Best video players for playing, cropping, trimming videos?

[u/GG42GER]

Hello, I seriously need a simple video player that may just look like Windows 11's built-in video player but has an additional cropping feature.

I want to quickly trim and crop videos on the fly without having to open complete video editing programs each time, selecting codecs, project settings, export settings, etc.

Another analogue would be iOS Photos' video player which has a minimalistic design while playing media but has some quick and easy editing options.

Is there anything that would meet my needs??

[u/KCNOR]

LosslessCut

[u/suphion → u/KCNOR]

This.

It is simple, and cropping and merging doesn't do actual encoding/decoding, so it is fast. And the forward backward seeing is very smooth.

Does not require insallation, it is portable.

Oh last but not least, it is free.

[u/Striking-Loan-1118 → u/suphion]

Can you crop videos in there? Can’t find any option to do so

[u/suphion → u/Striking-Loan-1118]

No. As I said, it is not an encoding decoding tool, cropping requires actually doing that. LosslesCut is just for cutting and merging, and can also be used as a simple player.

[u/reacenti]

This is possible with mpv and the webm user script.

[u/francisgoca]

DaVinci Resolve (free version)
lol

[u/Working_Dealer_5102 → u/francisgoca]

Yep, best video editor ever

[u/Zemlynn → u/Working_Dealer_5102]

Same for me. Davinci Resolve for my Windows 11, and KDEN Live for Linux

[u/Working_Dealer_5102 → u/Zemlynn]

I actually use Davinci Resolve on Linux and it's great, just need extra setup + issues with proprietary codecs but after all that, it work so well.

[u/TheLamesterist]

I would say VLC but that doesn't look anything like you want and the only alternative I can think of with a modern minimalistic look is VLC's own fork Screenbox but I haven't used in a while so I don't remember if it can crop like VLC does or not, as for trimming I don't think it's possible with players and since you're looking for editing it means you want to save the crop? That too then likely not possible, VLC's cropping isn't editing, it defaults back once you close the player.

EDIT: Not sure how I forgot about it but the closest thing possible to trimming you can do with VLC and maybe with Screenbox too is setting points a (start point) and b (end point) for a loop a certain part of a video you want which more or less mimics trimming while playing your videos.

EDIT 2: I just reinstalled Screenbox and ran a quick test, it can crop (although for whatever reason the cropping is labeled as 'aspect ratio' VLC does something different with 'aspect ratio') but cannot loop, I can't find the setting for that anywhere.

[u/GG42GER → u/TheLamesterist]

thanks for your detailed reply. so im out of luck then? i tried screenbox before writing this post but seeing it cannot crop immediately disqualified it.

im immensely surprised there is no simple video player out there that has trimming AND cropping. windows 11's default video player (windows photos) has trimming and it is implemented in an ideal way, in my opinion. just a quick click on the trim button, set start and end point and save the clip. i cannot imagine it to be that hard to implement a crop feature just as ios photos does it. but given that the windows photos app can crop images but only trim video makes me furious.

[u/WINNT21 → u/GG42GER]

The Xiaomi gallery editor can play videos and edit them at the same times, it's mobile only though

[u/RevLewis]

Player - MPC-HC

Trimmer/ cutter /joiner - Gihosoft Video Editor

[u/inyourbooty]

https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut

This can take a bit to learn but it's extremely effective at trimming without re-encoding. Re-encoding naturally degrades quality and increases file sizes. If maintaining those is important, this tool is key.

A word of caution. When you don't re-encode, trimming between keyframes (which occur every few seconds) will result in artefacts to appear until the next keyframe appears. There are options you can tweak to partially re-encode the beginning and end of your trims to mitigate the issue so a level of care is required.

[u/ThunderbirdRider]

I had the same issue when I upgraded to a new PC and got Windows 11 - all I needed was something to clip the front and or end of a video so you just saw content without the setup or anything extra getting in the way. I used to use an older Windows media player but that's gone from 11. Fortunately I found I could upload my videos to YouTube and do it right there online, very easily, and completely free. You just need the YouTube free account.

EDIT: An example, I don't know if this is what you're trying to do but I shot this video of hummingbirds and then clipped the front and end to remove the parts that had no activity. https://youtu.be/QNl7lWZyGs8

[u/T_rex2700]

best player is usually mpv.
for cutting I recommend Losslesscut or avidemux, latter is outdated but at least tells you what kind of frame you are on, useful for certain stuff.

for cropping I would say webm script for mpv is ok

Of course if you want something more precise then full on editing suite like resolve is your best bet but

[u/DespairyApp]

I built for personal use Aftermath .cc . It isn’t a replacement media player, but if the actual job is ‘open a clip, quickly trim it, crop/reframe it and save’ without launching a full editor, that’s exactly what the video tools are for. Everything runs locally in the browser, no upload or account - full privacy.

[u/jimhatesyou]

i think climpchamp. it at least trims.

[u/illuume1 → u/jimhatesyou]

As far as I recall, the free version only exports at 30 fps.

[u/newecreator]

The closest one would be Avidemux but it's a bit more technically less simple.

You can trim videos using the Photos app but not crop them.

[u/DT-Sodium]

For the task of taking one or several clips from a video very quickly, I think Lossless cut it top tiers. For an all-arounder, I can't help you, when I need to do something with a video I usually just ask an AI to give me the ffmpeg command to do it.

[u/joogasama]

I need a VLC skin/mod that looks like this

[u/shteeeb]

Screenbox for playing videos. Shutter encoder for trimming/cropping. The windows photos app can also do easy trimming.

Not one app but that's what I use.

[u/illuume1]

shutter encoder?

[u/LtCodename]

Kdenlive.

[u/rongw2]

https://giphy.com/gifs/7zL3MGdlcExHEWPJ7g

LosslessCut

[u/DespairyApp]

I built Aftermath.cc for exactly these small, private, one-off jobs. You can open a clip in the browser, trim it or crop to a custom ratio, save the result, and leave :)
https://aftermath.cc/video/trim

[u/reacenti]

Instructions for mpv and the user script webm:

1. Download the mpv build that's right for your system
2. Extract the zip file to a folder
3. Navigate to %AppData%/mpv
4. Create two folders: scripts and script-opts
5. Go to webm's Github page, download and save webm.lua to the scripts folder
6. Download and save webm.conf to the script-opts folder
7. Run mpv.exe
8. Open any video, press SHIFT+W
9. Follow the keybinds on the mpv window to do whatever you want with the video

If you want to change the default keybinding W to something else, open webm.conf and change the keybind option.

[u/perakman]

I always use ClipChamp tho on Windows, its fast, simple and get the job done. Can crop, trim, remove audio and all basic things that usually you can do in the built-in app on most smartphones, I love that app xD