Continue disrupted downloads & strip audio tracks (aria2c + mkvtoolnix)

Continue disrupted downloads with aria2c

A browser download doesn’t save a proper “partial file” + “resume metadata” in the way wget or curl do. Firefox usually writes to something like file.part, but that piece alone doesn’t carry the HTTP headers needed for resuming unless the server supports range requests and you know the exact same URL.

So while failed pirate a huge 64G total video on the browser, like with already downloaded 17G, ideally, we can continue that disrupted downloads with aria2c.

---

1. Grab the exact URL

    URL='https://your_download_link.mkv'
    # Test if ranged requests work (good = HTTP/1.1 206 + Content-Range)
    curl -L -s -D - -o /dev/null -r 0-0 "$URL" | grep -Ei 'HTTP/|Accept-Ranges|Content-Range'
   

   You can resume if you see 206 Partial Content and Content-Range: bytes 0-0/…; If you only get 200 OK with no Accept-Ranges, the server won’t resume and any CLI will restart from 0.

2. Point the downloader at your partial file

   Find and rename Firefox’s partial (usually ends with .part) to the final name you’ll continue into:

    # Locate and inspect
    ls -lh
    # Suppose it's:
    mv "my_fav_movie_2160p_REMUX.part" "my_fav_movie_2160p_REMUX.mkv"
   

   Keep quotes if your filename has spaces/parentheses. Renaming is optional to make the continue flags nicer.

3. aria2c (fast and parallel for giant files)

    aria2c -c -x16 -s16 -k1M -o "my_fav_movie_2160p_REMUX.mkv" "$URL"
   

   • -c continue; -x16 -s16 parallel connections; -k1M piece size hint.
   • If you already have the file with that exact name, it will pick up from ~17 GB.

Strip Audio Tracks With mkvtoolnix

Some rips almost always include multiple audio tracks, and they love making the language I don’t understand at all the default. We can strip audio tracks with mkvtoolnix.

1. Check tracks with ffprobe / mediainfo

   ffprobe -hide_banner "my_fav_movie_2160p_REMUX.mkv" | grep -i "Stream #.*Audio"
   

   You’ll see something like:

    Stream #0:0: Video: hevc (Main 10), yuv420p10le(tv, bt2020nc/bt2020/smpte2084), 3840x2160 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 23.98 tbc (default)
    Stream #0:1(hin): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 224 kb/s (default)
    Stream #0:2(eng): Audio: truehd, 48000 Hz, 7.1, s32 (24 bit)
    Stream #0:3(eng): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 448 kb/s
   

   (Order varies, but one will say eng, one hin.)

2. Force English in VLC / MPV / etc.

   • VLC:
     Audio → Audio Track → English
     Or set default: Tools → Preferences → Audio → Preferred Audio Language → eng.

   • MPV:
     Add this line to your ~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf:

     alang=eng
     

   • Kodi:
     Settings → Player → Language → Preferred audio language = English.

Strip Certain track (Optional)

1. Install the tools (MKVToolNix)

   • Ubuntu

    sudo apt update && sudo apt install mkvtoolnix mkvtoolnix-gui
   

   • Arch

    sudo pacman -S mkvtoolnix-cli
   

2. See exact MKV track IDs (MKVToolNix numbering)

    mkvmerge -i "my_fav_movie_2160p_REMUX.mkv"
   

   You’ll get something like:

    Track ID 0: video (HEVC)
    Track ID 1: audio (AC-3) [hin]
    Track ID 2: audio (TrueHD/Atmos) [eng]
    Track ID 3: audio (AC-3 5.1) [eng]
   

   (Confirm IDs on your file, these IDs are what mkvpropedit/mkvmerge use, not ffprobe’s #0:1 style. If no langs had been tagged, just refer the output of ffprobe’s before.)

3. Keep both English tracks + make Atmos the default (no re-encode, instant edit)

    # Turn OFF Hindi as default
    mkvpropedit "my_fav_movie_2160p_REMUX.mkv" \
    --edit track:1 --set flag-default=0
   
    # Make English TrueHD/Atmos the default
    mkvpropedit "my_fav_movie_2160p_REMUX.mkv" \
    --edit track:2 --set flag-default=1
    --edit track:3 --set flag-default=0
   

   (If your IDs differ, adjust the numbers.)

   To remove the Hindi track entirely but keep both English:

   mkvmerge -o "my_fav_movie_2160p_EN.mkv" \
     -a 2,3 \
     "my_fav_movie_2160p_REMUX.mkv"
   

4. Check afterwards

    mkvmerge -i "my_fav_movie_2160p_EN.mkv"
   

   Then:

    mkvinfo "my_fav_movie_2160p_EN.mkv" | grep -A5 "Track type: audio"
   

5. Check Which audio is on right now

   mpv, live OSD:

   Start mpv with a status line:

    mpv --term-status-msg='aid=${aid}  alang=${alang}  aname=${audio/codec-name}' \
        "my_fav_movie_2160p_REMUX.mkv"
   

   mpv, log file way (very clear):

    mpv --log-file=mpv.log "my_fav_movie_2160p_REMUX.mkv"
    grep -i 'aid=' mpv.log | tail -n 5
   

   You’ll see lines like aid=2 alang=eng when it switches/loads.

   ffprobe listing (static):

    ffprobe -v error \
    -select_streams a \
    -show_entries stream=index,codec_name,channels:stream_tags=language,title \
    -of default=nw=1 "my_fav_movie_2160p_REMUX.mkv"
   

Bonus: Rename the audio tracks (optional)

Rename the audio tracks with custom names:

mkvpropedit "my_fav_movie_2160p_EN.mkv" \
  --edit track:1 --set name="English TrueHD Atmos 7.1" \
  --edit track:2 --set name="English AC3 5.1 Fallback"

Run mpv with verbose status:

mpv --osd-level=3 --term-status-msg='aid=${aid} alang=${alang} aname=${audio}' "my_fav_movie_2160p_EN.mkv"

Now when you press # (multiple times), mpv will show something like:

aid=1 alang=eng aname=English TrueHD Atmos 7.1
aid=2 alang=eng aname=English AC3 5.1 Fallback

Check if it has built-in subtitles

If ffprobe/mkvmerge -i output only showed video + audio + chapters, no subtitle streams were listed, meaning this particular REMUX did not include subtitle tracks (English subs, SDH, commentary, nothing). Release groups sometimes skip them to shave size, especially on these multi-lang rips.

We want to make sure 100% it doesn’t have subtitles:

ffprobe -v error \
  -select_streams s \
  -show_entries stream=index:stream_tags=language,title \
  -of default=nw=1 "my_fav_movie_2160p_EN.mkv"

Or with mkvtoolnix:

mkvmerge -i "my_fav_movie_2160p_EN.mkv" | grep -i subtitle

If it prints nothing, then no subtitles are baked in.