matroska - Remove embedded subtitles from an .mkv file?

Is there a way I can remove subtitle data from an .mkv?

Answer

Use MkvToolNix. The mkvmerge tool can do exactly what you want. It's a very capable Matroska manipulator and should be able to remove any kind of stream from an MKV without recoding all the other streams.

• On Windows, download the latest version from here. Just run the installer.


• On Linux, you can find the package mkvtoolnix in your repository, or alternatively download them from the homepage.


• On OS X, the easiest way would be to install mkvtoolnix through Homebrew.

I think one of these commands will do what you want:

# assume input.mkv has 3 subtitle tracks
# remove subtitle track 2 (copy 1&3) from input.mkv & save to output.mkv
mkvmerge -o output.mkv --subtitle-tracks 1,3 input.mkv

# remove all subtitles (copy none)
mkvmerge -o output.mkv --no-subtitles input.mkv