018 ?

[TheRandomOne]

AviDemux is awful especially if I need something short

xMedia Recode that GUI is just bad for this

I do like Solveig Video Splitter but that apparently adds in artifacts at the end of the video when its exported & the original video does not have any

VideoReDo shows promise but its awful for short scenes & complicated as well

Is there any easy program out there for lossless cutting of specific movie scenes

[DB83]

Maybe you should define 'awful' since you appear to discount the two programs that should work. That is if you use them correctly.

[usually_quiet]

AviDemux is awful especially if I need something short

xMedia Recode that GUI is just bad for this

I do like Solveig Video Splitter but that apparently adds in artifacts at the end of the video when its exported & the original video does not have any

VideoReDo shows promise but its awful for short scenes & complicated as well

Is there any easy program out there for lossless cutting of specific movie scenes

Another basic smart encoding editor is TMPGEnc MPEG Smart Renderer 5.

If you are editing recordings made using a PC TV tuner, there are only 2 smart encoding editors that I know of which are designed for working with files containing transmission errors. One is VideoReDo TV Suite V5, and the other is Cypheros TS-Doctor. Cypheros TS-Doctor has features that make it an especially good choice for DVB countries. VideoReDo TV Suite V5 has features which make it especially useful for ATSC countries. I have used VideoReDo TV Suite V5 for years and don't find it difficult.

[TheRandomOne]

AviDemux is awful especially if I need something short

xMedia Recode that GUI is just bad for this

I do like Solveig Video Splitter but that apparently adds in artifacts at the end of the video when its exported & the original video does not have any

VideoReDo shows promise but its awful for short scenes & complicated as well

Is there any easy program out there for lossless cutting of specific movie scenes

Another basic smart encoding editor is TMPGEnc MPEG Smart Renderer 5.

If you are editing recordings made using a PC TV tuner, there are only 2 smart encoding editors that I know of which are designed for working with files containing transmission errors. One is VideoReDo TV Suite V5, and the other is Cypheros TS-Doctor. Cypheros TS-Doctor has features that make it an especially good choice for DVB countries. VideoReDo TV Suite V5 has features which make it especially useful for ATSC countries. I have used VideoReDo TV Suite V5 for years and don't find it difficult.

No TV rips just personally encoded Blu-Ray / DVD stuff

[DigitalPhreaker]

OP, give Lossless Cut a shot. Does exactly what you're looking for without any signs of degradation and takes seconds to process.

[Peter Sagan]

AviDemux is perfect I use it all the time.

[bulgom]

Hi

May be the proposals, as well as the question, could if not should, be sorted according to some criteria, e.g. as basic as free/commercial,

and: one that became my main concern (when cutting), able to "smart render" or not;

or "smart cut", or "able to cut BETWEEN key frames": whatever one wants to call it* — that is, with very "slight" recoding = a few frames only, around the cut point.

*I can already hear the specialists: "Nonsense! It's NOT the definition of smart rendering", etc. OK, but my main — & very simple — point, here & for the nth time, is the lack of tools.

Note · the huge amount of available crapware, pretending to cut without ever mentioning "lossless" or not, is not exactly forgotten: I purposely avoid those. Unfortunately, that remark also concerns some acceptable tools...

"Video cutting" being all but precise an expression, you can expect an amount of crooks to take advantage of it, or try ("Best cutting tool's here" & other bull).

—— Besides being free, "Avidemux" IS (now) very good, and ultra simple/obvious ("intuitive", as they say) to use, BUT won't "smart cut/render":

Avidemux being set to "Copy & Copy" (its default mode) = stream copy = no reencoding = lossless processing, the "A" (start) point of a segment MUST be a "key frame" (labeled "I", rather, & displayed at bottom of interface),

while "B" (end) is allowed to be any kind of frame — though some advise to set "B" on an "I" frame too.

You can set any other entry point ("A"), but it will warn (or not) and, above all, revert anyway / in all cases, to the closest "Intra frame".

I don't know if that's what disappointed TheRandomOne when trying to extract SHORT clips, but that could be — as it's happened to me also & of course: especially on vids. containing few key frames, it does show, a 1-second "shift" or even less being noticeable.

—— Aside its $50 cost, "Solveig Video Splitter", also very good – though more tiring than Avidemux on long sessions, due to its more complex interface, including some not so logical commands & display choices... –,

IN A WAY, cannot be compared to Avidemux, as it's a "smart renderer". Note · I never observed the above mentioned artifacts...


—— "LosslessCut", freeware, not well tested yet, & cited above, displays a simple/clean window, does not "smart render"

and at least, mentions it clearly (if you scroll down low enough...): "Note that the cut is currently not precise around cutpoints, so video before/after the nearest keyframe will be lost". ( https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut )

Below, a short list of both: good but unable to "smart render", AND of "not-or-hardly-worth-mentioning" tools. "Why type it then?" Precisely because the overall choice is SO close to zero:

—— BTW, I'm "actively waiting" for "VidCutter", freeware, to become... "mature", efficient, actually able to do what's promised, i.e. "smart cutting". But, as of Sept. 6th 2018 anyway, it's not the case.

I put a lot of hope in it, that turned out to be a waste of time, testing over & over — AND... that's NOT meant to discourage its developer. I can't wait for "VidCutter" to become able to cut without hanging/crashing, beyond 1 or 2 minutes of video!: on Windows "OS", I mean.


[ —— "Sony Vegas", even as old as "5.x", "smart renders", but only when "it considers" it should, i.e.: not by user decision. "Plus" other tough conditions: same encoder as the one used to produce orig. material, same image size, same everything and, of course, besides cutting, not the least modification, filtering, etc., applied, on timeline. ]


—— "VirtualDub (1.10.4)", freeware, IS efficient but, unless I'm mistaken, won't losslessly render (direct stream copy) AVC content,

although, set to Video > Direct stream copy, it's even easier to use than "Avidemux", BUT renders to ".avi" container exclusively. VERY handy, as the arrow + page-up/down & home/end keyb. keys allow quick work/cutting.

A tweaked version exists, not 100% stable, though (during my tests anyway), which lets it save to ".mp4" container... Or else & supposedly, advanced users MAY be able to follow some instructions, that'd let it save to ".mp4", & that never worked for me.


—— "TMPG Smart Renderer 5": ~$70 (Sept. 6, 2018), bloated my PC (modifying something, definitively) to a point that forced me to restore the partition — and weighs a ton. Not exactly what I'm expecting, just to cut videos!


—— "Smart Cutter 1.9.4", commercial ($40), "The world's first H.264 AVCHD MPEG2 frame accurate cutter without re-encoding!": no less than the "world's 1st", here! ... did "build some hope", until I found it to increase file weight like crazy, after a few cuts only (+ weirdest interface).

I've been explained that "smart cutting/rendering" is NOT easy to program, due to many difficulties, such as the wide variety of video formats, "long/short GOPs", etc.: highly technical stuff I barely understand;

nevertheless, being more than greedy for such a — freeware, & PORTABLE (huh? why not portable?!) — tool, that'd be as simple as efficient, I can't get over the (sad) fact that so few developers seem to understand how badly it's needed.

.

[BobAVideo]

Amen and amen. I am looking for the same solution and running into the same problems. I tried AVIDemux first - and found what you found. I'm glad I haven't spent more time beating my head against the wall looking for a solution that doesn't exist. If anyone has a recommendation that actual works, please post it.
Bob

Hi

May be the proposals, as well as the question, could if not should, be sorted according to some criteria, e.g. as basic as free/commercial,

and: one that became my main concern (when cutting), able to "smart render" or not;

or "smart cut", or "able to cut BETWEEN key frames": whatever one wants to call it* — that is, with very "slight" recoding = a few frames only, around the cut point.

*I can already hear the specialists: "Nonsense! It's NOT the definition of smart rendering", etc. OK, but my main — & very simple — point, here & for the nth time, is the lack of tools.

Note · the huge amount of available crapware, pretending to cut without ever mentioning "lossless" or not, is not exactly forgotten: I purposely avoid those. Unfortunately, that remark also concerns some acceptable tools...

"Video cutting" being all but precise an expression, you can expect an amount of crooks to take advantage of it, or try ("Best cutting tool's here" & other bull).

—— Besides being free, "Avidemux" IS (now) very good, and ultra simple/obvious ("intuitive", as they say) to use, BUT won't "smart cut/render":

Avidemux being set to "Copy & Copy" (its default mode) = stream copy = no reencoding = lossless processing, the "A" (start) point of a segment MUST be a "key frame" (labeled "I", rather, & displayed at bottom of interface),

while "B" (end) is allowed to be any kind of frame — though some advise to set "B" on an "I" frame too.

You can set any other entry point ("A"), but it will warn (or not) and, above all, revert anyway / in all cases, to the closest "Intra frame".

I don't know if that's what disappointed TheRandomOne when trying to extract SHORT clips, but that could be — as it's happened to me also & of course: especially on vids. containing few key frames, it does show, a 1-second "shift" or even less being noticeable.

—— Aside its $50 cost, "Solveig Video Splitter", also very good – though more tiring than Avidemux on long sessions, due to its more complex interface, including some not so logical commands & display choices... –,

IN A WAY, cannot be compared to Avidemux, as it's a "smart renderer". Note · I never observed the above mentioned artifacts...


—— "LosslessCut", freeware, not well tested yet, & cited above, displays a simple/clean window, does not "smart render"

and at least, mentions it clearly (if you scroll down low enough...): "Note that the cut is currently not precise around cutpoints, so video before/after the nearest keyframe will be lost". ( https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut )

Below, a short list of both: good but unable to "smart render", AND of "not-or-hardly-worth-mentioning" tools. "Why type it then?" Precisely because the overall choice is SO close to zero:

—— BTW, I'm "actively waiting" for "VidCutter", freeware, to become... "mature", efficient, actually able to do what's promised, i.e. "smart cutting". But, as of Sept. 6th 2018 anyway, it's not the case.

I put a lot of hope in it, that turned out to be a waste of time, testing over & over — AND... that's NOT meant to discourage its developer. I can't wait for "VidCutter" to become able to cut without hanging/crashing, beyond 1 or 2 minutes of video!: on Windows "OS", I mean.


[ —— "Sony Vegas", even as old as "5.x", "smart renders", but only when "it considers" it should, i.e.: not by user decision. "Plus" other tough conditions: same encoder as the one used to produce orig. material, same image size, same everything and, of course, besides cutting, not the least modification, filtering, etc., applied, on timeline. ]


—— "VirtualDub (1.10.4)", freeware, IS efficient but, unless I'm mistaken, won't losslessly render (direct stream copy) AVC content,

although, set to Video > Direct stream copy, it's even easier to use than "Avidemux", BUT renders to ".avi" container exclusively. VERY handy, as the arrow + page-up/down & home/end keyb. keys allow quick work/cutting.

A tweaked version exists, not 100% stable, though (during my tests anyway), which lets it save to ".mp4" container... Or else & supposedly, advanced users MAY be able to follow some instructions, that'd let it save to ".mp4", & that never worked for me.


—— "TMPG Smart Renderer 5": ~$70 (Sept. 6, 2018), bloated my PC (modifying something, definitively) to a point that forced me to restore the partition — and weighs a ton. Not exactly what I'm expecting, just to cut videos!


—— "Smart Cutter 1.9.4", commercial ($40), "The world's first H.264 AVCHD MPEG2 frame accurate cutter without re-encoding!": no less than the "world's 1st", here! ... did "build some hope", until I found it to increase file weight like crazy, after a few cuts only (+ weirdest interface).

I've been explained that "smart cutting/rendering" is NOT easy to program, due to many difficulties, such as the wide variety of video formats, "long/short GOPs", etc.: highly technical stuff I barely understand;

nevertheless, being more than greedy for such a — freeware, & PORTABLE (huh? why not portable?!) — tool, that'd be as simple as efficient, I can't get over the (sad) fact that so few developers seem to understand how badly it's needed.

.

[Selur]

MKV Cutter should work fine for h.264 content inside an mkv container,... (MkvCutter_r20190123_untested should be the latest version)

[TimA-C]

If it's mpeg or h.264 then VideoRedo is the one. It's not free but it works well and is well supported through it's forum by the writers. As for "shows promise but its awful for short scenes & complicated as well" . . . huh? Never had a problem with any length of scene in VRD, and you think it's complicated? Maybe you should find a new hobby that maybe includes wooden blocks? Seriously, set up the mouse/keyboard shortcuts and configure the settings so that the frame type is shown. (Tools, Options..., Navigation. Mouse Wheel: Move next frame, Shift multiplier: 2, Ctrl multiplier: 3, Left/Right Arrow Keys - unshifted: move next frame, Shift: move next I-frame, Ctrl: Move 1 minute, Ctrl + Shift: Move 10 secs. Force IFrame seek...: 9. View menu: Display on-screen information, show thumbnails, set thumbnail parameters... - Frame type display)

AviDemux seems to work well for just cutting on the key frames and it's really quick using the keyboard shortcuts. It also seems to be OK for quick and dirty audio conversions.

You might want to have a look at Virtualdub2 as it's a development of the original Virtualdub and has expanded features and capabilities.

Btw, I'm not associated in any way with any of these programs, just a long term hobbyist. Good luck.

[lordsmurf]

It's not free, but my favorite is still TMPGEnc Smart Renderer.