How to download and cut tournament videos:
Written by Jed for Modern Tetris Organizing. Thanks to Johann of Classic Tetris LATAM for LosslessCut suggestion.
Hey. This is a guide on how to download and cut/clip your tournament videos. This guide assumes you're on Windows. This guide also works with Mac and Linux, let me know if I should make a guide for those systems. Check out the "Why" section if you want to know why I am making you install all this stuff. Everything provided is free and open source software. If you're concerned about the programs, you can review the code yourself (Links to the programs are embedded in the "Why" section).
Let's begin.
START OF GUIDE
Setup
- Download the latest version of
LosslessCut: Click here to access the download page. (Click on "Assets" and download theLosslessCut-win-x64.7zfile) - Extract the
LosslessCut-win-x64.7zto a folder of your choice - Setup done!
Alternatively, you can also install LosslessCut through the Microsoft Store: Click here to download through the Microsoft Store (you have to pay money though, not recommended if you're broke/don't care).
Downloading VODs
Twitch
- Download the latest version of TwitchDownloader: Click here to access the download page. (Download the file that says
TwitchDownloaderGUI-[VersionNumber]-Windows-x64.zip) - Extract the zip file to a folder of your choosing
- Open
TwitchDownloaderWPF.exeand click on the blueVOD Downloadbutton - Find the link to the VOD you want to download (for example, here is the link for the TETR.IO Cup 15 VOD)
- Paste the link of the VOD you want to download in the
VOD Link/IDsection. - Click the
Get Infobutton and choose the highest quality possible - Click
Downloadand the VOD will begin to download
YouTube
- Download the latest version of MediaDownloader: Click here to access the download page. (Download the file that says
MediaDownloader-[VersionNumber].setup.exe) - Run the
MediaDownloader-[VersionNumber].setup.exefile and install MediaDownloader - Open MediaDownloader
- Find the link of the VOD you want to download (for example, here is the link for the TETR.IO Cup 15 korean restream VOD)
- Paste the link of the VOD you want to download in the
Enter URLsection - Click the
Downloadbutton and the video will begin to download
Cutting Videos
- Open
LosslessCut(if you downloaded it from GitHub, run theLosslessCut.exefile) - Drag and drop your VOD in the
Drop Filessection - Go to where you want the clip to start. Use the left brown button mark the start
- Go to where you want the clip to end. Use the right brown button to mark the end
- Click the export button. If you're happy with your settings, click the export button again.
- That's it! The video will be exported to where you assigned it in your settings.
You can make multiple cuts before exporting. The default video title convention is [Video name]_[Start Time]-[End Time].[extension]. For example, if I have a video file called tc15.mp4 and I have a start time of 03:33:02 and 03:50:20, then the video will be called tc15_03.33.02-03.50.20.mp4.
END OF GUIDE
No need to read anything beyond here if you have followed the instructions. The rest is just question answering.
Troubleshooting
My computer can't open .7z/.zip files
Windows 10/11 normally comes with a native archive extractor (i.e, a program that can open and extract .7z/.zip files). If you don't have one, you can use a free and open source program like 7-Zip to extract the files
Why
Why should I use this guide and not just simply use my video editing software?
You don't have to use the guide. You are free to cut your videos however you like. That being said, I can list some benefits of using this instead of a conventional video editor like Premiere, Vegas, or even a free one like Kdenlive:
- It's free, safe, and compatible on pretty much every modern operating system.
- Videos are generated very fast, and lose no quality. LosslessCut uses FFmpeg to cut the videos without re-encoding. This means that videos are generated in a few seconds and lose no quality from the source.
- It's simple to use.
What is LosslessCut, and why do I have to install it?
LosslessCut is a lossless video editing program that serves as a GUI for FFmpeg, a powerful media library for audiovisual formats. The reason why you have to install is because it's the meat and bones of this guide. Without it, this guide does not need to exist.
What is TwitchDownloader, and why do I have to install it?
TwitchDownloader is a download tool that allows for the saving of VODs, Clips, and other content on the Twitch platform. It is the latest tool that I recommend for downloading Twitch videos (previously I recommended TwitchLeecher, which has ceased development). TwitchDownloader is optional to download. If you are not interested in download Twitch videos or have another way to download them, you can skip downloading it.
What is MediaDownloader, and why do I have to install it?
MediaDownloader is a download tool that allows for the saving of YouTube videos, clips, and shorts on the YouTube platform. MediaDownloader is a GUI front end to yt-dlp and youtube-dl. I personally don't use this tool, instead I just run yt-dlp directly from the command line. The reason why I chose MediaDownloader is because it's more friendly towards people who are not used to the command line. It is optional.
Is there an alternative to LosslessCut?
Yes. If you don't want to use LosslessCut, you can check out the mpv version of this guide
Hey, I'm confused/need help. Where do I go?
If you need help installing or have questions about this guide, ping @tsdjed in the #production-help channel in Modern Tetris Organizing.
Thanks, and I hope this is useful for you. If you find something wrong with the guide/improvements, reach out to tsdjed on Twitter or Discord.