# What is the name of free software for win or linux that will strip (not mute) all audio from MP4s? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 5, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-of-free-software-for-win-or-linux-that-will-strip-not-mute-all-audio-from-mp4s/614852 "2012-03-05T20:19:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ClarenceClancy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@ClarenceClancy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ClarenceClancy)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-of-free-software-for-win-or-linux-that-will-strip-not-mute-all-audio-from-mp4s/614852/1 "2012-03-05T20:19:41Z")
What is the name of free software for windows or linux that will strip (not mute) all audio from MP4s easily? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-of-free-software-for-win-or-linux-that-will-strip-not-mute-all-audio-from-mp4s/614852/2 "2012-03-05T20:30:22Z")
If you can’t find anything easier to use, mencoder will if you feed it the ‘-nosound’ option. (I think that program is primarily for Linux; it may or may not exist on Windows.) ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-of-free-software-for-win-or-linux-that-will-strip-not-mute-all-audio-from-mp4s/614852/3 "2012-03-05T21:53:26Z")
Mencoder is available for various operating systems, including Microsoft Windows. Another option, if you want a GUI, is HandBrake. It’s also available for various operating systems and is Free Software. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-of-free-software-for-win-or-linux-that-will-strip-not-mute-all-audio-from-mp4s/614852/4 "2012-03-06T00:09:23Z")
You’ll also want to make sure you do not transcode the video stream. I don’t know how easy that is with Handbrake, but with SUPER, you just check an option to keep the original stream. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-of-free-software-for-win-or-linux-that-will-strip-not-mute-all-audio-from-mp4s/614852/5 "2012-03-06T01:07:27Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > You’ll also want to make sure you do not transcode the video stream. I don’t know how easy that is with Handbrake, but with SUPER, you just check an option to keep the original stream. Good point. Here’s an mencoder command line I know will work without transcoding: ```auto mencoder -ovc copy -nosound input.mp4 -o output.mp4 ``` This will work for every format mencoder knows about, which is more than a few. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-of-free-software-for-win-or-linux-that-will-strip-not-mute-all-audio-from-mp4s/614852/6 "2012-03-06T08:12:11Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > You’ll also want to make sure you do not transcode the video stream. I don’t know how easy that is with Handbrake, but with SUPER, you just check an option to keep the original stream. It’s easy with HandBrake. When selecting how to “convert” the video stream, just choose “passthrough”. ---
**Author:** ![phaemon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/977dab/32.png) [@phaemon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phaemon)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-of-free-software-for-win-or-linux-that-will-strip-not-mute-all-audio-from-mp4s/614852/7 "2012-03-06T14:02:49Z")
Also, since Handbrake uses ffmpeg, you can just use it directly too: ```auto ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vcodec copy -an output.mp4 ```