Guide: Switchable subtitles in DVD-Lab

[vmesquita287]

Today I spent all day trying to figure this out. I searched in many forums, and noone seemed to know exactly how to accomplish this. So here's a small step by step guide on doing this. Please remember that all the movies must have the same ammount of subtitles.I also assume you know how to get your subtitles in SUP format and you know how to author using DVDLab. I used DVDLab 1.1, I am not sure if this will work with newer Beta versions.

1) Create your VOBs using IFOEdit. Load up IFOEdit, choose DVDAuthor/Author New DVD. Grab your video track, your audio track and your subtitles. Important: your subtitles must be in SUP format. You can convert using the freeware utility SRT2SUP.

2) Choose your destination folder on the bottom of the screen.

3) Click on OK and wait for IFOEdit to mux everything

4) Repeat step 1-3 for each movie you will want to put in the same disc, but remember to use different output directories.

5) Import the VOBs from all movies in DVDLab. When asked, choose "use it directly without demultiplexing"

6) Author your DVD as you would normally do.

7) Compile your project on DVDLab.

8) When finished, open IFOEdit again.

9) Click on the Open Button, and open the VTS_01_0.IFO generated by IFOEdit. CLick on the (-) button to open the tree view.

10) Click on VTS_PGC_ITI (on the tree view) and them on the (+) that will appear. Now click on "VTS_PGC_1"

11)On the window in the bottom, scroll down till you find "sub-picture stream 1 status". Double click in this line, and copy to clipboard the value that appears in a messagebox (something like "-2130706432")

12)Now click on the (-) sign in the top of tree (VTS_01_0.IFO) to close the tree. Click on the open button again and open the VTS_01_0.IFO generated by DVDLab. Find the "sub-picture stream 1 status" for this file in the same way you did before. Notice it has a zero value. Double click on it and paste the value you got from the other IFO.

13) Repeat steps 10-12 to VTS_PGC_2, VTS_PGC_3 and so on (if it exists). Also repeat this for the second subtitle stream ("sub-picture stream 2 status"), if it exists

14) Now your DVD already has subtitles, but the colors are wrong (probably green) and the subtitle language has not been properly set yet.

15) To put the right subtitle language, click on the VTS_01_0.IFO created by DVDLab. In the bottom of the screen, in "Subpicture 1:English", double click on it and change to your language. Please note that there's a bug that prevents IFOEdit from updating the screen, but the file will be updated when you save.

16) Now get back to VTS_01_0.IFO\VTS_PGCITI\VTS_PGC_1. Scroll down the bottom windows till you find "Color 0 Y Cr CB". By double clicking here, you can change the color of the subtitles. Put the ones suggested by SRT2SUB or the ones from the original DVD you're backing-up.

17) All set! Click on the VTS_01_0.IFO generated by DVDLab, and click on the Save Button. Your DVD is ready to burn with subtitles!

Burn at first to a DVD-RW to see if everything is working right.

[]'s
VMesquita

[SaSi]

Well, congratulations. That's creative thinking. Also unveils some of the interesting flexibilities in DVD-Lab.

Now, a bigger challenge for you (or anybody reading). Author a DVD with multiple audio tracks in the same way!

[vmesquita287]

Sasi,

Thanks! There's already a guide to use multiple audio tracks in DVDLab. You can even do both things (use multiple audio and subs) by following my guide but authoring more audio tracks on the IFOEdit steps, and using the DVDLab IFOEditor as the multiple audio guide shows.

The multiple audio guide is here: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/169251.php

[]'s
VMesquita

[SaSi]

Thanks vmesquita287,

Two weeks ago it would have appeared obscure. After spending a couple of days with IFOEdit (and understanding it for the first time), it now appears quite doable.

Compared with the learning curve I had with Scenarist, these steps are quite simple...

[andkiich]

vmesquita287,

Did you submit this so it goes into the GUIDES section? It's definitely worthy.

[vmesquita287]

Good idea!

I'll submit this guide later today!

[]'s
VMesquita

[vmesquita287]

I just submited to guides section, and created a PDF version, check it out:

http://www.jltoca.uaivip.com.br/vmesquita.htm

[]'s
VMesquita

[DJ_Izumi]

I'm having difficulties with this, while I seem to have most aspects going correctly, the subtitles in the DVD don't come out correctly. While they are in the correct location, and time correctly, they are completly garbled... I've been looking to see if one of the settings for SRT2SUP was incorrect for a DVD, but no luck. Help?

[vmesquita287]

What do you mean by "garbled"? Wrong colors? Or wrong shape also?

[]'s
VMesquita

[brock_leznar]

well this is not working for me guys
i did it a zillion times i have dvd-lab 1.3 and ifoedit 0.95

first note is that unlike the guide says about the -value in the audio stream status which i should copy from the ifoedit file to the 1 made by dvd lab ,it's not a ZERO value and i'm supposed to give it the value i copied from the first file ,it's already the same value :S

then i compile the disc to an image file and then play it with daemon tools
it plays fine but at the moment the first subtitle phrase is supposed to appear the video halts and the audio continues a lil longer then the player halts totally ,i've tried mediaplayer 9 and zoom player ,both halt

is there something about this i'm not seein here :S

thnx

[maa]

unlike the guide says about the -value in the audio stream status

Why are you trying to change the audio when this is a Subtitle guide ?
Are you in the wrong thread maybe ?

[brock_leznar]

11)On the window in the bottom, scroll down till you find "sub-picture stream 1 status". Double click in this line, and copy to clipboard the value that appears in a messagebox (something like "-2130706432")



[]'s
VMesquita

no man it was just a typo by me, that's the value i ment but that means u didn read the guide urself :P

lol

[mrbacardi]

hey dude, i just got some questions about your guide

first of all with the number thing (ie -2130706432) or whatever, for me i've never had to do that copying and pasting from the ifoedit ifo file to the dvd-lab ifo file, the dvd-lab ifo file already had that same number, just fyi, maybe dvd-lab 1.3 fixed it.

Anyways, my next concern is with the vob files, do you ever join your vob files from the same movie? Like when i author a new dvd with ifo edit, usually i get 2 or more vobs, the first couple being 1GB large with the final one being the remaining 300MB or whatever, just wondering if it's beneficially of harmful to actually join them.

Also, when i approach the end of a movie title on my samsung DVD player, the subtitles stop showing up, but when i play it on my JVC one, the subtitles always show up, any ideas on that?

Btw, your guide kicks ass, thanks a lot, saved me a lot of trouble and time.

Thanks,
Dan

[vmesquita287]

first of all with the number thing (ie -2130706432) or whatever, for me i've never had to do that copying and pasting from the ifoedit ifo file to the dvd-lab ifo file, the dvd-lab ifo file already had that same number, just fyi, maybe dvd-lab 1.3 fixed it.

With the latest DVD-Lab it sometimes put the number, but not always, I have no idea why.

Anyways, my next concern is with the vob files, do you ever join your vob files from the same movie? Like when i author a new dvd with ifo edit, usually i get 2 or more vobs, the first couple being 1GB large with the final one being the remaining 300MB or whatever, just wondering if it's beneficially of harmful to actually join them.

There's no problem in joining VOBs. You can even join them using copy /b which is 10x faster than doing it in dvd-lab:
copy /b VTS_1_01.VOB+VTS_1_02.VOB+VTS_1_03.VOB Big.VOB
The problem is tha t IFOEdit is not the best tool to create the VOBs, because sometimes chapter don't work (of course, I didn't knew this when I wrote the guide). I now prefer the linux ported dvdauthor to mux the VOBs, it's much more reliable than IFOEdit.

Also, when i approach the end of a movie title on my samsung DVD player, the subtitles stop showing up, but when i play it on my JVC one, the subtitles always show up, any ideas on that?

Never had this problem, but I suggest you use dvdauthor to create the VOBs, IFOEdit did gave me some problems on some movies.

[KAaPPa]

Sorry guys, but i still think that Dvd Maestro, subtitle workshop and TMPGenC are really the best for multiple subtitles..it's easier to put the everything into sync...


But it's still a good job!

Cheers

[andkiich]

Son, we will not need to do all this work, as come May/June of this year DVD-Lab will have multiple audio/subtitle functionality built in!

[Babymech]

Until then, however, I've got some more questions about this process. I've tried it twice now - the first time everything worked excellent, but this time, the subtitles ended up just outside the safe areas of the display - that is, they're just slightly below the visible part of my tv-screen (they show up fine in PowerDVD though, so I know that the general process worked). Now I think I can fix this problem by changing the position of the subtitles in SRT2SUP - only problem is that would take several hours (to reencode the SUP, recreate the VOBs, author the DVD in DVDlab etc.) which I don't have right now! Is there some way to bump the subtitles up, higher on the screen that is, by just using ifoedit?