How to Crop a Video in Windows Media Player?

“Can I crop a video in Windows Media Player?”
“How do I crop a video in Windows Media Player?”

Many people may want to crop video on Windows Media Player. However, the answer is that Windows Media Player doesn’t offer any video editing features that you can use to crop the video. As mentioned, it is only designed as a media player and manager. Although you can install some plugins to get basic editing features, like trimming video with Windows Media Player, none of them are related to video cropping. So if you want to crop your video on Windows, you can only rely on some third-party video editing programs.

As stated before, Windows Media Player doesn’t have a video cropping feature. So this part shares some Windows Media Alternatives to help you crop the video on Windows for free.

Cropping video on Windows couldn't be easier with the right tool. And WonderFox Free HD Video Converter Factory is highly recommended for you to crop videos and do other edits. Designed with a super-simple interface and intuitive workflow, you can finish the video cropping with only a few simple clicks. It supports all video formats and can output them to 500+ formats and devices. More than just cropping video, this free video editor also enables you to trim, rotate, merge, and add effects, watermarks, etc. All the editing processes won’t sacrifice the video quality.

DownloadDownload WonderFox Free HD Video Converter Factory now and follow the steps below to start cropping videos.

Step 1. Launch WonderFox Free HD Video Converter Factory Pro after you install it on your desktop. Then enter its “Converter” module from the initial interface. Click the “+ Add Files” button or the center “+” button to import the video you want to crop. You can also directly drag and drop the target files into the workspace.

Step 2. Press the square-shaped icon (the fourth icon) below the video task to bring up the video cropping window.
Under the Free Aspect Ratio mode, you can freely drag the dotted box on the Original Preview window to select the wanted part or type in the pixel value under the “Crop Area Resolution” option.

You can also choose the Fixed Aspect Ratio and select one ratio from the drop-down list. Then place the dotted box in your wanted area. The “Fine Tuning” feature allows you to make the cropped area more accurate. Finally, press “OK” to save the changes and return to the main interface.

Step 3. Hit the format image on the right side of the interface to expand the output format library. Head to the “Video” tab, then you can choose the original format or change the video format to others. Move to the bottom of the interface, click the inverted triangle button to set an output path, or leave it as default. Finally, press “Run” to start exporting the cropped video.

You can also download VLC Media Player, which is not only a powerful media file player but also allows you to edit videos by trimming, merging, cropping, etc. You can definitely use it as the Windows Media Player alternative to play and crop the video. Without further ado, just let’s see how to crop video in VLC Media Player.

Preparation: Go to the official site of VLC Media Player (https://www.videolan.org/) to download VLC on your desktop. Then launch it.

Step 1. At the main interface of VLC, click “Media” > “Open File” to open your wanted video.

Step 2. In the playback interface, decide which part you want to crop out, press “Tools” on the top menu bar, and choose the “Effects and Filters” option. Or you can press the sixth icon at the bottom of the interface to expand the “Adjustments and Effects” window.

Step 3. Choose the “Video Effects” tab and select the “Crop” option. Enter the pixel value in the Top/Bottom/Left/Right related boxes or press the upside/down button to set the cropping area. (After a few steps, we’ll need the values you just entered, so you’d better write them down somewhere.) Close the window.

Step 4. Press “Tools” on the top menu bar and select “Preferences”, and check the “All” box at the bottom left corner to show all the settings. Scroll down to find the “Video” option, then click the arrow icon next to the “Filters” option to show all the sub-options. Find “Croppadd” and fill in the pixel values you set before. Then click “Filters” on the left side and tick the “Video cropping filter” checkbox on the right side. Press “Save” to apply the changes.

Step 5. Now, click “Media” > “Convert/Save”. Add the video you want to crop and press “Convert/Save” to continue.

Step 6. Click the wrench icon (Edit selected profile) right next to the Profile to bring up the “Profile edition” window. Switch to the “Video codec” tab and tick the “Video cropping filter” checkbox under the “Filters” option. Hit “Save” to go back.

Step 7. Press “Browse” to set the destination folder and name the video. Click “Start” to begin the conversion.

Guess you don’t want to download other software on your PC for cropping, this post also offers you a web-based video editor to help you crop videos online. Here we use 123APP’s online video cropping tool to show you how to crop video online.

Step 1. Open your browser and visit https://online-video-cutter.com/crop-video.

Step 2. Click “Open file” to upload the video you want to crop. You can also import the video from your Google Drive, Dropbox, or URL.

Step 3. Choose a fixed aspect ratio or "Custom" and move the cropping box to the desired location.

Step 4. This online cropping tool allows you to select the output video format as MP4, MKV, or MOV. You can also directly press “Save” to start the cropping process.

Step 5. When it finishes cropping, press “Save” to download the cropped video. The file will be saved to your default download folder.

Windows Movie Maker was officially discontinued by Microsoft, but some users can still have it on their PCs. However, Windows Movie Maker doesn’t offer the video cropping feature. But you can use its zoom-in feature to enlarge some frames of the video, as the zoom-in filter only helps you zoom in but cannot cut off the undesired part. Just launch Windows Movie Maker and import the video. Head to the “Animations” tab and choose the “Pans and Zoom” filter. Select the needed zoom-in effect. Once finished, go to “File” > “Save movie” > “For computer” to save the video.

Yes, there is a built-in video editor in Windows 10 called Windows Video Editor. Users can find it from the Windows Start menu. It offers you the ability to trim and split video and add text/effects/3D objects/ music to video. But if you want to crop video, you still have to get other third-party software.

Yes. Though Windows Media Player is a tool designed for playing media files on Windows, you can also use it to edit videos with some smart plug-ins installed, like the SolveigMM WMP Trimmer Plugin.

"How to crop a video in Windows Media Player?"

After reading this post, you can see that Windows Media Player won’t crop the video. So it is strongly recommended that you use Free HD Video Converter Factory to edit and crop the video more efficiently. You can also crop videos with online tools. However, online video editors rely on the network; if your network is unstable, you may fail to crop the video or wait a long time for it to process. Nevertheless, just feel free to choose one according to your preference.

Thanks for your reading!