diff --git a/doc/syntax.texi b/doc/syntax.texi
index 4dddc3cbc2b00d4749fabdd88c78f8a1e3272912..af22d6cefd04e6f51d29ca150f10ee8508c50186 100644
--- a/doc/syntax.texi
+++ b/doc/syntax.texi
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ year-month-day.
 
 The accepted syntax is:
 @example
-[-]HH:MM:SS[.m...]
+[-][HH:]MM:SS[.m...]
 [-]S+[.m...]
 @end example
 
diff --git a/libavutil/parseutils.c b/libavutil/parseutils.c
index 73e400ac62d9cdc1a5d159746edc72c9154466ee..c67f971792ef120c490649f1660191cbf5e787da 100644
--- a/libavutil/parseutils.c
+++ b/libavutil/parseutils.c
@@ -587,6 +587,11 @@ int av_parse_time(int64_t *timeval, const char *timestr, int duration)
         }
         /* parse timestr as HH:MM:SS */
         q = av_small_strptime(p, "%J:%M:%S", &dt);
+        if (!q) {
+            /* parse timestr as MM:SS */
+            q = av_small_strptime(p, "%M:%S", &dt);
+            dt.tm_hour = 0;
+        }
         if (!q) {
             /* parse timestr as S+ */
             dt.tm_sec = strtol(p, (void *)&q, 10);
diff --git a/libavutil/parseutils.h b/libavutil/parseutils.h
index 1f56a7a7cc19d014967a1e4b43618a2e2dfca026..80ba2b74fc9a600d6c1c031aa0d153fa79b07da7 100644
--- a/libavutil/parseutils.h
+++ b/libavutil/parseutils.h
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ int av_parse_color(uint8_t *rgba_color, const char *color_string, int slen,
  * year-month-day.
  * - If a duration the syntax is:
  * @code
- * [-]HH:MM:SS[.m...]]]
+ * [-][HH:]MM:SS[.m...]]]
  * [-]S+[.m...]
  * @endcode
  * @param duration flag which tells how to interpret timestr, if not
diff --git a/libavutil/version.h b/libavutil/version.h
index 3b5c04dabe1e8f7d4616fbc09175fdd24127f5b1..5aca91de74bae0cd6d8b4c4ca5ba81d92989b4bb 100644
--- a/libavutil/version.h
+++ b/libavutil/version.h
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@
 
 #define LIBAVUTIL_VERSION_MAJOR  52
 #define LIBAVUTIL_VERSION_MINOR  17
-#define LIBAVUTIL_VERSION_MICRO 102
+#define LIBAVUTIL_VERSION_MICRO 103
 
 #define LIBAVUTIL_VERSION_INT   AV_VERSION_INT(LIBAVUTIL_VERSION_MAJOR, \
                                                LIBAVUTIL_VERSION_MINOR, \