Shrinking MKV file

[Peleus]

Hi all,

I've got a 720p movie rip in .mkv form, total size of file is 4.36GB

When I go through tsMuxer to convert this to bluray file structure, the file size goes up to about 4.6gb (sorry deleted rip, it's approx that).

This results in being slightly over the capacity of the single layer DVD I'm hoping to put the rip onto.

The eventual goal is to put this rip onto a stand alone Bluray player (not PS3) for playback in the best quality I can maintain.

How do I (or can I) reduce the size of this .mkv file slightly so I can go through this process and still receive a file that will fit on a single layer DVD. I'm unfortunately an editing newbie (but keen to learn) so if I need to use VirtualDub I've got no idea how, but will look into it.

I tried demuxing the subs out with mkvmerge, however the resulting file size was the same (4.36gb) so I'm not sure if I did it right, or if it really did have subs or what.

Can I just cut out the credits somehow? Do you think this will reduce it sufficiently? What's the easiest program to use to split .mkv files?

Thanks for your help folks.

[craigarta]

The only that comes to mind is perhaps seeing if you reduce the size of the audio part then remux it back it

[AlanHK]

I tried demuxing the subs out with mkvmerge, however the resulting file size was the same (4.36gb) so I'm not sure if I did it right, or if it really did have subs or what.

Subs are relatively minuscule, a few MB at most.

But audio could be large.
Can MKVtoolnix tell you how big the audio is?
If it's say 448 kbp, you could reencode it to 128 and save 75%.
I doubt you would hear the difference.

[Peleus]

No problem,

Sorry if this should be in the newbie section, but can you suggest any good guides or tools to do so. No idea what I'm doing

[AlanHK]

No problem,

Sorry if this should be in the newbie section, but can you suggest any good guides or tools to do so. No idea what I'm doing

I don't know anything about Blueray. and little about MKV.
But basic principle is demux -- separate into the video , audio (and subtitles, if present) and then reencode, then remux.

To reencode the audio, you can use BeSweet, FFmpeg, or their various GUIs.
Keep the same format (probably MP3 or AC3), but a lower bitrate.

[Baldrick]

You can also use xvid4psp or avidemux, load the mkv, set the video to copy and audio to ac3 with lower bitrate and reconvert.

And if just lowering the audio bitrate wont help then can you cut using avidemux also.