How to crop, trim or shorten a Video in Windows 10

In this article, we will take a look at how you can Crop/Trim a video on your Windows 10 PC/Laptop.

For those of you who are new to this, Trimming a video is when you cut away portions of the video and reduce the overall duration of the video. Cropping a video is the same as cropping a photo. When we crop a phone, we delete portions of the photo in order to focus on the subject. Similarly, cropping a video means to permanently crop out portions of the video in order to focus on a particular subject. It’s interesting to note that cropping a video does not change the duration of the video. Trimming a video directly affects the duration.

So, with that out of the way, let’s get started –

  1. This method requires the pre-installed tools on your Windows 10 PC. So the first step here is to navigate to the video file, Right-click on it, and choose Open with > Photos.

  2. Your video file will now open in the pre-installed Photos app in your Windows 10 PC. On the top right-hand side of the window, look for the Trim button and click on it.
  3. You will now see two white sliders. These sliders represent the beginning and endpoint of the new trimmed video. Adjust these sliders such that they cover the portion of the video that you want to keep. Keep in mind that the portions of the video that are outside the white sliders will be deleted.
  4. Once you have arranged the sliders, the next step is to save the newly trimmed video. To do this, click on the Save a copy option. This will retain the original video file, and save the newly trimmed version as a separate file.
  5. Make sure you give the trimmed video file a new name. Giving it the same name as the original will prompt the OS to ask you if you want to replace the existing video file with the newly trimmed video file. Be very vigilant in this step, because any minor slip can lead to the original video file being completely replaced. Once you are happy with the new file name, click on Save and that’s it !!

Now let’s see how you can crop your videos in Windows 10. On its own, Windows 10, does not have the capability to crop videos, so we will be making use of third party apps here, and we will provide the links to the same if you want to get your hands on the same.

Method 1 – Using JoyoShare Video Cropper

  1. For the first method, we will be making use of this amazing tool known as the JoyoShare Video Cropper. For more information and download information, you can visit the download page of Joyoshare. Over there, you will have to select the Media Cutter. once you download the JoyoShare Media Cutter, go ahead and install it on your Windows 10 PC/Laptop.

  2. Next, go ahead and open the JoyoShare Media Cutter tool. On the main window, click on the Open button. You will see a file browser from where you can select the video file you want to crop. Select and drag the video file into the JoyoShare Window. Once you do this, open the Media Cutter tool.

  3. After you open the Media Cutter tool, click on the edit button.
  4. Now, from the top menu bar, click on the Adjust button. Now, let’s start cropping the video.
  5. You will now see a crop frame around your video. Here, you have two options. You can either manually adjust the crop window to suit your requirement. Alternatively, you can enter the crop area dimensions.

  6. If you are wondering about how your changes look, the preview window next to the work area window shows you every little change you make and how the final output looks like after your changes take place. Fiddle around the settings until you have achieved the desired result. Once done, you can click on the OK button.
  7. Now, let’s start exporting this cropped video. First, click on the Format button, and navigate and select the Encoding Mode button. This allows you to customize the intricate properties of your video file, including video quality, file format, etc.
  8. Choose the appropriate options for each option. Additionally, if you click on the Gear icon on the top right corner of the main window, you can even adjust finer details like the bit rate, frame rate, and resolution.
  9. Once you are happy with the settings, click on OK.

  10. Finally, click on the Start button, and the JoyoShare tool will now start exporting the video files with all your selected settings. Within a few minutes, the cropped video file will be in the destination folder, ready for use.

Method 2 – Using the VLC Player

  1. For this method, we are going to use the very popular VLC player. Visit the VLC page and download the latest build of VLC player on your Windows 10 PC/Laptop. Install the player and then open it.

    Next, click on the Tools button from the top menu and select Preferences.

  2. In the VLC player, we are going to make use of their in-built video cropping tool. In the Preferences Window, click on All, under the Show Settings tab. Next, head to the video option, click on the Filters drop-down and then select the Croppadd option.

  3. Enter the specific pixels to crop from top/bottom/left/right as you like. In the Croppadd settings, enter the number of pixels that you want to crop out of the video. You can do this for all four directions.
  4. Once you have set the crop values, head over to the Filters tab once more, and tick the Video Scaling Filter. Hit Save.
  5. The next step is to add the video file that you want to crop. To do this, click on the Media Tab, click on Convert/Save option, and then hit the Add button. This will open the File browser, from where you can import the video file that you want to crop.

  6. Finally, let’s save the cropped file. Click on the Browse button, select the Destination Folder, and then click on Convert/Save button. This will Save the cropped video file in the selected destination folder.

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