quick question in regards to subtitles

[greymammoth]

i haven't had the opportunity to rip a dvd with subtitles until now, and i'm not sure how to do it. I normally use MTR to backup all my of dvds but how do i go about extracting english subtitles from a foreign flim and then compiling it to whatever format i want

[Case]

The website has good information on how to use the Subtitles tool in ffmpegX.

If you get stuck or have additional questions, do ask.

Extracting subtitles to idx/sub (VobSub format) leaves them "as-is". Playback requires a video player that handles subtitles in VobSub format, like VLC or mplayer.
Con: pretty large output file (~11 MB), although it compresses well with zip or rar (~2 MB). Hard (=no Mac tools) to convert from there on, if wanted. The ffmpegX tool only does one language per extraction (while the VobSub format allows for multiple languages in one file).
Pro: Just like the DVD, all style (italic, bold, fonts) and weird signs (e.g. music note symbol) are preserved (as it is image based). Even color is preserved if you load the IFO palette. The extraction can be done without user intervention.

Extracting subtitles to srt (text format) converts the image of letters to text characters using OCR. Likely, you'll have to help the OCR program by telling it what some of the unrecognized letter(s) are. You also have the spell check the output file to remove OCR mistakes (1 vs. l; 0 vs. O; rn vs. m; etc.) Playback requires a video player that handles subtitles in srt text format, like VLC or mplayer.
Pro: Small output file (~80 KB), easy to convert to other text based subtitle formats, or even render back to DVD in an encoding.
Con: No font or text styles in srt, extra effort needed for OCR corrections.

[greymammoth]

hey case,

i've checked that page out already and i still have no idea where to start. i'm one of those guys that need step by step instructions to get me going. i'm starting out with a Video_TS file and I have a couple of IFO files, BUP and VOB files.

where do i start?

[Case]

Drop your VIDEO_TS folder on the "Drop file here" section in the main ffmpegX window. Wait a second until it reads the folder and displays the source file properties.
Switch to the Video tab. In the bottom right section, enter the desired title number (usually "1").
Switch to the Filters tab. Select the VOB subtitles checkbox. The first dropdown menu will list the available subtitles. Select one. (If you are unsure if the selected one is the correct one, then use the Preview button on the bottom right.) From the second dropdown menu, select "idx" or "srt" as your output format. Use the IFO palette button to select your VTS_0x_0.IFO (where x is the same as your title number) file from your VIDEO_TS folder, to preserve the color for idx format subtitles (not needed for srt). Press the Extract button.