How to Crop Videos

By  on  

During a recent episode of the Script and Style podcast, I had noticed that the video recording had showed a bit of our internal chat that wasn't necessary for our viewers to see. While there's nothing wrong with giving viewers a peek into the show preparation, presenting the best possible video is our priority. So how can we crop a video via command line?

The amazing ffmpeg utility allows engineers to crop videos with one easy to use filter:

# Crop an image to 500x500 starting at 0x0
ffmpeg -i sns-episode.webm -filter:v "crop=500:500:0:0" sns-episode-cropped.mp4

The crop filter format is easy to follow: {desired_width}:{desired_height}:{start_x}:{start_y}.

I've written dozens of posts about ffmpeg and how it has the power to manipulate videos in amazing ways. Now you know how to crop videos quickly from command line!

Recent Features

  • By
    From Webcam to Animated GIF: the Secret Behind chat.meatspac.es!

    My team mate Edna Piranha is not only an awesome hacker; she's also a fantastic philosopher! Communication and online interactions is a subject that has kept her mind busy for a long time, and it has also resulted in a bunch of interesting experimental projects...

  • By
    CSS vs. JS Animation: Which is Faster?

    How is it possible that JavaScript-based animation has secretly always been as fast — or faster — than CSS transitions? And, how is it possible that Adobe and Google consistently release media-rich mobile sites that rival the performance of native apps? This article serves as a point-by-point...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    jQuery UI DatePicker:  Disable Specified Days

    One project I'm currently working on requires jQuery. The project also features a datepicker for requesting a visit to their location. jQuery UI's DatePicker plugin was the natural choice and it does a really nice job. One challenge I encountered was the...

  • By
    Get Slick with MooTools Kwicks

    When I first saw MooTools graphical navigation, I was impressed. I thought it was a very simple yet creative way of using Flash. When I right-clicked and saw that it was JavaScript, I was floored. How could they achieve such...

Discussion

    Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!