You only need the -ss and -t options. -ss is the starttime and -t the duration, so if you want 10 seconds from a video starting from minute one, you would use this. 1 ffmpeg -i INFILE.mp4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -ss 00:01:00.000 -t 00:00:10.000 OUTFILE.mp4 You can use seconds or hh:mm:ss[.xxx] as arguments for the start time and duration, i prefer the second option. The options -vcodec copy and -acodec copy are used to only cut the video and disable the re-encoding, this really speed things up. I use this command ffmpeg -i INFILE.mp4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -ss 00:01:00.000 -t 00:00:10.000 OUTFILE.mp4 ffmpeg -i "NON STOP CHRISTMAS MEDLEY VOLUME 1 & 2-RFTYZgBNprg.mp3" -vcodec copy -acodec copy -ss 00:00:10.000 -t 01:00:00.000 "NON STOP CHRISTMAS MEDLEY VOLUME 1 & 2-1 hours.mp3" without re-encoding