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  1. Member
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    I'd like to rip English subs from a DVD movie to a text-based data file, like an .srt/.sub or whatnot.

    With most of these I'd also like to put them back on the DVD image (reauthor the DVD) added, as Swedish Custom subs (after I translated them, using the fact the synchronization is already done) but with some I'd like to add them to an AVI based release as Swedish custom subs.

    Which software would do these rips and reauthorings for me with the less hassle?

    It's great if the same software can also rip the movie to an AVI, while being at it ripping the subs.

    Thank you for helping!
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  2. Hi-
    It's great if the same software can also rip the movie to an AVI, while being at it ripping the subs.
    Quite a few programs can convert DVD to AVI, getting the subs at the same time. The subs can be left external, or they can be burned into the video. AutoGK can easily do those things. It can also take external subs, like the SRT subs you downloaded somewhere, and burn them into the AVI while it's being encoded:

    https://forum.videohelp.com/topic316471.html

    As for adding selectable subs to a DVD, that's more difficult, but can be done, if you've had some experience. Demux the assets, convert the subs to a format your authoring app supports. Quite a few support subs in SRT format already. Reauthor, and add the reauthored DVD back to the original using VobBlanker, so you keep the menus and anything else you want. Then "turn on" the new subs in PGCEdit. There are a couple of guides on this site that explain in detail how to do that. Search.
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    I know for a fact DVD Lab Pro is suppose to be able to reauthor adding subs from sub formats, but I haven't been able to figure out how to do it.

    I'll check out AutoGK, thanks!
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  4. OK, then don't use DVDLab Pro. One way to reauthor is to first convert the SRT subs to SUP format. SubtitleCreator can quickly do this. Go File->Open Text Subtitle, followed by Save SUP.

    Then mux using Muxman, which accepts SUP subtitles as input.
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    So I tried AutoGK for ripping the DVD to AVI/SUB. Worked out good with the video, but the subtitle got worse.

    First off, the program doesn't save each subtitle to a file next to the AVI. It only saves the latest sub in the agk_tmp folder, so basically I'd be unable to convert more than one episode of a TV show at once, I'd have to copy the .SUB out for each converted episode.

    Also, the .SUB is jibberish, not text-based.

    Please advise. Thanks!
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  6. I'd be happy to advise, except I'm not entirely sure what you want to do. You decided not to use DVDLab Pro? But you want all the subtitle streams so you can author for DVD? If so, get the SUP files by using PGCDemux. Open the IFO (and if necessary select the correct PGC) for each episode and demux. The result, among other things you might decide to keep, will be a SUP file for each subtitle stream or language. Use them in Muxman.

    If you want to use a different authoring app, then get the subs in a format that program accepts. Not too many accept IDX/SUB files. As you said, the SUB file is gibberish. IDX/SUB files are image-based - they're just like the DVD subtitle files. SUP files are the same. If you want text-based subs, like SRT, SSA, and the like, then OCR the IFO/VOBs using SubRip. And finally, if you want an IDX/SUB file with all the languages, then don't use AutoGK for the job - use VobSub Configure.

    I hope there's something there you can use. Good luck.
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  7. Member AlanHK's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by KOJV
    I'd like to rip English subs from a DVD movie to a text-based data file, like an .srt/.sub or whatnot.
    That's OCR. (Note that srt are text based, but sub are usually a graphic format (there are a few different files that use ".sub" though).

    Try DVDSubedit to OCR the original subs.
    Then you'll have SRT files.
    OCR is never perfect and you'll have to review and spellcheck.
    Try Subtitle Workshop to deal with the SRTs, it has a "translation mode" to make your Swedish subs.
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    Thanks guys.

    My intention is to rip the subs and video of an English TV show on DVD, then translate into Swedish myself with the subtitle synchronization from the DVD, to either save the whole thing back to DVD and/or save it as AVI/SRT based packages.

    I'd rather shoot myself in the head than have some computer program translate the subtitle for me. Hence I prefere the subs as text so that I can translate them easily in Notepad.
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  9. Member AlanHK's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by KOJV
    I'd rather shoot myself in the head than have some computer program translate the subtitle for me. Hence I prefere the subs as text so that I can translate them easily in Notepad.
    The translation mode of Subtitle Workshop does not attempt to translate the text, it presents both versions side by side, synced with the movie, for you to edit.

    Also lots of useful functions for joining, splitting and retiming.
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    Okay AlanHK, but I've been working with Subtitle Workshop earlier and I didn't like it much. The English subtitle is just fine so I'm good to go with just translating it head on.
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  11. I prefer to use SubStation Alpha for the job, and I've done it several times, substituting English subs for the original ones on the DVD, for adding into a reauthored DVD. I get the English subs either from some subtitle site or off of a different DVD, and either OCR or convert to SSA format. I also OCR the original DVD subs to SSA and open them in SubStation Alpha. It also helps to make an 8-bit, 11,050Hz Mono WAV of the audio to also open at the same time, in case any resynching/retiming has to be done. Then I went down the subs, line by line, substituting the English subs for whatever was on the retail DVD. You can improve the translation, assign the dialog however you want, and improve the timing, if need be.

    In my opinion it beats the heck out of working in Notepad, although AlanHK's Subtitle Workshop method also sounds good.
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    While I have you fine, competent people on the line...

    If I wanna sub a movie from scratch. Is there really no way to synchronize the sub that doesn't involve work that I need to hire thirty Chinese slave boys to do for me?

    I mean, seriously. How do people synch subs from the very beginning? Don't tell me they're sitting like goons in Subtitle Workshop, pressing [ and ] while constantly marking up the next piece of text with their mouse.

    I've seen movie translators / subtitlers work at a distance on TV and they do a whole movie themselves, translations, synchs and all. With the methods that seem available for home users, that would take half a goddamn year to synch one single movie.

    I can write the transscript for a movie down in less than twice the playtime. I'd like to be able to synch a sub from scratch in say, no more than three times the playtime. How about a software that shows the three most upcoming subs along with the actual movie where I simply press Space to insert the upcoming sub... or something like that?

    I've been looking like crazy but never found anything making synchronizing that easy.
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    Synchronizing subtitles sucks! That's why they have to pay people to do it. In the USA, we've never had a good release of Jet Li's old movie "Fist Of Legend". The best DVD here has a horrible English dub and is severely edited, but the quality of the video is very good. There are foreign DVDs with very good video and no edits, but no English subtitles. I was given a copy of a French DVD release of the film which is not edited and excellent quality, but it is PAL. The English subtitles on it are the worst I've ever seen on a Chinese language movie. They don't make sense in a lot of places. I have a copy of the correct English subtitles, so I used various subtitle programs to try to sync up the English subs with the movie and nothing worked. I tried to replace some other subs with the English subs, but there were still synchronization problems. One of the problems was that the French subtitles would translate something into one sentence but the English subs would actually require 2 different subtitle frames for the same scene because they translated it into 3 or 4 sentences. It was a night mare, but after spending hours, I finally got the same number of English subs as French subs. I watched the movie and about 45 minutes into it, it went horribly out of sync. So bad that it would take many hours if not days of work to get them back in sync. I have the film unedited on VCD and while I would love a good DVD of it with proper English subs, I decided to give up because I'm not getting paid for trying to synchronize the subs and it wasn't worth the effort.

    I have an old Russian movie that I really wanted to see, but there are no English subs anywhere for it. I took the Russian subs and I painfully translated them myself into English and rebuilt the DVD and watched it. I can't translate from Russian into English quickly, so I'm always having to refer to dictionaries for various words. It took so long to do this film that I have never bothered with the sequel to it. I just can't find the motivation to spend many hours translating subs into English just to watch the film probably only once.

    Subtitle work sucks! I agree with you that I've never found anything that makes it easy. Even the various programs, like Subtitle Workshop. that supposedly make it easy, don't really work all that well. Well, at least they didn't for me.
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  14. Member AlanHK's Avatar
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    There are groups that do "fansubs" for anime.

    They're the ones who motivate most of the refinements to subtitling tools these days, like teh extensive formatting in ASS, and developing Aegisub.

    If you check out this section of Animesuki you'll find practical advice on creating your own subs.
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    I click the Animesuki link, expecting to find a sticky thread with a guide or something the like for aiding me in creating subtitles from scratch, but I can't find any such thing.
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  16. The root of all evil träskmannen's Avatar
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    KOJV, take a look at VisualSubSync, it is a great tool for synchronizing subtitles (or for creating them from scratch). It is still a lot of manual work, you will have that no matter what tool you choose. If you are going to start from scratch you might be interested in this link. It is in Swedish but I guess that isn't any problem for you.
    In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
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    träskmannen, thanks for your tips, but...

    VisualSubSync seem like a nice program, with configurable start/stop buttons and the whole wave-viewer thing, but I don't understand how to write my subs in it. If I just write line on line with Enters, it wants to put all my lines into the movie at once. How can I make it understand I want each line to view at a time, not all at once?
    In Swedish;
    Om jag skriver in alla repliker i en film så kluttar den in allihop på en gång när jag startar i Timing-läget, istället för att låta mig lägga in en rad i taget.

    About the link to divxsweden, that's pretty useless to me; they recommend using Subtitle Workshop and stealing the synch from a foreign subtitle. If you have an English subtitle and wish to just translate to Swedish, why use anything but Notepad? Nah. I wanna learn how to create subs from scratch most of all, and like I begun this thread I wanna know how to rip subs from a DVD into .srt format so I can use it for an AVI rip of the DVD.

    Thanks anyhow.
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  18. Mod Neophyte Super Moderator redwudz's Avatar
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    This would be better in our Subtitle Forum. Moving it.
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  19. Member AlanHK's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by KOJV
    I click the Animesuki link, expecting to find a sticky thread with a guide or something the like for aiding me in creating subtitles from scratch, but I can't find any such thing.
    It's a forum. Look around, use "search", ask questions.
    A few minutes turns up topics like:

    http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?&t=8030
    How to do a proper timing?

    http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=573
    Timing Guide

    http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?&t=36233
    Creating Fansubs - Questions and Answers

    http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?&t=29598
    Most stable timing program

    And after reading a few posts, you find links like
    http://fansubbers.org/index.php/KB/TheArtOfTiming
    Also links to useful software
    http://fansubbers.org/index.php/Main/SoftwareArchive
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  20. The root of all evil träskmannen's Avatar
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    I haven't used VisualSubSync recently so I don't quite remember how it works, and I don't have it installed here either so I cannot try it and see but there are tutorials available. The second link was more for info about the subs themselves. Timings, length, language tips... those kind of things.
    In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
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  21. Member
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    Originally Posted by AlanHK
    It's a forum. Look around, use "search", ask questions.
    So obviously nobody there wrote a guide good enough to make sticky.

    Okay, so SSA seem to be the way to go...

    Looking good up until The Fourth Step.

    Is this guy serious? If I'm gonna sit around changing such advanced timing properties manually in Notepad, I might as well write a basic SRT from scratch - in Notepad. I did that with a 105 minute movie once. I got sick and tired of the slave work after three weeks, giving up as I had translated and synchronized about 35 minutes of it.

    http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?&t=36233
    Creating Fansubs - Questions and Answers
    Stupid thread with stupid people arguing about what the asker really wants to do.

    Same people arguing about which program is the best. Seems there are major problems with all of them, so this thread just makes me confused.

    And after reading a few posts, you find links like
    http://fansubbers.org/index.php/KB/TheArtOfTiming
    They begin with telling all the softwares have bugs or problems with this or that. Great deal.

    Thanks, but all the previous links made me completely confused over which program to choose.
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  22. Member AlanHK's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by KOJV
    Thanks, but all the previous links made me completely confused over which program to choose.
    Use Notebook then.
    I'm sorry there isn't a simple, free, perfect solution.
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    Yeah, well, thank you a lot anyway, AlanHK. Someone with more patience than me might find the links very useful.

    VisualSubSync seems to work really good though, if only I could figure out how to make it add each line from the script as a single subtitle, now it's just adding everything at once that I wrote in the input box.
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  24. "Use Notebook then."

    Yep. You can open SRT files with notepad & do what you want.
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  25. Member
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    handyguy, the original question was, how do I make .srt's from the DVD subtitles?
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  26. Originally Posted by KOJV
    ...the original question was, how do I make .srt's from the DVD subtitles?
    Originally Posted by manono
    If you want text-based subs, like SRT, SSA, and the like, then OCR the IFO/VOBs using SubRip.
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    Thank you manono, I didn't quite get that part since it was embedded in a longer post.
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  28. Yes, SubRip should do it. Remember to use the character matrix file that they provide. Otherwise it takes a lot longer.
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