.ass subtitles encoding help

[B Boy Rock]

I've recently been trying to play around with some mkv files and rip the subtitles out of them then encode it with hard subtitles (text in the video) so that I can change it into a format that works on my PS3.
Only problem is when using Virtualdub + that plugins that let you open mkvs and text sub to add subtitles I can't seem to get all of the writing to render right. Letters like ä or anything with an accent thing above it won't display the letter its supposed to and have some other random symbols. Also I got an x264 video compression plugin so that I could try and make it into a format better then xvid that would play on my PS3 but I never managed to find something that worked on my PS3 with it.

If anyone could suggest a way to make letters in subtitles display correctly and a good compression format for PS3 that works I'd really appreciate it. Or if its possible even if anyone could suggest a program that can encode ass subtitles into video and convert to a PS3 format I'd be really happy.


If it helps I'm using Virtualdub 1.9.9
Text sub 2.23
and some x264 encoder x264vfw_24_1666bm_24064.exe

[filmboss80]

If I'm not mistaken, both Aegisub and Subtitle Workshop can handle a variety of character sets. I don't know anything about Text Sub 2.23, but this appears to be an issue of not using the right tool for the job.

[Bonie81]

While surfing across the Net, I came across VOBSub or VSFilter plugins for virtual dub, which worked for me perfectly.

[B Boy Rock]

Text Sub is something installed with Vobsub I think? Do Aegisub and Subtitle Workshop encode subtitles into a video so its hard subbed?

Also still interested in if anyone knows what I need to encode x264/h264 PS3 compatible video with virtual dub or the above 2 mentioned programs if possible?

[MilesAhead]

First thing I would try is make a copy of the subtitle file, load it into Notepad, and do Save As with Unicode file type. I'm no TextSub expert but from what I'm reading it neads a BOM at the beginning of the file to tell it it's unicode. You can also try Quick AVI Creator as that will also encode .mkv using x264 and let you insert a TextSub line in the script before encoding the video(to burn the subs in permanently.) Remember to load VSFilder first:
LoadPlugin("VSFilter.dll")
TextSub("movie.ass")

[filmboss80]

Text Sub is something installed with Vobsub I think? Do Aegisub and Subtitle Workshop encode subtitles into a video so its hard subbed?

Sorry to be unclear earlier. Those two sub editors are only for setting your character sets and formatting the subs. They do not hard-sub into video. The OP already had the hardsubbing solution going the VirtualDub route. It appears the problem has been worked out by now.

[MilesAhead]

Text Sub is something installed with Vobsub I think? Do Aegisub and Subtitle Workshop encode subtitles into a video so its hard subbed?

Sorry to be unclear earlier. Those two sub editors are only for setting your character sets and formatting the subs. They do not hard-sub into video. The OP already had the hardsubbing solution going the VirtualDub route. It appears the problem has been worked out by now.

Only the OP can say if it's solved. If you read the original post, it hard subbed with funky characters. Probably because it did not have the unicode tag at the beginning of the file(I'm guessing.) Someone else with another problem should start another thread.