How to remove unnecessary subtitles from MKV files

Matroska Multimedia Container (MKV) AVI, MKV or MP4 file? Video File Types Explained &Compared AVI, MKV or MP4? Video File Types Explained &Compared Why are there so many video formats? It's confusing! But don't worry, we are here to help you. Here you will find everything you need to know about video formats, containers and codecs. Read More An MKV file often includes several language-specific subtitles.

Subtitles hijack the bottom of the screen and can impede video, whether on a computer, TV, or smartphone. Or maybe you want to save a version without subtitles for your personal collection.

Either way, the solution is simple, and all you have to do is drag and drop. With a free tool, you can remove non-hard-encoded subtitles from MKVs.

How to remove subtitles from MKV files

MKVToolNix is a free tool available for Windows (both 32-bit and 64-bit), macOS, and Linux. You can download it as an installer or as a portable 7ZIP file.

MKVToolNix is a small toolkit that allows you to go under the hood of a Matroska file and create, split, edit, mux, demux, merge, or extract the files. It also works with some other video formats and video codecs.

Install and run the application. The GUI will show a blank interface at first.
Drag and drop your MKV file or browse to open it from the File menu.
The interface will display a lot of information about the codecs and files in the MKV container file. For example:video and audio, subtitles, chapters and tags.
Uncheck the check box for the subtitles (or subtitles in multiple languages) that you don't want. Give the video file a name and the destination where it will be saved. Click the Start Multiplexing button and the tool will go to work. Multiplexing is a video processing technique where separate parts of the video are combined into a single file.
Observe the progress in the two bars at the bottom or in more detail with the Job output screen. This screen tells you the time remaining for the completed task. You can also queue multiple video files and batch process them.

There are other tools that can remove subtitles from a video file. Handbrake is another popular option. Have you ever felt the need to remove subtitles from a video clip? What is your preferred method?