You may face this troublesome situation, when you want to convert an mkv movie to avi in order mainly to embed your subtitles, but the original file contains also multiple languages, e.g. the original language of the movie is English, but the makers of the video added, let’s say, German, even defining German as the default audio preference.

To convert this file to avi and keep whatever language you want of those included in the mkv file, you need to adjust conversion settings.

Search for an option such as “Audio Stream Index.” In this option “0” represents the language that is defined as “default” in the mkv file, in our case, German. The next available language is 1, then 2, etc. To stay in our example. Since German is the default (0) language, to use English in your avi you would choose “1” at the “Audio Stream Index” option. Do not be confused and use “2”, because the first, default, language is “0”, not “1.”

In case the original mkv file includes its own subtitles and you need to adjust the converter to use your own subtitles, you should disable the internal mkv subtitles by locating something like “Subtitle Stream Index” and selecting a “none” or “disable” or similar option, that will let you define external subtitles.

Enjoy!