Extracting subs from MKV for iPod

[nj473]

Hi,

I have successfully added soft subtitles to an iPod Classic, iPod Touch and iPhone using MP4Box. (Firstly converting the .srt file to .ttxt in order to then integrate the soft sub file into the .m4v (iPod mp4) itself.

The problem I face now is extracting subs from MKV files in order to eventually process them into the m4v file.

I have used mkvextract.exe to extract a subtitle track from the mkv into a .srt file successfully. However, when I then try to convert .srt file to a .ttxt file (for adding to the iPod), I receive what I think to be an incompatibility error, that I can’t convert that specific .srt to .ttxt, and I do not know why.

Can someone please help me on this subject?

I have an idea why, because the .srt file I manage to extract looks different to others that I have seen. A typical .srt file I have encountered looks like this:

1
00:00:21,576 --> 00:00:24,773
Blah blah blah…

2
00:00:32,988 --> 00:00:35,914
Blah blah blah…

3
00:00:35,919 --> 00:00:37,919
Blah blah blah…





But the .srt file I extracted from the mkv looks like this:

[Script Info]
; Script generated by Aegisub v1.10
; http://www.aegisub.net
Title: Default Aegisub file
ScriptType: v4.00+
PlayResX: 640
PlayResY: 480
Last Style Storage: Default
Video Aspect Ratio: 0
Video Zoom: 6
Video Position: 0

[V4+ Styles]
Format: Name, Fontname, Fontsize, PrimaryColour, SecondaryColour, OutlineColour, BackColour, Bold, Italic, Underline, StrikeOut, ScaleX, ScaleY, Spacing, Angle, BorderStyle, Outline, Shadow, Alignment, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Encoding
Style: Default,Cronos Pro Light,36,&H00FFFFFF,&H0000FFFF,&H00000000,&H000000 00,-1,0,0,0,100,100,0,0,1,2,2,2,10,10,10,0

[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.50,0:00:05.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,, Blah blah blah
Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.50,0:00:05.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,, Blah blah
Dialogue: 0,0:00:42.98,0:00:49.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,, blah blah





(The bottom example is the one that would not convert from .srt to .ttxt)

I know this seems like a lengthy post to read but any help is much appreciated.

Thanks.

[Baldrick]

The last file is a ssa/ass subtitle file. Convert it to srt with subtitle workshop.

[nj473]

Hey thanks for the reply =) and i greatly appreciate your help on the link. But could i ask how you could so easily identify what type of subtitle file was? You've probably guessed im kinda new to subtitles so thats why im asking what may seem a dumb question lol. And also, do you know any way that i can get around this problem by using just command line based tools? Without a GUI?

Thanks

[Baldrick]

Aegisub default sub is ssa/ass.

Nope, I don't know any command line subtitle converters.

[nj473]

Ahh right ok, thanks a bunch Baldrick, its sorted out my problem =)