Reasonably automated method for converting DVD subtitles for MKV?

[Asterra]

The usual suspects, MakeMKV and MKVToolnix, don't even tell you there are subtitles to be had, let alone give you options for preserving them. I can sort of understand the reason why they don't provide their own ways of converting them, but that doesn't change the fact that I need to keep the subtitles.

My original plan was to simply maintain the DVDs intact: VIDEO_TS, MPG, ISO, whatever. But it turns out that Kodi can't deal with these formats correctly, specifically in that it fails to recognize the required refresh rate and apply it accordingly. Only when I feed Kodi a MKV made from the same content does it succeed. So be it.

What I need is some kind of app to which I can feed a DVD source and have it convert the DVD subtitle video tracks to usable text, with a non-over-the-top font, that can then be plugged into the conversion process in MKVToolNix, without my having to then tweak the timings so the subs actually appear with the same timing they did on the DVD. That's about the best-case scenario I think I'll be able to get my hands on. Obviously it would be much more ideal if there were a MKV creator that would do this automatically. And a worse-case scenario would be where I have to, like, baby the system, spending ten minutes per DVD making some piece of software work satisfactorily on each given case. I certainly don't think Kodi's going to suddenly handle DVDs correctly if it's not already doing so by 2020.

Suggestions welcome.

[blud7]

Extract your subs and open with subtitle edit. It uses OCR to convert the subs to text format (srt is a popular format and should work with everything). And you can manually correct any errors. Subtitle Edit can also process the DVD without extracting the subs but I find it is faster and more stable with the extracted sub+idx files.

[amaipaipai]

When I need a cheap DVD conversion I use Handbrake, I don't know how they do it, don't have too much time to look into it but I don't think they convert subtitles, I think they use the subtitles as it is.

[zizouillette]

No problem here with XMediaRecode -> output -> mkv
.................................................. .....video audio and subtitle -> copy
I have Subtitles Mangler installed on Kodi, dont know if its necessary
4 min to convert Gladiator

[lingyi]

Don't understand why you say MakeMKV doesn't show subtitles are there:

[Attachment 51210 - Click to enlarge]
I've run thousands of discs through MakeMKV and never missed seeing a subtitle unless it's hardcoded. DVD subs are extracted as .sub and .idx, and Blu-Ray subs as .pgs

DVD and Blu-Ray subs aren't text, but images and need to be OCRed to convert to text, .srt is best if you want plain text. With any program that does OCR, you'll still have to babysit and correct questionable characters and probably scan the finished subs for errors, common problems being l, I, O, Q being converted as 1 or O.

[johns0]

Some dvds just have cc based subtitles so they have to be extracted with a program such as ccextractor.

[lingyi]

Couple of options.

Just checked and VLC Android will play subs and show the full menus.

Check for subs online. Subscene.com is trustworthy, but be careful of other sites.

[Asterra]

No problem here with XMediaRecode -> output -> mkv
.................................................. .....video audio and subtitle -> copy

Gave this a spin. Looks like XMediaRecode fails to find subtitles in MPG, at least in the two specimens I gave it. Encoding to MKV anyway results in, predictably, a video with no subtitles.