BULK remove non-English tracks from MKV container?

[soulhunter123]

I have lots of MKV files which contain multiple audio and subtitle tracks. I'd like to remove the non-English tracks from the files and re-mux them all to leave just the English ones.

This can be done manually using mmg.exe from mkvtoolnix, but is there a way to remove tracks by examining their language code which could be written into a batch file or something?

Thanks

[Baldrick]

I haven't seen anything that can examining languague codes. But if they all have same tracks you can probably use the command line mkvmerge in a batch loop, see http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=162639 .

[soulhunter123]

Mkvinfo reports on the language of all the tracks. I'm guessing it would be possible to write a program which would examine the output generated by mkvinfo and determine which tracks would be kept and which discarded. But that sounds like a lot of effort. I'll give your suggestion a try. Thanks!

EDIT: most of the files did use the same IDs for non-English tracks (check using mmg.exe) so I modified a script on the page you linked to and came up with this:

batch_remove.bat (place inside .mkv directory with mkvmerge.exe in C:\).
Replace 4 and 7 with whatever audio/subtitle tracks you wish to preserve.
If you want to preserve multiple tracks, do -a 1,2,3 or -s 1,2,3 etc.

FOR /F "delims=*" %%A IN ('dir /b *.MKV') DO "C:\mkvmerge.exe" -o "fixed_%%A" -a 4 -s 7 --compression -1:none "%%A"
PAUSE

Hopefully in the future we could see some syntax like --remove-language !eng to remove all tracks which don't have a "eng" language code.

[greenbender]

An old thread but others might be interested.

The following python script will batch remove non English audio and subtitles, set the default audio track to the first English track and ensure that there are no default subtitles (only minor modification to support other languages - probably should be a command line option). The script will process any .mkv files in the input directory and all sub directories.

You just need to install python and mkvtoolnix.

if you need further help then search for something like "how to run a python script".

#!/usr/bin/python

import os
import re
import sys
import StringIO
import subprocess

# change this for other languages (3 character code)
LANG = "eng"

# set this to the path for mkvmerge
MKVMERGE = "C:/Program Files/MKVtoolnix/mkvmerge.exe"

AUDIO_RE    = re.compile(r"Track ID (\d+): audio \([A-Z0-9_/]+\) [number:\d+ uid:\d+ codec_id:[A-Z0-9_/]+ codec_private_length:\d+ language:([a-z]{3})")
SUBTITLE_RE = re.compile(r"Track ID (\d+): subtitles \([A-Z0-9_/]+\) [number:\d+ uid:\d+ codec_id:[A-Z0-9_/]+ codec_private_length:\d+ language:([a-z]{3})(?: track_name:\w*)? default_track:[01]{1} forced_track:([01]{1})")

if len(sys.argv) < 2:
    print "Please supply an input directory"
    sys.exit()

in_dir = sys.argv[1]

for root, dirs, files in os.walk(in_dir):
    for f in files:

        # filter out non mkv files
        if not f.endswith(".mkv"):
            continue

        # path to file
        path = os.path.join(root, f)

        # build command line
        cmd = [MKVMERGE, "--identify-verbose", path]

        # get mkv info
        mkvmerge = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
        stdout, stderr = mkvmerge.communicate()
        if mkvmerge.returncode != 0:
            print >> sys.stderr, "mkvmerge failed to identify", path
            continue

        # find audio and subtitle tracks
        audio = []
        subtitle = []
        for line in StringIO.StringIO(stdout):
            m = AUDIO_RE.match(line)
            if m:
                audio.append(m.groups())
            else:
                m = SUBTITLE_RE.match(line)
                if m:
                    subtitle.append(m.groups())

        # filter out files that don't need processing
        if len(audio) < 2 and len(subtitle) < 2:
            print >> sys.stderr, "nothing to do for", path
            continue

        # filter out tracks that don't match the language	
        audio_lang = filter(lambda a: a[1]==LANG, audio)
        subtitle_lang = filter(lambda a: a[1]==LANG, subtitle)

        # filter out files that don't need processing
        if len(audio_lang) == 0 and len(subtitle_lang) == 0:
            print >> sys.stderr, "no tracks with that language in", path
            continue

        # build command line
        cmd = [MKVMERGE, "-o", path + ".temp"]
        if len(audio_lang):
            cmd += ["--audio-tracks", ",".join([str(a[0]) for a in audio_lang])]
            for i in range(len(audio_lang)):
                cmd += ["--default-track", ":".join([audio_lang[i][0], "0" if i else "1"])]
        if len(subtitle_lang):
            cmd += ["--subtitle-tracks", ",".join([str(s[0]) for s in subtitle_lang])]
            for i in range(len(subtitle_lang)):
                cmd += ["--default-track", ":".join([subtitle_lang[i][0], "0"])]
        cmd += [path]

        # process file
        print >> sys.stderr, "Processing", path, "...",
        mkvmerge = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
        stdout, stderr = mkvmerge.communicate()
        if mkvmerge.returncode != 0:
            print >> sys.stderr, "Failed"
            continue
        
        print >> sys.stderr, "Succeeded"

        # overwrite file
        os.remove(path)
        os.rename(path + ".temp", path)

[gffmac]

Thanks for the script, I have installed python and mkvtools and set the path to mkv merge.

I am getting

File "J:\Movies\mkv clean audio to english.py", line 19
print "Please supply an input directory"
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

The .py script is located in the folder containing the mkv files. Can anyone help?

[gffmac]

Bump?

[Baldrick]

Try just remove/comment that line, add a # before print "Please supply an input directory" so it looks like

#print "Please supply an input directory"

If you receive more errors it's probably something wrong with your python installation/version.

[gffmac]

New error:
ImportError: No module named 'StringIO'

I tried a previous version of python pre version 3 and now get :
File "J:\Movies\mkv clean audio to english.py", line 22, in <module>
in_dir = sys.argv[1]
IndexError: list index out of range.

I give up lol, Ill look for an alternative method.

Thanks for your reply.

[Baldrick]

Or wait and see if you get any help by greenbender because my python experience is very limited.

[talonius]

You'll need to run this from the command prompt and provide the directory you want to have scanned (including subdirectories) to the file.

In your case...

ScriptName.py "J:/Movies"

[gffmac]

You'll need to run this from the command prompt and provide the directory you want to have scanned (including subdirectories) to the file.

In your case...

ScriptName.py "J:/Movies"

Ill give it a shot when I get in thanks mate, think I may have tried this already though.

[talonius]

For the record, I used Python 2.7, not 3.0. I ran into two problems. The first is that I had the path to MKVMerge set incorrectly. In the original script, it is:

# set this to the path for mkvmerge
MKVMERGE = "C:/Program Files/MKVtoolnix/mkvmerge.exe"

Since I'm running Windows 7, 64 bit, and had installed to the D: drive, I changed this to:

# set this to the path for mkvmerge
MKVMERGE = "D:/Program Files (x86)/MKVtoolnix/mkvmerge.exe"

The error that accompanied this mistake was really weird; something along the lines of "cannot open input path."

Second, I had to provide it with the path I wanted to inspect. I used a DOS prompt and navigated to my media files, then executed using

"RemoveNonEnglish.py ."

Where the . stands for the current directory. That scanned the current directory and all subdirectories - and it's in process now.

Thanks.

[gffmac]

"J:/Movies/mkv clean audio to english.py" J:/Movies

That did the trick then was getting failed but thats due to not enough space to remux a movie :P
I was sure I had tried that... Maybe that was when i was on version 3.... 64bit of python..

Now processing and no errors so far

Thanks for the responses!

[Baldrick]

No problems.

[bobbintb]

i was looking forward to using this as it is exactly what i was looking for but it wont work for me. it just says "nothing to do for /mnt/user/me/TV/test/test_file.mkv"

the file does have english and german audio and subtitles.

so i commented out this section of code:

        # filter out files that don't need processing
        if len(audio) < 2 and len(subtitle) < 2:
            print >> sys.stderr, "nothing to do for", path
            continue

then i got "no tracks with that language in /mnt/user/me/TV/test/test_file.mkv"

so i commented out:

        # filter out files that don't need processing
       if len(audio_lang) == 0 and len(subtitle_lang) == 0:
            print >> sys.stderr, "no tracks with that language in", path
            continue

then it processed but when it was done nothing was removed. i looked at the RE and i dont think it matches up with the expected output. maybe i have a different version of mkvmerge or something. here is the output i'm getting:

Track ID 1: video (V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC) [language:und display_dimensions:1920x1080 default_track:1 forced_track:0 packetizer:mpeg4_p10_video]
Track ID 2: audio (A_AC3) [language:ger default_track:1 forced_track:0]
Track ID 3: audio (A_AC3) [language:eng default_track:0 forced_track:0]
Track ID 4: subtitles (S_HDMV/PGS) [language:ger default_track:0 forced_track:0]
Track ID 5: subtitles (S_HDMV/PGS) [language:eng default_track:0 forced_track:0]

i know some python so maybe i can get it working but anyone let me know if they have any ideas.

UPDATE: pretty sure im using an older version of the tool that has a different format for the verbose output. a version check might be a good idea.

[bobbintb]

i got it to work but it doesnt work all of the time. i upgraded my version to 5.8 because it was the newest version i could find packaged for my distro and i havent had the time to build it myself (nor do i want to). one file i tried it on had french audio and subs. it only removed the french audio for some reason even though the subs are labeled as fre.

[richsmif]

I left a Feature request for Media Centre Master to build this feature into his program as that would be PERFECT.

I cannot believe there is no program you can run to automatically examine a MKV and strip languages or subs from a file with some command line prompts or even a GUI to feed a folder in and it examines all within.

Its not that hard!!

[urbanriot]

An old thread but others might be interested.

An old post but I just logged in to give my thanks as this script came in very handy.

For people having issues in Windows, Python versions greater than 3 are probably why. Python version 2.7.4 worked fine for me and this script successfully stripped some unwanted subs and audio from plenty of folders.

[Plasticpants]

How could I do this so this would loop in a batch file?

""F:\Program Files (x86)\MKVToolNix\mkvmerge.exe" -o "F:\\downloads\\folder\\folder\\file (1).mkv"  "--default-track" "0:yes" "--forced-track" "0:no" "--display-dimensions" "0:720x384" "--language" "2:eng" "--track-name" "2:Funimation" "--default-track" "2:no" "--forced-track" "2:no" "-a" "2" "-d" "0" "-S" "-T" "--no-global-tags" "--no-chapters" "(" "F:\\downloads\\folder\\folder\\file.mkv" ")" "--track-order" "0:0,0:2"

[rilorolo]

Nice script!

I'm on linux, so with a little tweaking, i got this to work. I am hoping to use this in SABnzbd, but i really need help with this. I would like the script to do the following:

- Rename the original MKV file, and name the new file as the original

- If dutch subtitles are available in the MKV file, they must be extracted and named the same as the MKV file as "FileName.nl.srt"

- In the MKV file, only keep:
*Video track
*English audio track. DTS if available, otherwise AC3, otherwise something else (2 eng audio tracks means 1 has to go)
NOTHING else to keep. No other audio, no subtitles

- The original MKV has to be deleted.

Nice to haves:
- Do this for all MKV files found in all subfolders
- Options to set languages for video and subtitles to remove and also for the ones to keep and extract (you would need to rename the extracted subtitle based on the language chosen)

I think the one who makes this script will be a hero. At least to me, but i guess for a lot more people. Would save a LOT of work.

Thanks in advance!

[ZeroBS]

Nice script!

I'm on linux, so with a little tweaking, i got this to work. I am hoping to use this in SABnzbd, but i really need help with this. I would like the script to do the following:

- Rename the original MKV file, and name the new file as the original

- If dutch subtitles are available in the MKV file, they must be extracted and named the same as the MKV file as "FileName.nl.srt"

- In the MKV file, only keep:
*Video track
*English audio track. DTS if available, otherwise AC3, otherwise something else (2 eng audio tracks means 1 has to go)
NOTHING else to keep. No other audio, no subtitles

- The original MKV has to be deleted.

Nice to haves:
- Do this for all MKV files found in all subfolders
- Options to set languages for video and subtitles to remove and also for the ones to keep and extract (you would need to rename the extracted subtitle based on the language chosen)

I think the one who makes this script will be a hero. At least to me, but i guess for a lot more people. Would save a LOT of work.

Thanks in advance!

This would be amazing! Please someone, anyone, that knows how to do this, please do this!

[Geek23]

Thanks for the script! This is exactly what I need and it is nice to know that this is possible. However, I can confirm that the different versions output different formats. It would appear that this script uses 6.x so it will not run on anything pre-6.x. You will need to upgrade to 6.x to get this to work.

If you are using Ubuntu, here is the info on how to get the repos into apt.


http://www.hecticgeek.com/2013/05/install-mkvtoolnix-6-2-0-ubuntu-13-04-12-10/

[fryk]

I adopted it for the Windows cmd shell ('batch') and added subtitle support.
Tested with Windows 8.

 
@ECHO OFF &SETLOCAL
TITLE Recursive remove audio and subtitle tracks by language from MKV video files
rem search for MKVs in all "StartFolder\Subfolders", not in "Startfolder" itself
SET "StartFolder=."
rem example to keep English and German audio tracks, please note the colon in front of the language code
SET "AudioTracksToKeep=:eng:ger"
rem example to keep Spanish and French subtitle tracks, please note the colon in front of the language code
SET "SubsTracksToKeep=:spa:fre"
rem the file name variable must be global for some reasons
SET "MKVFile="

FOR /f "DELIMS=" %%a IN ('DIR /b /s /a-d "%StartFolder%\*.mkv"') DO SET "MKVFile=%%~a"&CALL:scanmkv
GOTO:EOF

:scanmkv
SETLOCAL
ECHO(
ECHO(Scanning "%MKVFile%" for unwanted tracks.
(FOR /l %%b IN (1 1 45) DO <nul SET /p "=-")&ECHO(

SET /a AudioTrackCount=0
SET /a NumberKeepAudio=0
SET /a NumberDiscardAudio=0

rem get the number of audio tracks
FOR /f %%a IN ('mkvmerge --ui-language en -i "%MKVFile%"^|FINDSTR /rbic:"Track ID [0-9][0-9]*: audio"') DO SET /a AudioTrackCount+=1
ECHO(Number of audio tracks: %AudioTrackCount%
rem always keep at least one audio track
IF %AudioTrackCount% LSS 2 GOTO:subscan

rem get the audio tracks to keep
SET "KeepAudioSearchString=%AudioTracksToKeep::= language:%"
FOR /f "TOKENS=3DELIMS=: " %%a IN ('mkvmerge --ui-language en --identify-verbose "%MKVFile%"^|FINDSTR /rbic:"Track ID [0-9][0-9]*: audio"^|FINDSTR /ri "%KeepAudioSearchString%"') DO (
    SET /a NumberKeepAudio+=1
    CALL SET "AudioIdentKeepLine=%%AudioIdentKeepLine%%,%%a"
)
IF NOT DEFINED AudioIdentKeepLine SET "AudioIdentKeepLine= ^<none^>"
ECHO(ID of %NumberKeepAudio% track(s) to keep: %AudioIdentKeepLine:~1%
IF %NumberKeepAudio%==0 GOTO:subscan

rem get the audio tracks to reject
FOR /f "TOKENS=3DELIMS=: " %%a IN ('mkvmerge --ui-language en --identify-verbose "%MKVFile%"^|FINDSTR /rbic:"Track ID [0-9][0-9]*: audio"^|FINDSTR /riv "%KeepAudioSearchString%"') DO (
    SET /a NumberDiscardAudio+=1
    CALL SET "AudioIdentDiscardLine=%%AudioIdentDiscardLine%%,%%a"
)
IF NOT DEFINED AudioIdentDiscardLine SET "AudioIdentDiscardLine= ^<none^>"
ECHO(ID of %NumberDiscardAudio% track(s) to reject: %AudioIdentDiscardLine:~1%
IF %NumberDiscardAudio%==0 GOTO:subscan

:subscan
SET /a SubsTrackCount=0
SET /a NumberKeepSubs=0
SET /a NumberDiscardSubs=0

rem get the number of subtitle tracks
FOR /f %%a IN ('mkvmerge --ui-language en -i "%MKVFile%"^|FINDSTR /rbic:"Track ID [0-9][0-9]*: subtitles"') DO SET /a SubsTrackCount+=1
ECHO(Number of subtitle tracks: %SubsTrackCount%
IF %SubsTrackCount% EQU 0 GOTO:muxing

rem get the subtitle tracks to keep
SET "KeepSubsSearchString=%SubsTracksToKeep::= language:%"
FOR /f "TOKENS=3DELIMS=: " %%a IN ('mkvmerge --ui-language en --identify-verbose "%MKVFile%"^|FINDSTR /rbic:"Track ID [0-9][0-9]*: subtitles"^|FINDSTR /ri "%KeepSubsSearchString%"') DO (
    SET /a NumberKeepSubs+=1
    CALL SET "SubsIdentKeepLine=%%SubsIdentKeepLine%%,%%a"
)
IF NOT DEFINED SubsIdentKeepLine SET "SubsIdentKeepLine= ^<none^>"
ECHO(ID of %NumberKeepSubs% track(s) to keep: %SubsIdentKeepLine:~1%
IF %NumberKeepSubs%==0 GOTO:muxing

rem get the subtitle tracks to reject
FOR /f "TOKENS=3DELIMS=: " %%a IN ('mkvmerge --ui-language en --identify-verbose "%MKVFile%"^|FINDSTR /rbic:"Track ID [0-9][0-9]*: subtitles"^|FINDSTR /riv "%KeepSubsSearchString%"') DO (
    SET /a NumberDiscardSubs+=1
    CALL SET "SubsIdentDiscardLine=%%SubsIdentDiscardLine%%,%%a"
)
IF NOT DEFINED SubsIdentDiscardLine SET "SubsIdentDiscardLine= ^<none^>"
ECHO(ID of %NumberDiscardSubs% track(s) to reject: %SubsIdentDiscardLine:~1%
IF %NumberDiscardSubs%==0 GOTO:muxing

:muxing
IF %NumberDiscardAudio%==0 IF %NumberDiscardSubs%==0 ECHO(Nothing to do.&EXIT /b
IF %NumberDiscardAudio% NEQ 0 SET "CommandLine=-a %AudioIdentKeepLine:~1%"
IF %NumberDiscardSubs% NEQ 0 SET "CommandLine=%Commandline% -s %SubsIdentKeepLine:~1%"

rem make a backup copy of the MKV
FOR %%a IN ("%MKVFile%") DO SET "MKVBackupFile=%%~na.bak%%~xa"
ECHO(Building "%MKVBackupFile%"
REN "%MKVFile%" "%MKVBackupFile%" || (ECHO(Error renaming to "%MKVBackupFile%"&EXIT /b)

rem build the new MKV
FOR %%a IN ("%MKVFile%") DO SET "MKVBackupFile=%%~dpa%MKVBackupFile%"
ECHO(REMuxing "%MKVFile%"
mkvmerge -o "%MKVFile%" %Commandline% "%MKVBackupFile%"
EXIT /b

The code might crash, if you use characters like !%^ or similar in file or path names.

[f00kie]

Thanks for that fryc! I have two questions:- There seems to be an issue with passing the .bak file to the mkvmerge when the mkv's are in subfolders
- Is there a way to make it set the default flash for video/audio?

Thanks!

[fryk]

There seems to be an issue with passing the .bak file to the mkvmerge when the mkv's are in subfolders
-

Yes, you are right, thanks. I made an edit. What defaults do you want to set?

[the block]

An old thread but others might be interested.

The following python script will batch remove non English audio and subtitles, set the default audio track to the first English track and ensure that there are no default subtitles (only minor modification to support other languages - probably should be a command line option). The script will process any .mkv files in the input directory and all sub directories.

You just need to install python and mkvtoolnix.

if you need further help then search for something like "how to run a python script".

#!/usr/bin/python

import os
import re
import sys
import StringIO
import subprocess

# change this for other languages (3 character code)
LANG = "eng"

# set this to the path for mkvmerge
MKVMERGE = "C:/Program Files/MKVtoolnix/mkvmerge.exe"

AUDIO_RE    = re.compile(r"Track ID (\d+): audio \([A-Z0-9_/]+\) [number:\d+ uid:\d+ codec_id:[A-Z0-9_/]+ codec_private_length:\d+ language:([a-z]{3})")
SUBTITLE_RE = re.compile(r"Track ID (\d+): subtitles \([A-Z0-9_/]+\) [number:\d+ uid:\d+ codec_id:[A-Z0-9_/]+ codec_private_length:\d+ language:([a-z]{3})(?: track_name:\w*)? default_track:[01]{1} forced_track:([01]{1})")

if len(sys.argv) < 2:
    print "Please supply an input directory"
    sys.exit()

in_dir = sys.argv[1]

for root, dirs, files in os.walk(in_dir):
    for f in files:

        # filter out non mkv files
        if not f.endswith(".mkv"):
            continue

        # path to file
        path = os.path.join(root, f)

        # build command line
        cmd = [MKVMERGE, "--identify-verbose", path]

        # get mkv info
        mkvmerge = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
        stdout, stderr = mkvmerge.communicate()
        if mkvmerge.returncode != 0:
            print >> sys.stderr, "mkvmerge failed to identify", path
            continue

        # find audio and subtitle tracks
        audio = []
        subtitle = []
        for line in StringIO.StringIO(stdout):
            m = AUDIO_RE.match(line)
            if m:
                audio.append(m.groups())
            else:
                m = SUBTITLE_RE.match(line)
                if m:
                    subtitle.append(m.groups())

        # filter out files that don't need processing
        if len(audio) < 2 and len(subtitle) < 2:
            print >> sys.stderr, "nothing to do for", path
            continue

        # filter out tracks that don't match the language    
        audio_lang = filter(lambda a: a[1]==LANG, audio)
        subtitle_lang = filter(lambda a: a[1]==LANG, subtitle)

        # filter out files that don't need processing
        if len(audio_lang) == 0 and len(subtitle_lang) == 0:
            print >> sys.stderr, "no tracks with that language in", path
            continue

        # build command line
        cmd = [MKVMERGE, "-o", path + ".temp"]
        if len(audio_lang):
            cmd += ["--audio-tracks", ",".join([str(a[0]) for a in audio_lang])]
            for i in range(len(audio_lang)):
                cmd += ["--default-track", ":".join([audio_lang[i][0], "0" if i else "1"])]
        if len(subtitle_lang):
            cmd += ["--subtitle-tracks", ",".join([str(s[0]) for s in subtitle_lang])]
            for i in range(len(subtitle_lang)):
                cmd += ["--default-track", ":".join([subtitle_lang[i][0], "0"])]
        cmd += [path]

        # process file
        print >> sys.stderr, "Processing", path, "...",
        mkvmerge = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
        stdout, stderr = mkvmerge.communicate()
        if mkvmerge.returncode != 0:
            print >> sys.stderr, "Failed"
            continue
        
        print >> sys.stderr, "Succeeded"

        # overwrite file
        os.remove(path)
        os.rename(path + ".temp", path)

I've found this to work really well for stripping non-english audio tracks, however it seems to miss subtitles. Is there something else that can be modified to strip non-english subtitles as well?

[POLAYER1]

[QUOTE=the block;2291787]

I've found this to work really well for stripping non-english audio tracks, however it seems to miss subtitles. Is there something else that can be modified to strip non-english subtitles as well?

I'm also looking for a script to remove non-english subtitles and chapters from my files. Any help would be much appreciated.

[Endoro]

I scripted it with awk, an Unix scripting language, available also for Windows.

----------

usage:

awk -f script.awk [video.mkv] [audio-langs-to-keep] [subtitle-langs-to-keep] [keep-chapters]

examples:

- keep English and Spain audio, keep French and German subtitles, no chapters

awk -f script.awk video.mkv :eng:spa :fre:ger

- keep English audio, no subs, keep the chapters

awk -f script.awk video.mkv :eng "" chapters

- keep no audio, no subs but the chapters

awk -f script.awk video.mkv "" "" chapters

----------
Put a colon `:` in front of every language code. Some valid codes are:

English language name                         | ISO639-2 code
----------------------------------------------+---------------
Afrikaans                                     | afr
Arabic                                        | ara
Australian languages                          | aus
Baltic languages                              | bat
Catalan; Valencian                            | cat
Caucasian languages                           | cau
Chinese                                       | chi
Corsican                                      | cos
Croatian                                      | hrv
Czech                                         | cze
Dutch; Flemish                                | dut
English                                       | eng
French                                        | fre
Georgian                                      | geo
German                                        | ger
Greek, Modern (1453-)                         | gre
Hebrew                                        | heb
Hindi                                         | hin
Hungarian                                     | hun
Irish                                         | gle
Italian                                       | ita
Japanese                                      | jpn
Javanese                                      | jav
Korean                                        | kor
Kurdish                                       | kur
Norwegian                                     | nor
Persian                                       | per
Polish                                        | pol
Portuguese                                    | por
Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan                 | rum
Russian                                       | rus
Serbian                                       | srp
Spanish; Castillan                            | spa
Swedish                                       | swe
Thai                                          | tha
Turkish                                       | tur
Ukrainian                                     | ukr
Vietnamese                                    | vie
Walloon                                       | wln
Yiddish                                       | yid

----------
**Please set the full `PATH` to your MKVToolnix distribution in the variable `MKVMerge`.**
----------
###`script.awk`

BEGIN {
    MKVMerge="C:\\Program Files\\mkvtoolnix\\MKVMerge.exe" # for Win32
    MKVMerge="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\mkvtoolnix\\MKVMerge.exe" # for Win64
    FS="[\t\n: ]"
    IGNORECASE=1
    MKVVideo=ARGV[1]
    AudioKeep=ARGV[2]
    SubsKeep=ARGV[3]
    ChaptersKeep=ARGV[4]
    NewVideo=substr(MKVVideo, 1, length(MKVVideo)-4)".new.mkv"
    do {
        Result=("\""MKVMerge"\" --ui-language en --identify-verbose \""MKVVideo"\"" | getline Line);
        if (Result>0) {
            FieldCount=split(Line, Fields)
            if (Fields[1]=="Track") {
                NoTr++
                Track[NoTr, "id"]=Fields[3]
                Track[NoTr, "typ"]=Fields[5]
                for (i=6; i<=FieldCount; i++) {
                    if (Fields[i]=="language") Track[NoTr, "lang"]=Fields[++i]
                }
            }
        }
    }    while (Result>0)
    if (NoTr==0) {
        print "Error! No tracks found in \""MKVVideo"\"."
        exit
    } else {print "\""MKVVideo"\":", NoTr, "tracks found."}
    for (i=1; i<=NoTr; i++) {
        if (Track[i, "typ"]=="audio") {
            if (AudioKeep~Track[i, "lang"]) {
                print "Keep", Track[i, "typ"], "Track", Track[i, "id"],  Track[i, "lang"]
                if (AudioCommand=="") {AudioCommand=Track[i, "id"]
            } else AudioCommand=AudioCommand","Track[i, "id"]
            } else {
                print "\tRemove", Track[i, "typ"], "Track", Track[i, "id"],  Track[i, "lang"]
            }
        } else {
            if (Track[i, "typ"]=="subtitles") {
                if (SubsKeep~Track[i, "lang"]) {
                    print "Keep", Track[i, "typ"], "Track", Track[i, "id"],  Track[i, "lang"]
                    if (SubsCommand=="") {SubsCommand=Track[i, "id"]
                    } else SubsCommand=SubsCommand","Track[i, "id"]
                } else {
                    print "\tRemove", Track[i, "typ"], "Track", Track[i, "id"],  Track[i, "lang"]
                }
            }
        }
    }
    if (AudioCommand=="") {CommandLine="-A"
    } else {CommandLine="-a "AudioCommand}
    if (SubsCommand=="") {CommandLine=CommandLine" -S"
    } else {CommandLine=CommandLine" -s "SubsCommand}
    if (!ChaptersKeep) CommandLine=CommandLine" --no-chapters"
    print "\"" MKVMerge "\" -o \"" NewVideo "\" " CommandLine " \"" MKVVideo "\""
    Result=system("\"" MKVMerge "\" -o \"" NewVideo "\" " CommandLine " \"" MKVVideo "\"")
    if (Result>1) print "Error "Result" muxing \""MKVVideo"\"!"
}

[iikingli]

I adopted it for the Windows cmd shell ('batch') and added subtitle support.
Tested with Windows 8.

 
@ECHO OFF &SETLOCAL
TITLE Recursive remove audio and subtitle tracks by language from MKV video files
rem search for MKVs in all "StartFolder\Subfolders", not in "Startfolder" itself
SET "StartFolder=."
rem example to keep English and German audio tracks, please note the colon in front of the language code
SET "AudioTracksToKeep=:eng:ger"
rem example to keep Spanish and French subtitle tracks, please note the colon in front of the language code
SET "SubsTracksToKeep=:spa:fre"
rem the file name variable must be global for some reasons
SET "MKVFile="

FOR /f "DELIMS=" %%a IN ('DIR /b /s /a-d "%StartFolder%\*.mkv"') DO SET "MKVFile=%%~a"&CALL:scanmkv
GOTO:EOF

:scanmkv
SETLOCAL
ECHO(
ECHO(Scanning "%MKVFile%" for unwanted tracks.
(FOR /l %%b IN (1 1 45) DO <nul SET /p "=-")&ECHO(

SET /a AudioTrackCount=0
SET /a NumberKeepAudio=0
SET /a NumberDiscardAudio=0

rem get the number of audio tracks
FOR /f %%a IN ('mkvmerge --ui-language en -i "%MKVFile%"^|FINDSTR /rbic:"Track ID [0-9][0-9]*: audio"') DO SET /a AudioTrackCount+=1
ECHO(Number of audio tracks: %AudioTrackCount%
rem always keep at least one audio track
IF %AudioTrackCount% LSS 2 GOTO:subscan

rem get the audio tracks to keep
SET "KeepAudioSearchString=%AudioTracksToKeep::= language:%"
FOR /f "TOKENS=3DELIMS=: " %%a IN ('mkvmerge --ui-language en --identify-verbose "%MKVFile%"^|FINDSTR /rbic:"Track ID [0-9][0-9]*: audio"^|FINDSTR /ri "%KeepAudioSearchString%"') DO (
    SET /a NumberKeepAudio+=1
    CALL SET "AudioIdentKeepLine=%%AudioIdentKeepLine%%,%%a"
)
IF NOT DEFINED AudioIdentKeepLine SET "AudioIdentKeepLine= ^<none^>"
ECHO(ID of %NumberKeepAudio% track(s) to keep: %AudioIdentKeepLine:~1%
IF %NumberKeepAudio%==0 GOTO:subscan

rem get the audio tracks to reject
FOR /f "TOKENS=3DELIMS=: " %%a IN ('mkvmerge --ui-language en --identify-verbose "%MKVFile%"^|FINDSTR /rbic:"Track ID [0-9][0-9]*: audio"^|FINDSTR /riv "%KeepAudioSearchString%"') DO (
    SET /a NumberDiscardAudio+=1
    CALL SET "AudioIdentDiscardLine=%%AudioIdentDiscardLine%%,%%a"
)
IF NOT DEFINED AudioIdentDiscardLine SET "AudioIdentDiscardLine= ^<none^>"
ECHO(ID of %NumberDiscardAudio% track(s) to reject: %AudioIdentDiscardLine:~1%
IF %NumberDiscardAudio%==0 GOTO:subscan

:subscan
SET /a SubsTrackCount=0
SET /a NumberKeepSubs=0
SET /a NumberDiscardSubs=0

rem get the number of subtitle tracks
FOR /f %%a IN ('mkvmerge --ui-language en -i "%MKVFile%"^|FINDSTR /rbic:"Track ID [0-9][0-9]*: subtitles"') DO SET /a SubsTrackCount+=1
ECHO(Number of subtitle tracks: %SubsTrackCount%
IF %SubsTrackCount% EQU 0 GOTO:muxing

rem get the subtitle tracks to keep
SET "KeepSubsSearchString=%SubsTracksToKeep::= language:%"
FOR /f "TOKENS=3DELIMS=: " %%a IN ('mkvmerge --ui-language en --identify-verbose "%MKVFile%"^|FINDSTR /rbic:"Track ID [0-9][0-9]*: subtitles"^|FINDSTR /ri "%KeepSubsSearchString%"') DO (
    SET /a NumberKeepSubs+=1
    CALL SET "SubsIdentKeepLine=%%SubsIdentKeepLine%%,%%a"
)
IF NOT DEFINED SubsIdentKeepLine SET "SubsIdentKeepLine= ^<none^>"
ECHO(ID of %NumberKeepSubs% track(s) to keep: %SubsIdentKeepLine:~1%
IF %NumberKeepSubs%==0 GOTO:muxing

rem get the subtitle tracks to reject
FOR /f "TOKENS=3DELIMS=: " %%a IN ('mkvmerge --ui-language en --identify-verbose "%MKVFile%"^|FINDSTR /rbic:"Track ID [0-9][0-9]*: subtitles"^|FINDSTR /riv "%KeepSubsSearchString%"') DO (
    SET /a NumberDiscardSubs+=1
    CALL SET "SubsIdentDiscardLine=%%SubsIdentDiscardLine%%,%%a"
)
IF NOT DEFINED SubsIdentDiscardLine SET "SubsIdentDiscardLine= ^<none^>"
ECHO(ID of %NumberDiscardSubs% track(s) to reject: %SubsIdentDiscardLine:~1%
IF %NumberDiscardSubs%==0 GOTO:muxing

:muxing
IF %NumberDiscardAudio%==0 IF %NumberDiscardSubs%==0 ECHO(Nothing to do.&EXIT /b
IF %NumberDiscardAudio% NEQ 0 SET "CommandLine=-a %AudioIdentKeepLine:~1%"
IF %NumberDiscardSubs% NEQ 0 SET "CommandLine=%Commandline% -s %SubsIdentKeepLine:~1%"

rem make a backup copy of the MKV
FOR %%a IN ("%MKVFile%") DO SET "MKVBackupFile=%%~na.bak%%~xa"
ECHO(Building "%MKVBackupFile%"
REN "%MKVFile%" "%MKVBackupFile%" || (ECHO(Error renaming to "%MKVBackupFile%"&EXIT /b)

rem build the new MKV
FOR %%a IN ("%MKVFile%") DO SET "MKVBackupFile=%%~dpa%MKVBackupFile%"
ECHO(REMuxing "%MKVFile%"
mkvmerge -o "%MKVFile%" %Commandline% "%MKVBackupFile%"
EXIT /b

The code might crash, if you use characters like !%^ or similar in file or path names.

Fryk I have been trying your scrip to no end over the last several hours... i keep getting Error: The file 'W:\MKVToolNix"' could not be opened for reading: open file error.

I have checked every persmisson known to man and still no luck. Now if i try and run a different batch file pasted below i can get it to work. However I would prefer your script as not every file is id 2... any help you can provide would be awesome

Sorry for the Bold Large Text i figured its the fastest way to break my text in between the 2 bat files

@echo off

title MKVstrip

cls
set /p MM=This batch script will strip unwanted audio/subtitle tracks from ALL .mkv files in the directory it is run from. The changes will be made to copies of the files and the originals will remain untouched. For this reason, please make sure you have enough disk space for the output files. Continue? (Y/N):
IF '%MM%' == 'Y' GOTO AS
IF '%MM%' == 'y' GOTO AS
IF '%MM%' == 'N' GOTO EN
IF '%MM%' == 'n' GOTO EN

:AS
cls
set /p AT=Type the track ID(s) of the audio track(s) you would like to KEEP, seperated by commas (to keep ALL type 0, to view track IDs type i):
IF '%AT%' == 'i' GOTO ID
IF '%AT%' == '0' GOTO SSNA

:SS
cls
set /p ST=Type the track ID(s) of the subtitle track(s) you would like to KEEP, seperated by commas (if none are present or to remove ALL then type 0):
IF '%ST%' == '0' GOTO NS

:WS
cls
md output
for %%i in (*.mkv) do mkvmerge -o output/"%%i" --atracks "%AT%" --stracks "%ST%" "%%i"
cls
Echo The process is complete. The stripped files are located in the "output" folder.
pause
exit

:SSNA
cls
set /p ST=Type the track ID(s) of the subtitle track(s) you would like to KEEP, seperated by commas (if none are present or to remove ALL then type 0):
IF '%ST%' == '0' GOTO NANS

:NA
cls
md output
for %%i in (*.mkv) do mkvmerge -o output/"%%i" --stracks "%ST%" "%%i"
cls
Echo The process is complete. The stripped files are located in the "output" folder.
pause
exit

:NANS
cls
md output
for %%i in (*.mkv) do mkvmerge -o output/"%%i" --no-subtitles "%%i"
cls
Echo The process is complete. The stripped files are located in the "output" folder.
pause
exit

:NS
cls
md output
for %%i in (*.mkv) do mkvmerge -o output/"%%i" --atracks "%AT%" --no-subtitles "%%i"
cls
Echo The process is complete. The stripped files are located in the "output" folder.
pause
exit

:ID
for %%i in (*.mkv) do mkvmerge -i "%%i"
Echo Press ENTER to continue:
pause
GOTO AS

:EN
exit

[fryk]

Fryk I have been trying your scrip to no end over the last several hours... i keep getting Error: The file 'W:\MKVToolNix"' could not be opened for reading: open file error.

I have checked every persmisson known to man and still no luck. Now if i try and run a different batch file pasted below i can get it to work. However I would prefer your script as not every file is id 2... any help you can provide would be awesome

SOrry, but I do not know anything about your folder tree, the PATH and environment variables setting. What is The file 'W:\MKVToolNix"'? File, folder or ...