Removing audio track does not affect filesize

[J Ano]

Hi,

Here're a bug I found :

The file I have has the following criteria : - 1 x h264 video stream - 1 x AAC audio track (FR) - 1 x AC3 audio track (FR) - 1 x AAC audio track (EN) - 1 x AC3 audio track (EN) - 1 x chapter track - 1 x TX3G FR subtitle track

In Subler, if I delete the AC3 audio tracks, I would expect that the file size decrease. In practice, it does not affect the filesize.

Workaround : Create one new file in Subler and drag and drop the m4v file in it. Uncheck the AC3 tracks and save the new file. This new file will have a reduced filesize.

[Damiano Galassi]

Decreasing the file size means rewriting the whole file, and it could take a long time. So Subler just updates the file header. If you want to remove the unneeded data you need to use the Optimise feature (File -> Optimise).

[J Ano]

Thanks for the quick answer. I did not know that 'optimize' feature was aiming at deleting undeeded data. Thanks for this info !

[Jun Adlao]

Please promote that "Optimize" feature. I was about to report this same problem... and came upon this discussion. It would seem to solve my problem. Now, I gotta try that feature.

[Jun Adlao]

I was about to report this same problem. This is a problem because 6-channel AC3 audio have significant sizes (about 500 MB depending on the bit rate of course) and they add to the filesize of each media file. Now, I tried the "Optimize" option as described above, and after about 3 hours I cancelled it since it was less than halfway thru. I used a freeware Windows-based program called XMedia Recode and it did it in 5 minutes. The saved file had an intact x264 video stream, the original stereo audio AAC stream, none of the useless 6-channel AC3 and filesize is less by about 500 MB.

You may wonder why I'm removing the 6-channel AC3 and calling it useless, it is because I don't have and never planning to have those old-school home-theater speaker setups of having 6 speakers and a media room. I always watch movies either on my computer with stereo speakers or on my big-screen TV with its own speaker which is also stereo. Thanks for reading.