DVD or AVI -> to MP4 with selectable subtitles

[radium02]

Hello there.

I will make my problem as brief as possible without neglecting to include information that you may need to help me find a solution to my problem.

I am using SimpleDivx to convert DVDs to AVI. I use the VobSub option to extract my subtitles so that I can have the ability to turn them on or off when needed. Since SimpleDivx won't allow me choose MP4 as a container, I choose AVI (or MKV). But what I want is to have just ONE file (Movie + subtitles) and I know that MP4 does this.

I used YAMB to take the AVIs that crap out of SimpleDivx and package everything into an MP4, but I get an error when the program starts to encode (MP4box.exe has encountered...). Why I'm getting the error, I have no idea!

I use the XVID codec, and I like my movies to be cropped so that I do not get a black border. I generally make them around ~700MB with MP3 audio @ 128kbits.

My question(s):

-Is there a program that can convert DVDs to MP4 with the option of selectable subtitles (I don't want to "burn in" the subtitles, ie make them permanent)? I don't need to decrypt DVDs. When I use Nero Recode2, the files are larger than what I want, and if I make them around 700MB, the quality sucks. I am hoping for a program is like SimpleDivx.

-Is there another program that can take the AVIs that I get from SimpleDivx and then combine them into MP4...since YAMB isn't working?

Thanks for your help in advance, and if you need any more information from me, I will be happy to provide it!

[Baldrick]

What version of yamb? Maybe try the old v1.6.

I think that fairuse wizard can convert to mp4 directly. Try it.

[radium02]

Fairuse Wizard is a good program, but I don't like the fact that it caches the DVD before it converts it...that waste some time. If I was doing some batch encoding, it may help.

The old version of YAMB gives me the same error. I don't think it's YAMB thats causing the problem though. I encoded a movie with subtitles that someone else made using a different program and YAMB was able to package those two in a MP4 container. When I encode DVDs using SimpleDivx...that's when I get the problem.

[RabidDog]

But what I want is to have just ONE file (Movie + subtitles)

MP4 with the option of selectable subtitles (I don't want to "burn in" the subtitles, ie make them permanent)?

To my understanding those two things are at odds with each other?
To be selectable the subtitles must be in a separate file, of whatever type srt,sub etc,etc.
I am no great shakes at subtitles, I even get the forced and optional parts wrong sometimes.. I really should learn more actually, apocalyptically even? 8)

[radium02]

I made an MP4 once and the subtitles were selectable in that file. It was something that someone else had encoded.

IN ADDITION to the questions I proposed above...
How come the MP4 container option in SimpleDivx is greyed out?