Cutting and editing long-form videos is a time-consuming task. Speedrunners and other video game streamers who want to improve the quality of their content for YouTube need to trim their stream VODs, which takes a lot of time. Smart Media Cutter simplifies this process with specialized features that reduce the time and effort required for trimming long videos.
To follow along, you need local recording of your stream or VOD that you have downloaded with a tool like yt-dlp.
You can either follow along with the video or continue reading to get the same info in written form.
Step-by-step Guide
Download free trial
Get the free trial version of Smart Media Cutter from the downloads page.
Load Your Video
Open Smart Media Cutter and load your video file onto the timeline. To open a video file you can use either drag&drop, the big open file button, the top menu bar and select File > Open or keyboard shortcut CTRL-O.
Find the Beginning Point
Use the preview player, seeking functions and zoom in on the timeline to find the point where the content you wish to keep starts (e.g. beginning of the gameplay). Once your playhead is the right spot, select the beginning with the button highlighted in the image or use the hotkey Shift-O.
Hotkeys I/O control the current selection and Shift-O moves beginning of the selection to the start of the video and the end of the selection to the current playhead position.
Once your selection is ready, mark the section for cutting with hotkey X or use the razor icon tool in the bottom left.
Find the End Point
Repeat the process and navigate to the end of the video and locate the point where the gameplay or content ends. Once the playhead is in place, select the end with Shift-I and cut with X.
Update Export Duration
Once the beginning and end are marked for cutting, the export duration in the bottom right will update automatically. Use this to verify that the trimmed video reflects the desired content length.
Export the Trimmed Video
Click the export button in the bottom right. If you do not need to modify the audio or mix tracks, you do not need to change the default settings.
Since Smart Media Cutter only recodes tiny amount of video around each cutpoint, the export process should take only around 5-10 seconds per hour of content exported. This is many times faster than traditional editors that have to recode the whole video!