Adding Subtitles to a DVD with SubtitleCreator

[lynnette]

Manono:

Thanks very much! That fixed that problem. I wonder if I might bother you with one more? My DVD seems to be disagreeing with most of the muxing programs (the chapter txt file crashes Subtitle Creator, Regit freezes half-way through...) I managed to get Muxman to mux files I had pulled apart with SC, but it didn't give me any IFO files. So I just used the originals, but they have the problem of the original subtitle colors being black on black. I thought I had fixed that with Subtitle Creator, but I must have re-written over the colors somehow? If you change the colors to preferred in SC and then create a .sup file, does it automatically save them in the IFOs?

Sorry for my complete ignorance about all this.

[manono]

Hi-

...but it didn't give me any IFO files.

Then it gave you a warning message when complete, didn't it? You can check the Muxman log in the root of the C Drive. Just replacing IFOs and BUPs like that isn't a good idea. You can remux using IFOEdit, if you like, as it takes the same formats as does Muxman.

At the very least, I'd do a Get VTS Sectors using IFOEdit. Open an IFO, any IFO (bottom left), and then Get VTS Sectors (3 boxes over). It'll probably want to make some serious changes to get everything working correctly.

I didn't understand some of what you said. I don't use Subtitle Creator, but if you're asking how to fix the subtitle colors, then here's how.

Check the colors for the outline and main color. Open the DVD in PGCEdit. Remember how you got to the place to "turn on" the subs? Go to the same place (double-click the video), and this time look for the CLUT (Color LookUp Table), the 4x4 block of color, looking like a small Rubik's Cube. Find your 2 colors (probably in the top row), click on them to change them to whatever you like (black outline, and white, grey, yellow main color?), OK back to the main screen, save and test.

If you really have them all black, then you might have to experiment to see what's what. Another way to fix them is by opening the Vobs in DVDSubEdit. That may be a bit easier, as you can make the changes and see the results on the spot. Here's a guide:

http://download.videohelp.com/DVDSubEdit/Guides/ChangingColors/Guide.htm

Good luck.

[manusse]

lynnette,

If you change the colors to preferred in SC and then create a .sup file, does it automatically save them in the IFOs?

-When you say "create a .sup file". Do you mean create it using a SRT file? In this case, the 'use preferred colors' means that if forces the subs to use colors 12, 13, 14 and 15.
-Then when you create your final DVD, with SC's DVD authoring wizard, if after having opened your original DVD you go and clik on the 'use preferred colors' again, your final DVD will have the colors correctly assigned. (Also in the future 2.1 version of SC, this last step will be automatic, i.e. if no subtitles are found on the original DVD, the preferred colors will be used automatically).

Cheers
Manusse

[beaviz]

Hello

I have some little problems while trying to add subtitles with SubtitleCreator. When I add one subtitle the others (15 in original) seem to disappear. And when i tried re-attaching all subtitles of the film separately, then i can't select them from the DVD menu. So how can i add subtitles that are attached with DVD menu items?

Thanks

[omega6666]

I was wondering; I've purchased myself a 4 disc version of Howl's Moving Castle. The first disc contains excellent videoquality with only one perfect DTS ES 6.1 audio stream, but unfortunately NO subs!!! The second disc contains the movie with inferior image-quality, 5 silly stereo (!) audio streams, BUT it contains the subs I need.

My question; is it possible to add the subs from the second disc to the perfect video and audio of the first disc, with a simplified demux-mux method maybe? Could I maybe simply copy the IFO file from the second disc over the IFO of the first one, to let it know which subs there are, and simply copy a demuxed sub from the 2nd disc somehow?

[manono]

It might be easier to transfer over the good video and audio to the DVD which has subs already, rather than the other way around, as you're proposing. That'll save the extra step at the end of "turning on" the subs where there were none before, and you'll already have a Subtitle Menu to use. Either way, you're assuming that the movies on both discs are exactly the same length with the same number of frames. If not, then the subs will also have to be delayed when done, using DVDSubEdit.

Anyway, demux everything from both DVDs using PGCDemux. Add what you want from one to the other. Reauthor using Muxman, and use the "Replace" button in VobBlanker to get the newly Muxman authored DVD back into the original DVD with menus and extras. When done, if you added the subs to the DVD with none, then turn them on using PGCEdit. I'm also assuming you'll be using a DVD9, because, unless the movie fits on a DVD5, you'll also be reencoding the whole thing if you plan on using a DVD5.

From your post I gather you're not very experienced with this sort of thing. It may be more difficult for you than I've made it sound. And if you didn't understand what I wrote, it may already sound pretty difficult.

Could I maybe simply copy the IFO file from the second disc over the IFO of the first one, to let it know which subs there are...

No.

[omega6666]

thx for the quick answer. The 2 discs have the exact same number of frames, so the subedit part won't be necessary. I'm gonna give this muxman and vobblanker a go. Will this result in the same menu and extra's, then, since you are talking about re-authoring? I'm making it a DVD5 with CCE SP. thx again!

[manono]

Hi-

Will this result in the same menu and extra's, then, since you are talking about re-authoring?

Yep, that's the idea. Reencode what needs reencoding. Reauthor everything with Muxman (video, audio, subs, chapters from the Celltimes.txt), open the original DVD, and "Replace" what needs replacing with the reencoded and reauthored movie and (maybe) the extras.

[manusse]

@beaviz,

When I add one subtitle the others (15 in original) seem to disappear

This is not the normal behaviour. Did you first transfer your DVD to your HDD using DVDShrink? This method will remove any "non standart" parts of the DVD like multi-angles...

When I say, non-standart, I mean not accepted by all the freeware tools here. Maybe this is not the problem, but you should give it a go to check if there is not something weird somewhere.

Also you can have a look at the following file of your SC_TEMP directory (assuming you use SubtitleCreator's DVD authoring wizard):

LogFile.txt
muxmanlog
VobBlanker.ini

Cheers
Manusse

[omega6666]

Worked like a charm! Thanks Manono! The only wierd thing was that after I remuxed and reauthored everything, it worked fine, but after that I re-encoded the whole thing with DVD Rebuilder & CCE SP, after which the audio didn't work anymore! Yo could still select the audiostreams, but you couldn't hear a thing. Very strange.
I solved the problem by demuxing the m2v-video from the re-encoded version, and remuxing it again with the re-authored dvd, using 'replace' in Vobblanker. Any idea of what happened here?

[manono]

Congratulations. You must be feeling good about having completed the project successfully. I'm glad to have helped a little bit.

Any idea of what happened here?

No, although from the sound of it, it's a DVD-RB specific problem. I think I remember reading of a cracked version of the Pro DVD-RB that completes without audio, but no one uses those around here, I'm sure. Other than that, I can only speculate that the audio wasn't mapped to the correct stream properly. If you know what you're looking for, a look at the funky DVD with PGCEdit should probably shed some light on the problem. But it's good that you were able to figure a way to solve the problem, even if perhaps it caused you a few anxious hours, and a lot of extra work.

[qiaoxinger]

SPAM

[AssassiNBG]

Hello,

Sorry if it's a dumb question, but I would like to know, using this method, after I successfully add the subtitle file to the dvd, how do I select that language then ? I don't see any menu changes done to the guide, the only possibility I see, and which I have probably missed while cross-reading through the guide, is to link one of the existing language buttons to the subs I included.

Regards,
AssassiNBG

[manono]

Hehe, no it's not a dumb question, but I think they ignored it.

If you replace another sub, then you can edit the subs menu (if you want) to replace the original language name with your language name. No menu buttons will have to be changed, You might want to change the original language for the new one in PGCEdit, so when using your remote control, the correct language name shows.

But if you add a new language, then unless you're prepared to completely redo the menu, and, as you said, add new navigation commands, about all you can do is "turn on" the subs, and get to them with your remote control. Or make them the default subs, so they automatically play when the movie starts. That way, the only time you'll need the subtitle menu is when you want to shift to different subtitles, or turn them off.

[AssassiNBG]

Thank you for your answer! It clears a lot of things to me now.

Regards,
AssassiNBG

[Puppybarf]

Hello from Italy! Congratulations for the excellent guide.

I've got a little problem with my subtitles; after recording all new files on a DVD, the subtitles appear bold and green, completely unreadable. Before recording, however, they seem good... how can this happen? How can I get rid of this problem? May I use IfoEdit to modify subtitle streams?

Thank you very much.

[manono]

Hi-

May I use IfoEdit to modify subtitle streams?

You could. Easier would be to use DVDSubEdit or PGCEdit for the job. Here's the guide to do it using DVDSubEdit:

http://download.videohelp.com/DVDSubEdit/Guides/ChangingColors/Guide.htm

[Puppybarf]

Thanks a lot, manono, I've used DVDSubEdit and it worked well... but only changing color subtitle by subtitle !

I've got one more question about SubtitleCreator: when I tried to synchronize old and new subtitles, the warning "DVD Decoder preferred by SC not detected - Install K-Lite Codec Pack".... but I've already installed just that Codec Pack, I use it regularly !
Which codec is that warning about ???

Thanks again.

[AlanHK]

I've used DVDSubEdit and it worked well... but only changing color subtitle by subtitle

See under "Edit" menu: "Apply last modification to all".

[Puppybarf]

Thanks Alan...I've already found the solution, my error was quite that... ...I didn't see that menu item !!!

Could you help me for the SubtitleCreator "DVD Decoder" problem too ?

[AlanHK]

Could you help me for the SubtitleCreator "DVD Decoder" problem too ?

No idea... except that problems are more often caused by too many, or the wrong codecs, not just a missing one. There are various utilities for unloading extraneous codecs and loading only those you need.

[Puppybarf]

Right, but the problem is that warning doesn't indicate which the missing codec is .

[manusse]

The message you see pops up because you wanted to preview your subtitles overlaid on your DVD and you have Settings -> Select DVD Decoder -> Preferred by SC selected. In this case, SC looks for PowerDVD 6 or PowerDVD 4 or Fraunhoffer DVD codecs which are the preferred ones. If it doesn't find one of them installed on your system, it displays the message.

You can either unselect Settings -> Overlay ... or chose Preferred by system or try to install the PDVD 4 or 6's codec.

Cheers
Manusse

[Puppybarf]

Thank you very much, manusse !
Cheers

[stackner]

when i demux with vobedit i get files.SUP but subtile workshop will will not open *.SUP files. you show it opening *.SUB files but vobedit does not demux the subtitles to *.SUB files but to *.SUP files. whats wrong here?

[manono]

whats wrong here?

You are, as this guide is for using SubtitleCreator, which does open subtitles in the SUP format. If you already have the subs in SUP format, then they're ready to be muxed.

The Subtitle Workshop section is for converting text-based subs downloaded from somewhere into either SRT or SUB formats for further processing into SUP format subs using SubtitleCreator.

That guide is old, by the way, and better methods of getting subs into DVDs are available now. You might try the 2nd method of this guide:

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic338721.html

[Singanddance]

I'm having some trouble with Subtitle Creator. Using version 2.2.

First problem, I can't get SC to acknowledge/read a .vob file that otherwise works fine with VLC, ripped from a series free NTSC dvd. It gives the error message: "Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.

Index was outside the bounds of the array."

If I then choose "Continue" it doesn't work, and "Quit" quits the program obviously. There are "Details" that encourage one to invoke 'just in time' debugging by modifying the .config file for either the application or computer. This is over my head, unfortunately.

Second problem. I can get SC to read right off the CD itself, using the VIDEO_TS file. I can then load the subtitles from the .srt file in order to get them to play together so I can synchronize them. Problem arises in that they're not in sync (of course), requiring me to follow the movie entirely through and add anywhere from 1-9 seconds of delay on the subtitles at various spots (at least every 10 subtitles or so, it varies, I don't know why it's like this, but it seems it will need to continue the whole movie in order to be properly sync'd).

When I try to save the re-sync'd subtitled periodically, as I'm syncking them, to a .sup file... I am then unable to reload the .sup file to continue, after quitting and restarting SC. Given that the movie is 2 hours long, I definitely can't do this in one sitting. Further, in the middle of my work, SC has frozen, necessitating shutting it down. Not being able to reload the .sup file makes all my efforts useless. The error reading looks like this: "Index and length must refer to a location within the string. Parameter name: length."

To try to get around this I thought to save my editing by updating the .srt file. The problem with that is that it doesn't record the re-syncking correctly. Every time I add a few seconds, even though SC records it correctly, that is to say from that point forward, when re-saved in the .srt format, the extra seconds are all added at the beginning. Useless, of course!

Third problem, although I haven't had time to even try to solve it yet... Per Paddington's instructions (which are very clear and helpful it would seem, in spite of my difficulties) I have used Rejig to rip the movie from the dvd and split it into audio and video files, coming up with an mpeg file and an ac3 audio file (this is as recommended for my NTSC format DVD). SC doesn't read mpeg, so I've been trying to sort out the subtitle thing without involving the mpeg or the ac3 files, just to get the syncking right, and saved into a useable .sup file, which can then be muxed together. Does this seem to be the correct strategy?

Many thanks to anyone who has some experience with this, and suggestions.

Also, for background, I did as instructed and installed the K-lite codecs, including deleting the codecs I already had, and have rebooted since as well.

[kubaf]

Hello

I have splitted my dvd into seperate movie and audio.
I created subtitles, which are correct-I can see all of them in sup viewer software.
However subtiltes are invisible after authoring, no matter what software I used - IfoEdit or ReJig.
I tried to put that subtitles as the only one subtitles in the movie. In Media Player Classic option "subtitltes" is disabled. In dvd shrink I can see subtitles as a part of DVD, but even when I set that subtitles to be displayed by default, I can't see them at all. Subtitles colors are set correctly.

[headless chicken]

Hello

I have splitted my dvd into seperate movie and audio.
I created subtitles, which are correct-I can see all of them in sup viewer software.
However subtiltes are invisible after authoring, no matter what software I used - IfoEdit or ReJig.

I suspect I have the same problem. I originally began the process using this guide
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/277950-How-to-add-new-subtitles-to-an-existing-DVD

However, muxman could not mux my video and audio together (got some error message about GOP containing more than 36 pictures) so I was forced to use this guide and use IFOEdit/ReJig. Both these applications were able to mux my audio and video but I cannot view the subtitles of the output VOB/VIDEO_TS. Perhaps they are insivible?

I did not follow the step regarding copying of the original IFO file because the original DVD has no subtitles. Can someone please help this lost sole?

[AlanHK]

[Both these applications were able to mux my audio and video but I cannot view the subtitles of the output VOB/VIDEO_TS. Perhaps they are insivible?

I did not follow the step regarding copying of the original IFO file because the original DVD has no subtitles. Can someone please help this lost sole?

First try DVDsubedit. It can change the colours and transparency. If transparency is on, they are invisible.
Otherwise PGCedit can change that and other settings as well.