I am going through some videos to trim them (extracting parts of the video).

I know there is billions of software out there that can trim videos easily, but I haven't found any that does not recode the result.

My method right now is to open the video in MPC-BE -> play -> pause -> note down the time -> resume to find a place end the clip -> pause -> note down the end time for the clip. Then I take the time codes and use ffmpeg to extract the part. Usually with something like:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ss 01:50:00 -to 01:55:00 -c:v copy -c:a copy output.mp4

My question is is there an easier way to get the time codes? The best thing would be to use ffplay to playback and just hit a key-combo to copy the time code. But I am also open any other approach that will make it easier to get the timecodes. As you probably understand, writing down the time codes manually for 23 clips is a real pain.

Update: As of lately I have switched to TMPGEnc MPEG Smart Renderer 6 I found it easier to use than MPV. If any better alternative exist please let us know.

mpv

The player mpv support scripts for custom functionality that is not part of the core player. There are several user scripts available that involve cutting/trimming that may be helpful:

• copyTime - Get the current time of the video and copy it to the clipboard with the format HH:MM:SS.MS.
• trim.lua - Create a trim of video files without transcoding. Utilizes ffprobe to fetch accurate keyframes.
• splice - Create a video out of cuts made in the current playing video.
• mpv_slicing_copying - A fork from mpv_slicing. It will cut fragments of the video in original format instead of RGB.
• excerpt - Allows you to quickly create excerpts from media files, you just have to set begin and end markers.

LosslessCut

LosslessCut is a GUI to ffmpeg for lossless trimming and cutting of video and audio files.