[HOME] jan 9 2018 8:34 AM

Remove Subtitles With MKVToolNix

OK. Admit it. We all do it occasionally. That is download movies. The most annoying thing sometimes is movies with subtitles. And worst still, English movies with English subtitles ... still trying to figure that one out. The good news is that sometimes these can be removed. Sometimes the subtitles are hard coded into the video and you cannot remove them short of converting the movie and cropping off the bottom of the film.

I haven't tried it but there is a tutorial here with a program to try that may help you. https://www.idealshare.net/video-converter/how-to-remove-subtitles-from-mkv.html

One program I have tried in removing subtitles is called MKVToolNix GUI - https://www.fosshub.com/MKVToolNix.html

I got rid of some subtitles but not the one's I wanted. The movie has Asian subtitles that seem to be hard coded. It occasionally has English subtitles for a few English speaking parts??

So I downloaded MKVToolNix, installed it (no bundled software to worry about at the time of this writing). So I clicked on Start > All Programs > MKVToolNix > MKVToolNix GUI

It's pretty easy. Just drag and drop movie to the Input Source Files box. On the bottom under the Tracks, chapters and tags look for the option SubRip/SRT and if there uncheck it.

main-interface-drag-and-drop-movie-uncheck-srt

Then further towards the bottom click on the middle Start multiplexing button. To view progress click on the Job output button, down the left hand side menu and that will switch to the progress window.

mkvtoolnix-progress-window

Because it doesn't convert the file to a different format it only took 3 minutes 20 seconds to finish the job. It removed the English subtitles but not the Asian ones that seemed to hard-coded in. The only way to work around this is to convert using a program that allows you to crop of the subtitles as I previously mentioned.

If your a expert video editor (I am not) you might be able to make those titles disappear another way.

So how do you know if there is a subtitle file that can be removed in advance. Just right click on your movie file and go to Properties. Then click on the Details tab. Look for a section called Subtitles. If it's not there it's hard-coded.

check-properties-for-subtitles

If you don't want to fool around with trying to edit your movies, sometimes you can turn them off in your media player. In VLC when a movie is playing, across the top menu click on Subtitle > Sub Track > Disable, again these options will be limited depending if the subtitles are hard-coded or not.

One final note, if you decide you want to add subtitles just search on-line for them, usually your looking for a SRT file. Download and move to the same folder as your movie. If you followed my last tip for disabling in VLC just reverse it.

Sorry, since I don't look for subtitles I can't recommend a reliable source. Just a quick search on-line try: https://www.yifysubtitles.com/ . Make sure your download is .SRT or if it's .ZIP or >RAR, scan with your anti-virus first, and if it's an .EXE file .... ABORT, it's probably Malware.