Rip hard-coded subs from avi - VirtualDub filter and SubRip problems

[jujuandhuhu]

Hi,

I'm trying to rip hard-coded subs from an avi file. The subs are white and with a black outline.
My primary goal is to get the timing of the subs, and if I can, run them through ocr.
I tired doing this using several programs:

->I tried ripping them with SubRip, but it's useless, it just doesn't recognize them.

->I tried AviSubDetector, but when I open the file nothing happens, it can't process it. I tried another file and there was no problem.
Any ideas why AviSubDetector won't open my avi file?

->I tried PodPis filter for VirtualDub and it works great. It creates a .idx and a .sub file, and their size grow during the process, but once the process stops, their sizes return to 0 KB, and they are useless. If I copy them during the process and open them with SubResync, nothing happens.
Any ideas how to solve this problem? (this would help me the most!)

->Finally, I tried SubLog filter for VirtualDub, it's not as nearly as good as PodPis, but it's ok. When I open the bitmaps crated by VirtualDub in SubRip, it seems to skip some subtitles, and I get only random bitmaps, so I can't put in the text for all of them and get a .srt file
Any ideas why this happens, and how to fix it?


Any help with, and of this problems would be really appreciated, I wouldn't like to have to write the subs and sync them with the movie myself



Thanks

[aedipuss]

ummm.... you did say they are hard coded right? as in they are part of the video and can't be removed.....

[jagabo]

If the subs are brighter than the the picture you could try running the video through a huge brightness/contrast filter (try Gradation Curves) to see if you can get everything black except the subtitle text. And crop away parts of the frame where you know there won't be any subs.

[Squash]

I see you've already tried subrip, but have you looked at ai4spam's guide? I used that a couple of years ago and was able to get subrip to do it, though it was a pain. If you haven't seen it, it's here:
http://zuggy.wz.cz/redir.php?co=101

If you tried it using that guide, I'm out of suggestions. I've never tried the other methods you mentioned.

Sounds like jagabo's suggestion might have helped me out when I ripped hardsubs. I had a lot of contamination of the subs from backgound whitish shades which made OCR difficult. But subrip allows some adjustments for that and also analyzes the subs over several frames so that if the background is changing then the subs are more accurately detected.

But the timings were fine, and that's what you want.

[jujuandhuhu]

@jagabo: Unfortunately the subs aren't any brighter that the picture, so I don't get any useful results, thanks though.
@Squash: Thanks, this guide is really useful, and I'm using it right now. Unfortunately I'm only able to get the timings and put the text in manually, so it's really a lot of work . I really wish I could get PodPis filter working, it's way better than any other solution...