Adding permanent subtitle on DVD from DVD

[boblydan]

It's the new guy again :P

I just posted a thread regarding trouble with my custom sub breaking at the wrong places when adding a permanent sub to an xvid file using AutoGK. The source of this xvid is a DVD, and I would like to add a permanent subtitle to this.

I've already successfully added the sub as a selectable subtitle, but I would like it to be permanent. Menus are not a concern, I just want to pop the DVD in my player of choice, so that the movie will start playing with subs. I'm looking for a no-brainer, so to speak. Never underestimate the stupidity of mankind when it comes to technical stuff. I know this from experience, as I work at computer helpdesk

This might seem a tad peckish, but I want people who have no technical skills whatsoever to able to play this movie (which is under the Fair Use Agreement, by the way. No piracy here The movie as the full edition of this clip at Youtube ). This means that pressing the "subtitle" button on their DVD player is too challenging. Plug and play is the goal.

I've checked out the stickied guides on this subforum, but I couldn't seem to grasp how to add permanent subs to a DVD from a DVD source, without transcoding to an avi container first.

I've tried using the DVD Authoring Wizard in Subtitle Creator, and checked the turn this subtitle on by default option, but it doesn't seem to do the trick. The result is a selectable sub, even though the menu is gone.

The source DVD had no subs, so the first time I tried adding the sub, the text came out with lovely green colors. Green text, green background, green everything. After searching this forum again, I found that this is due to the fact that there were no subs to begin with, and as such, the palette is all green. I found this guide for changing colours on the subs, and it worked like a charm. This site rocks

But alas, I still do not know how to add a permanent subtitle to my DVD. Anyone got a clue?

[borax]

There are two different possibilities:
1. You can 'force' the DVD-player to activate the subtitle stream with some VM commands. How this works depends on the overall structure of the DVD (which program did you use to do the authoring?). It can even be done after authoring with pgcedit. I've not seen any DVD player which is such stupid to ignore the VM command IF THIS IS DONE PROPERLY! (you/the authoring program can do a lot of 'faults' here; the VM stuff isn't really simple). Nevertheless it would be my choice to do it.
2. You can 'burn' the subtitles into the images (that's what you ask for, I know...)
There is no need to use an avi container first, but the video needs to be decoded to 'uncompressed' images (like BMPs) in order to overlay the subtitles and these images can be reencoded to mpeg.
This is usually done with an avisynth script. This way you don't need a 'container', as avisynth (with the necessary plugins) will decode the video, overlay the subtitles and give each image to an encoder (HCenc, tmpgenc, quenc... to name some of them) in a process which is named 'frame serving'.
If you want to do it, these steps are required:
1. Demultiplex the video (if you have elementary streams already, ok)
2. Open the video with dgindex to create an index file for avisynth ('d2v project'). You can also use dgindex to demultiplex the video.
3. Set up the necessary avisynth script and frame serve to the encoder

A simple guide for using avisynth (with tmpgenc) incl. subtitles can be found here:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Converting_AVI_to_MPEG-2_with_AviSynth_and_TMPGEnc_Xpress

[manono]

If by permanent you mean "embedded" or "burned" into the video, then that will take a complete reencode of the entire video, lowering the quality because of the reencode, and lowering the quality even more because you now have subtitles hardcoded into the video. Much better would be to make your subtitle start automatically. That way it'll come on automatically, but can still be turned off if anyone wishes.

Here's one way to do what you want. Open the DVD in PGCEdit. Highlight the video on the left side. On the right side add a Pre-Command by right-clicking the Pre-Command line and "Add After". That will create a NOP. Double-click on it and Alphabetically->Set STN->Sub Picture->Set To->0 On. OK back to the previous screen, and then the screen should look something like this:



Then File->Save DVD. That will have the subs play automatically when the movie starts. Since this command is being issued just before the movie starts, no subtitle menu or remote control operation can turn them off until after the movie begins. Then they can easily be turned off. There are other ways to do what you want, including making a PUO out of them so they can never be turned off, but this way is real easy and should accomplish what you want.

[boblydan]

borax: I used Subtitle Creator, as specified in this guide How to add new subtitles to an existing DVD. manono's guide seemed a lot easier, so I followed his directions instead. No offence

manono: Thanks for your most excellent advice. It worked like a charm

Unnecessary info:
Before it worked out, I managed to confuse myself a bit by working on the wrong DVD. I selected the source DVD without the subtitle, and not the reworked DVD with added sub. D'oh! After realizing that I'm a complete schmuck, I started working on the right DVD, and followed your instructions and everything worked out just fine. Tada!

While I was mucking about with the source DVD, I noticed that there already were a couple of pre-commands there. These were not present in the reworked DVD with the subtitle. It must have happened during the authoring process, I reckon. If it is of any interest, they looked like this:

1. Set gprm(7) =(mov) gprm(6)
2. Set gprm(6) =(mov) 0


Once again: Thanks, guys

[borax]

...It can even be done after authoring with pgcedit... it would be my choice to do it.

My words

[boblydan]

I might take a swing at it anyway, if but for the experience.

But wouldn't I be better off using a source DVD that's not edited with pgcedit? I haven't really got a clue, but wouldn't I end up with both burned in subtitles along with selectable subtitles that's turned on by default?

I'll check it out later. For now I'm quite pleased with the results Only thing is I'm not too thrilled about is the font on the DVD. Also, my subtitle sometimes has three lines, as some people talk really fast and I found using three lines better than splitting it up and having faster line changes.

Thanks again

-edit-

Fixed the sub with DVDSubEdit. I'm as happy as a clam

[borax]

but wouldn't I end up with both burned in subtitles along with selectable subtitles that's turned on by default?

burned in subtitles are part of the movie. They cannot be turned off, replaced with other subtitles or be removed without heavy distortion in any way. Burned in is similar like using a mask with the text on the negative during exposition in conventional photography. That's exactly why I would never do it.