QuickTime 10 Video Trimming Question/Problem

Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
863
Reaction score
52
Points
28
For years, I've been using QuickTime 7 Pro to trim videos. Nothing else. Just removing the portions of the movie that I don't want in order to save hard drive space. Since it's a 32-bit app, I'm trying to get used to using QuickTime 10 to accomplish this same task, since I won't be able to run QuickTime 7 Pro in future macOS versions. For some reason, I only thought you could trim the ends of movies with QuickTime 10 (using CMD + T), but recently discovered you can divide the movie up into clips, so you can delete the clips you don't want even if they're in the middle of the movie. The method is to go to View > Show Clips (or press CMD + E) and then move the playhead to where you want to split the movie into 2 clips and go to Edit > Split Clip (or press CMD + Y). Any unwanted clip can be clicked on and deleted by pressing the Delete key. After you are finished, you press the Done button.

Well, here's the issue. I'm using QuickTime 10.5. Most of the video's I'm editing are in MP4 format. When I'm using QuickTime 10 to trim these videos as described above and click Done, I obviously want to save the trimmed video. Well here are the three situations that could happen:

1. It lets me save the trimmed video using File > Save (CMD + S) as another MP4 file.
2. It won't let me use CMD + S*, but if I try to close the video, it will prompt me to save as another MP4 file.
3. It won't let me use CMD + S*, but if I try to close the video, it will prompt me to save as a MOV file. There is no choice to save as MP4.

The problem is when the 3rd situation happens (only option is MOV). The file size is WAY too large. For example, today I was trimming a 355 MB MP4 video. I trimmed it from 22:04 down to 3:43. The MOV file QuickTime 10 saved was 208 MB. Well, considering that the video length was reduced to only about 17% of the original length, you'd expect the edited video to be around 60 MB. Well, lo and behold, if I trim this same original video in the same way using QuickTime 7 Pro and save it as a MOV file, it is only 61 MB (as you'd expect).

So what gives? How can I get QuickTime 10 to save as MP4 consistently or save to MOV at an acceptable file size like QuickTime 7 Pro does? When QuickTime 10 does let me save as an MP4 files (situations 1 and 2), the file size is the same as QuickTime 7's MOV files.

*I've noticed that sometimes the CMD + S option will be available after you split 1 clip, but then disappear after another split. Sometimes it will let you make multiple splits before it disappears. Then sometimes it won't let you make even 1 split without disappearing.
 
Last edited:
OP
usagora
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
863
Reaction score
52
Points
28
Any ideas? I've just posted this to the Apple forums as well, so hopefully I'll be able to glean some sort of solution to this issue, as it sucks to spend time trimming down a video and end up with a file that's over 3 times the size it should be.
 
OP
usagora
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
863
Reaction score
52
Points
28
Any ideas at all, folks? I'm getting no response on the Apple forums either. Surely I can't be the only one using QuickTime for basic editing like this.
 
OP
usagora
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
863
Reaction score
52
Points
28
Any ideas why QuickTime 10 won't let me save edited MP4s as MP4s or why its MOV exports are so much larger than those of QuickTime 7 Pro?
 
OP
usagora
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
863
Reaction score
52
Points
28
Over 500 views of this thread and no one has any ideas? Is my OP not clear? I'd sure hate to have to use iMovie to do such simple edits, but I guess I can try that tonight and see if it is capable of saving as MP4 or as a reasonable-sized MOV. I know there's VLC, but I don't think it can do what I'm needing. Let's say I have a video that has the following sections:

A - B - C - D - E

I may need to cut out sections C and E and keep sections A, B, and D. In other words, I need to keep more than just one contiguous portion of a video. From what I read, VLC can only export one contiguous portion of a video, not delete various portions of the video and then export the remainder.

Does that make sense? I'd really like to be able to use QuickTime 10 to do this, as it is such an easy process. But when it comes to exporting the result as a reasonably-sized video, it's completely unreliable (unless I'm missing something...thus the thread).
 

IWT


Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Messages
10,218
Reaction score
2,175
Points
113
Location
Born Scotland. Worked all over UK. Live in Wales
Your Mac's Specs
M2 Max Studio Extra, 32GB memory, 4TB, Sonoma 14.4 Apple 5K Retina Studio Monitor
Jonathan

I'm really sorry that you have had to make so many posts - and no, your OP was perfectly clear.

I suspect that our members either use iMovie/Final Cut Pro or don't do much video editing.

I used to do a fair bit of video editing using iMovie, but age and a drop in interest has seen that fall away. And I can't help much with QuickTime Player which in my case is 10.4.

Not much of a reply, I'm afraid.

Maybe Apple Support Forums would render a better response?

Ian
 
OP
usagora
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
863
Reaction score
52
Points
28
Jonathan

I'm really sorry that you have had to make so many posts - and no, your OP was perfectly clear.

I suspect that our members either use iMovie/Final Cut Pro or don't do much video editing.

I used to do a fair bit of video editing using iMovie, but age and a drop in interest has seen that fall away. And I can't help much with QuickTime Player which in my case is 10.4.

Not much of a reply, I'm afraid.

Maybe Apple Support Forums would render a better response?

Ian

Thanks anyway, Ian. I was starting to wonder if my thread was invisible :eek: I posted this same thing on the Apple Support Forums and have received no replies since Sunday. I never dreamed this would be such an esoteric topic, as the problem seems pretty basic.

It's a shame QuickTime 10 isn't on the level of QuickTime 7 Pro, where all you have to do is move 2 sliders and hit the delete key to delete a section of a video. You could also easily replace the audio track.
 
Joined
Nov 29, 2010
Messages
2,511
Reaction score
134
Points
63
Location
Warrington, UK
Your Mac's Specs
PPC Mini, 10.4.11. Intel Mini, 10.6.8. MacBook Pro, 10.14.6. M1 MBA 11.6.3 iPhone 5 iOS 12.5,
It must be something to do with v10.5. I'm using 10.4 and it always saves a trim as an mp4 file. Saving as a .MOV never comes up as an option.
 
OP
usagora
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
863
Reaction score
52
Points
28
It must be something to do with v10.5. I'm using 10.4 and it always saves a trim as an mp4 file. Saving as a .MOV never comes up as an option.

I think that may be true of 10.5 as well. The problem seems to be with clips. In other words, if you're just using CMD + T to bring up the yellow sliders to adjust the beginning and ending of the movie ("trim" it), then it works fine, but if you use CMD + E to split the movie into multiple clips so you can delete the unwanted clips, it becomes a crap shoot as to being able to save as MP4 (usually resulting in a MOV export that is over 3x the size it should be). I'll see if I can find out if perhaps QuickTime 10 is retaining the deleted clips in the MOV export, just hidden from view. That might explain why the file size is so bloated.
 
OP
usagora
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
863
Reaction score
52
Points
28
Well, I never found a solution for this, so I guess QT10 is a no-go for simple video trimming for me due to the unreasonable file sizes and buggy save option. Oh well...a real shame too, since the controls are so straight-forward.
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,596
Reaction score
1,072
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
Sorry I haven't responded sooner. Not sure why I didn't answer the first time. Maybe I was busy with something else.

I've used Quicktime Player quite a bit for the kind of editing you're doing. In fact, I was using it to shoot and edit some of the video chats as well as a few other things. I wasn't using the trim function much since I never got the hang of that. I usually just used the split clip function. I've had some of the problems you mention.

I don't have a definite answer for why you are sometimes forced to use .mov as the filetype, but I have a theory. When I've had that issue it has been with things such as captures of old videotape that has started to degrade. I wonnder if the timecode did not save properly when the file was saved and the problem gets compunded as the file is edited. Just a theory mind you.

One thing I did try when this happened and it seemed to work. I think I remeber saving the problem file as an mov which is what you are forced to do and then converting the file to mp4 later. I thought I was doing all of that in QuickTime but I don't see those settigns in the current version after giving it a quick look. I might have used something else to do the conversion.

I'm not convinced there wasn't a bug in some versions since sometimes files would not save/export no matter what I did. Even if the original file was something recorde s a screenshot of the Mac.
 
OP
usagora
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
863
Reaction score
52
Points
28
Thanks for your reply, Slydude. I do believe I just discovered the problem with the file size difference between QT7 Pro and QT10, though unfortunately don't know if it can be resolved. I viewed the "Movie Inspector" for a video edited and saved to .mov in QT7 Pro and the data rate is 2.37 Mbit/s. When viewing the inspector for a video edited and saved to .mov in QT10, the video has a data rate of 7.47 Mbit/s. That ratio (7.47:2.37) matches the ratio of the 2 file sizes. That's the only variable that's different. There doesn't appear to be a UI way to change this setting in either program. I wonder if there is a preference file somewhere that can be changed or a terminal command that can be used to cap the data rate for QuickTime encodes? There is no discernible quality difference to my eye between the two data rates, so obviously I'm going to opt for the lower data rate to save space.
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,596
Reaction score
1,072
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
Good detective work there. I don't think there is a way to control that data rate setting in QuickTime Player X. There are a number of conversion programs, some free, that will adjust that setting.

I'm pretty sure you can change the data setting in QuickTime Player Pro version 7. I can't run it at the moment in the Mojave beta to see see because it keeps crashing. I found this manual for Quicktime 7 Pro. Look at Chapter 4 I think by reading that you'll get the idea where to look. Basically choolse one of the meany export formats avaailable and then I think there is someting in the windw that allows you to change various parameters.
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Over 500 views of this thread and no one has any ideas?

We get this question every now and then. Maybe you already know this but for others that might not, the 500 views does not mean it was viewed by our forum membership 500 times. The 500 times includes those views that were done with various search engines throughout the internet.
 
OP
usagora
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
863
Reaction score
52
Points
28
Good detective work there. I don't think there is a way to control that data rate setting in QuickTime Player X. There are a number of conversion programs, some free, that will adjust that setting.

I'm pretty sure you can change the data setting in QuickTime Player Pro version 7. I can't run it at the moment in the Mojave beta to see see because it keeps crashing. I found this manual for Quicktime 7 Pro. Look at Chapter 4 I think by reading that you'll get the idea where to look. Basically choolse one of the meany export formats avaailable and then I think there is someting in the windw that allows you to change various parameters.

I'm fine with the existing data rate in QT7 Pro as it pretty much matches the original files (only slightly higher)...just wish it could be changed in QT10 as there's no point in using 3x as much storage for no visible quality difference. Hopefully Apple will decide to giver users more control in the future instead of going backwards in these areas.
 
Joined
Dec 19, 2019
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Trim video QuickTime 10

Perhaps this is too late but here is the answer I found - use "edit/split clip." A window will appear in the bottom of the screen. You will have 3 clips there you can see them by clicking on them. You can select each clip and delete it or use the red sliders to trim it. This is strange because Trim Clip still shows up as an option in the Edit menu but it is grayed out. This is the workaround I found. Hope this helps.

For years, I've been using QuickTime 7 Pro to trim videos. Nothing else. Just removing the portions of the movie that I don't want in order to save hard drive space. Since it's a 32-bit app, I'm trying to get used to using QuickTime 10 to accomplish this same task, since I won't be able to run QuickTime 7 Pro in future macOS versions. For some reason, I only thought you could trim the ends of movies with QuickTime 10 (using CMD + T), but recently discovered you can divide the movie up into clips, so you can delete the clips you don't want even if they're in the middle of the movie. The method is to go to View > Show Clips (or press CMD + E) and then move the playhead to where you want to split the movie into 2 clips and go to Edit > Split Clip (or press CMD + Y). Any unwanted clip can be clicked on and deleted by pressing the Delete key. After you are finished, you press the Done button.

Well, here's the issue. I'm using QuickTime 10.5. Most of the video's I'm editing are in MP4 format. When I'm using QuickTime 10 to trim these videos as described above and click Done, I obviously want to save the trimmed video. Well here are the three situations that could happen:

1. It lets me save the trimmed video using File > Save (CMD + S) as another MP4 file.
2. It won't let me use CMD + S*, but if I try to close the video, it will prompt me to save as another MP4 file.
3. It won't let me use CMD + S*, but if I try to close the video, it will prompt me to save as a MOV file. There is no choice to save as MP4.

The problem is when the 3rd situation happens (only option is MOV). The file size is WAY too large. For example, today I was trimming a 355 MB MP4 video. I trimmed it from 22:04 down to 3:43. The MOV file QuickTime 10 saved was 208 MB. Well, considering that the video length was reduced to only about 17% of the original length, you'd expect the edited video to be around 60 MB. Well, lo and behold, if I trim this same original video in the same way using QuickTime 7 Pro and save it as a MOV file, it is only 61 MB (as you'd expect).

So what gives? How can I get QuickTime 10 to save as MP4 consistently or save to MOV at an acceptable file size like QuickTime 7 Pro does? When QuickTime 10 does let me save as an MP4 files (situations 1 and 2), the file size is the same as QuickTime 7's MOV files.

*I've noticed that sometimes the CMD + S option will be available after you split 1 clip, but then disappear after another split. Sometimes it will let you make multiple splits before it disappears. Then sometimes it won't let you make even 1 split without disappearing.

- - - Updated - - -

(posting this again)

Perhaps this is too late but here is the answer I found - use "edit/split clip." A window will appear in the bottom of the screen. You will have 3 clips there you can see them by clicking on them. You can select each clip and delete it or use the red sliders to trim it. This is strange because Trim Clip still shows up as an option in the Edit menu but it is grayed out. This is the workaround I found. Hope this helps.
 
OP
usagora
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
863
Reaction score
52
Points
28
Perhaps this is too late but here is the answer I found - use "edit/split clip." A window will appear in the bottom of the screen. You will have 3 clips there you can see them by clicking on them. You can select each clip and delete it or use the red sliders to trim it. This is strange because Trim Clip still shows up as an option in the Edit menu but it is grayed out. This is the workaround I found. Hope this helps.



- - - Updated - - -

(posting this again)

Perhaps this is too late but here is the answer I found - use "edit/split clip." A window will appear in the bottom of the screen. You will have 3 clips there you can see them by clicking on them. You can select each clip and delete it or use the red sliders to trim it. This is strange because Trim Clip still shows up as an option in the Edit menu but it is grayed out. This is the workaround I found. Hope this helps.

I'm not following this. Are you using QuickTime 10.5? In order to use the Split Clip command in the Edit menu, you first have to use the Show Clips command under the View menu. Once you click on Show Clips, you get the "window" (video timeline) at the bottom of the screen as you said, but you lost me at "you will have 3 clips there." For me, it's just the entire movie as 1 clip. You can drag the red vertical line playhead to any position within the movie, and then click on Edit > Split Clip to split the movie into 2 clips at that point. Then you can use the same method to split either of those clips into 2 clips, etc. etc.
 
Joined
Feb 5, 2020
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I have a workaround to get the MP4 trimmable

Im not sure why it's happening, but I have a workaround to get the MP4 trimmable within QuickTime. I use Smart Converter (free) to convert the video to MOV and then Subler (free) to convert & optimize the video back to MP4. Each conversion takes about 1 minute per 2GB file, which is why I like this workaround. Using QuickTime's Export & Save As functions can take a very long time.


  1. Open the MP4 in Smart Converter -> select the QuickTime option -> and convert the file (saved to "~/Movies/SmartConverter")
  2. Open the new MOV file in Subler and change the sound track to "AAC - Stereo" under the Actions column. The video will NOT be trimmable if you leave it as "Passthru"! *Image_1
  3. Select File -> Save As... -> check the "Optimize" box -> and save the file as "MPEG-4 movie" *Image_2

The new MP4 file will now be trimmable in QuickTime. Even if you're not looking for a workaround maybe this will shed some light on the issue.



*Image_1
Screenshot.jpg

*Image_2
Screenshot 2.jpg
 
Joined
Mar 6, 2020
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Sir, maybe you want to switch to another video editor, like Joyoshare Media Cutter.
I haven't seen this kind of bugs when using it. The software convert the format only to what I make it convert.
 
Joined
Jan 9, 2021
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
In QT Player, File -> Share -> Add to Photos.
Then, in Photos, File -> Export -> Export Unmodified Original for 1 Video.

Or, even better, in QT Player, File -> Share -> Mail.
Then, in Mail, drag and drop the attachment to the Desktop.

You're welcome.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top