Windows 10 software to cut / trim down videos

Question

I have a lot of videos taken on my phone that are mostly useless, but have priceless portions.
For example a 5 minute video that has my child doing something cute for 20 seconds near the end.
I'd like something that can trim/cut that 5 minute video down to the 30 seconds I'd like to keep.

I don't need a lot of cool stuff, but simple transitions would be nice.

I'm looking for software that would:

1. Run on Windows 11+

2. Show the video and allow me to mark the start and end points to keep as a new file.

3. Produces a new file which is a chunk of video between start and end time

Required features:

• Supports Windows 11+
• Prefer GUI, but I can deal with command line interface (if I have to)
• Gratis, or very cheap (under $5-$10 USD)
• As input, supports Windows Phone 8 videos (mp4 I think)

Desired optional features

• Multiple start/end time pairs; stitching together several chunks of the file specified by those pairs.

• The ability to write on the screen (date, background info, etc. Simple stuff I think the child would want to see when I'm gone)

Things I don't care about

• Format of the output video, as long as it's something Windows 11+ can play.
  Does NOT have to be same format as input video file.

• Any reasonable dependencies are OK. E.g. "need to have PowerShell" is fine.

Things not acceptable

• Installs other software

• Communicates any info to the cloud about me, my computer, or the videos.
  Example: kapwing.com requires that I upload the video, and I don't want to lose control of my videos.

• I don't have Linux or a Mac.

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Note related question Windows command line software to produce pieces of videos between start/end time is almost a good answer for me except that

• I'd prefer a GUI and

• I don't have anything that will play the movies which allows me to pick a precise start/end points.

Answer 1

How about LosslessCut?

Shave gigabytes off video and audio files in seconds without loss of quality

• Losslessly trim or cut out parts of video/audio
• Lossless merge/concatenation of arbitrary files (identical codec parameters)
• Lossless stream editing: Combine arbitrary tracks from multiple files
• Losslessly extract all tracks from a file
• Remux into any compatible output format
• Take full-resolution snapshots from videos in JPEG/PNG format
• Apply a per-file timecode offset in the preview
• Change rotation/orientation metadata in videos
• Powerful timeline with zoom and frame/keyframe jumping
• Auto-saves per project cut segments to file
• View ffmpeg last command log so you can modify and re-run modify recent commands on the command line
• Give labels to cut segments
• Segment panel showing segments with details, export/import cut segments as CSV
• Video thumbnails and audio waveform

It's free if you get it from Github: https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut

Answer 2

AVIDemux

Avidemux is freeware and multiplatform, so it will work on your computer. Note please that the version from the windows store is not related to the original authors, so dont pay for that! If you download from the original site it is free. It is really porwerfull, but some care will need to be taken when selecting the output formats.

Answer 3

Another highly recommended try would be: OpenShot

Regarding your requirements:

• It runs on Windows 10
• You can add plenty of other videos to your project
• OpenShot shows you the videos that you add to the timeline
• You can precisely trim the video clips getting rid of unnecessary stuff
• You can then export the clip to a single movie file.
• Added videos clips can be slice as often as you want.
• With the support of Inkscape you are able to write anything on the video you would like.

Answer 4

DaVinci Resolve may be overkill just for cropping videos. But it's so good that I find myself using it over and over again.

• It's gratis (at least, there is a gratis version and it's not annoying; I use the gratis version for 4+ years now)
• It runs on Windows 10 (I use it myself on Windows 10)
• It supports MP4 files (and a lot more)

Show the video and allow me to mark the start and end points to keep as a new file.

It's not as simple as that, but it has that functionality and it's not too hard.

Produces a new file which is a chunk of video between start and end time

Generally, it does not modify the input files.

Multiple start/end time pairs; stitching together several chunks of the file specified by those pairs.

Again, not as simple as that, but it's there.

Overall, you might find it a bit complicated at the beginning and you probably need to want a bunch of Youtube videos. But once you want to do a bit more than just trimming or cropping, then it has everything you need, such as titles, transitions, zoom, color grading, ... In fact, it's a professional editing software used by professionals as well.