LosslessCut
mifi · Video
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What is LosslessCut?
LosslessCut is for anyone who needs to shorten, split or join video and audio files without waiting for a slow export. It copies the existing data instead of re-encoding it, so cuts are quick and the original quality is kept. It is not a full editor and cannot add effects, but it handles the everyday clean-up of long recordings, TV captures and camera footage.
LosslessCut is a cross-platform desktop app built on FFmpeg for fast, lossless work on video, audio and subtitle files. Its main job is trimming and cutting without re-encoding, so long camera, drone or screen recordings can be cut down in seconds with no loss of quality. It can also merge files, change containers, and add, remove or extract tracks.
Core capabilities
- Cuts and trims video and audio by copying data instead of re-encoding it.
- Merges segments, or whole files with matching codecs, without losing quality.
- Adds, removes, replaces or extracts audio, subtitle and other tracks.
Lossless cutting and merging
LosslessCut uses FFmpeg to copy the original audio and video data, which makes cuts fast and keeps full quality. Cuts start at the nearest keyframe before the chosen point, and an experimental Smart cut can cut between keyframes for some files. Segments from one file, or whole files with identical codecs, can be merged into one output. Because it does not re-encode, it cannot add effects or make other lossy edits.
- Lossless
- FFmpeg
- Trimming
- Merging
Tracks, segments and formats
Audio, subtitle and other tracks can be added, removed, replaced, shifted or extracted. Segments and markers can be tagged, imported and exported as chapters, CSV, EDL and other formats, and saved in project files. Detection of scenes, black frames and silence can split files automatically. The app opens almost any format FFmpeg can decode, and offers snapshots, frame export, keyboard shortcuts, a basic CLI and a basic HTTP API.
- Tracks
- Segments
- Chapters
- CLI
Download it under GPL-2.0
LosslessCut runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and the downloads on GitHub Releases are free. Versions on the Mac App Store and Microsoft Store carry a small charge that funds development and update automatically, though they are often a few versions behind GitHub. A Snap Store build is published for Linux. The app is maintained by one developer and released under the GPL-2.0 licence.
- Desktop
- Windows
- macOS
- Linux
- GPL-2.0
Where it fits
Use cases
- 01
Cut the useful parts out of long recordings
Open the file, mark the parts you want to keep as segments, and export them as separate files or merge them into one. A lossless cut starts at the keyframe before your cut point, so an export can begin a few seconds early, and the experimental Smart cut can cut between keyframes for some files. Quality is kept because nothing is re-encoded.
- 02
Make a file play on another device
Change the container, for example from MKV to MP4 or MOV, with a lossless remux. Set the hvc1 codec tag on H.265 video for iPhone playback, and edit metadata or rotation without touching the picture. Files the built-in player cannot show use FFmpeg-assisted playback, while the export still comes from the original file.
- 03
Split a video by scenes, silence or chapters
Detect scenes, black frames or silence to create segments automatically, or divide a file by length, size or count. Existing MP4 or MKV chapters can become segments, and segments can be exported as chapters or as YouTube chapter timestamps. Tags on segments can be used to build the output folder structure.