Crop Video

How to Use

1. Click the area above to select a file, or drag and drop a file onto the page
2. Adjust parameters in the settings area
3. Click the process button and download the result when ready

Frequently Asked Questions

How It Works

The Video Crop tool uses FFmpeg WebAssembly with the crop filter to extract a specific rectangular region from each video frame. The crop filter parameters specify the output dimensions and the top-left corner coordinates of the crop area.

The crop syntax is: crop=out_w:out_h:x:y where out_w/out_h are the output width and height, and x/y are the coordinates of the crop region's top-left corner relative to the original frame. The tool can calculate these values from presets (remove top/bottom/left/right bars) or from freeform selection.

For black bar removal: The tool analyzes the frame to detect black regions (pixels with RGB values below a threshold) and calculates the crop coordinates automatically. For freeform cropping: You specify exact pixel coordinates and dimensions. The output resolution equals the crop dimensions. Audio tracks are preserved unchanged since cropping only affects the video stream.

Tips & Best Practices

• Auto-detect black bars first — the tool can automatically identify and remove standard letterbox/pillarbox bars.
• Keep crop dimensions even: Both width and height should be even numbers (divisible by 2) for H.264 compatibility.
• Center the crop: When removing bars from one axis, center the crop to maintain balanced composition.
• Check aspect ratio: After cropping, verify the output aspect ratio matches your target (e.g., 16:9 for YouTube).
• Crop before compression: Removing unnecessary pixels first reduces file size before any encoding occurs.
• Preview the exact region: The crop preview shows exactly what will be kept — verify important content isn't being cut off.

Use Cases

Streaming platforms removing black letterbox bars from widescreen content to maximize visible area on mobile devices.

Social media managers cropping videos to remove distracting edge elements and focus viewer attention on the subject. Film archivists removing broadcast-safe margins from archived footage for modern display formats. Product videographers cropping close-up shots to remove unwanted background from product demonstration videos. Conference organizers cropping presentation recordings to remove desktop UI elements from screen shares. Education teams cropping lecture captures to focus on the whiteboard or presentation area.

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