Can not extract PGS stream from MKV file

[gonzalu]

I have an MKV file that has a S_HDMV/PGS stream I want to extract so I can SupRip it... I can nto do it no matter which tool I use

tsMuxeR does not like it in all versions prior to 1.9.1. Latest version CRASHES on input.

mkvextract does not like it either

tried eac3to also and it does not work either.

How can I possibly do this? The MKV was created by MakeMKV from the original Top Gun Blu-Ray disc. I can of course extract back from original m2ts from BD but it is killing me that PGS support for extraction / demux is so poor in tsMuxeR and mkvextract.

Thanks for the help.
manny

[Baldrick]

Are you using mkvextract cli mode? or mkvextractgui? If you haven't tried the cli version then try it read the help how to use it,

Let’s assume you’ve made a Matroska file with one video track, two audio tracks and two subtitle tracks, and you need the second audio track and the first subtitle track. So first fire up mkvmerge with the --identify option:

$ mkvmerge -i movie.mkv
File ’movie.mkv’: container: Matroska
Track ID 1: video (V_MS/VFW/FOURCC, DIV3)
Track ID 2: audio (A_MPEG/L3)
Track ID 3: audio (A_VORBIS)
Track ID 4: subtitles (S_TEXT/UTF8)
Track ID 5: subtitles (S_TEXT/UTF8)

Now you can call mkvextract like this:

$ mkvextract tracks movie.mkv 3:audio.ogg 4:subtitles.srt

And I guess you have checked the makemkv forum?

[gonzalu]

Baldrick, you're always first to help... you are the biggest resource this site has. For that I thank you.

I always thought that mkvextractGUI used mkvextract in the end... so no, I have never tried the CLI by itself. I will give it a shot...

I have searched EVERYWHERE for an answer. I usually only post when I am at the end of my rope.

Thanks for the tip

[gonzalu]

No good with CLI either

C:\Program Files (x86)\MKVtoolnix>mkvextract.exe tracks "f:\users\gonzalu\Deskto
p\Top Gun [1986] BLU-RAY.mkv" 4:tg_spa.sup
Error: Extraction of track number 4 with the CodecID 'S_HDMV/PGS' is not support
ed.

C:\Program Files (x86)\MKVtoolnix>

[MilesAhead]

And I guess you have checked the makemkv forum?

That's what I'm looking for too. There's a Dec. 29 post on makemkv.com that says the next version of MkvToolnix will have that feature. I hope it comes out soon.

[johns0]

Try making an avchd with multiavchd,if will extract the subtitle if the mkv is in good order,if it crashes then you need to extract the sub from the disc again.

[MilesAhead]

That looks like an interesting tool. Thanks for the heads-up.

[MilesAhead]

Hmmmmmmm I'm using AnyDVDHD beta and then following Baldrick's guide for converting to srt. I'm having no luck. Once I get the .sup to disk if I use DVDSubEdit on the .sup file, it outputs about one page of .srt at the very end of the movie. If I try to use suprip, it tells me "unknown block" and won't touch it when I try to load the .sup file. I have a feeling I'm going to be watching this thing with the English dub!!

[MilesAhead]

I cheated and downloaded the subs.
Only thing AnyDvdHD does is save me from using MakeMKV then tsMuxer to end up with the same m2ts file I start with. But to save $135 I think I'll be using MakeMKV and tsMuxer in the future.

Seems like subs is always the fly in the ointment. Glad there are sub databases out there.

[johns0]

The only thing i dont like about subs you get from the net is most are srt and the text is always in the same position,i like sups(dvd/blu-ray) cause they are graphics and can be on any position of the screen such as when you have credits and the subs display on the top while the credits roll on the bottom.

[MilesAhead]

The only thing i dont like about subs you get from the net is most are srt and the text is always in the same position,i like sups(dvd/blu-ray) cause they are graphics and can be on any position of the screen such as when you have credits and the subs display on the top while the credits roll on the bottom.

True enough. Esp. on some Asian TV series I've seen, really good subs may lay along a line at an angle next to a sign translating what the sign says, or what a printed document or newspaper someone is reading says. Unfortunately the only way I can be sure my WD player with show the subs is either burned into the video or as an .srt file with the same basename. Even with the firmware update it won't always display idx/sub subs(I have the 1st gen. player.) And embedded .divx, forget it. Thing is my Philips DVD player will only play SD divx and using external .srt shows that hard to read gray transparent background whereas the embedded .divx subs look great. So now I have to keep the external files and still embed the subs for the DVD player. You'd think after all these years of dealing with video they would have come up with better solutions.

[MilesAhead]

I got the new mkvtoolnix 3.10 but I'm lost. MKVextractGui still says no support for this type of file. Has anyone used 3.10 to extract the PGS subs?

[johns0]

Did you try multiavchd to see if it will extract the subs?Mkvtoolnix 3.10 doesnt support sups(pgs subs).Also try Clown_BD to extract the subs.

[MilesAhead]

From mkvtoolnix 3.10 change log:

- mkvextract: new feature: Added support for extracting Blu-Ray subtitles (CodecID "S_HDMV/PGS").

[MilesAhead]

Ok, I have it so far as command line. For example if the subtitle track you want is track 5 this should work:
mkvextract tracks movie.mkv 5ubs.sup

That at least gets the .sup file.

[MilesAhead]

I made a small .cmd batch to do the job for one subtitle.
It's named MkvSub.cmd

Usage is MkvSub MkvBaseName TrackNumber.
(e.g. MkvSub Movie 5)

It should output MkvBaseName.sup file.

MkvBaseName should not contain spaces.

This assumes both MkvSub.cmd and mkvextract.exe are in your Path.
You need the mkvextract.exe from mkvtoolnix 3.10

@echo off
If (%1)==() goto usage
If (%2)==() goto usage

mkvextract tracks %1.mkv  %2:%1.sup
goto end

:usage
echo Usage: MkvSub MkvBaseName TrackNumber
echo -------------------------------------
echo ( MkvBaseName should not contain spaces )
echo -------------------------------------
echo Output is MkvBaseName.sup

:end

edit: the batch file is simple but it saves having to remember the mkvextract
command line syntax to extract one sup file.

[MilesAhead]

The only thing i dont like about subs you get from the net is most are srt and the text is always in the same position,i like sups(dvd/blu-ray) cause they are graphics and can be on any position of the screen such as when you have credits and the subs display on the top while the credits roll on the bottom.

After playing around with this a bit more I've come to the conclusion that at least for the purposes of converting to standard DVD9, using BDSup2Sub is the way to go. Extract the .sup from the .mkv using the MkvSub batch file above, load into BDSup2Sub, reduce resolution to 720x480 and export as idx/sub.

During the conversion to DVD the subs are burned in. It may not be the perfect way to do it, but I've done a couple like this and there's no OCR to mess with. And, as you mentioned, the subs are on the screen at the intended positions. Not selectable but for foreign language flicks I'm not going to turn the subs off anyway. The result has looked very good so far.

[MilesAhead]

btw looks like I was doing it wrong trying to convert to .srt. If I use BDSup2Sub, reduce the resolution to 720x480 and output an ifo/sup pair... then load the sup in DVDSubEdit, the OCR and export as .srt worked flawlessly(at least for one subtitle I just did.. no lines with stuff like "_----_||/.\__--" instead of text.) I think I still want to go to .sup if I can to have selectable subs. I just need to figure out how to add .sup subtitles with FAVC. From there I need to handle forced subs etc.. Making progress though.

btw looks like MakeMKV is selling for $50 now. I'm on the 30 day trial.

[MilesAhead]

btw no need to resort to the command line to get the PGS subtitle track now.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/MKVExtractGUI-2

Just drop it in the same folder as the latest mkvextract.