How to Remove Audio from Video Without Re-Encoding Using FFmpeg
Removing audio from a video file does not require re-encoding; it is a container-level operation where the audio stream is discarded while the video stream remains untouched. Modern video containers like MP4, MOV, and MKV store video and audio as independent streams, making it possible to drop the audio track without decoding or altering the video. Using FFmpeg, the command 'ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c copy -an output.mp4' performs this operation at disk speed, completing a two-hour file in roughly ten seconds on an SSD. Omitting the '-c copy' flag causes FFmpeg to default to re-encoding, which is significantly slower and degrades video quality unnecessarily. The same operation can be performed in a browser using ffmpeg-wasm via WebAssembly, keeping the file entirely on the user's machine.
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