When you want to post a series of videos to your YouTube channel, Vimeo, and Instagram, you will know it is necessary to split the long video into smaller equal files. Video editing is time-consuming because it takes meticulous attention to detail, thankfully, the efficient video splitter will help you save much time. What is the best video splitter program you have ever used? What video splitter software for Windows can split videos while keeping the original video/audio quality? If you do not have a clue, please read this post to find 8 video splitters for Windows and macOS and then compare them side to side.
8 Best Free Video Splitters for Windows and Mac
#1. MiniTool MovieMaker
The full-featured Windows video editing tool MiniTool MovieMaker can work as video splitter software. Besides, it has many other powerful editing features for you to make professional-looking videos without a steep learning curve.
Split a video into many smaller equal parts, trim the video to remove unwanted parts, and join many smaller videos into one file.
The video templates covering various themes will save you time to create cool movies.
Accelerate the video, make the engaging slow-motion video, or reverse the video.
You can find some free songs in the audio template library and use them as your video’s background music.
It comes with different transitions, filter effects, color correction settings, and customizable animated texts.
Turn pictures into a video or a slideshow.
Convert the video to MP4 or other formats, change video resolution and size.
How to Use MiniTool MovieMaker to Split the Video?
Step 1. Install this free video splitter on Windows.
Download the free edition of MiniTool MovieMaker on your PC (Windows 10/8/7 are supported).
Step 2. Import your multimedia files now.
The main UI of MiniTool video splitter software is composed of 3 parts: media library, preview window, and the timeline. To import the video files that you want to split, please click the ’Import Media Files’ button, soon the imported files will show in My Album, please drag and drop them to the timeline.
Step 3. Choose one method to split the video into multiple parts.
Way 1. Split the video file in the video track
Play the video file, and stop it where you want to split, you will see a scissor icon on the timeline -> tap that scissor icon and you can split the video into 2 pieces immediately.
Way 2: Accurately split the video
If you want to split the video file frame by frame, please select that video file on the timeline, click the scissor icon on the toolbar, then choose Full Split to open the SPLIT/TRIM window. When it is done, please play video and stop it where you want to split. Finally, hit on the scissor icon and confirm the operation by clicking OK.
Step 4. Save the video files.
This is the last step, click the Export button at the upper right corner, choose a folder to save the new video clips. You could save the videos in different formats including MKV, TS, WMV, MP4, AVI, MPEG-2, MOV and WEBM.
Pros of MiniTool MovieMaker
This video splitter is completely free and has no watermark.
Can split videos with frame accuracy.
Able to split both video files and audio.
Trim unwanted parts of the video with no hassle.
The video templates are helpful for beginners to edit videos more productively.
Cons of MiniTool MovieMaker
The software is available for free download on Windows only.
#2. Windows Movie Maker
Windows Movie Maker from Microsoft company can give you a hand to edit videos and then directly post them on social networking sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and Flickr.
How to Split Video with Microsoft Movie Maker Step by Step?
Step 1. Download this Windows Movie Maker to the Windows PC.
Step 2. Hit on the ’Add videos and photos’ button to import a video or multiple video files to this free video cutter tool.
Step 3. Drag the dark Vertical Line to the correct place in the video, and then click Video Tools → Edit → Split. Confirm the result and save the small video clips now.
Pros Windows Movie Maker
The simple controls are friendly to the users, even for people who are new to video editing.
The automatic preview feature allows users to hover their mouse cursor over the buttons and see the edits they have applied.
Cons of Windows Movie Maker
Windows Movie Maker suffers from frequent crashes.
It is not suitable for creating complex videos.
#3. Windows Photos
If you are using Windows 10 OS, you could try the hidden video editor called Photos app to split/trim a video.
How Can We Split Video Using Windows 10 Photos App?
① Launch the app, click ’New video’, click the + Add icon to import a video file, when it is done, drag and drop that file to the timeline.
② Select the video file -> hit on the ”Split” button under the preview window.
③ Move the blue icon to the position where you want the video to be cut -> click Done, and then, click Finish video to save the new videos.
Pros Windows Photos
The Windows app has a clean and straightforward design.
It also offers features like photo browsing and searching.
Choose different video editing effects to create cool video content.
Cons of Windows Photos
It is not suitable for those who have experience using professional editing tools.
This app cannot add transitions to videos.
The Photos app takes up huge amounts of resources on Windows 10.
#4. VLC
This media player software is powerful enough that you can use it to split a long video into multiple smaller pieces.
Pros of VLC
Split the large audio/video file with some simple clicks.
Can work with different types of multimedia files, so you do not need to download additional codecs.
Cons of VLC
It does not have the mode of precision video splitting.
It requires patience to finish the video splitting process.
You can’t do complex editing with the VLC player.
#5. MP4Tools
MP4Tools is another free software designed for easy video editing and processing. You could use this functional, cross-platform program to split videos and merge videos.
Pros of MP4Tools
Split video into several files and join more than 2 videos without re-encoding.
Do batch conversions to save your time.
The video quality after conversion remains good.
Cons of MP4Tools
MP4Tools only supports MP4 video files.
#6. OpenShot
OpenShot is available for free download on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. You can use this video editor to split large-size videos into smaller files or join videos together. You won’t see any watermark on the final video after you finish the video editing and click export.
Pros of OpenShot
Openshot supports different kinds of video files and audio.
The video effects and animation framework are useful for beginners to edit videos.
Cons of OpenShot
Openshot runs a little slowly, especially when you apply video effects to the videos.
You have to install additional plug-ins before using the 3D animated titles and other visual effects.
#7. Free Video Cutter
You don’t need to have professional video editing skills to divide the videos into smaller clips with the help of Free Video Cutter. This simple-to-use video tool gives you full control over the entire process of video splitting. As for the file compatibility, it can work with AVI, MKV, FLV, MOV, Divx, Xvid, and MP4 videos.
Pros of Free Video Cutter
This free video splitter can work with many different video types.
It offers different options for the output format.
Cons of Free Video Cutter
Compared to other video splitters, Free Video Cutter delivers a little poor sound quality.
You will need to turn off the video thumbnails.
There are limited sound configurations.
#8. iMovie (for Mac)
If you are using iMovie on Mac OS X, the process of splitting video will be a breeze. This well-known video editing application is a top choice for Mac users to trim/split video, apply different visual effects, add text to videos, and add background music, etc.
Pros of iMovie
The beautiful UI and intuitive functions make video editing easy for novices.
Has quite a lot of audio enhancement tools.
The auto-save feature saves you from holding down COMMAND + S keys many times.
Cons of iMovie
The clip trim feature is a little imprecise, you cannot split the video by frame.
It does not have a built-in library of background music to choose from.
The menus of iMovie are difficult to view when you are using the application on a smaller desktop screen.