Prepare Video for Sharing

Trim a video, remove its sound, strip location and other identifying tags, cover what should not be seen and fit a size limit in one pass in your browser, with nothing uploaded.

Choose a video

or drop it here

The video is processed on this device and never uploaded.

MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV, AVI, WMV, FLV, 3GP, TS / MTS / M2TS or VOB / MPG

Files over 1 GB can be slow. Very large outputs need a browser that can save straight to a file.

How it works

Choose a video, tick what you want done and press Prepare video. Your browser decodes the video once, applies every step to each frame and encodes the result once. The file is read and written on your device and is never uploaded.

Doing the same with separate tools means one re-encode per tool, and every re-encode loses a little more quality. This page trims, mutes, covers and fits the size in a single re-encode, so the result looks as good as one conversion can.

The trim is exact. Because the video is re-encoded anyway, the cut lands on the times you choose and everything outside the range is gone. A fast copy-only trim cuts at keyframes and can keep a few seconds either side.

Identifying tags are the location, device make and model, creation date, software, author and comment tags in the container, plus extra data tracks such as timed metadata. The Remove Video Metadata page explains what is and is not inspected. After the conversion the page re-reads the prepared copy and checks its length, audio, tags, covered regions and size.

A solid cover box leaves nothing to recover and is the safe choice for text, screens and number plates. Blur and pixelation look softer but can sometimes be reversed on small areas. Destroy scrambles the area so it cannot be recovered.

Once the file is ready, you can send it without uploading it anywhere with SpectrShare, another site I built. It sends the video straight from your browser to the recipient's, with an optional password. There is also a guide to preparing a video for sharing on that site.

Supported files

Inputs: Any video your browser can read: MP4, MOV, M4V and WebM almost everywhere, MKV in most desktop browsers. Drawing regions needs a preview the browser can play.
Outputs: MP4 (H.264 and AAC) or WebM (VP9 and Opus). With a size limit the bitrate, and if needed the resolution, are chosen to fit.

Limitations

The video is always re-encoded once, so it takes longer than a copy and loses a little quality. Use the single tools when you only need a lossless trim, mute or tag removal.
Only the main video and audio tracks are kept; subtitle and data tracks are dropped.
Regions do not track movement. A box stays where you drew it for its time range.
The sound is not redacted. Words said aloud stay in the file unless you remove the audio.
The size is aimed a little under the limit in a single pass. On rare clips it can still come out slightly over, and the result says so.
Tag removal covers the container tags and extra tracks that are inspected. Data inside the video stream itself or in vendor boxes is not checked.
HDR videos are converted to standard dynamic range, so colours can look flatter.

Questions

Is my video uploaded?

No. Everything happens in your browser on your device, and the file never leaves it.

Why not use the separate tools one after another?

You can, but each re-encode costs quality and time, and you download a file at every step. This page does all the steps in one re-encode and one download.

Does the trim really remove the rest of the video?

Yes. The whole video is re-encoded, so only the frames and sound inside your range are written. The result shows the measured length of the output.

What if the size limit cannot be reached?

The page says so before you start and suggests a shorter trim or removing the audio. Very small limits for long videos would leave too little data per frame to be watchable.

Example

You want to send a 2-minute phone video of a street party on WhatsApp. Trim it to the 30 seconds you want, cover a neighbour's face and the house number, leave Remove identifying tags on (the file had the GPS location and the phone model), choose the WhatsApp (16 MB) limit and press Prepare video. You get one MP4 of those 30 seconds under 16 MB, with the boxes drawn in and no location in the file.