Burning in Hard-Coded Subtitles - Which software? Which workflow?

[drparallax]

Hello Folks,
I am going through my old films and currently trying to create subtitles and hardcode them on video so that I can upload them to Vimeo. I am running into so many problems, and I think it is because I am not using the right tools or the right workflows, and could use some advice for the right workflow/tool. I have played with ffmpegx, Jubler, Belle Nuit Subtitler, Handbrake, Subler, Submerge, and Subs Factory (Because I'm doing this for the first time, and want to find the best/easiest workflow) and I am having problems with everything (amazing huh?. I am sure this is due to my ignorance, as much as anything else, but I wanted to see what people's experience are. I am working on a Mac.

So my objective is to take all my videos (I have some in HD and some in SD) and convert them to the Vimeo recommended format, and then hardcode the subtitles (is this wrong? is there one way to do both at the same time?

So what I did so far.

Step 1 - I used Handbrake to compress the nearly 4GB file with Vimeo's standards into a 720p HD file. It made a file about 400 MB big. All well and good because I have as of yet no PRO account on Vimeo.

Step 2 - I already have an .srt file in hand, which I had made at some point (I think with Subtitle Edit on a few years ago). So I want to hard code this on the video, and so far have been stumped as to the best way to do this.

The programs I have tried so far:

Submerge - Okay this is the wrong tool. Only good for muxing subs into Mp4s, and no help for hard coding (right?)

ffmpgex - I wanted to try this, but when I open the already converted MP4 file, the option for burning in subs is greyed out. From reading around, it seems like you can only hardburn subs in Avi files. (right?)

Handbrake - Apparently I cannot hardcode subs from an .srt file, so this won't work.

Submerge - Okay this one worked, but with terrible results. It took my 400 MB file, added subs and made it into a 3 GB file. yay. Not seeing any pass-through options I selected the same setting as my original video file, and I got this bloated useless monster. Delete.

Belle Nuit Subtitler I haven't tried this one yet, although apparently I can output an Avid EDL, export Tiffs and then go through Avid to import them on my timeline (although I don't know yet how to do this). This seems like a lot of work, and I prefer to go around the Avid if I have other options.

Sooo what is the best way for me to go from here?
1. Is there some way (like with Compressor) to simultaneously compress and hardburn the subtitles? Is this a better way?
2. Would going through the Avid be giving me the best results?
3. Is there any way for me to make a file (i.e. with Belle Nuit) that either Handbrake or ffmpgex can us to hardcode the subtitle?

I am lost in the many programs and options, and would appreciate any advice for workflow.

[Hikmet]

Best way draw subtitle on video and save lossless video codec. After that, watch result, if everything OK, then compress video.

[drparallax]

You mean put it on the timeline in Avid or FCP and output that as a Video file?

[Hikmet]

Yes, first render subtitle over video, after that compress. Because this way more fast... Compress operation is slow and if error occur, wasted your time.

[Baldrick]

Can't you open the 4gb source file directly in submerge? Don't use the heavily compressed 400mb file. Convert to h264 720p.

[deadmeow]

Xvid4psp will do the job. You can manually add the *.srt to the encode, or if the .srt file has the same name as the video file, and is in the same folder as the same-named video file, Xvid4psp will automatically add the srt (to the hard encode).

[jman98]

I am working on a Mac.

You screwed up. You think that your post should have been in the Subtitle section of the forums, but once you say that, you need Mac specific help. Mac forum posts have a special symbol and we have people who look for that. Few of us can help you with this task on a Mac. It's much easier to do it under Windows. Sorry, but that's the truth.

[drparallax]

Can't you open the 4gb source file directly in submerge? Don't use the heavily compressed 400mb file. Convert to h264 720p.

I will try this. Why I didn't before is beyond me.

[drparallax]

Yes, first render subtitle over video, after that compress. Because this way more fast... Compress operation is slow and if error occur, wasted your time.

I wanted to leave this as a last resort. Never having done this before, I'd still have to go through something like Belle Nuit, export all the images, export and EDL or Avid DS, import it all etc. which is fine to do once, but for the future, I don't think is very efficient. Plus the issue I always have with Avid and FCP, that unlike Subtitle Edit, they don't really give you good control over the timing.

But thanks a lot for the advice, I will keep it in mind as a last resort.

[drparallax]

I am working on a Mac.

You screwed up. You think that your post should have been in the Subtitle section of the forums, but once you say that, you need Mac specific help. Mac forum posts have a special symbol and we have people who look for that. Few of us can help you with this task on a Mac. It's much easier to do it under Windows. Sorry, but that's the truth.

Awwwwwww. Well, I also have a Windows on my Mac. So if you had any helpful ideas, I might have been able to use those too.

Such not being the case...

[jman98]

If you're only working on a Mac, I can't help you. Hence the silence.

deadmeow provided a good suggestion for Windows.

[drparallax]

Okay thanks for the tips everyone. Actually the best idea was for me to move over to windows. I used Xvid4psp which was really fantastic. It gave me a file of the same size (as opposed to bloating all my files) and in comparison to this terrible Submerge program gave me 50-100 fps while encoding (and through a virtual machine!) whereas Submerge was giving me 4. So now I got my workflow - Subtitle Edit for spotting and creating, and then Xvid4psp for re-encoding. Quick and good.

Thanks y'all.

One final question. For Vimeo, the conversion suggestions for quality are given in Kbps - 2-5K for SD and 5-10K for 720p. How does that translate here in Xvid4psp?

[jman98]

Those quality numbers refer to the bit rate for the encoding. You can set it in Xvid4PSP under Video Encoding Custom.