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  1. Some kids brought me two "programs" they want on disc. The two folders have only VOB files, with subtitles. The original is in Hindi so the need the English subtitles. Handbrake kind of works, but the video quality is bad and the subtitles come out all black (while VLC plays then as white with a black stroke around them). I have not been able to see how to preserve the subtitles with ffmpeg (using WinFF). DVD Architect cannot import VOB files and with no IFO files for the VOBs, I'm stuck. Advice please.
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  2. Originally Posted by FijiJohn View Post
    ...but the video quality is bad
    If it's an Indian film, the quality is almost always bad to begin with, although a sample might help to determine why Handbrake does an especially poor job with it.

    You could always reauthor it and create IFOs using any one of a number of programs.

    I take it you want to OCR the Hindi subs and then translate them into English?
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  3. Yes, the video quality is not so good to begin with. The subtitles are English (and NEEDED as the audio langage is Hindi). Tranporterfan, that link was great! I now have a working/complete Video_TS folder!

    However, the subtitles are now green with a green outline. (Readable, but barely.) Is there a way to make them back into white characters with a black stroke (they way they played before in VLC)?
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  4. Try using DVDSubEdit.

    The original IFOs would have held the true color. They're gone. Vlc substitutes for this loss.

    Edit: please remember to back up your folder before practicing.
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  5. Update: Oh am I ever confused!!! The Video_TS folder I (re)created (using Transporterfan's link above) plays in VLC, in full colour, with all green subtitles. When burned to a DVD with Nero, VLC plays it like it did the folder. PowerDVD also plays it in full colour and with green subtitles. If I drag one of the VOB files from the DVD to my hard drive and play it with VLC, the subtitles are white with a black stroke. When I put the DVD in my trusty old Pioneer DVD player, there is no red in the picture and no subtitles!!! I'd really appreciate some explanations.
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  6. Thanks transporterfan, I am off to try DVDSubedit.
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  7. OK, I did one Video_TS folder and reset the colours. All seems good. BUT, I tried to do the same thing with the other (bigger) Video-TS folder and it seems I am setting the colours frame by frame. I cannot seem to set the colours for ALL frames!?!? Any idea how I am screwing it up?
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  8. Originally Posted by FijiJohn View Post
    Yes, the video quality is not so good to begin with. The subtitles are English (and NEEDED as the audio langage is Hindi).
    Right, sorry, my fault. I didn't read carefully enough.

    Yes, if using DVDSubEdit, after changing one subtitle to the way you want it you have it make the same changes for them all. It's very easy. And the link he gave explains it in detail. Or use PGCEdit to change the subtitle colors all at once, which is the way I usually do it.

    Also, if yours is a typical Indian DVD, Handbrake is the wrong encoder to use as it doesn't accept AviSynth scripts and AviSynth is often the only way poor-quality Indian DVDs can be 'fixed'.
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  9. Transporterfan, I had not read it carefully enough. Sorry. Seem the second folder has multiple subpics and the first did not. All fixed on the subtitle front.

    However, while the disc plays fine on the computer with both PowerDVD and VLC, on my Pioneer deck there is no red in the actual video, thus the colours are weird. Clear enough but odd looking. The subtitles are clean black with a white stroke so there is a red (with the blue and green) there, just not in the actual video. Any idea why? (This is just a one-off attempt to fix one series for some kids. I don't even know where they got it.)
    Last edited by FijiJohn; 5th Jul 2014 at 20:39.
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  10. Thank you very much, manono and transporterfan! I have done a lot of DVDs but this is the first (and I hope only) time to be making a playable disc with proper subtitles starting wth only VOBs.

    (My last big project was to convert an old educational laserdisc-based program (eight 30 minute sides) with a zillion "stop" frames to DVD. Each of the five DVDs I created has over 1000 menu frames, in lieu of the laserdisc stop frames and chapter stops. A kluge, but it works beautifully!)
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  11. Any ideas why the disc plays without any red in the actual video on the standalone player but is okay on the computer? I've never seen this.
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  12. Originally Posted by FijiJohn View Post
    Any ideas why the disc plays without any red in the actual video on the standalone player but is okay on the computer?
    Nope. You can try authoring using the previously suggested Muxman rather than IFOEdit and see if anything changes.

    Or did you reencode it? Using what? I thought you said the Handbrake output was poor?
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  13. As the quality is already a bit funky I didn't want to reencode. So the first set of VOBs I just joined the clips with VOBEdit, then ran IFOEdit (and then fixed the subtitles with DVDSubEdit). The second set of VOBs was too large for a DVD5 so I reencoded that one using Magic DVD Ripper to get it small enough. And yes, when I tried Handbrake it all came out really poor (after trying both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 [ffmpeg]). In all cases it plays correctly on the computer (VLC and PowerDVD) but not on the Pioneer DVR.

    I'll give muxman a try. This is a mystery to me. I just do not know enough about the guts of VOBs and IFOs. Thanks for your patience. I got so used to using Vegas and DVDArch (and rarely Nero to burn previoulsy prepared Video_TS folders to disc) and having everything work perfectly I didn't realize I was stepping into the swamps with this one.
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