Include English Translation of Foreign Speech

MIB037

There is alot of confusing information on these sites. Can someone tell me how to include the english translation text for foreign speech within english versions of movies.

Such movies as Da Vinci Code, Star Wars, Marvel Movies etc...

The DVDs have the sub text, but once ripped it isnt there. I use the same media player for either the original DVD or ripped copy.

Its quite frustrating. The version I have is DVDFab 9.1.4.0.

MIB

glenns

Click on the audio pull down box and check English and forced only if you want the translations only.If you want the regular entire English subtitles then check both.This is for normal disks some disks you have to check the second English soundtrack only to get forced subtitles this is because they Aurthur them differently on some disks.

Also on some disks not all spoken foreign language will have subtitles.Sometimes theirs no translations for some foreign speaking and sometimes in the same movie their is later on.So yes it gets very confusing.

Also with some player's they handle the subs differently you shouldn't have to turn them on but some media players you do have to turn on the subtitles to get the forced subtitles and it may work that way with only some movies.

The only way to tell is watch the store brought disk first so you know what parts has subtitles then check it with the Fab previewer after you set up the subtitles the way you want them preview them in the previewer or make the conversion to hard drive and check it then.

MIB037

Glenns

I'll give that a try thanks.

Nik_Simpson

It varies...

[QUOTE=MIB037;161819]There is alot of confusing information on these sites. Can someone tell me how to include the english translation text for foreign speech within english versions of movies.

Such movies as Da Vinci Code, Star Wars, Marvel Movies etc...

The DVDs have the sub text, but once ripped it isnt there. I use the same media player for either the original DVD or ripped copy.

Its quite frustrating. The version I have is DVDFab 9.1.4.0.

MIB[/QUOTE]

There are several variables...

1. How the disc was mastered. Some include the "forced subs" in the main subtitle file (IIRC, Star Wars is mastered this way), in which case you need to select the "forced" subtitles option when selecting the subtitle track. Other discs have the "forced" subtitles as a separate subtitle track (Thor-The Dark World is mastered this way), in which case you need to work out which track is the "forced" subtitles and include that one, but DON'T select the forced subtitles option for that track. Unfortunately other than through trial and error there is no way to know which before you start the rip ;-(

2. Output format. With MKV as the output format you have three options, leave the subtitles in the .sub/.idx pair and, or convert after the fact to .srt file and then mux them back into the MKV file using MKVmerge both of these methods rely on the player to create/display the subtitles during playback. The alternative is to actually burn them into the video track during conversion. For MP4 only the last option works, I think, i.e. you must burn them in.

3. The setting of the player. When the subtitles aren't burnt in to the video stream, the player must be set to display subtitles.

If you choose MP4 as the output, you need to workout which subtitle track to use before doing the rip. If you use MKV, you can go back after the fact and work out which track you need. Personally I use the following approach to be sure that I'm getting what I need.

1. Use MKV format assuming your player can handle it.
2. Select all the English subtitle tracks and don't select the "Forced" only option, and don't select the option to burn the subtitles into the video.
3. Use the freeware Subtitle Edit program and the .sub/.idx file generated during the rip. Work out which is this correct subtitle track to use and generate a .srt file containing only the forced subtitles.
4. Use MKVmerge to add the .srt file into the MKV file generated during the rip.

I like this method as it gives me the most control over the process, even down to editing the sub-titles (.srt is a plain text format). After some trial and error as I've learnt more about the tools, formats, and containers, this has proved a 100% successful approach for me.

BTW, If you use MKV format, you can go online and see if you can find a copy of the forced subtitles in .srt format, there are several sites that act as repositories. This can be useful if you've done a bunch of rips and want to fix the subtitle issue without having to re-rip all the disc. However, it's better to get the subtitles from disc if possible.

If you are interested, in learning how to work out which of the two subtitle encoding options is used on the disk you can use the following process:

1. Rip the disk (or the mainmovie if you prefer) to disk.
2. Use a program like substream to extract the subtitle tracks
3. Use Subtitle Edit on the output of substream to view the subtitles and work out which track is which.

Hope this helps.