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When using VLC media player to convert a video with multiple audio tracks into another format (that may support only one audio track) using only one audio track, how do I select the audio track that is converted? VLC defaults to the first audio track.

Specifically: I have a MKV video with two language audio tracks and I want to convert the video and the second audio track to DivX format using AVI as container. VLC however converts only the first audio track and I did not find an option for selecting another track. I also tried switching the audio track manually while conversion is under way but the audio track is silent from that point on in the outputted file. Maybe there is an MRL option to select the audio track?

I am aware that one could use other tools like MKVToolNix to remove the undesired audio track(s) and then convert the file in VLC. However I wonder what the solution within VLC is - or whether one exists.

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5 Answers 5

Reset to default
3

Looking at https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=115385, the options seem to be to use:

Use option --audio-track or --audio-track-id in Open Media dialog:

[v] Show more options
Edit Options [ :file-caching=300 :audio-track=0]

The audio track number (0 in above example) seems to be the audio track number as displayed in the VLC Gui when displaying the movie minus one.

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4
  • Thanks a lot! I ended up using ffmpeg, however it's still good to know how to do it with VLC, especially if on Windows where ffmpeg is not installed by default generally. Do you know whether there is a comprehensive list of the MRL options in VLC? The official documentation is extremely hard to read and find the correct information.
    – RimaNari
    Feb 20, 2016 at 11:47
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    Didn't work for me, VLC generated a .mp3 file with a mix of both audios, 0.1 second of one language, 0.1 s of the other, 0.1 from the first again... really weird. I ended up using the ffmpeg command using the solution found here stackoverflow.com/questions/32922226/…
    – Mariano Ruiz
    Jun 28, 2019 at 19:06
  • "Show more options" is missing in my version of vlc. I am using VLC 3.0 on a mac.
    – kroiz
    Nov 19, 2022 at 7:55
  • Where do you type this command?
    – Cornelius
    Oct 29, 2023 at 4:51
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As @kroonwijk noticed, a good way is to specify 

Edit Options  [ :audio-track=0 ]

to select one of multiple tracks to use. Be aware, that tracks seem to be counted from 0.

This is what worked for me:

Edit Options  [ :no-sout-all :audio-track=1 ]

:no-sout-all - disable all audio tracks
:audio-track=1 - use second track as main audio (counted from 0).

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  • 1
    Thank you so much! Using :no-sout-all is what made it work for me! Otherwise it kept defaulting to a track I didn't want! Take an upvote.
    – SweetFeet
    Apr 1, 2021 at 15:20
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Looking at vlc ---full-help, the following two options can be found:

--audio-language <string>  Audio language
    Language of the audio track you want to use (comma separated, two or three-letter country code, you may use 'none' to avoid a fallback to another language).
--sub-language <string>    Subtitle language
    Language of the subtitle track you want to use (comma separated, two or three letters country code, you may use 'any' as a fallback).

These can be used

  • when starting vlc from the command line
  • in the "Open Media"-Dialog, activating "Show more options", in the field "Edit Options", replacing the ---prefix with a :
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-1

Another way is that you watch the video normally on your screen and capture it using something like "camtasia" which is a software that can record your screen and audio. Some people use it to create Video Tutorials. https://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html is the official page. I recomend this one because it's the one I've used but there's plenty of software available.

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4
  • Can you explain more in order to help users
    – yass
    Apr 20, 2017 at 16:49
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    To explain @yass's rather brief comment a bit- it's good practice to elaborate on why you are making a particular and (importantly) how to achieve that. Someone who doesn't know what camtasia is or how to use it might not be able to achieve anything with your answer; but if you explain the steps required and why, many can learn from it :)
    – bertieb
    Apr 20, 2017 at 17:04
  • Please read How do I recommend software for some tips as to how you should go about recommending software. You should provide at least a link, some additional information about the software itself, and how it can be used to solve the problem in the question.
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Apr 20, 2017 at 17:12
  • Thank you for the advise. I'm new at this and I'll keep it in mind
    – Adonai Herrera González
    Apr 29, 2017 at 18:07
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It is the only comprehensive list of the MRL options in VLC I can find in the web. https://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help/

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  • I found that as well. It is poorly formatted and too long while having too little structure to be of much help if you just want to get some specific information. And invoking vlc on command line with -H seems to just output something similar.
    – RimaNari
    Feb 7, 2017 at 10:13

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