Is there a free tool that allows for cutting of videos?

I am downloading AVI files from a German "online" video recording service. These files don't work with quicktime, but using the Elmedia video player (via app store) does the job.

Now I would like to "cut" those videos (basically selecting the real content of the videos, as they always contain additional 5 minutes before/after the actual recording).

I installed avidemux (using *brew cast install avidemux), and the tool installs. But when I open these AVI video files ... it seems that the buttons to select A/B boundaries for cutting are simply disabled. And on top of that, audio isn't in sync when avidemux is playing my AVIs - so I doubt that avidemux cutting the video would give me a correct file in the end.

As mentioned: quicktime refuses to play my avis,so this existing question on how to trim using quicktime doesn't help me.

Thus: are there other tools for Mac Os that work better?

Solution 1:

You could just put them into iMovie and trim the beginning and end and export them.

I tried using iMovie with .avi files before posting this answer, so I know it works.

Solution 2:

After checking the various solutions, I guess I will stick with

• Elmedia video player
• and ffmpeg

It is a bit cumbersome: as you first have to use the video player to find start/end timestamps for cutting. As soon as you got those numbers:

 ffmpeg -i IN.avi -ss 00:05:48.0 -to 01:35:10.0 -c copy OUT.avi

where -ss gives the start time stamp and -to the end point (and because both timestamps apply to the IN stream, no manual subtraction is required).

Using this command, it takes about 3 seconds to reduce a 1.2 GB file to 920 MB.

The big advantage: just two small tools require installation + super quick time for actual cutting.

Solution 3:

Filmora Video Editor have a free trial and accept many input format like MP4, AVI, FLV, MKV, M4V, MOV, MPG, MPEG, VOB, DAT, TS, M2TS, WMV, ASF, DV, DIF, NUT, H264, NSV, PSP, 3GP, EVO, RM, TP, TRP, DVR-MS, etc.

anymp4, have a free version with this features: convert MOV/MKV/AVI/WMV/FLV/VOB/SWF/M4V to MP4 and Adjust video effect, rotate, flip, add watermark, clip and merge, etc.anymp4.com/app-store/free-mp4-converter

Last but not least FFmpeg, a free software that run via command line, you can trim or convert and save the video at the same quality