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Definitive guide to displaying forced subtitles?

8K views 19 replies 6 participants last post by  techflaws 
#1 ·
I've gathered the equipment and am preparing to start ripping my bluray collection to a hdd. This is going to be a time consuming task and I'm seeking a correct how-to on the work flow for getting subtitles that used to be "burned in" to the image of movies, such as English translation of Klingon, to automatically show on my ripped movie files. I'll be using MakeMKV and Handbrake to convert the files for my Apple TV (MP4/h.264/720p). I've only ripped one film so far as a test. Haven't touched HB yet. Thank you so much in advance for the help :)
 
#2 ·
There is no definitive guide. Only what works for you.

I use ANYDVD HD and Wondershare Video converter. This program is great for creating HD mp4s with forced titles burned in. I converted nearly 1000 BDs for my portable devices with this program. Video and audio have always been in sync and burning in the subs has been a blessing. I never have to worry about support/compatibilty because it is burned in.



http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html

http://www.wondershare.com/pro/video-converter-ultimate.html
 
#3 ·
Thanks! Does the program tell you which subtitles should be shown at all times (aka burned-in)? What do you do to force them to always be shown? I'm only saving the decrypted movie and audio in my rips. Not a 1:1 encrypted copy. No menus, etc. Thanks again.
 
#5 · (Edited)
I rip all the english subtitles when I make MKVs. There's a forced subtitle database thread here on AVSforum you can search for. It's easy to check the english sub tracks though... it's either regular speaking subs, descriptive subs, commentary subs or ... forced subs which tend to be empty for most of the run time.

If I discover a need for forced subtitles, I can edit the header of the MKV file and flag the forced sub track. I think I use the free MKVMerge program for that.

I, personally, don't use anything like Wondershare to recode or compress the blu encodes as I bought the blu and don't want to gimp or reduce it's quality.

-Brian
 
#8 ·
Definitive guide? No, there are a number of workable methods, but all involve demuxing the subtitles.

Use your decrypter/ripper to get the movie on your hard drive. I run a driver-level decrypter (DVDFabPasskey) in the background and extract main movie with Clown_BD from the original disc. (I never keep menus anyway, with the exception of episode discs). Clown_BD first demuxes all the streams, then remuxes main movie. I then examine the subs in the Clown_BD demux folder.

Forced subs are usually embedded in the first (main) subtitle track. Sometimes they're a separate track, but that's more common with European releases. Open the first subtitle track with BDSup2Sub, which will analyze them. If it tells you that there are forced subs in the track, you can export only the forced subs. Export as SUP, unless for some reason you need VobSub. If there are no forced subs in the first track, examine the others one by one.

From there, you could proceed a number of different ways:

Hardcode them (re-encode or "burn" them into the picture) with, say, RipBot. Or make them selectable, either default on or off (in that case RipBot will convert them to VobSub first). I hardcode them when my target output is a CRF encode MKV. Handbrake is another program that can do it.

Remux to Blu-Ray with tsMuxer. To turn on the forced subs, you can use several methods:

- BDRebuilder (right click the forced sub stream to turn it default on and either re-encode the disc or force a no re-encode.

- Turn on the sub track with BDEdit:

http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/...ault-on-movie-only-BD-R?p=2328339#post2328339

- Use a very simple little program available at the Slysoft website. You'll have to register to download. One version works with BD ISOs, the other with BD files:

https://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?59584-Movie-Only-ISO-Forced-Audio-and-Subtitle-Editor

If for some reason you need text-based subs ( for compatibility with a TV's onboard media player), do an OCR (optical character recognition) with something like SubtitleEdit, then remux. OCR is not fully reliable, so you need to go through the output to correct any errors. If you're making, say, an MKV, use MKVMerge to remux.

With the exception of the Slysoft download, the programs can be downloaded from the Tools section at videohelp. All free tools.
 
#9 ·
Wow, thanks fritzi! But I think I'm gonna have to learn what all those terms mean first, lol. Ripping DVDs back in the day was soooo much easier!!! Shrink found forced subs and the added them to the ISO pretty reliably.

After doing some reading on the various forums on the subject, it seems that there is a great need for a reliable plug-in program, compatible with a couple of the more popular decrypt/rip programs, that used a combination of a database and some algorythm to find the forced subs, and added them to the file. Someone could make a mint on it! I'd buy it for sure. I'm doing this project just for easier viewing (streaming) of my blurays without dealings with ads, menus, the discs themselves, etc. I'm not doing it for for or a hobby :-/
 
#17 · (Edited)
If you made a movi with makemkv to mkv and it did flag it right make sure you are checking the forced flag box inside makemkv. If you want to fix it after, Download mkvmerge GUI open the mkv file on the first screen you click the subtitle track it will be labeled track 3 or whatever then near the bottom you will see flag it will say either forced or default or none.

But note for the longest time vlc had/has a bug where you have to mark the track as both default and forced for it to display like it should I am not sure if this was ever fixed or not. So your rip might be correctly tagged just vlc not doing its part
 
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