Correct SSA/ASS subtitles with Format Factory

[Budman1]

Had occasion to assist with subtitles on Format Factory and thought I'd pass the information on. If anyne finds problems or errors in the instructions please let me know so I can correct.

1. .Ok, to use Format factory, first download and install it of course from https://www.videohelp.com/tools/Format-Factory.

2. Then, since AVISynth will used to trick Format Factory into encoding properly, download AVISynth from here https://www.videohelp.com/tools/Avisynth and it will install to its own directory.

3. You will need Directvobsub to allow you to specify the subtitle file in AVISynth so download Directvobsub from here https://www.videohelp.com/tools/VSFilter-DirectVobSub and install. It installs to a folder usually called programsx86\DirectVobSub.

4. Inside the DirectVobSubfolder you will find a file called VSFilter.dll. This is the DLL for subtitles. Copy and paste it inside the AVISynth\pluginsfolder if there is not one there already.

(This can also be renamed VSFilter.VDF and placed in your VirtualDub\plugins32 folder. The new VirtualDub 1.10. xx has the plugins folder removed where it used to go and every plugin or filter seems to go inthe plugins32 folder now. In addition, most of the common filters placed in the original plugins folder are now shownas internal.)

IMPORTANT: Make sure your video plays with Windows Mediaplayer. The same directshow codecs usedfor Media Player will be used to decompress(decode) your video. To test, TEMPORARILY, rename your video and ssa file the same (e.g. video.MKV and video.ssa), put them in same folder and play with Media Player. DirectVobSub will pick up the subs and display as the video plays. If something needs adjusted, edit SSA file with notepad , save, hit stop on player and replay video. Be sure to rename differently when finished as noted in the IMPORTANT message below.

Once this is all done, create a small text file called <something>.AVS. The AVS extension is used to call AVISynth to do the decoding of your video with your Directshow codecs. Inside the file type:

Directshowsource(“<path to video>\<video name>“) e.g. (“C:\user\Bud\Desktop\MyVideo.MKV”)
textsub((“<path to subtitle file>\<subtitle name>“) e.g. (“C:\user\Bud\Desktop\mysubtitles.SSA”)

Directshowsource is an internal filter in AVISynth and textsub is a filter from the VSFilter.dll file inplugins folder.

IMPORTANT: Make sure for Format Factory, Your subtitles, video, and AVS file all have different names or else Format Factory will automatically pick up subtitles and convert how IT wants which is one size fits all and large white letters.

Save the text file with an AVS extension (e.g. MySynth.AVS) and now just drag this file to Format Factory as if it were a video. To preview, right click the file in Format Factory and select Options. It should open a window and begin to preview/play with subtitles shown. If you happen to find the line under settings for additional subtitles, do NOT enter your subtitles there or again you’ll get both Large white and custom subtitles overlaying each other.

Pick your settings for the quality, bitrate, etc you want. There are others on the forum more qualified than I am here since I do not use Format Factory as often as others. Click Start and wait for it to convert.

Happy subtitles.
Budman1

[begna112]

the I'm not able to play it in windows media player :\ even after installing all of the programs you listed. could it be because I am on windows 7 and have WMP 12 not 11?

[begna112]

also, what if the ass/ssa subtitles are included in the mkv and are not a separate file?

[AlanHK]

also, what if the ass/ssa subtitles are included in the mkv and are not a separate file?

Extract with MKVExtractGUI2.

[Budman1]

If Media Player does not play the MKV file then you are probably missing the directshow filter to play the format. Use MediaInfo and find out what the audio and video codecs used to compress it are. Generally MKV are compressed with AVC and will need a directshow decompressor installed in order to play with Media Player. You have a MKV video with subtitles included that you wish to convert to another format with hard-coded subs in them, correct?

If this is the case you can do it with MKVExtractGUI2 (toolnix) combination as AlanHK mentioned earlier here and create an MKV file and an MKS subtitle file which Aegisub will turn into a beautiful ASS/SSA file. You can use these with Format factory but only if you have a DirectShow filter to frame serve it because Format Factory only retains the original SSA/ASS formatting this way.
You will need the correct Directshow filter both to play the MKV in Media Player and to use to serve to Format Factory.
I tested this procedure and it took about 6 minutes to convert an MKV video, start to finish with all the software installed.

MKVMergeGui (Gui Front end for toolnix)
Toolnix
Correct Codecs!!! (Mine is LAV codec to play MKV file in Media Player)
Directvobsub (Preview with Media Player)
Media Player 12 (Preview viewer)
Avisynth (Frame serve the files to Format Factory)
Format Factory (Conversion Program)
Aegisub

Thanks
Budman1