Linux Bulk MKV Edit

Purpose:

I couldn't find a good tool for bulk editing (e.g. removing) of audio and subtitle tracks in mkv files on Linux, so I decided to make my own. This currently only includes tracks with languages that you choose or parts of the track names you choose. This will not perform the conversion directly, but will spit out the command lines necessary to do the conversions. Simply copy the command lines into a terminal and away it goes.

Versions (TkInter and GTK):

v1.0-1.2
- This was the original TkInter version. I've renamed the original "linux_bulk_mkv_edit.py" to "linux_bulk_mkv_edit_tkinter.py". I'm keeping the TkInter version in the project in case anyone likes it, but I will not be maintaining it anymore.
v2.0+
- This is a new GTK+Glade version. This will allow for more features to be added later.

Functionality:

Point it at a folder and it will display for every .mkv file in that folder the following:
- The file name
- Audio track information
  - Track ID/Number
  - Track Language
  - Track Name
  - Track Type
- Subtitle track information
  - Track ID/Number
  - Track Language
  - Track Name
  - Track Type
Next, choose which tracks to keep based on the user selected criteria.
- Audio Languages
  - Default: A list each unique audio language that the combined MKV files have.
  - If you remove a track (Example: Change "en, ja" to "ja"), then the resulting MKV files will not contain any audio track of the language type that you removed.
- Audio Name
  - If you populate this, then the resulting MKV files will only contain the audio tracks that have a track name that contains the characters you entered.
  - Note: This is a single string field, it does not currently support multiple values.
- Subtitle Languages
  - Default: A list each unique subtitle language that the combined MKV files have.
  - If you remove a track (Example: Change "en, ja" to "ja"), then the resulting MKV files will not contain any subtitle track of the language type that you removed.
- Subtitle Name
  - If you populate this, then the resulting MKV files will only contain the subtitle tracks that have a track name that contains the characters you entered.
  - Note: This is a single string field, it does not currently support multiple values.
- Subtitle Type
  - If you populate this, then the resulting MKV files will only contain the subtitle tracks that have a track 'type' that contains the characters you entered.
  - Note: This is a single string field, it does not currently support multiple values.
- Note: If you don't modify the default selections, the resulting files will contain all the original audio and subtitle tracks.
Next, choose which track IDs you want to keep.
- Note: This is handy if multiple tracks are the same type and name.
Next, click the Process Files button to get the command line output to perform the conversion.
- Paste the output into a terminal and the files will be converted.
Note: This will always set the MKV title to blank, which is my preference as I prefer my video player to just display the filename.
Note: If there is only one audio/subtitle track, it will be set as a default/forces track.
HINT: I recommend my own Linux File Rename Utility for bulk renaming of files in Linux!

Author:

BSFEMA

Started:

2022-05-14

Screenshot:

Prerequisites:

You need to have MKVToolNix installed: https://mkvtoolnix.download/downloads.html Try running "mkvmerge --version" in terminal. If that works, then you are good to go, otherwise install MKVToolNix

Command Line Parameters:

There is just 1. It is the folder path that will be used to start looking at the *.mkv files from. If this value isn't provided, then the starting path will be where this application file is located. The intention is that you can call this application from a context menu from a file browser (e.g. Nemo) and it would automatically load up that folder.

Nemo Action:

You can create a nemo action file so that you can right-click in a folder and launch the linux_bulk_mkv_edit.py application from there.

Example (filename = "linux_bulk_mkv_edit.nemo_action")

[Nemo Action]
Name=Linux Bulk MKV Edit
Quote=double
Exec=python3 "[PATH_TO]/linux_bulk_mkv_edit.py" %F
Selection=any
Extensions=any
Icon-Name=python3

Save the "linux_bulk_mkv_edit.nemo_action" file to "~/.local/share/nemo/actions".

Context menus might be possible for other file managers, but that will be up to you to figure out ;)

Resources:

https://mkvtoolnix.download/doc/mkvextract.html

BSFEMA/linux_bulk_mkv_edit