How to Crop Videos
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!
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