BULK remove non-English tracks from MKV container?

[iikingli]

That was me trying a different folder structure... I used the default as well... for x64 system "programs (x86)...." same issue. I tried it on a win 8 , win 7, and server 2008 box all with Default MkVtoolnix locations and no luck .

[fryk]

More information is needed about the source folder and files.

[iikingli]

mkvtoolnix location : C:\Program Files (x86)\MKVToolNix

Start folder : "StartFolder=W:\Movies" "movies under here are .MKV withing all in their own subfolder

Variables Command Set output:

ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\ProgramData
APPDATA=C:\Users\Dave\AppData\Roaming
asl.log=Destination=file
CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files
CommonProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
CommonProgramW6432=C:\Program Files\Common Files
COMPUTERNAME=OFFICE
ComSpec=C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
FP_NO_HOST_CHECK=NO
HOMEDRIVE=C:
HOMEPATH=\Users\Dave
JAVA_PLUGIN_WEBCONTROL_ENABLE=1
LOCALAPPDATA=C:\Users\Dave\AppData\Local
LOGONSERVER=\\MicrosoftAccount
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=8
OPENSSL_CONF=C:\OpenSSL-Win32\bin\openssl.cfg
OS=Windows_NT
Path=C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\iCLS Client\;C:\Program Files\Intel\iCLS Clie
t\;C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C
\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\Syste m32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C
\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files
Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\IPT;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\In
el(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Ma
agement Engine Components\IPT
PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WS F;.WSH;.MSC
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=AMD64
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=Intel64 Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9, GenuineIntel
PROCESSOR_LEVEL=6
PROCESSOR_REVISION=3a09
ProgramData=C:\ProgramData
ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files
ProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)
ProgramW6432=C:\Program Files
PROMPT=$P$G
PSModulePath=C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell \v1.0\Modules\
PUBLIC=C:\Users\Public
SESSIONNAME=Console
SystemDrive=C:
SystemRoot=C:\WINDOWS
TEMP=C:\Users\Dave\AppData\Local\Temp
TMP=C:\Users\Dave\AppData\Local\Temp
USERDOMAIN=OFFICE
USERDOMAIN_ROAMINGPROFILE=OFFICE
USERNAME=Dave
USERPROFILE=C:\Users\Dave
windir=C:\WINDOWS

[iikingli]

Aslo no matter where i set the folder to scan from even with no sub-folders it gets the same issue.

[iikingli]

More information is needed about the source folder and files.

I figured it out will send you a direct PM

[BearTanks]

I made a video of myself changing the default audio/subtitle track using a batch file. The same tactic can be used to remove the track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHTlQ61AaIE

The batch file will only work if each video has the same audio/subtitle options, but it's the best I've come up with using a batch file.

[Endoro]

The batch file will only work if each video has the same audio/subtitle options,

For very simple tasks you do not need a script, just only one line in the cmd window. Example to remove the second audio track (track ID 2) and the second subtitle track (track ID 4):

for %a in (*.mkv) do @mkvmerge -o "output/%~a" --audio-tracks !2 --subtitle-tracks !4 "%~a"

Create the folder "output" before running. The track ID can be obtained using the command 'mkvmerge --identify "video.mkv"'.

[Pirum]

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.

Thanks, this worked great but I had to change 1 line near the end to

FOR %%a IN ("%MKVFile%") DO SET "MKVBackupFile=%MKVBackupFile%"

, the %%~dpa part didn't work for me.

I have limited experience in batch programming for DOS but also changed the beginning of the script to be able to drag and drop a file the batch file and then looped it to handle multiple files.

like this:

:LOOP
FOR /f "DELIMS=" %%a IN ('DIR /b /s /a-d %1') DO SET "MKVFile=%%~a"&CALL:scanmkv
SHIFT
IF NOT (%1)==() GOTO LOOP
GOTO:EOF

Maybe there are more elegant solutions than my changes but it works here at the moment, I put the batch file in the same folder as the files to be converted.

[yobrevar]

Ok.
So i have had a turn at modding the script too.

a. I've added a Path function, so you only need to have the ".bat" file located in the folder you are working on, you wont need to have the mkvmerge.exe executable file there anymore. You will need to modify this path setting to the location of your mkvmerge.exe program.

PATH "mkvmerge=C:\Program Files\MKVToolNix\mkvmerge.exe"

b. And i have added a command to delete the ".bak" file once the muxing has finished doing its thing. That way you don't get recurring .bak files created every time you run the .bat file in your folder. Be warned, as the CMD line is doing the deleting, these deleted backup files wont be recoverable from the Trash Can anymore.

rem delete backup mvk file
ECHO(Deleteing "%MKVBackupFile%"
DEL %MKVBackupFile%

@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"
rem example to keep Spanish and French subtitle tracks, please note the colon in front of the language code
SET "SubsTracksToKeep=:eng"
rem the file name variable must be global for some reasons
SET "MKVFile="
PATH "mkvmerge=C:\Program Files\MKVToolNix\mkvmerge.exe"

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=%MKVBackupFile%"
ECHO(REMuxing "%MKVFile%"
mkvmerge -o "%MKVFile%" %Commandline% "%MKVBackupFile%"

rem delete backup mvk file
ECHO(Deleteing "%MKVBackupFile%"
DEL %MKVBackupFile%
EXIT /b

[NukeyDoo]

Ok.
So i have had a turn at modding the script too.

Hey yobrevar,

When I try to run your version, I get an error saying something along the lines of no command, program, bat file for mkvmerge. I've confirmed that I have pasted the correct path into the mkvmerge.exe PATH line.

I'm trying to run it on Windows 10, 64 Bit.

Any suggestions?

[ChuckDDB]

I've created a simple .net Application that will recursively go through the destination folder, check the lang file on all tracks (video/audio/subtitles) on all mkv files and remove any that aren't specified. It makes a temporary file called Work_filename and then deletes the original and renames the fixed file.

Example
RemoveunwantedTracks.exe -d "Folder to look in''s full path" -m "Folder where mkvmerge is" -l language wanted
RemoveunwantedTracks.exe -d "d:\TV Shows\TV Show 1" -m "D:\Tools\MKVtoolnix" -l eng

You can specify multiple directories and languages if wanted. also can turn off recursive mode. (running with -h will give you a list of commands.

Hope this helps anyone. Enjoy.

-Chuck DDB

[onewaytrigger]

I've created a simple .net Application that will recursively go through the destination folder, check the lang file on all tracks (video/audio/subtitles) on all mkv files and remove any that aren't specified. It makes a temporary file called Work_filename and then deletes the original and renames the fixed file.

Example
RemoveunwantedTracks.exe -d "Folder to look in''s full path" -m "Folder where mkvmerge is" -l language wanted
RemoveunwantedTracks.exe -d "d:\TV Shows\TV Show 1" -m "D:\Tools\MKVtoolnix" -l eng

You can specify multiple directories and languages if wanted. also can turn off recursive mode. (running with -h will give you a list of commands.

Hope this helps anyone. Enjoy.

-Chuck DDB

That's exactly what I was looking for!

My files have 4 tracks (2 eng, 1 por and 1 jpn) unfortunately I could'n get it to work while keeping the two last. I tried "-l por, jpn" and "-l por jpn" to no avail :/

[NukeyDoo]

LOVE this program! Thank you for making it!

1. A couple small things I might add to it; when there's some error, for example, if the path to mkvmerge folder is bad, it shows the crash dialog, then pressing continue on it show all of the ugly dev error code that looks like jibberish to your average Joe. Adding a Try/Catch to that, and changing the error stuff to Laymen's Terms (i.e. "Bad Path to the MKVTools Folder") instead would be much nicer.

2. When doing the /h, adding in the description, and example usage (even just pasting exactly what you wrote in your post on it) in addition to what it already shows, would be great. Then it's all in one handy lil package. No ReadMe.txt or anything needing to sit next to it in it's folder.

3. Log all changes to a log file, so they can be reviewed later.

Thanks!

P.S. If you don't want to take time out to do it, I can do it if the source is available.

[ChuckDDB]

Sorry, but I haven't been on here for awhile.

Here is the Source Code if anyone wants to change anything, I believe something was changed in mkvmerge v15 that broke the removal of mismatched subtitle languages, but I haven't had time to look into anything.

Enjoy (It's a VS 2015 Solution)

-Chuck

[freMea]

Pretty simple with current version of mkvmerge. Just tell it to copy only english audio/subtitle tracks to the new mkv file. For english, use eng. For any other language, refer to ISO639-2 language code

Using programming language agnostic concept . Variables are between {} :

set {audio} as any of these :
for english audio = -a "eng"
for english and french audio = -a "eng,fre"
set {subtitle} as any of these :
for english sub = -s "eng"
for english and french sub = -s "eng,fre"
for no sub (delete all) = --no-subtitles
to keep all subs, let variable empty.
mkvmerge --title "[filename|noext ]" --output "path\new file with english tracks only.mkv" {$audio} {$subtitle} "(" "file to process.mkv" ")"

See documentation and search the page for parenthesis to understand why I use them to handle file to process. It’s my own habit to prevent unwanted behavior. You’re not forced to use them.

To sum this up, the simplest command to use to keep english audio track only would be :

mkvmerge --output "path\new file with english tracks only.mkv" -a "eng" "file to process.mkv"