Problem burning subtitles and movie to DVD with Toast

[rumplestiltskin]

Once you're ready to export from Submerge, choose File > Export, then select "QuickTime Movie" from the "Export:" popup menu, then click the "Setup" button. In the "Movie Settings" dialog that then appears, click the "Settings" button. Another dialog will appear named "Standard Video Compression Settings". From the "Compression Type:" popup menu, select "Apple Intermediate Codec".

[bigsmilesf]

Thank you, Rumplestiltskin! I just did a test encoding with the subtitles and and then an encoding in Toast and found the video quality (after the Toast encoding) to be degraded. Is there anything I could have done to avoid that? Thanks!

[rumplestiltskin]

Toast's encoding prowess is pretty bad. If you try something like MPEG2Works http://www.mpeg2works.com/ then you might find a better result. The app also does the authoring and even makes the image file ready for Toast (which then just burns the disc image back to a disc).

As I've mentioned earlier, I don't do DVD nor BR as it's just an added expense and complication.

Others might have add'l opinions. We'll see.

[bigsmilesf]

Thanks so much, Rumplestiltskin! I'll check it out.

[GlennCarmichael]

Hi
Just to say I came across this thread when googling for help with adding subtitles when burning a Toast DVD. I had tried burning a foreign film which was a .avi. The subtitle file (.srt) was in the same folder and called exactly the same name, but Toast would not let me place the .srt file in the burn window. I tried, using Perian, to make a .mov file with the subtitles embedded, but when I burnt that in Toast it came out with no subtitles...
So I used Roxio Popcorn, and whether burning from the .avi with the .srt in the same folder, or burning the quicktime .mov with the subtitles embedded, it worked!
Hope this helps

[greg97]

Rumplestiltskin, you are the man!!!!!!!! After searching for weeks and trying out every program, this simple little program called Submerge saved the day! I too was in the same boat of trying to put in subtitles and then burn to a dvd using toast. Following your instructions it finally worked! I do have a couple of questions tho. Is Handbrake any better at encoding movies than Submerge. I mean, you have us use the Apple Intermediate Codec and I was just wondering why this is the best option to use? (just curious, out of all the formats out there lol). I have not tried it out yet but I assume that the subtitle option in Handbrake should also now work as long as the .srt file is named differently as the movie? Also I did encounter one slight problem. Once I finally got my dvd burned using Toast and put it into my dvd player, I was surprised to notice that the audio was now in just L/R, when the original file was in DD 5.1? I thought that Toast would just pass thru the audio as I did select 'Dolby Digital' (as opposed to PCM) from the audio options. Is there a way of burning the original 5.1 soundtrack somehow?

Thanks again...I'm so glad I found this site......you are a great help!!!!!

[rumplestiltskin]

Wow! Really old thread.

I recommended using AIC instead of (for example) MP4 as AIC does minimal compression. Remember, Submerge -is- doing compression of -some- sort when it burns the subtitles into the video. You can only choose how much (or how little) compression it should apply. You're then asking Toast to do MPEG2 compression when it does the conversion and authoring for DVD. The AIC compression has a negligible effect on the original video when you add the subtitles. I am not sure about the capabilities of QuickTime audio; it is possible that the "stereo" conversion occurred in Submerge.

Another possibility might be to use MP4Tools which can work with MKV and MP4 files and can pass-through the audio. If the end result is to be a DVD, then I'd try MP4Tools, pass-through the video, pass-through the audio, and burn (not mux) in the subtitles with that app (all in one go). Then you'd have a .mp4 or .m4v file with the subs burned in and with no add'l compression. Drop that file into Toast and see what happens.

Please post your results. Thanks.

[rumplestiltskin]

Regarding Handbrake - I only use that to RIP DVDs (which I almost never use any more). I found Handbrake to occasionally have difficulties with MP3 source audio. MP4Tools works best for me now. It's free but, if you register, you may queue up a batch of files to convert rather than having to wait for a conversion to finish before adding another. I regularly use it to convert MKV into MP4 so they play on my iDevices (as well as my WDTV player). Of note is how well MP4Tools converts the video (instead of pass-through); I don't see any difference between the source and destination file in video quality. Nice app; responsive developer. Worth the reg fee.

[greg97]

Thanks for the speedy reply! I haven't had a chance to check out MP4Tools yet, but I will give it a try and report back on quality. However, back to my original issue, the problem definitely lies with Toast, since once I dropped my video in to be burnt, it gives info on the source file, and it definitely said it was AppleLossless 5.1. I've used Toast in the past but only to burn videos that were already in the Audio/Video_TS format, and that always passes thru everything without any changes. Any suggestions? Thanks so much!

Update: I've been trying to convert another foreign film, this time with MKVTools. However a problem arises in that whenever I hit convert, it takes less than a minute to get to 95% done, then sits there for a lonnnng time. So basically it doesn't seem to finish what its doing, so I cancelled out of the program and went to the file it created. It was all there with sub encoded in it....strange! The other thing I find annoying is that it doesn't seem to let you control the fast forward/reverse or anything else other than video size when you want to preview the movie before conversion. Also it doesn't show the size of subtitle that you've picked, so I just went with the default - what setting for font, size, etc do you generally use?
Besides these issues, I do have a number of general questions. As these films are in the PAL format (25 fps), what is the 'correct' frame rate I should convert to. The first one I tried before with Submerge seemed to look fine when I used 29.97 fps, which is supposed to be what dvd video is supposed to be at (?), but I've also read that dvd film is supposed to be 23.976 fps. So when converting from PAL to NTSC, which is 'best' one to pick?
Also, so far both of these movies have been in the MKV/H264 format, so which is the better way to go in so far as encoding goes. I believe you said that Toasts encoders are not very good, so in these cases, should I stick with converting to AIC using Submerge and then back again with Toast, or just use the 'pass thru' with MKVTools and then put it into Toast? Btw, using Submerge the first time resulted in a .mov that was about 20GB (from an original 2GB) and took about 8hrs overnight to do. Any thoughts? Thanks again

[rumplestiltskin]

Hmmm...a lot of questions. I'll answer what I (think I) know.

Short conversion time - what is the format of the source video? What are the settings you've selected?
Subtitles - You'll have to play with it and see what the various sizes do.
PAL vs NTSC - DVD is whatever frame-rate is necessary for the TV you have (usually PAL for Europe and NTSC in the US) although 23.976 is true "film" and works well. If you have 25fps source material, I'd think you should be able to leave it. Fooling with the framerates doesn't always give good results in Toast. Hopefully, others will chime in with better tools for this although altering the framerate might not even be necessary. As I don't output to DVD (using a WDTV player exclusively now), I don't have good advice for Toast.

[rumplestiltskin]

Just did a check and, sure enough, you'll have to re-encode the video with MP4Tools in order to embed (burn) the subtitles.