How to DISABLE--NOT REMOVE subtitle tracks from an MKV file from the command line?
What player are you using?

Unless you have the "forced" flag set, it's a player option whether subtitles are displayed automatically or not and in which language if you have several subtitle tracks.

First, set the "default-flag" to false:

mkvpropedit video.mkv --edit track:s1 --set flag-default=0


Then lookup your player preferences.

In VLC (2.0.8), I had to follow these instructions:


  To disable subtitles by default, select "Preferences", then "Show
  All". Select "Input/Codecs". On the "Subtitle Track ID" selection
  window, change the value to "-1".


and also set the preferred language to "none".

In SMplayer, uncheck Preferences / Subtitles / "Select first available subtitle".

Once your "default" flag is set to false for all subtitle tracks, it only depends on your player preferences.