Rip DVD including subtitles using vlc

[skeptic_always]

If this is covered somewhere, please direct me. I've been searching, and experimenting for a few days and just can't get it to work. It's possible my brain was mush and just missed the solution. It sounds like such an easy thing....

I need to (re)rip my DVD collection to disk for use in a media center (MythTV). I have decided that space is not as important as quality, so my preference is just a straight rip, no transcoding to other formats. Unfortunately I'm running up against two issues. First, I have a number of DVDs in which I have only been able to get to rip using vlc (vlc dvd:/dev/dvd@$TITLE --sout "#standard{access=file,mux=ps,dst=$INFILE}). Second, I have a number of DVDs that have forced subtitles that are not included in the vlc rip.

Da Vinci Code is the perfect example, I have not been able to rip this with anything other than vlc, but I have not figured out a way for vlc to include forced subtitles (subtitles only when someone speaks non-English). In fact, I have not figured out how to get vlc to rip subtitles at all. Mplayer can play Da Vinci Code on DVD, I can get mencoder to correctly pull the subtitles for another movie (Kill Bill), but mencoder hangs at just under 70 seconds on Da Vinci or that would be a workable solution.

I don't have a windows box to use, so if at all possible I need a Linux only solution.

[skeptic_always]

Over 70 views and not a single reply. Are others looking for the answer as well, or just curiousity?

Here is what I've been able to get sorta working so far....

vlc dvd:/dev/dvd@$TITLE --sub-language En --sub-track=0 --sout \ 
"#standard{access=file,mux=ps,dst=$OUTFILE}"

mplayer -sid 0 $OUTFILE

     -  OR  -

mplayer -sid 0 -forcedsubsonly $OUTFILE

Part of the trouble has been actually getting the player to show the subtitles, so I may have captured them in previous tests but didn't realize it. VLC does a bad job with video created from the Kill Bill DVD (my main test movie so far), in that the option to select the subtitle doesn't even show up unless you are in a spot where forced subtitles would show up (noticed it by accident). Basically, with vlc you have to manually turn the subtitles on at every point where forced subtitles are in the original. Also, in the rip the language ID seems to be lost, but by experimenting I found that forcing mplayer to play sid 0 got it working to a point...

For Kill Bill vol 1, this grabs the Forced Subtitles only, but doesn't appear to save them AS forced subtitles. Playing with forced subtitles only results in no subtitles at all, but playing with subtitles on plays what I want to see onscreen.

On the other hand, using the same command to rip DaVinci Code results in a file with proper English subtitles. Subtitles on, gets alll subtitles. Playing with Forced subtitles only turned on gets me the forced subtitles.

You are probably thinking, so what, that's close enough, just go with it and turn on/off subtitles as needed per movie... Well, if it were just me I might, but I'm building a Media center and the GAF (girlfriend acceptance factor) as well as my boys (4 and 8 ) sorta require a more seamless approach. Plus, I just don't give up easy when I think something SHOULD work a certain way. When you pop a DVD in a standalone player you get the correct stuff on screen, so there must be some programatic way even if it requires pulling some info from the DVD that I can use to rip it one way or another similar to how I have to pick the title number. I have about 300 movies to rip and I don't know for sure which have forced subs and which don't, so experimenting, test rips, watching the results, etc. for each and every movie I want to rip really isn't an option.

[skeptic_always]

quick update - a little googling specifically for Kill Bill has uncovered something inconvenient. Apparently there are at least two kinds of "forced subtitles" in DVDs. The Kill Bill style in which there is a track that contains only the non-english parts and a flag that tells the DVD player to turn on that subtitle. In the Da Vinci code style, there are subtitles for everything, but only certain parts are flagged as forced. Bah, that sucks. It does explain what I'm seeing though, why I have to turn off "forced subtitles only" to get them to show in Kill Bill.

Any ideas for this one?

[isubtitles]

I just stumbled over this post in the search for an answer on exactly this question. I see there have been 4 years since the last post, so I wonder if you have found the answer.

Regards.

PS. Sorry for my bad english

[jman98]

There are these magical things called rippers that - shock! stun! disbelief! - actually rip DVDs. VLC is not a ripper. If you want to go down this path of idiocy of trying to get a video player to be a ripper, you're on your own. Free rippers include DVD Decrypter (NOT updated in years and thus may not work with some newer types of copy protection) and some free version of DVDFab.

Don't dig up old posts to add to them. Just make a new post.

"Sorry for my bad english"? Not funny.

[DanaBThomas]

I just came across this thread because I'm having a similar problem. I ended up finding a free ripper called "Freemake". It's freeware and it will let you rip a DVD to multiple formats and keep the subtitles. I haven't tested it for forced subtitles, but it works great for normal subtitles. I haven't ever seen this feature in other ripping tools, so I thought I'd share. Crazy easy interface too. I'm not affiliated with them in anyway, so I'm not going to link to them, but you can google it if you're interested.

[Hoser Rob]

Haven't tried this under linux but my first impulse would be to try dvdfab hd decrypter in virtualbox or wine.

[petesimon]

haha this is all funny

[Selur]

Nowadays MakeMKVs Linux version is normally my recommendation,...

[courtrrb]

Let's see to rip DVD's I can name at least 2

Acidrip you can have it rip without encoding
K9Copy also you can have it rip without encoding.
K3b you can have it create a ISO of your DVD that VLC can play. (This is what I've been doing for my media player)

[Anjin1970]

Actually on the off chance the asker was wondering, I had been using Handbrake, but lately have been having issues with it not wanting to add subtitles anymore. Prior to the past couple days though it had been working like a champ?
Oh and jman98 ? For a site called "VideoHelp" you were absolutely less than helpful. Seriously? Overly critical much? Get over yourself idiot.