DVD ripping with switchable subtitles

[jh443]

Is there any software out there capable of ripping a DVD into a video file and creating switchable subtitles at the same time? I thought I had found one, but it turns out that it embeds the subtitle into the video - making it impossible to turn it off.

Also... I seem to recall that the MKV container allows for subtitle files to be included in it - allowing a single file to contain the video, audio, and switchable subtitles. Am I remembering correctly? Do any other formats allow this? If so, which?

I am willing to pay up to about $100 for such a program - but, of course, less is preferred.

Speed of ripping and output file size are not much of an issue for me - quality of output is my main concern. I would prefer ripping time not to exceed playing time of the movie, and up to 1GB per hour of movie.

My system is a Core i7 2630QM Sandy Bridge, 8GB RAM, Win 7 Pro 64.

[jman98]

Like many people, you misunderstand what the term "ripping" means. It means to copy from a disc (CD, DVD, BD) to your PC's hard disk. That's it. It's not converting. You need to rip and convert, not just rip.

AVI containers allow for a single file to contain video, audio and switchable subtitles. MKV is a superior format though. MP4 containers may also do so, but due to the limitations in MP4 containers I do not recommend using it.

You could rip and not convert and then put everything in an MKV container or rip and convert to something such as perhaps H.264 for the video and leave the audio and subtitles alone. Since your file space requirements are pretty tight, you'll need to convert to H.264 for video and perhaps convert the audio depending on the format. You could use Handbrake (free) or some similar tool for your conversion needs. Whatever you were using previously is just deciding on its own to embed subtitles in the video it produces. There is no requirement to do so.

I would recommend that you use either AnyDVD or DVDFab (there is a free version of this) for ripping for best results. Other rippers may have problems with some North American DVDs.

[jh443]

I had suspected that AVI would also allow the inclusion of subtitles into the container, but I could find no proof of this.

The software I use has a "Subtitles" option. When this option is selected, the subtitles are embedded into the video. When not selected, there are no subtitles at all.

This is one of the two options that DVDFab DVD Ripper has when it comes to subtitles. The other is to have them output to idx/sub files. I would prefer to have them included in the same file as the video and audio.

And, of course, some of the DVD's I own are copy protected. I'm not interested in any software that can't handle this. Sure, AnyDVD is designed to overcome this problem... but, again, I'm looking for something that takes care of all the annoying details (such as overcoming copy protection and including subtitles in the output file) itself.

[Ai Haibara]

You could always rip a DVD with DVDFab, then repackage it into an MKV with MakeMKV. No converting/recompression, and the subtitles should be included.

I used to create AVIs with softsubs, all the time, for use with my DVD (DivX/Xvid-capable) player. At the time, I used VirtualDubMod (only allows certain formats), though I believe you can also use AVI-Mux GUI. You can also use AVIAddXSubs (which may be better-suited to creating AVI/.divx files for DVD players to play, but I'm not sure how many software players on Windows support XSubs).