How to crop a video exactly the way I want on PC?

Avidemux is an open-source video editor that requires downloading. It offers a practical desktop solution how to crop the length of a video; however, its trimming tool can only adjust frame dimensions rather than the timeline length, and the lossless copy mode will not work properly if the codecs are incompatible.

When supported, it allows you to crop video frames without re-encoding, but the software does not offer a real-time preview feature, so you cannot immediately see the cropping results.

• First, download and install the software from the official website.
• Go to File → Open, then select the target video file.
• Set both video output and audio output to Copy to ensure lossless processing.
• Click Filter → Crop, then enter the pixel values for the top, bottom, left, and right edges.
• Click OK to confirm the settings.
• Go to File → Save → Save Video to export the edited video file.
• Once the export is complete, play the video to verify that the cropping parameters meet your expectations.

This method does not guarantee lossless cropping for all videos; therefore, if you are researching methods how to crop the length of a video, please note that this method only works for files with compatible internal audio and video codecs.

If you prefer not to install resource-intensive editing software, you can try this method. Since there is no real-time preview feature, it is recommended that you first test the cropping parameters on a short clip.