Extract subtitles from .mkv files on Mac OS X

subtitle-extract.md

Extract Subtitles From .mkv

This instructions whall work on any system (Mac OS X, Linux) supporting installation of mkvtoolnix

Install mkvtoolnix

If you don't have Homebrew installed, do it first, the continue with following command:

brew install mkvtoolnix

List content of the .mkv file

mkvmerge -i myFile.mkv

Example of file content

File 'myFile.mkv': container: Matroska
Track ID 1: video (V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC)
Track ID 2: audio (A_DTS)
Track ID 3: subtitles (S_TEXT/UTF8)
Track ID 4: subtitles (S_TEXT/UTF8)
Chapters: 22 entries

Track ID 3 and 4 are subtitles.

Extract subtitles tracks into separate files

mkvextract tracks myFile.mkv 3:myFile1.srt 4:myFile2.srt

Enjoy!

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Extract Multiple Files

In case you need to this in batch for all files in a directory. Works only if all files have same subtitle Track IDs.

Make sure you use correct file extension (*.mkv) and track-ids (3)

Example:

for file in *.mkv; do
  sub=$(echo $file | sed 's/\.mkv$/.srt/'); 
  mkvextract tracks "${file}" 3:"${sub}"; 
done

Thinks.Help me a lot.

Written really well, even for newbies.

thank you, this helped a lot.

Amazing, thank you! I have almost no idea what I'm doing, but I managed to figure it out (like I barely know how to use the commands on the terminal app on my Mac). :)

Alternate:

0. Install ffmpeg (for example, through brew install ffmpeg)
1. ffmpeg -i video.mkv
2. Look for Stream #<stream number>(eng): Subtitle: subrip where <stream number> is the stream number of the subtitle track. Eg: 0:2
3. ffmpeg -i video.mkv -map <stream number> subs.srt (example: ffmpeg -i video.mkv -map 0:2 subs.srt)

I'm trying this, but I keep getting the error:

-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('

I guess it's because the file name contains parentheses ()? How can I solve this? Any help appreciated.

Hi guys, I forgot that even exists. Just better formatted @bmaeser notes :)
Anyway, I am quite happy for your appreciation.
Feel free to suggest any improvements.

I added useful notes "Extract Multiple Files" from @farzadshafiee