Clip Extractor Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

"ffmpeg not found" on start

The app needs ffmpeg and ffprobe on your PATH. Install them with:

winget install Gyan.FFmpeg

Then open a new terminal (or sign out and back in) and check ffmpeg -version works. Then start the app again. See Installation.

Windows warns about an unknown publisher

The exe is not code-signed, so SmartScreen may show a warning on first run. Click More info, then Run anyway.

An NVENC export fails

The error window shows the exact ffmpeg command and its log. Common causes:

No NVIDIA GPU, or outdated drivers. Update your NVIDIA driver. If you have no NVIDIA GPU, use a Lossless export (marks on keyframes) or frame PNGs; NVENC re-encoding needs one.
AV1 selected on an older GPU. AV1 encoding needs a recent NVIDIA card. Choose H.264 or HEVC.
Output file is open elsewhere, or the output folder is not writable. Pick another folder under Preferences > Output.

Lossless is greyed out

The dialog says why. Lossless needs both marks on keyframes, and no crop, scale, flip or colour match. Move the marks with Shift+Left / Shift+Right to land on keyframes, or choose NVENC. See Exporting.

The keyboard shortcuts stopped working

A box you clicked into (such as the clip length) is keeping the keyboard. Press Enter or Esc, or click the video, and the keys work again.

A player shows a clip as much longer than it really is

Clips exported by early versions could carry hidden extra audio. Players like MPC-HC and Windows Explorer then report a longer duration even though the clip plays for its real length. This was fixed. To repair an old clip without touching its video:

ffmpeg -i clip.mp4 -map 0 -c:v copy -c:a aac -b:a 192k -movflags +faststart clip_fixed.mp4

Stepping backwards is slow

Going back one frame re-decodes from the previous keyframe. Footage with very long gaps between keyframes (some screen recordings and security-camera files) is slower to step through. Clips exported by this app have a keyframe every second.

No sound during playback

Check the speaker button is not muted (M) and the volume slider is up.
Files with no audio track are silent.
If the status bar says "Audio unavailable", the audio device or the file's audio format could not be opened. Playback continues silently.

The picture is sideways

Rotate it with R. Phone videos with their own rotation flag normally show upright automatically.

Colour match gives a strange result

Make sure the box is on the same person's skin in both images.
Keep "Use only skin-coloured pixels" ticked, so hair and background do not skew it.
Lower Strength, or untick Match contrast.

See Colour Matching.