MKV to Smaller MKV. Any tool for this?

[StumpedTechy]

Let me state - I know there are a TON of programs that re-encode a MKV to a smaller sized one.

What I need to know is this is there any one of these that 1) will tell me the total file size output BEFORE the endcode based on the settings. 2) will keep ALL the files of the original MKV?

When I use videcoder it copies only the audio and the video tracks and I have to copy over the subs and the chapters.

So what I have been doing is Vidcoder to compress the MKV and refodoing it a few times to make sure its the size I want (I want to keep them around 7-6 gigs). Then I am adding the original MKV and the finally figured out newly created MKV which gives two video tracks two audio tracks subs and chapters. Then I remove the original files (larger MKV) and then recombine which takes a few minutes to clip together.

This all works but its cumbersome. Having to rencode a few times to get the proper files size, having to link the two files to get the subs and chapters over.

Basicallly I want to find out if there is ANY tool that will pre encode show me the appx file size based on the movie length AND will copy over both the chapters and english subs (not hardcoded subs but srts)

[ezcapper]

I didn't read/understand your whole post. hope something in here is useful. Filesize is a function of bitrate, so if you can use a program where you can set a constant bitrate, you can use a online filesize bitrate calculator to find the size of the file before you encode: http://www.dr-lex.be/info-stuff/videocalc.html The general consensus is that the most efficient codec to use for an mkv is h.264, so you want a program that can use that codec to encode. I didn't understand the subtitle stuff. I always recommend avidemux, but there are probably better programs. I always recommend checking youtube videos when learning how to use a video editing program.

[ndjamena]

VidCoder is just Handbrake, so it should be possible to copy over both the subtitles and the chapters (although I think names were a problem back when I was using it, that was a while ago).

Are you sure you've looked at the settings properly?

-Edit- Handbrake used to have a "target file size" option, but they removed it because it never bloody well worked properly. You'd need to do a two pass encode to get a decent chance at a particular file size and even then it's dicey. Can BDRebuilder do MKV to MKV?

[hello_hello]

I'm pretty sure MeGUI will do what you want, although you'd need to use it's OneClick encoder. It also has options for keeping the original audio rather than re-encoding it if you prefer.

Mostly, I do what you're doing. I open the MKV with MeGUI, create a script and re-encode the video. Then I open the new MKV with MKVMergeGUI, add the original MKV, deselect the original video stream and remux.

MeGUI OneClick encoder will tell you the file size if you specify a bitrate, or you can just specify a file size. If you do you can leave the x264 encoder configuration in CRF mode and OneClick will switch to 2 pass encoding for you. If you add audio to the output, I'm pretty sure the specified size/bitrate will include the audio. I just had a look (I've hardly used it myself) and it appears the OneClick encoder will copy the audio/chapters/subtitles in an MKV opened for encoding.

The OneClick encoder is quite configurable. You can save OneClick presets with different options, Avisynth script templates (if you want to) and encoder settings etc, so in that respect it might have a bit of a learning curve. Once you've created your presets though, it starts to become a lot closer to "one click" for actual encoding. It'll also batch encode.