{"slug": "losslesscut", "name": "LosslessCut", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 6, "warners": 2, "score": 1.809, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2025-11-12", "latest": "2026-06-23", "why": "it's very practical when I don't want to reencode everything", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "it's very practical when I don't want to reencode everything", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/mifi/lossless-cut", "official_url": "https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["LosslessCut"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 778331111, "item_id": 48645694, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48645694", "by": "unmanageduck", "date": "2026-06-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Video editor: LosslessCut", "excerpt": "Package manager: Nix(alternative to homebrew) https://nixos.org/download/#nix-install-macos Package management: Nix-darwin https://github.com/nix-darwin/nix-darwin Browsers: - Librewolf https://librewolf.net - Tor https://www.torproject.org - Orion https://orionbrowser.com Video downloader: Yt-dlp https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp Video/audio player: Mpv https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv Video editor: LosslessCut http", "context": "", "use_case": "video editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: New clean macOS install. Must-have apps? Best browser?"}, {"id": 758506928, "item_id": 47406683, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47406683", "by": "skeeter2020", "date": "2026-03-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "then marking & batching with LossLessCut", "excerpt": "I've been trying to cut precise clips from a long mp4 video over the past week or so and learned a lot. I started with ffmpeg on the command line but between getting accurate timestamps and keyframe/encoding issues it is not trivial. For my needs I want a very precise starting frame and best results came from first reencoding at much higher quality, then marking & batching with LossLessCut, then down coding my clips ", "context": "", "use_case": "Video trimming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lazycut: A simple terminal video trimmer using FFmpeg"}, {"id": 758387856, "item_id": 47399241, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47399241", "by": "throw101010", "date": "2026-03-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's very practical when I don't want to reencode everything", "excerpt": "The intermediary solution for me between ffmpeg and kdenlive is LosslessCut (https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut). Also free and open-source... of course it look less cool than a Terminal UI like the OP, but it's very practical when I don't want to reencode everything, or if I just need to change the format of container (MP4, MKV, etc.).", "context": "", "use_case": "Lossless video trimming", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 742443312, "item_id": 46402707, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46402707", "by": "Forgeties79", "date": "2025-12-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I personally use lossless cut more than ffmpeg in the terminal", "excerpt": "I get what you\u2019re saying but at the end of the day you just need to think about how most people use a tool like this. They\u2019re looking for a simple solution to some specific problem and then they\u2019re likely never using it again. They don\u2019t want to deal with a full-on NLE and iMovie or whatever they have stocked is not cutting it. It\u2019s not worth getting bent out of shape about it ultimately. There are tons of people who", "context": "", "use_case": "lossless video cutting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Ez FFmpeg \u2013 Video editing in plain English"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 758429440, "item_id": 47401840, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47401840", "by": "tim-projects", "date": "2026-03-16", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "its package size is absolutely massive", "excerpt": "I use losslesscut but its package size is absolutely massive. Would really appreciate alternatives like this.", "context": "", "use_case": "Lossless video trimming", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 734421104, "item_id": 45901319, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45901319", "by": "j1elo", "date": "2025-11-12", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "after years the results are mixed and only working for very specific codecs", "excerpt": "You're not viewing the past with rose colored glasses. You're just viewing the past. We had simpler codecs with simpler computational complexities. Holding Shift and selecting a chunk of a video to copy was simple because videos were mostly a succession of independently compressed frames. Nowadays, we have forward- and backward- dependant frames, scene detection, and lots of other very advanced compression techniques", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yt-dlp: External JavaScript runtime now required for full YouTube support"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["lossless video trimming", "video editing", "video trimming", "lossless video cutting"], "compared": [{"slug": "ffmpeg", "name": "FFmpeg", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47398916", "title": "item 47398916", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48643848", "title": "Ask HN: New clean macOS install. Must-have apps? 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For my needs I want a very precise starting frame and best results came from first reencoding at much higher quality, then marking & batching with LossLessCut, then down coding my clips ", "context": "", "use_case": "Video trimming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lazycut: A simple terminal video trimmer using FFmpeg"}, {"id": 758429440, "item_id": 47401840, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47401840", "by": "tim-projects", "date": "2026-03-16", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "its package size is absolutely massive", "excerpt": "I use losslesscut but its package size is absolutely massive. Would really appreciate alternatives like this.", "context": "", "use_case": "Lossless video trimming", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 758387856, "item_id": 47399241, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47399241", "by": "throw101010", "date": "2026-03-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's very practical when I don't want to reencode everything", "excerpt": "The intermediary solution for me between ffmpeg and kdenlive is LosslessCut (https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut). Also free and open-source... of course it look less cool than a Terminal UI like the OP, but it's very practical when I don't want to reencode everything, or if I just need to change the format of container (MP4, MKV, etc.).", "context": "", "use_case": "Lossless video trimming", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 742443312, "item_id": 46402707, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46402707", "by": "Forgeties79", "date": "2025-12-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I personally use lossless cut more than ffmpeg in the terminal", "excerpt": "I get what you\u2019re saying but at the end of the day you just need to think about how most people use a tool like this. They\u2019re looking for a simple solution to some specific problem and then they\u2019re likely never using it again. They don\u2019t want to deal with a full-on NLE and iMovie or whatever they have stocked is not cutting it. It\u2019s not worth getting bent out of shape about it ultimately. There are tons of people who", "context": "", "use_case": "lossless video cutting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Ez FFmpeg \u2013 Video editing in plain English"}, {"id": 734421104, "item_id": 45901319, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45901319", "by": "j1elo", "date": "2025-11-12", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "after years the results are mixed and only working for very specific codecs", "excerpt": "You're not viewing the past with rose colored glasses. You're just viewing the past. We had simpler codecs with simpler computational complexities. Holding Shift and selecting a chunk of a video to copy was simple because videos were mostly a succession of independently compressed frames. Nowadays, we have forward- and backward- dependant frames, scene detection, and lots of other very advanced compression techniques", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yt-dlp: External JavaScript runtime now required for full YouTube support"}]}