How to Remove Subtitles from VIDEO_TS folder ?

[webstar]

is there any way to remove a set of subtitles from the VOB files in a VIDEO_TS folder that is on my hard drive & not on a DVD disc ?

all the ripping software that i think can do this (like MTR etc) will only work from a disk in the media drive.

any suggestions will be much appreciated. thanks.

[manono]

If they're burned into the VOBs (hardsubbed) then no, they can't be removed. You can check by just playing a VOB as opposed to playing the DVD. If you see subs, then forget about it. If they're normal selectable subtitles, perhaps configured to play automatically, you could demux, remux without the subs, and take it from there. Or you can 'turn off' the subs in PGCEdit. That's easy enough.

[Case]

Similar to PGCEdit, myDVDEdit can turn soft subs to "off" by default, by modifying a read-write enabled VIDEO_TS folder. The subs will still be there, but only become visible after selecting them.

MTR will work on a mounted disk image, so it doesn't actually need an optical disc to read from. You would still need to create the disk image for this route, tho'.

[manono]

Thanks, Case. I got the thread from the front page and didn't notice it was a Mac-related question.

[webstar]

thanks both. i'm looking in PGCedit and myDVD edit now but still can't resolve my problem.

i'm working with the VIDEO_TS folder of a custom subtitled DVD that contains two films. the original subs are spanish, the custom subs are english. on one film i have been able to remove the spanish subs in PGCedit but on the other film (which has an english language soundtrack) the spanish subtitles seem to be forced & i can't turn them off. they are not burned in & do not show in VLC.

i am a beginner, so if one of you would be so kind as to walk me through how to do this on either programme, that would be much appreciated.

webstar

[manono]

I gave pretty explicit instructions explaining how to do this using PGCEdit in the other thread. I'll just quote it again and you tell me what you don't understand or what doesn't work:

Open the DVD in PGCEdit. Double-click on the movie and in the new screen, in the upper right, you'll see the 'Sub-picture VOBs Decoding Streams'. Click on the ones you want to get rid of and 'Disable'. 'OK' back to the main screen and hit the green-reel-of-film icon near the top right of the main screen, one of a big row of icons. It'll give you a message about fixing the number of streams and you answer 'Yes'. Then in the new screen you'll see what's left. 'OK' back to the main screen and File->Save DVD.

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/310036-delete-subtitles-with-PGCedit?p=1912166&view...=1#post1912166

[webstar]

i have done this and there are now no Sub-picture VOBs Decoding Streams listed. then i saved the DVD and opened the TS file in Mac DVD Player to check it & the spanish sutitles are still there, though they do not appear in MPEG Streamclip and they do not appear or can be disabled in VLC.

[webstar]

here is a screengrab from myDVDedit to illustrate the problem



note that for VTS 2 on the left column it says 0 subpictures, but in the preview window the spanish subs are there. i can turn them off in the subpictures section to the right of the preview by either toggling the sequence button to 2/2 ir by selecting the bottom "stop display" button. however this only seems to work for the subtitle at the cell/object point selected and not across the whole cell or track ...

[webstar]

a little more information from MyDVDedit ... if i go into debug mode and "system regs" i see that #2 subpicture is set to a value of 64 - is this something to do with dorecd subtitles & if so, how can i change this value ?

[manono]

Apparently it does force the subtitle. I don't know enough about it to know why the stream doesn't show up using normal methods. I think you can track it down and disable it, though. In PGCEdit do a search for this:

Sub-picture stream = 64

You do it in the bottom center of the main screen. Just copy and paste what I wrote, noting the spaces on either side of the equal sign. Then hit 'All'. After you find it, right-click on it and (probably) delete the command.

[webstar]

i'm afraid i still haven't managed to fix this. if i search for "Sub-picture stream = 64" it is not found.

the only "Sub-picture stream" command found is "(Set STN) Set Sub-picture stream = 0, on"

in case it makes any difference, this command is part of a dummy VTSM file called "VTSM 2, LU 1 (en), 3 (dummy)".

i have tried changing this value to "don't change" or "off" or "not set" or switched it to various other numbers (such as 31) but none of these stop the subtitles from appearing.

[manono]

Then I apologize. I don't know enough about it to be able to diagnose and fix the problem. My next suggestion is to go to the IFO/VOB Editors forum at Doom9 and ask. The PGCEdit developer and other smart people can be found there. They'll know the questions to ask to get to the bottom of this. Sorry I wasn't much help.

http://forum.doom9.org/forumdisplay.php?f=50

[r0lZ]

Since you cannot see the subpis in the editors or disable them when you play the DVD, I guess they are hardcoded in the image itself. As a consequence, there is no way to remove them. However, if you have manually deleted the subpic decoding stream assignment in the Title PGC, you may have one subpic stream that is not referenced any more in the IFOs, and it is normal that the players and editors cannot see it any more.

The subpic stream is stored in the VOB files and referenced in the IFOs. For each individual subpic in a specific subpic stream, there is a flag in the subpic header (in the VOBs) telling if that subpic is forced or not. If it is forced, it will be displayed when that subpic stream is "current" when the DVD is played. A subpic is current if it has been explicitly set with a SetSTN command, or if it has been selected automatically by the player according to your language preferences. Note that if there is at least one subpic stream defined in the IFO, there is always a current subpic stream.

So, even if the SetSTN command is "Set Sub-picture stream = 0, off", subpic stream 0 is current, and its forced subpics will be shown. (When the subpic is "on", all subpics are shown, regardless of the forced flag.)

It was probably a bad idea to delete the subpic decoding stream definition in the main movie PGC, as to remove the forced subpics, you have to do exactly the opposite: add a new (dummy) stream. So, I hope you remember how the subpic was defined. Replace it as it was. (For a 4:3 DVD, the 4 values were probably 0.) Then, click on the second subpic decoding stream button, (#1, with a greyed out "none"), and in the little window, drag all sliders to the right (value 31). (Well, in fact, the value doesn't have to be 31, but it must be different than the values used by the real subpic #0.) Click on Set, then in the PGC window, on OK to return to the main PgcEdit window.
Now, right-click on the main movie PGC in the left pane, and select Domain Stream Attributes. You should see a warning telling that there is only 1 subpic stream defined in DSA but 2 in the PGCs and proposing to fix the problem. Answer Yes. You should see the new subpic stream with no language code and "unspecified" as the type. Accept everything.
Now, click on the "**** pre-commands" label of the main movie in the left pane, then on the button "Add After" to insert a NOP as the first pre-command. Double-click that NOP to open the command editor. In the menu, select "Alphabetically -> SetSTN". Change the parameters of the command to read "[51 00 00 00 C1 00 00 00] 1 (SetSTN) Set Sub-picture stream = 1, off". (Be sure to select the value 1, not GPRM 1!) Save all changes to disc.

You have just created a new dummy stream containing no subpics (since that stream doesn't exist in the VOBs), and the SetSTN command makes it current when the main movie is played. You should not see any forced subpic any more.

Another method to get rid of forced subpics: You can use DVDSubEdit (but I don't know if it can run on a Mac) to load the original subpic stream, then search for all forced subpics and change their status to not forced.

Good luck!

[webstar]

amazing ! thanksr0lZ

one thing i noticed in following your instructions ...

after setting the new command to read [51 00 00 00 C1 00 00 00] i then Set STN to "Set Sub-picture stream = 1, off". this automatically changed the command value to [51 00 00 00 81 00 00 00].

but when i saved and tested the DVD, it works - choosing unspecified subs overrides the forced subs.

then i took it one step further and went back and removed the original spanish subs (stream 0 0 0 0) and saved. now it still seems to work fine with no subs & no longer possible to accidentally set the spanish subs to visible.

someone else i know was able to fix the problem with DVDSubEdit but as a mac user that program is not available to me.

thank you so much - this has been driving me nuts for days.

webstar

[r0lZ]

The difference between [51 00 00 00 C1 00 00 00] and [51 00 00 00 81 00 00 00] reflects the state of the on/off flag. As I have explained, there is no need to set it to on or off, since there are no subpics anyway in the VOB stream. The important thing is that the dummy stream must be current.

BTW, the hexadecimal codes between [] are an hex dump of the command as it is saved in the IFO. You don't need to know them, but I like to post them in the forums, as it is possible to simply copy them (with or without the [] and the human readable form of the command) and to paste them directly in PgcEdit. That's especially useful when several commands must be created.

You can delete stream #0 if you wish, but it's not recommended. Some picky players have trouble when there are undefined streams before the last stream, and the user cannot select some streams with the remote. If you really want to get rid of stream #0, you should leave it in place, but change the decoding stream numbers to 31, as you did for stream #1. If you do that, stream #0 will become dummy, and of course you don't need stream #1 any more. You can therefore remove it. (Don't forget to go to Domain Stream Attributes to fix the number of streams there as well.) You can also remove the SetSTN command, useless since there is only one dummy stream that remains in the DVD.

BTW, I've also learned something. I didn't know that some (all?) players display the forced subpics even when the stream is undefined in the PGC. IMO, they should not. Perhaps it's simply because you haven't fixed the number of streams in Domain Stream Attributes to 0? Anyway, it's good to know.

[webstar]

The difference between [51 00 00 00 C1 00 00 00] and [51 00 00 00 81 00 00 00] reflects the state of the on/off flag. As I have explained, there is no need to set it to on or off, since there are no subpics anyway in the VOB stream. The important thing is that the dummy stream must be current.

sorry i misunderstood & thought you were instructing me to set it to off.

thanks for your further tips on not deleting or changing the original stream. the disc i already burned seems to be working ok in my players, but this is very good to know for the future.

[r0lZ]

Well, if you don't want to be able to change the subtitles on the fly with the remote, you can ignore my warning. In the case of your DVD, there are no subpics to show anyway, so your method is OK. But take care with DVDs containing subtitles you want to keep.

BTW, to get rid of the forced subtitles, if you don't need to keep any other subpic streams, the easiest method is probably just to strip the subpic stream from the VOBs, with DVDShrink or VobBlanker. Without a stream to use, the player cannot show subpics.