Shrink mkv with ffmpeg -- keep all subtitles and foreign language audio tracks
Below is a simple command to shrink an mkv file using ffmpeg -- i.e., convert mkv to mkv -- and keep all existing subtitles and audio tracks (which is NOT ffmpeg's default). You can use this overnight to shrink 25 GB MKV files to around 5 GB or so -- i.e., 80% smaller.
Preview (to test the results):
ffmpeg -nostdin -y -ss 1400 -t 30 -i /some/path/INPUT.mkv -c:s copy -map 0 -crf 24 /some/path/OUTPUT.mkv
Full video:
ffmpeg -nostdin -y -i /some/path/INPUT.mkv -c:s copy -map 0 -crf 24 /some/path/OUTPUT.mkv
Explanation
-ss 1400 = start at 1400 seconds into the video
-t 30 = continue for 30 seconds and then stop
-y = don't prompt to overwrite the output file if it exists
-i = input file
-c:s copy = copy the subtitles AS IS, don't convert them
-map 0 = copy ALL the video, audio, and subtitle tracks that exist
-crf 24 = Constant Rate Factor. Higher values give higher compression. Best values: 18-24
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