Mkvmerge to add a second .srt file to a movie

[Tallo@83]

Hi,

i have a movie and i want to add two subtitles english and greek to the movie.
my movie extention is .mkv and my subtitles extention are .srt

(i am using command line on a debian system)

first i use this to add the english subtitles
mkvmerge -o myouput.mkv myinput.mkv --language "0:en" --track-name "0:mytrackname" -s 0 -D -A mynewsubtitles.srt

and it works with english subtitles

after a research i convert my greek subtitles with

iconv -c --from-code="ISO-8859-7" --to-code="UTF-8" original.srt >out.srt

to convert my subtitles to UTF-8

and then i use again myouput.mkv with the english subtitles embedded to add and the greek subtitles

mkvmerge -o newout.mkv myouput.mkv --language "0:el" --track-name "0:mytrackname" -s 0 -D -A mynewsubtitles.srt

when i play the movie via VLC (subtitles setting on UTF-8) doesnt regognise the greek subtitles.

can anyone help me?

thank you

[Baldrick]

I' m moving you to our subtitle section.

Nope, I have no idea.

[Selur]

and then i use again myouput.mkv with the english subtitles embedded to add and the greek subtitles

mkvmerge -o newout.mkv myouput.mkv --language "0:el" --track-name "0:mytrackname" -s 0 -D -A mynewsubtitles.srt

just to make sure: shouldn't that be out.srt instead of mynewsubtitles.srt ?
since the output of the iconv call was out.srt ?

[Tallo@83]

hi,

i just left the code the same. Yes i am changing the srt file with the output of the iconv. and i still cannot see them.

The weird thing is when i open it through the VLC player i can see the option of the greek subtitle on the subtitles menu (VLC subtitles set to utf-8) and still nothing on the screen.

i am also checking the new subtitle from the iconv at the command line to be sure that the subtitles have been converter to utf-8 before proceeding with mkvmerge.

[Selur]

can you upload small sample?

[Tallo@83]

Hi,

Step one i convert the subtitles to UTF-8
iconv -c --from-code="ISO-8859-7" --to-code="UTF-8" sgreek.srt >greek.srt

then i check the file
file greek.srt
output :greek.srt: UTF-8 Unicode text, with CRLF line terminators

then i use mkvmerge to add the srt to my movie mkvmerge -o ouput.mkv VMS01E01en.mkv --language "0:grc" --track-name "0:Greek" -s 0 -D -A greek.srt
while processing this is the message i get :

mkvmerge v6.5.0 ('Isn't she lovely') built on Oct 20 2013 21:10:34
'VMS01E01en.mkv': Using the demultiplexer for the format 'Matroska'.
'greek.srt': Using the demultiplexer for the format 'SRT subtitles'.
Warning: 'greek.srt' track 0: Warning in line 2774: The start timecode is smaller than that of the previous entry. All entries from this file will be sorted by their start time.
'VMS01E01en.mkv' track 0: Using the output module for the format 'AVC/h.264'.
'VMS01E01en.mkv' track 1: Using the output module for the format 'MP3'.
'VMS01E01en.mkv' track 2: Using the output module for the format 'text subtitles'.
'greek.srt' track 0: Using the output module for the format 'text subtitles'.
The file 'ouput.mkv' has been opened for writing.
Progress: 100%
The cue entries (the index) are being written...
Muxing took 3 seconds.

play it on VLC
english subs okey
greek subs -no visible
also note that in the input mkv file i have already embedded the english subs.

thank you

[Selur]

a. fix the time codes of your file
b. since you are using srt subtitles, make sure the font that is selected for the playback of those subtitles inside VLCs preference does support the characters,... (a lot of fonts do not support greek characters)

[Tallo@83]

Hi,

thank you for your reply. The font selected at VLC is Arial. I have check with other subtitles and still not able to see them. As for the time codes even though is not fixed any help how can i fixed them? But even though they are not fixed i've should be able to see them right? i am just trying to find out what am i doing wrong.

thank you

[Selur]

srt files look like, this:

1
00:03:10,500 --> 00:00:13,000 Elephant's Dream

2
00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:18,000
At the left we can see...

(if you open them in a simple text editor like notepad)
and mkvmerge is complaining that the times in your script are not monotonic.


Regarding the font, simply mux only the greek subtitles and test the fonts which are available on your system.

[Tallo@83]

Hi,

okey , how can i fix the problem with the time of the .srt file?

thank you

[Selur]

You open the file with an editor, like notepad and change the numbers so that they are monotonically increasing, then you save the file.

[Tallo@83]

hey thank you ,

i have found the problem!