Include subtitles in SVCD

[Kave]

I have found a piece of software that is suposed to make it possible to includesubtitles from a vob file in a Quicktime movie.
The software is called mpeg2decX. It seems to rely on Quicktime encoding, so I guess we are stuck with lower quality then when we use ffmpegX.

[squeed]

Try MissingMenuGen0.9.8. Props to RNC ! 8)

Check http://www.squeeds.com

-Squeed
VCD & SVCD Support For MAC
http:/www.squeeds.com

[Kave]

Great, but I don't see how Missing Menu Gen can copy over my subtitles from my vob files over to the final mpg2 file.

[squeed]

Sorry about that, I was reading too quickly. Are you trying to include the subtitles on your VCD/SVCD or remove them ?

If you are trying to remove them I think that future versions of ffMpeg will have cropping. Major ??

-Squeed
VCD & SVCD Support For MAC
http://www.squeeds.com

[Kave]

Well, they are included in the VOB file, and I would like to have them included in the SVCD too.

[phoney]

mpeg2decX works really good and going via QT has nothing to do with lowering the quality. It requires some HD space though, I save as Photo-JPEG in 95-100% and the files usually end up at 18-19 GB.
Another bonus; if you rip from NTSC you may save yourself some trouble with audio sync by using QT as source in mediapipe or ffmpegX.

But the *real* question is how to include the subtitles as real SVCD subtitle tracks. It can be done but it seems there is no way on mac and it's tricky even on PC

[Ross]

phoney: I think your the one I have been looking for, or anyone.

I know svcd will support a graphic overlay. And mplex will mux multi layers.

What file type does Mpeg2decX output for subtitle track?

I briefly tried taking the .spc file ripped from dvd, then muxing with the video and audio. It errored out. GraphicConverter will not open the .spc either, probably because it is motion video and not a still image. If you find anyway to view the .spc files, this would be a good start.

To experiment, with muxing in the subtitle track, use MMT's mplex, select "Add second audio" before clicking "Select", this will prompt you for 3 inputs.

Let us know what you find out.
RNC

[sterno]

But the *real* question is how to include the subtitles as real SVCD subtitle tracks. It can be done but it seems there is now way on mac and it's tricky even on PC

If you're reasonably familiar with compiling software on OS X you could try downloading svcd-subtitles from vcdimager's contrib directory. It's kind of a hack and you'll have to figure out how to get everything in to the right format, but supposedly people have used it successfully on UNIX so it should be reasonable to get it working in OS X. I'd look in to it myself, but I don't have OS X on my Mac (it's an older Powerbook, so I don't stand to gain much for my $130).

The problem is that it only does SVCD-style subs, not CVD-style. Many set-top DVD players have bugs in handling SVCD subs (in particular, if PBC is enabled SVCD subs won't display) but play CVD subs properly. As you say, they are problematic. Most of what's known about them seems to be a result of taking a hex editor and reverse-engineering a finished SVCD with subtitles.

[phoney]

phoney: I think your the one I have been looking for, or anyone.

No, I'm not. I'm just as confused as the other guy :)

What file type does Mpeg2decX output for subtitle track?

I briefly tried taking the .spc file ripped from dvd, then ...

Mpeg2decX only outputs quicktime, and the subtitles are "burned" in the video image. It's a crude way, but at least it is foolproof -- my player can't read svcd or cvd tracks, and my girlfriends player can only read scvd tracks, but the "burned in" sub always work of course, so "real" tracks isn't always better, but it would be good to have the possibility to make them anyway.

Regarding .spc files: You can start by dragging all your .spc files directly to the trash...
They are "subpictures", i.e. not motion video, and does not contain any timing information. Thus they are worthless once they are extracted from the vob. They need the timing information in the vob.
Makira said he had written a mediapipe for dealing with subpictures but not released it yet. He wanted to include ocr processing first, he said, but that was hard so the developing seems to have halted... :(

[Ross]

If you're reasonably familiar with compiling software on OS X you could try downloading svcd-subtitles from vcdimager's contrib directory.

Well, I got two of the three parts to compile. The part that doesn't compile gets the color palette & timecode from the vob. Vob2sub and Submux seem to be OK, but without gpal, they are useless. Mpeg2decX either generates this info from user options or pulls it from the vob. It shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

I have a folder of notes, links, and binaries, free to anyone who wants to work on this project.

[phoney]

How do you know that gpal is involved in getting the timecode? It says in the gpal.c:
// prog for extracting the subtitle palette from a ifo

I'm having the same problem as you (surprise...), that it won't compile but i thought i could just use a standard palette as vob2sub seems to suggest.
The problem is that vob2sub doesn't produce anything but empty sub-files for me. When I try to process a small vob (1 chapter) it says:
unknown header 1ba
and after an eternity and a half:
skipped 49146 bytes of garbage