AVStoDVD almost always aborts at Subtitle stage. Help please?

[martinlest]

I would give up trying to add subtitles to movies and so on, but my mother is deaf and can't watch a film without them. So I hope someone can help.

AVStoDVD encodes video and audio and then usually aborts when it gets to subtitles. These are mostly .srt format downloaded from the internet. I check the subtitles before starting AVStoDVD in the following ways:

1. I run them through the checker at http://www.subfixer.com/# and save the file it produces.
2. I check this using 'CheckSubtitles' - I have run the regsvr32 /c cscmDLL.dll script. I assume everyone knows this little tool? It tells me the srt is fine. If I introduce a small error somewhere in the srt text, as a test, the programme always picks it up.
3. I also have a short script which converts the srt to ANSI format, and I can also run this (is this always necessary? I use EditPad Lite for text files BTW. What encoding should I see there for srt files?):

@ECHO OFF
echo UniCode to ANSI converter for .SRT subtitle files
echo Move .SRT file to QuickLaunch/Media Tools folder
echo Continuing will fix the file (convert to ANSI)
Pause
md ~ANSI
for %%a in (*.srt *.?srt?) do type "%%a">"~ANSI\%%a"
for %%a in (*.srt *.?srt?) do attrib -r -h -s "%%a"
cd ~ANSI
for %%a in (*.srt *.?srt?) do move /y "%%a" ..
cd..
rd ~ANSI
echo Finished
Pause

...but even after all these precautions, AVStoDVD aborts as it starts the subtitles. Sometimes it has taken several hours for the video and audio encoding to complete, so this is driving me mad. Can anyone help please? I attach an srt which has just been found wanting.

Thanks!

Martin

[_MrC_]

@martinlest

next AVStoDVD release (the alpha is almost ready) will have several improvements about subtitles handling and fixing.

Meanwhile I suggest you to open the SRT file in ANSI format with SubtitleCreator (it comes with AVStoDVD package), verify if there are errors, save the file as SUP and then import the resulting SUP in AVStoDVD.



Bye

[martinlest]

Will upgrade as soon as the new version is released of course ...

I do use SubtitleCreator sometimes, but was never sure how to check a file using it. There is no 'verify' option, right? The programme checks as you open the file and any errors appear automatically?

At least that's what I am assuming. But I still don't understand: when I open an srt file I often get the warning in the column header as shown in the screenshot. I don't see what that means I'm afraid. What is too short? The total length corresponds to the length of the film itself ... In any case, if I then close SubtitleCreatorand re-open it, it automatically loads the same srt file again, but that warning no longer appears. What has happened in the interim? Did SubtitleCreator do something to fix whatever it was warning about?

In any case, I have saved the subtitles as SUP from SubtitleCreator, as you suggested, and am running AVStoDVD again. Third time lucky. Or it may be fourth by now..

Martin


LATER: For now, converting to SUP as you suggested, worked and I finally have my VOB sets!

[raxou]

Hello,

I could not open .srt file (downloaded files) with SubtitleCreator (message complaining that the text encoding format was not supported...).
I used Subtitle Edit and I had no problem to open it and edit it.
It has been accepted by AVStoDVD also.

I just had another problem, that I will put in another thread:
I inserted 2 subtitle tracks: ES and FR, when I play the DVD with the DVD player, both are in spanish...

[_MrC_]

I could not open .srt file (downloaded files) with SubtitleCreator (message complaining that the text encoding format was not supported...).

SC accepts only srt in ANSI format. Very likely your srt is in UTF format. Open it with Notepad and save it using ANSI.



Bye