Subtitles are driving me nuts!

[Phreddy]

Firstly I'm a bit of a noob, so forgive me if I'm doing something fundamentally stupid!

Having huge hassles applying subtitles to my SVCDs - certain movies have english subtitles in a seperate subtitle stream for foreign/alien language bits of an otherwise english language movie. (Star Wars EP1 and 2 leap to mind) Trouble is, these subtitle streams AREN'T the first english subtitle in the "list" of streams, but appear after all the other subtitle languages.

Tried a few different methods, but have certain objections to such like DVDx and DVD2SVCD. For example, DVD2SVCD is great, but it only allows me to select the overall language of my subtitles, and so I assume it will pick up the first english subtitle stream, which will throw the subtitles for every line of dialogue in the movie - not exactly what I want. DVDx allow me to select the particular stream, but its internal SVCD encoding is a little poor, unless frameserved to an external encoder, and the frameserver util I used seems to only allow up to 10000 frames!

Currently trying out Subrip in combination with WinSubMux, as this method seems to be straightforward, and only adds a couple nore steps to the process I use with non-subtitled stuff. (SmartRipper, DVD2AVI, TMPGEnc, and VCDEasy - provides great results for me.)

However, after trying several times each with slightly different options, I still cant see the subtitles in playback, whether I use my software player (PowerDVD) or my standalone unit (Pioneer DV355) - they're just not there. Everything seems to work OK during the Subrip and WinSubMux procedure (after I edit the .sub file to remove the unnecessary text), and even the VCDEasy log is telling me that the subtitles are applied, but they just ain't there! The really maddening thing is that if I do use DVDx, then the subtitles appear fine! (by only encoding 1 or 2 chapters and playing the resultant MPEG in PowerDVD)

So - what am I doing wrong? Has anyone else had success using the WinSubMux method? Should I be ripping the subtitles with a different prog?

I'm going out of my mind!!

Thanx 4 any help!

[budz]

You are saying correct me if I am wrong, you only want subtitles in certain parts of your svcd? I use dvd2scvd with no problems with subtitles. I burn chinese movies with english subtitles.

[Vejita-sama]

No he's saying that there's a subtitle stream that is actually used as part of the movie. Such that when the characters speak anything other than enligsh the subtitles appear (eg. Traffic during the spanish scences).

The problem is that if he chooses the 'english' subtitles he get's the stream that contains 'english subtitles' that is subs of the entire movie. The stream with the subs that are part of the movie might also be called english (although on the traffic DVD they were under french for some reason) but most programs (eg. DVD2SVCD) use the all english stream instead.


Choice 1) Going with WinSubMux sounds like the way to go. I suspect that the problem is your are trying to make SVCD subtitles. VERY few players support this (even few software DVD players). Instead try CVD subtitles (winsubmux does these two).

Choice 2) Also there's really no reason why you can't make the subtitles permanant (ie. not selectable but part of the MPEG). You can do this with virtual dub (vobsub filter) then frameserve to TMPGenc.

[Phreddy]

Thanks for the help guys.

Since my first post I also checked out the compatibilty list - and hey, guess what? The Pioneer DV355 DOESN'T support SVCD subs!!

I'll give WinSubMux a try with CVD subs and see how I go. If that don't work, I'll try the virtual dub / TMPEGEnc method.

One of these days I'll get the cash together for a DVD burner anyways!!

Again, thanks for the pointers!