Looking for a better way to create subtitles from hard-coded movies

[moviebuff2]

Hi everyone:

I have a VHS copy a foreign movie. The VHS copy has the English subtitle and it is full screen.

Recently, I bought the re-released DVD copy (a legitimate widescreen version); but unfortunately, it has no subtitle. I searched EBay and found pirate copies, but with Spanish & Portuguese subtitles only, no English.

So I transfered my VHS copy to DVD.

I used SmartRipper to rip my entire VHS-transfered DVD to a vob file. Then I used VideoRedo to re-encode the vob in MPEG. I had to do that because my Subtitle Workshop cannot decode AC3 (trust me, I already tried to play the vob file with Subtitle Workshop and got no sound).

Next, I loaded the MPEG file into Subtitle Workshop. The file played just fine and I started "new subtitle" then played the movie. I paused the movie to "insert subtitle" each time a line of subtitle appeared on the screen.

The whole process is pretty labor intensive and time consuming. Is there any better way to create subtitles from a hard-coded version?

I feel that I'm perhaps asking for the impossible. But who knows?

Thanks

[mats.hogberg]

SubRip can (try to) OCR subtitles out of a hard subbed AVI to .srt, so that route may work.
Chances are tho, that the VHS version and DVD version differ in parts (different cuts) so you'll end up with a subtitle file that doesn't fit your DVD version anyway.

/Mats

[moviebuff2]

Thanks, Mat. I'll give it a try. The timing difference between the VHS and the DVD should be taken care of by Subtitle Workshop's Edit. All I need to fix the difference is the times of the first line and the last line.

[mats.hogberg]

All I need to fix the difference is the times of the first line and the last line.

Unless there are scenes added/deleted/cut differently between the 2 versions...

/Mats

[moviebuff2]

Hi Mat:

I just succeeded in creating the first line. Wow, the technology of recognizing words by their font color is amazing.

Thank you for your help.