VideoHelp Forum
+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 3 of 3
Thread
  1. Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Search Comp PM
    Hi all,

    I have a really annoying issue with my subtitles that is making me tear my hair out. I have no idea where the problem lies.

    I want to be able to watch my (legally bought) NTSC Region 1 DVDs on my computer with downloaded Arabic subtitles on top. The simpler the better, I don't care about divx, or disk space or anything. I just want original DVD quality, and 5.1 surround sound, with arabic subtitles.

    I am first using DVD Decrypter to extract the main film as a single large VOB file.

    I am playing the VOB file in Media Player Classic and this works fine.

    The problem is subtitles. If I download an english SRT file and attempt to play it via MPC in built subtitle display it works fine, the subtitles are synced and I can seek anywhere in the file and the subtitle track still displays perfectly.

    However if I load the Arabic subtitles (SRT files) then my subtitles don't appear to display at the correct times, I get subtitles on screen when no-one is speaking etc. It doesn't appear to be a problem that starts off 'OK' and gets gradually worse; if I seek at the beginning of the file the subtitles are already way out of sync.

    Obviously the first thing I checked is if the Arabic SRT is in a different FPS to the English SRT but it's not. For example, the last line of dialogue is at 02:21:47 in both SRT files and both timings appear to be correct when inspecting in Subtitle Creator.

    In fact, if I watch the film in MPC whilst looking at the source Arabic.SRT file in a text editor, matching the lines of dialog to the lines of text in the Arabic.SRT then everything matches up, there is no question the Arabic SRT is correct!! So it really looks like Media Player Classic is not displaying the subtitles as per the actual timestamp information in the SRT file, and only for the arabic versions!?. Basically the subtitles that the SRT says to display at, say, 5mins 30 are NOT being displayed by MPC at 05:30!

    This is just really confusing because my English.SRT subtitle works perfectly, and I've also installed DirectVobSub (VSFilter.dll 2.38) and used that to load the subtitle overlay and it shows exactly the same issue - just Arabic subs not synced to the film. I've downloaded about 3 or 4 different Arabic SRTs for this film, and no luck. Same problem affects another VOB file I have tried (different movie).

    I'm really at a loss with this, I don't really know what to try next.

    Help!?
    Quote Quote  
  2. Banned
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Freedonia
    Search Comp PM
    Try using the VLC Media Player and see if it has the correct behavior for your subtitles. Your problem seems specific to MPC, so you might need to find either a video forum in Arabic to see if they have a solution for this problem or you might need to try to contact the author of MPC about this.
    Quote Quote  
  3. Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Search Comp PM
    Thanks, I have VLC installed but had a problem with it not displaying the Arabic script correctly (i.e. "لوتشيوس آمن"). I've just found the setting to correct that so I'll try VLC tonight to see that works.

    I think I'll try some tests with IDX/SUB subtitle formats too; as they are surely bitmap based and therefore the original source language CANNOT affect how they are displayed?
    Quote Quote  



Similar Threads

Visit our sponsor! Try DVDFab and backup Blu-rays!