Remove an audio stream from a dual-audio AVI/MKV file

raksrules

Level N
I have few AVI and some MKV files which have dual audio. I am trying to find the easiest no fuss way to remove one of the audio streams. My modest hand held MP4 player has no option to switch audios and hence it defaults to one of them.
I would like some application which can do this for me without having the need to re-encode the video. Cannot afford re-encoding on my Netbook.
 
you will have to reencode the video. you cant just remove the audio since its interleaved and synced along with video in the container.

for an avi file you can use - virtualdub mod. just keep the video settings to direct stream mode which is fastest mode since it will not process the video stream any further.

for mkv - use mkv extrace gui which can extract subs, audio, video from a mkv container and merge subs, audio and video to a mkv container. It only extracts or merges so process takes just around a minute even on my c2d 1.8GHz proccy.

MKVExtractGUI & MKVE Wizard 1.6.4.1/1.2 - VideoHelp.com Downloads
 
1. Every movie as a container. it holds tracks. usually a video track, an audio track and a sub title track.

2. you can extract a track from a movie. (demux)

3. you can put a track into a movie (mux)

4. you can also edit properties of a track. like language, aspect ratio etc...

The image below will explain how to work with mkvmerge. other tools work on the same principle. it also shows that you can convert from mp4 to mkv too. if you want to do the other way around you will need mp4box.

1s03ut.png
 
^^That AVI mux thing was superb. Did my job in less than a minute. No re-encoding needed. Just removed the stream and new file with only one stream was available. Thanks a lot
 
^btw, I forgot earlier, you can also fix the audio sync if its out of sync with video using these tools by adding delay in milliseconds in the properties of the audio track. +ve value delays the audio and -ve value delays the video. :)
 
VirtualDubMod also does the same thing without fuss.

Audio > Streams > Stream list,

choose audio stream > Disable,

save file with Direct stream copy for audio and video.

OR, if you wanna keep both streams, change the stream number to 1 for the desired one and that will be played as default.
 
^The problem with vdubmod is that its development stopped in 2005 and its buggy and sometimes crashes while working with mkv files. the virtualdub doesnt support mkv format. I am not sure but I think it also doesnt support the latest additions to the avi riff format spec. thats why I did not advice using virtualdub or virtualdubmod. and virtual dub doesnt use directshow filters which explains the lack of support to various formats and codecs.
 
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