Having to deal with Hard (Embedded) Subs

[Seeker47]

I haven't looked into this in quite some time, and from what I recall it is a complex, advanced topic. The hard subs may often be in some foreign language, and are obtrusive, just in the way. Usually when I've run into a video file that has these, I just tossed it, and went off in search of some alternate source / copy that did not have hard subs -- if such existed. But sometimes there is no recourse.

From what little I recall, a direct fix would have to involve masking over the hard subs, so that replacement soft subs (SRT) could then be overlaid on top of the mask area. This has been well beyond my level of skills. Complications would include the varying size, style, and placement of the hard subs; what color and qualities for the mask ?; and that this "fix" could easily start to detract and distract from the video content itself, particularly towards bottom of frame, and therefore harm the video's viewability. (But you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs, as they say.) And it's not going to be a "one size fits all" kind of solution, so it would have to be adjustable.

I work with SRTs all the time, and am fairly comfortable with that. Still need to get more adept with sync timing issues though.

So, my question is: has anyone authored a good guide on this subject ? One that you don't have to be a rather advanced user to follow and make use of ? I think it is apt to be more unlikely that someone has created any scripts to address and automate the process, which can then be plugged into some program and run ?

Or maybe this is just not worth the time and effort to pursue, except in very special cases ?

[Subtitles]

Hardcoded subtitles are not easy to extract. It takes a long time and efforts to do that.
I made a video clip several years ago that shows how to do it (please pm me if you want to check it yourself). For a regular movie of 90 minutes this can take several hours.
It is best to shift about 250px -300px the extracted hardcoded subtitles (srt) from the embedded hardcoded ones instead of masking or cropping.
The best way to create srt from scratch is to use speech to text tools like Whisper. It will take a lot less time and efforts.

[Seeker47]

Hardcoded subtitles are not easy to extract. It takes a long time and efforts to do that.
I made a video clip several years ago that shows how to do it (please pm me if you want to check it yourself). For a regular movie of 90 minutes this can take several hours.
It is best to shift about 250px -300px the extracted hardcoded subtitles (srt) from the embedded hardcoded ones instead of masking or cropping.
The best way to create srt from scratch is to use speech to text tools like Whisper. It will take a lot less time and efforts.

Thanks for that reply. I'll send that PM. But I did not understand what you said about this "shift" or the "__px."

(I do use Whisper AI's Speech to SRT text from time to time, so far with a pretty fair degree of success. Depending on the language in question and the other known variables though.)

Someone (in another forum) said that there is a dedicated program offering a direct solution on this, but that it is too expensive for most users. (?)

And I am left wondering if some good and direct AI solution to this issue might present itself, in the not too distant future ?

[Subtitles]

What I mean by shift is that in VLC you can move the subtitles sentences up or down so that they don't overlap the embedded hardcoded subtitles.
Alternatively you can mask the embedded hardcoded subtitles for example create a black rectangular mask.
Personally I prefer to shift the srt up.

[Seeker47]

I recently watched a film that had EN SRT placed along with foreign hard subs. Even when the two did not directly align, this was disconcerting and a pain to try to follow. Disposing of the hard subs would be much preferable.

[Asdfgf]

What are you exactly trying to do? If you want to do an srt file from hard subtitles, I have made it many times using two programs. I do that when the hard subtitles are on a language that i cannot understand and i want to auto-translate them to my language. All what i have to do later is to select the dark shadow on vlc to view the subtitles. I dont mind if there are hards subtitles behind, that is enough for me. I dont know if you want to do that or just remove the hard subtitles. In that case, I dont know how to do. I guess you will need a specific video software or an AI to do that.

[Seeker47]

What are you exactly trying to do? If you want to do an srt file from hard subtitles, I have made it many times using two programs. I do that when the hard subtitles are on a language that i cannot understand and i want to auto-translate them to my language. All what i have to do later is to select the dark shadow on vlc to view the subtitles. I dont mind if there are hards subtitles behind, that is enough for me. I dont know if you want to do that or just remove the hard subtitles. In that case, I dont know how to do. I guess you will need a specific video software or an AI to do that.

Your approach presumes viewing on the computer (and it sounds like it should work fine for that option), whereas my preference -- by far -- is to send an MKV file to a bigscreen tv for viewing, by means of one or another playback devices. Most often, for sake of convenience, that will be using the USB port of my Oppo BR deck, into which I have plugged a portable HDD or a flashdrive containing the MKV. That's because I really like the complete and familiar array of controls provided by the deck's remote.

[Asdfgf]

What are you exactly trying to do? If you want to do an srt file from hard subtitles, I have made it many times using two programs. I do that when the hard subtitles are on a language that i cannot understand and i want to auto-translate them to my language. All what i have to do later is to select the dark shadow on vlc to view the subtitles. I dont mind if there are hards subtitles behind, that is enough for me. I dont know if you want to do that or just remove the hard subtitles. In that case, I dont know how to do. I guess you will need a specific video software or an AI to do that.

Your approach presumes viewing on the computer (and it sounds like it should work fine for that option), whereas my preference -- by far -- is to send an MKV file to a bigscreen tv for viewing, by means of one or another playback devices. Most often, for sake of convenience, that will be using the USB port of my Oppo BR deck, into which I have plugged a portable HDD or a flashdrive containing the MKV. That's because I really like the complete and familiar array of controls provided by the deck's remote.

Not only the computer. Most of that videos, I see on the mobile phone and send to the tv using the screen mirroring.

Another option is to use "Subtitle Edit" to add an opaque background to the subtitles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNYjM5ksRSo

[Seeker47]

What are you exactly trying to do? If you want to do an srt file from hard subtitles, I have made it many times using two programs. I do that when the hard subtitles are on a language that i cannot understand and i want to auto-translate them to my language. All what i have to do later is to select the dark shadow on vlc to view the subtitles. I dont mind if there are hards subtitles behind, that is enough for me. I dont know if you want to do that or just remove the hard subtitles. In that case, I dont know how to do. I guess you will need a specific video software or an AI to do that.

Your approach presumes viewing on the computer (and it sounds like it should work fine for that option), whereas my preference -- by far -- is to send an MKV file to a bigscreen tv for viewing, by means of one or another playback devices. Most often, for sake of convenience, that will be using the USB port of my Oppo BR deck, into which I have plugged a portable HDD or a flashdrive containing the MKV. That's because I really like the complete and familiar array of controls provided by the deck's remote.

Not only the computer. Most of that videos, I see on the mobile phone and send to the tv using the screen mirroring.

Another option is to use "Subtitle Edit" to add an opaque background to the subtitles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNYjM5ksRSo

That should also be applicable to any streamer / playback device running Android TV (such as the Nvidia Shield), since they can also run VLC.

What you refer to for use of Subtitle Edit is the "masking" I referred to earlier, leaving as its outcome a continuous field onto which a substitute SRT can be overlaid.

[Seeker47]

I am prompted to ask about another theoretical path for this. A de-logo tool (or tools) has been discussed before here on VH, although likely in a different context. I had assumed that this was intended just for still images, but could it have any applicability for video ?

What was / were such tools ? (I don't recall.) Free, or Paid ?