issue adding subtitles to DVD with Handbrake

[RoyGBiv-inRI]

I am adding subtitles to DVDs. (If necessary for you to know, I am doing it for the series "Sharpe" with Sean Bean currently but will be doing others in the future.) I have the original DVDs which I have ripped to my hard drive using MakeMKV. I have found subtitles for these discs online, and they play perfectly if I open the MKV title with VLC and use "add subtitle" to add the appropriate subs.

Now, I want to use Handbrake to add these subtitles to the MKV files. The problem is that I don't know how to set the settings so that there is no recode happening when I do this. The files are all about 3.5 GB, and adding the SRT subs should not add much. Eventually I will probably burn these back to a DVD so I really don't want them changed. I also don't want any artifacts added by recoding.

The problem is that it doesn't matter what settings I use for the "video" section of handbrake, the files come out all different sizes. I am using MKV as the container and MPEG-2 for the codec I want. I have set it to "constant frame rate," and I have set the "quality" to 1, which is the highest quality. I also use the "preset" set to "very fast 480p30." In the subtitle section I add the subtitle I have from the internet. I am doing them as a batch, so I know I am doing them all with the same settings. The end result is the files are all different sizes. Some of the files are nearly 5 GB when finished, and some are as small as 2.2 GB when finished. Clearly the files are being recoded. If I use h.264 for the codec, the final files are much larger, on the order of 9 GB or so.

Is there some way to add subtitles without any recoding, so the files are essentially unchanged when finished? Is there some other software that would work better for this?

TIA.

SMK

[Bernix]

If you need only add subtitles to your mkv file, the easiest way is to use Mkvtoolnix . Open your mkv in this software, drag and drop subtitles in bottom field and start muxing.
What format of subtitles do you have ? srt ?

EDIT I see it is srt

Bernix

[manono]

Handbrake always reencodes so forget about using it.

Is there some way to add subtitles without any recoding, so the files are essentially unchanged when finished? Is there some other software that would work better for this?

I'm not even sure why you're using MakeMKV. If you want to add subs to a DVD and keep the original VOB/IFO/BUP format with menus and extras, then follow Method 2 of Baldrick's guide:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/277950-How-to-add-new-subtitles-to-an-existing-DVD

[RoyGBiv-inRI]

I'm actually trying to do two things. First, I want to add the subtitles, but then I'd also like to take multiple DVDs and using BDRebuilder make them into BD format so I can put 5 or 6 DVDs onto one BD.

Thank you both.

SMK

[manono]

Then you might also want to investigate multiAVCHD.

[RoyGBiv-inRI]

I have at times used multiAVCHD and will look into it again.

Thanks all for your responses.

SMK