Every smartphone owner records a video from time to time. Often the video turns out to be too long afterwards. Especially since only a short fragment is worthwhile. With LosslessCut you can throw away the unnecessary parts of a recording and immediately save storage space. Unlike most extensive video editors, this lightning-fast program is completely free. This is how you cut videos.
You know it: something fun happens and you grab your smartphone to record everything. But once you start recording, the fun moment is largely over and you wait a while to see if it might happen again. LosslessCut prevents your video collection from expanding unnecessarily. With this tool you can easily delete the unwanted moments from the film, without having to use an expensive software package.
Download LosslessCut
As a smartphone owner, you probably regularly transfer the content of the device to a PC, NAS or online storage service. Most smartphones only offer limited storage space and of course you want to store the footage neatly. After transferring videos, the freeware LosslessCut comes into play. It is an open source project that is still under development. There is not (yet) a website of its own, although interested parties can still easily install the program.
surf to www.tiny.cc/losslcut and click Releases on the right. A new web page opens with the latest versions of program files. LosslessCut is available for Linux, macOS and Windows. In this article, we will get started with the Windows edition. Download LosslessCut-win.exe and start the program from this file. No installation is required.
Add videos
Once the minimalist main window pops up, add a video. The freeware supports all common video formats including mp4, mov, mkv and webm. Browse with Windows Explorer to the folder with videos and drag a video with the mouse button pressed to LosslessCut. Confirm with OK. You can also add a video from the menu. To do this, click successively File and Open. Then double-click on the video in the video folder. You can check whether the correct video has been added via the play button.
Select clips
LosslessCut cuts any desired fragment from a video without compromising image quality. It is nice that the program does not encode or decode anything, so this job hardly takes any time. That is different with most paid video editors. From now on you can make videos a cup smaller without having to wait.
Do you want to trim a video at the beginning and at the end? Play the video in LosslessCut and freeze the image at the intended starting point. Then click on the hand that points to the left. The first part of the timeline now turns dark. You then restart the playback and freeze the timeline when you want to cut the video. Click on the hand to the right. The colored area on the timeline illustrates the new video file.
You repeat the steps if you want to save another clip later in the movie. In the right pane, see which moments from the original video you selected.
Delete images
Once you’ve selected your favorite moments, save them as new videos. Click the blue button at the bottom right Export. Various export settings will now appear. If you’ve cut two or more clips, you can access them via Merge cuts merge or via Separate files store separately.
Determine at Output container format in which video format you want to save the images. You can choose from, among other things mov, mp4 and mkv. You point behind Save output to path the destination folder. By default, LosslessCut uses the same file location as the original video.
Furthermore, the choice is behind Cut mode interesting. Default is the setting Keyframe cut selected. The freeware automatically chooses the first keyframe for the chosen cutting point. According to the makers, the chance of a successful export task is therefore greatest.
Alternatively, you can Normal cut trying out. Leave the other settings unchanged and confirm last with Export. After a few moments you will return to the start window of the program. It is important to know that the original video file will remain intact after this action.
Split videos
LosslessCut contains a number of other useful tools. For example, you can cut a video into two or more pieces. This is useful, among other things, when you want to edit the fragments in different places in a film. Add a video to the program and pause playback at the right time. Click the button at the bottom right Split segment at cursor. You can recognize this function by the icon with the two arrows.
If you chop a video into several pieces, add labels for clarity. Select a clip on the timeline and click the button Label segment. Once you have entered a label name, confirm with OK. This name will immediately appear in the timeline and in the right pane. Use the Exportbutton to save the clips. It is advantageous that LosslessCut also returns the label in the file name.
Merge fragments
With LosslessCut you can effortlessly string multiple fragments together. Unfortunately, this program uses abrupt transitions for this. So it is not possible to introduce a new clip with a nice transition effect, as you can in extensive video editors. But for a quick video montage without frills, it will do just fine. It is important for a good result that the files have the same resolution and video format (codec). This is usually the case if the images were taken with the same smartphone or video camera.
In preparation, make sure that all the intended footage is in the same folder.
You click in the menu bar Tools and Merge files, then browse to the video folder. Hold down the Ctrl key and click on the desired video files. Once you confirm with To open, an overview of all added tracks appears. Drag each video file to the desired location and use it to arrange the order as desired. At the bottom you tick the option Include all tracks? and finally click Merge. When finished, the merged video file will be in the same folder as the source material.
extra options
LosslessCut always opens in simple mode by default. Under the hood, the program offers more functionality. Just click on the bottom left Toggle advanced view (icon with figure). Additional options will now appear. For example, add thumbnails to the timeline and adjust the scale of the timeline with the zoom function. You also play the display frame by frame and create a jpg image from a video image.
