Trim MPG — Free Online Tool
Trim an MPG video to a precise start and end point, preserving the original MPEG-2 video and MP2 audio streams without re-encoding. Ideal for cutting clips from VCD, DVD-sourced, or broadcast MPEG footage while keeping full quality intact.
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FFmpeg Command
Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg
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Settings
Note: Browser-based encoding uses approximate quality targets. For precise CRF compression, copy the FFmpeg command above and run it on your desktop.
Estimated output:
Conversion Complete!
DownloadHow It Works
This tool uses FFmpeg's stream copy mode (-c copy) to extract a segment from your MPG file by seeking to the start timecode and stopping at the end timecode, then packaging the selected portion into a new MPG container. Because MPEG-1/2 streams are composed of fixed GOP (Group of Pictures) structures, FFmpeg will align the cut to the nearest keyframe boundary — meaning the actual trim point may be within a fraction of a second of your requested time rather than frame-exact. No video or audio re-encoding occurs: the mpeg2video and MP2 streams are passed through unchanged, so there is zero additional quality loss beyond what the original lossy MPEG encoding already introduced.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg executable, the open-source multimedia processing engine that handles all reading, trimming, and writing of the MPG file in this operation. |
-i input.mpg
|
Specifies the input MPG file containing the MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video and MP2 audio streams that will be trimmed. FFmpeg reads the Program Stream structure to locate timestamps and keyframes. |
-ss 00:00:00
|
Sets the trim start time to 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds. Because this flag is placed after the input, FFmpeg decodes the MPEG-2 stream to seek accurately to this position rather than using a fast but less precise byte-seek. |
-to 00:00:10
|
Sets the trim end time to 10 seconds from the start of the input file. FFmpeg will stop copying the MPEG-2 and MP2 streams once this timestamp is reached in the source, producing a roughly 10-second output clip. |
-c copy
|
Instructs FFmpeg to copy both the mpeg2video and MP2 audio streams directly into the output MPG without re-encoding, preserving the original bitrate and quality while making the operation nearly instantaneous regardless of file size. |
output.mpg
|
Defines the output filename and container. The MPG extension tells FFmpeg to write an MPEG Program Stream container, which is the standard format for MPEG-2 video compatible with DVD players, broadcast ingest systems, and legacy video editors. |
Common Use Cases
- Extract a specific scene or segment from a digitized VHS or broadcast recording stored as an MPG file for archival or sharing.
- Cut a short clip from a DVD-sourced MPG for use in a video essay or presentation without converting to a different format.
- Remove unwanted leader footage or end credits from an MPEG-2 broadcast capture before ingesting into a video editor.
- Isolate a single commercial or program segment from a long MPG recording made by a personal video recorder (PVR) or DVR export.
- Quickly produce a preview clip from a large MPG master file to share for review, keeping the MPEG-2 codec intact for downstream broadcast workflows.
- Trim an MPG file down to under a specific duration required by a legacy DVD authoring tool or VCD burning application.
Frequently Asked Questions
No additional quality loss is introduced by this trim operation. The tool uses stream copy mode, which passes the existing mpeg2video and MP2 bitstreams directly into the new MPG container without decoding or re-encoding them. The only quality already present in the file is the lossy quality from the original MPEG-1/2 encoding, which is fully preserved.
MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video is organized into GOPs (Groups of Pictures), where only keyframes (I-frames) can be used as clean cut points. When using stream copy mode, FFmpeg aligns cuts to the nearest preceding keyframe, which may be up to half a second away from your requested timecode depending on the GOP size used when the file was originally encoded. If frame-accurate cutting is required, the video must be re-encoded, which will reduce quality slightly.
Yes. MPG files from DVD sources typically contain MPEG-2 video and MP2 or AC-3 audio, and VCD sources use MPEG-1 video with MP2 audio — both are handled by this tool. Note that if your file uses AC-3 audio (common in DVD VOB-derived MPGs), the stream copy will still work, but the output container may not carry AC-3 cleanly in all players. This tool defaults to MP2 audio, which is standard for MPG containers.
In the command, -ss 00:00:00 sets the start time and -to 00:00:10 sets the end time, both in HH:MM:SS format. For example, to extract from 1 minute 30 seconds to 2 minutes 45 seconds, you would use -ss 00:01:30 -to 00:02:45. You can also append fractional seconds, such as -ss 00:01:30.500, for sub-second precision.
Yes, you can adapt the command for batch processing in a shell script. On Linux or macOS, a for loop such as 'for f in *.mpg; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -ss 00:00:00 -to 00:00:10 -c copy "trimmed_$f"; done' will apply the same trim to every MPG in a directory. On Windows, a similar loop can be written in a .bat file. This is especially practical for files over 1GB, since the browser tool has a 1GB limit but the desktop FFmpeg command has no such restriction.
Yes. Because the command uses -c copy, the original mpeg2video bitstream is copied verbatim — the original bitrate, resolution, frame rate, and quantization settings are all preserved exactly. The -q:v quality parameter is only relevant when re-encoding MPEG-2 video; it has no effect in stream copy mode. If you need to change quality or resolution while trimming, you would need to remove -c copy and specify encoder settings instead.
Technical Notes
MPG files based on MPEG-2 use a Program Stream (PS) or Transport Stream (TS) multiplexing model, and the stream copy approach works reliably with Program Stream files such as those exported from DVD rippers or broadcast capture cards. The GOP structure typical of broadcast MPEG-2 has keyframes every 12–15 frames (roughly every 0.4–0.5 seconds at 25fps or 29.97fps), which defines the practical cut-point granularity. MPEG-1 (used in VCD-sourced MPGs) also uses GOP-based keyframes and behaves the same way. The MP2 audio codec used as the default in MPG containers is a frame-based format, so audio cut alignment is generally clean to within one audio frame (approximately 26ms). The MPG container does not support subtitles, chapters, transparency, or multiple audio tracks — any such metadata present in a source file will not be carried through. Files larger than 1GB can be trimmed using the displayed FFmpeg command locally on a desktop without any size restriction.