Selectable subs

[dynalink_user]

does anyone know howto create your own dvd's with selectable subtitles?
Which program(s)should I use?
Which format must the subs be in?
What else should I do?

[briankai]

Depends on the authoring program, whether or not you already have a timed script or not, or are looking to rip existing subs off of the original DVD...

I personally use Sonic DVD Producer for it's ease of use/feature set, but Scenarist & Maestro are regarded as the best for this task.

If you're ripping/subbing a DVD5, just rip w/smartripper or dvd decrypter to your harddrive. Use IFOEdit to verify and clean-up your vobs.

Once they're clean, demux the video/audio stream with VobEdit. This will give you the seperate video/audio streams (m2v/ac3). If the authoring program you're using doesn't support importing AC3 audio, you will need to convert it to a pcm wav file. I recommend using DVD2AVI for this task. Most authoring programs support compressed audio, so this *shouldn't* be an issue, but if it doesn't than not only do you have to convert to wav.. but you'll probably have to re-encode the video since uncompressed pcm is going to eat up alot more space on your dvd.

For the actual subbing, use Subtitle Workshop to convert and adjust existing scripts to whatever format your authoring program supports. It's a very robust freeware program which also supports real-time previewing on supported media players.

If you're timing the script yourself, use SSA as it's the best subbing program available for the PC. After you're done timing your script, do the conversions/adjustments in Subtitle Workshop.

Throw everything together in your authoring program and burn! Aside from the actual authoring program itself, every program you'll need is freeware and won't cost you anything but the time to master them.

If you're doing a DVD9 (dual layer) to DVD5 conversion... well, it's a bit trickier in the initial stages. Basically follow the same path with the ripping to your harddrive and cleaning up your rip with IFOEdit. From here you've got two options:

DVD2AVI or AVISYNTH Frameserving to the encoder of your choice. CCE & Tmpgenc are considered the best at this point. This option can be a real pain, especially with telecined sources (like alot of anime). It's also slow. After getting your re-encoded video/audio streams, throw it into your authoring program and away you go.

Option Two is what I feel to be the easiest. Use Pinnacle Instant Copy to do the re-encoding for you. It's cheap, and the quality is far superior to lower cost "one-step" encoders like DVD2One and DVD95Copy. With a little work with the settings, you should be able to get nearly perfect 1:1 copies of just about any disc. Some people have reported issues with non-anamorphic 235:1 ratio widescreen movies, but Pinnacle is apparently looking into the issue and will hopefully produce a patch in the near future.

Load the vobs you ripped into InstantCopy and let it do it's thing. They use a propriety image file format, which can easily be extracted with PDITOOL. Extract all files to the directory of your choice, then demux your newly created files with VobEdit. Now you've got re-encoded elementary streams which will fit on a standard DVD-R without a ton of hassle! Import it into your authoring program and ph33r the results. =P

Most of your time will be spent on the actual syncing of the subs.. which is sometimes tough to get the hang of. Sonic Producer has a real-time preview option.. but is very sensitive and many times will not correctly play subs with close timings. Some authoring programs won't let you preview at all without a decoder card or specialized program (like Maestro), others just won't let you preview the subs at all.. so you'll have to build the project over and over again to see how well you did.

I can't stress how much easier this is with Subtitle Workshop's external preview function.. which is awesome to say the least. You can also fine tune your subs by directly editing the timing codes and durations, as well as set script wide delays and just about everything else except for one key feature.. the actual timing of the script. For this, you have to use SSA.

This is by no means a complete guide, but should at least get you started. Programs to steer clear of are Pinnacle Impression DVDPro & ReelDVD. Impression is too damn buggy, and ReedDVD is just a slow pain in the ass to use.

Kai