How to trim a video with an API
Cutting a clip to the interesting part is the most common edit there is. By hand it means getting the seek and duration flags right so you do not re-encode or land on the wrong keyframe. Here is the one-call version.
The manual FFmpeg way
Flag order matters: -ss before -i seeks fast but can land on a keyframe, while -c copy avoids a re-encode. A typed API takes start and end seconds and handles the rest.
ffmpeg -ss 2.5 -to 17 -i input.mp4 -c copy trimmed.mp4
Do it with one API call
- 1
Provide the source video
Give a public URL or upload the file and use the returned media URL as the input named "main".
- 2
Call the trim tool
Set start in seconds, and optionally end. Omit end to trim to the finish.
- 3
Download the clip
Poll the job and download the trimmed MP4 from the signed output URL.
REST
curl https://kinopipe.com/api/v1/tools/trim-video \
-H "Authorization: Bearer kp_live_..." \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"inputs": [ { "id": "main", "url": "https://example.com/input.mp4" } ],
"options": { "start": 2.5, "end": 17 }
}'FAQ
Yes. Both are seconds from the start of the video. Leave out end to trim all the way to the finish.
KinoPipe cuts to your range and returns a clean MP4, so the clip plays correctly from the first frame.