FFMPEG to trim off last 3 seconds of videos

Question

I am trying to trim/cut off the last 3 secs of my videos with FFMPEG but this has really been an headache.

The following code trims but only retains the last 3 seconds. I don't want to retain the 3 secs, i don't need that, i want to retain the deleted part.

ffmpeg -sseof -3 -i input.mp4 output.mp4

Can someone please help me with the right code?. I will also like to request a batch code that will auto trim all last 3 secs of videos in my folder. Thanks for the help.

Exoenzyme

The usage for tag ffmpeg reads Questions about interactive use of the command line tool should be asked on Super User or Video Production. – Spillage

Answer 1

Cut video with ffmpeg.

use

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ss 3 -i input.mp4 -c copy -map 1:0 -map 0 -shortest -f nut - | ffmpeg -f nut -i - -map 0 -map -0:0 -c copy out.mp4

Glossitis

This is the same as doing ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ss 3 -c copy output.mp4. However, this removes the tail of the video, but humble5050 wants to keep that part only. – Puma

Thanks nico_lab,,,this is exactly what i am looking for...u r awesome – Exoenzyme

Great answer but care to explain what it's doing? – Misestimate

-ss 3 is input option of second input.mp4. -map 1:0 -map 0 stdout, but output -map 1:0 is shorten 3 seconds, then output -map 0 is shorten by the last 3 seconds by -shortest. -map -0:0 is deleted from -map 1:0. I wrote in Japnease, if you can read. ffmpeg で先頭と後ろを一度にカットする | ニコラボ、ffmpeg で指定時間でカットするまとめ | ニコラボ – Glossitis

exactly what I need too! Been looking for this for months; previously I was just manually inputting the duration. Thanks! – Danyelledanyette

Answer 2

I don't think ffmpeg allows a "from end" spec for duration. You'll have to detect the video's duration yourself and subtract 3 seconds.

ffprobe -i input.mp4 -show_entries format=duration -v quiet -of csv="p=0"

You can do this in a script. For example in bash:

dur=$(ffprobe -i input.mp4 -show_entries format=duration -v quiet -of csv="p=0")
trim=$((dur - 3))
ffmpeg -t $trim -i input.mp4 output.mp4

Oriente

Thank you for your response, but unfortunately, i am on a windows PC, can u tell me how to run that on windows PC? – Exoenzyme

I'd think Windows batch also allows you to store the output of a command and perform arithmetic. Just replace the $(...) stuff with the appropriate syntax. – Oriente

(In general, StackOverflow is a question-answering platform, not a code-writing service.) – Oriente

Windows batch sucks and the syntax for capturing the output of a command into a variable is extremely ugly and requires a for loop! #6360320 – Handedness

Answer 3

Here is a bash script for convenience (adding to above answer):

#!/bin/bash

# Arguments
FILE_RAW=$1
TRIM_EOF_DURATION=${2:-1.0} # Default is 1.0 second trimmed from EOF

# Prepare variables
BASE_PATH=$(dirname $(readlink -f $FILE_RAW))
FILENAME_EXT="$(basename "${FILE_RAW}")"
FILENAME_ONLY="${FILENAME_EXT%.*}"
EXT_ONLY="${FILENAME_EXT#*.}" # Or hardcode it like "mp4"
FILENAME_ONLY_PATH="${BASE_PATH}/${FILENAME_ONLY}"

# Trim EOF duration
INPUT_DURATION=$(ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=duration -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 "${FILENAME_ONLY_PATH}.${EXT_ONLY}")
OUTPUT_DURATION=$(bc <<< "$INPUT_DURATION"-"$TRIM_EOF_DURATION")
ffmpeg -i "${FILENAME_ONLY_PATH}.${EXT_ONLY}" -map 0 -c copy -t "$OUTPUT_DURATION" "${FILENAME_ONLY_PATH}_Trim_${TRIM_EOF_DURATION}.${EXT_ONLY}"

Note: Make script executable: chmod +x trim_video.sh

Usage (Output File: <PATH_TO_INPUT_VIDEO>_Trim_<TRIM_EOF_DURATION>.mp4)

. <PATH_TO_THIS_SCRIPT>/trim_video.sh <PATH_TO_INPUT_VIDEO> <OPTIONAL_TRIM_EOF_DURATION>

Example: Trim 3.0 seconds from EOF (Output: ~/Videos/input_video_Trim_3.0.mp4)

. ~/trim_video.sh ~/Videos/input_video.mp4 3.0

Amaryllidaceous