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I am using Handbrake to rip a DVD to a MKV. The filesize for a ~5GB .VOB rip is a nearly 2GB .MKV.

Is there a program in Ubuntu that shrinks MKV's? I looked around and found a lot of Windows programs, but none that work well in Wine. I was thinking about shrinking it to a 300-400MB file (Like most MKV rips), but I don't know how to shrink it in Ubuntu. Any ideas?

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Most mkv rips actually are usually around 700 MB (as per the new "Scene" guidelines) or 1.2 GB. Just saying. – Thomas Boxley Mar 23 '12 at 23:13
Got ya. Ugh, I just need a way to get out of this 2GB range for the rip. Any ideas? – Ryan McClure Mar 23 '12 at 23:15
Lower the bitrate. Depending on your video duration you can calculate it by hand to fit 300 MB – zetah Mar 23 '12 at 23:17
I'll give it a shot and let you know if it works. (So I know for reference, could you tell me what bitrate actually entitles? I'm a bit of a noob at that stuff :P) – Ryan McClure Mar 23 '12 at 23:20
I couldn't know when I don't know the duration. Better search for bitrate calculator, so you can do it yourself in future ^_^ – zetah Mar 23 '12 at 23:22
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2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

Use this:

enter image description here

so for your 400MB example, if the duration is 1 hour (3600 seconds):

x = 400MB*8192/3600 = 910 Kbps

Then you subtract 128Kbs for standard 128 Kbps audio (MP3/OGG/AAC whatever) and you are left with ~800 Kbps for your (hopefully x264) video

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Excellent answer! Did exactly what I needed! Thank you so incredibly much!! – Ryan McClure Mar 24 '12 at 2:02
you're welcome :) – zetah Mar 24 '12 at 2:06
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I have been using this MKVToolNix and it is great for dealing with .mkv files.

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