Tool 'smart-trim' achieves frame-accurate FFmpeg cuts by re-encoding only clip edges

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A developer has released a Node.js utility called smart-trim that solves a longstanding FFmpeg limitation where stream-copy trimming can only cut on keyframe boundaries, causing inaccurate clip lengths. The tool uses ffprobe to locate keyframes and splits a requested trim into three segments: a re-encoded head, a stream-copied middle, and a re-encoded tail. Only the short fragments at the start and end of the clip are re-encoded, preserving quality while keeping processing fast. The segments are then joined using FFmpeg's concat demuxer to produce a single output file. The project has been tested with FFmpeg 9.0 'Lei', released on August 4, 2026, and Node.js 22.x, and is written as an ESM module.

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