Did you know: XVID + AC3 + Selectable Subtitles for PS3

Since I don't see it on the forums yet, I thought I would share how to create files that can be streamed to the PS3 (firmware 2.42) with selectable subtitles and still maintain the AC3 (Dolby 5.1) audio.

The short version:

• Use DVDFab DVD to Mobile Generic
• Make sure to check one or more of the subpicture options (i.e. English) when selecting your title and audio.
• In Conversion Settings:
  • Select generic.avi.xvid.audiocopy
  • Select "Extract to idx/sub file" under Subpicture
• After DVDFab completes, use AVIAddXSubs to combine the AVI and IDX files into DIVX file playable on the PS3
  • http://www.calcitapp.com/AVIAddXSubs.php
• After the video starts playing on the PS3 hit the Subtitle button on the remote or select via the triangle on the game controller to enable subtitles.

Please ignore this thread if you:

• Don't care about maintaining the original AC3 audio track and/or think the 2-channel AAC available in the PS3 profile is A-OK.
• Have no real need for selectable subtitles and can live with burned in (full or forced) or no subtitles.

If you're source is a movie originally shot of film then I would highly recommend forcing the framerate to 23.976 to achieve a cleaner look, smaller file size, and quicker encoding.

If you don't need subtitles then your best option for high quality and fast output is to use VOB Steamcopy in DVDFab.

What version of DVDfab are you using?

I tried the latest, v5.090. And could not find any option to encode XViD or extracting idx/sub file. Perhaps this is not available in the trial version?

I have looked like crazy in different forums for how to rip DVD to USB disk and play on PS3 without loosing 5.1 DB, DTS and subtitles.

Another option that sounds interesting is if it would be possible to hardcode the subtitles in a re-encoded VOB file since it supports 5.1 DB and DTS sound. I have not been able to find a tool that can do this though.

Thanks

The trial version and the registered version have the same features. The Xvid+audiocopy profile is in the drop down selector on the Generic->Conversion Settings page. You must select Generic in DVD to Mobile to access it. If you check more than one subpicture stream on the title selection page, the "Extract to idx/sub file" option should automatically appear in the subpicture output select drop down, which is in the lower right of the Conversion Settings page.

Ah, found it!

It's a bit difficult to find the DVD to mobile menu since it is hidded behind the preview window. You have to click on the little bar under the preview window for it to appear. A bit strange design choice I have to say.

I'm trying the configuration mentioned except I choose to hardcode the subtitle, at least that's what I think I'm doing According to the estimated remaining time it takes about 1,5 hours to encode if using the default setting for this profile. But if this works this is the first tool I have seen so far that supports ripping a DVD to USB disk in a format that is supported by PS3 with 5.1 audio and subtitles in one step. Congratulations!

However I would still prefere to use a VOB file (passthrough) if it was only possible to enable subtitles somehow, which is only a problem because of the lacking support the PS3 have for reading an included subtitle from VOB files. But to get them in I guess you have to re-encode the VOB file and that also takes time. It should be faster than encoding a XViD though and with lossless video and audio.

VOB Passthrough processes much faster also.

If you are going to hardcode the subtitles then you don't need this thread. Simply play the AVI file directly.

I have not been able to find any file formats that allow MPEG2 + AC3 + selectable subtitles that work on the PS3.

Complication:
I understand that this thread is mainly about selectable subtitles but it has been very difficult to find methods even to get hardcoded subtitles with proper 5.1 sound. This thread lead me to DVDfab which is the first tool I have tested that can do this. All other tools get stereo sound, except VOB file (Passthrough) which gets surround sound but apparently no way to get the subtitles in. This is why I brought this up.

I discovered yesterday that DVDfab supports batch conversion! Which reduces the need for speed and makes this tool and the XViD format a very nice option for the PS3 indeed.

One small thing that can be improved though is that the hardcoded subtitels are placed to high, feels like they are in the middle of the screen. I would like them to be as far down as possible. It would be a great improvement of DVDfab, if they could give us some settings for the subtitles. Location on screen, font and font size.

Also one other issue, will this format support DTS?

In the mean time I will try the option of makeing the subtitles selectable and see what that brings me.

Ok, tested the suggested procedure with selectable subtitels and it rocks.

Note that AVIAddXSubs is freware and also supports batch jobs. It only takes a minute or two to add the subtitel to the avi file. There are also lots of options for the subtitels, I used the default settings and the subtitels is placed at the bottom of the screen and looks nice.

So, Complication. Thank you very much for you sharing this very simple procedure. There is still the issue wether DTS sound is supported, which it probably isn't, but I'm not going to fuzz abot it. I think DB surrond 5.1 is well enough.

Thanks!

This is a subject close to my heart, Sidan77.

Are you still getting surround when using the DVDFab method to produce an Xvid file? I thought only a VOB would produce surround.

DVD Shrink also seems to allow you to hardwire subtitles, but when I tried it on The Kiterunner the resulting VOB didn't have them when I tested on MEdia Player Classic and the PS3 itself.

Thanks

The AC3 track in the DIVX file will be Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound as long as it is available on the source DVD and it is the track you select in DVDFab.

Ok,

I have been messing around with AVIAddXSubs to add the selectable subtitles for several days now and the vertical position is changing for almost every movie I try with, I was just lucky to get it right the first time. It takes forever to rip and add subtitles with the proper vertical position to a single movie, and because of the changing vertical possition you can forget the batch operation. Which doesn't work very well anyway since a popup appers asking you to select which subtitles to add, for every single movie, even though you only selected one sub in the first place when creating the XViD in DVDFab. Don't know if this is on DVDFab or AVIAddXSubs?

Are there any plans on adding support for selectable subtitles in DVDfab for the XViD profiles?

There is support for direct rendering (hard coding) subtitles but DVDfab puts the subs almost in the middle of the screen, which makes them unbearable to watch for me. Is there any way to make them appear at the very bottom of the screen?

Take a look at a movie created by MKV2VOB for a good example of subtitles with a nice font, perfectly sized and positioned.

Thanks

jmh78:

As I understand it, the VOB container has support for audio, db 2.0, 5.1 and DTS among others, mpeg2 video stream and a number of selectable subtitels. However, PS3 can only play the video and audio streams from the VOB file. This is why the subtitles doesn't appear.

Many tools can strip and combine audio, video and subtitles in a single VOB file, including DVDfab. Which is often called VOB file passthrough, which is the fastes way to backup a DVD and also lossless since neither audio or video content is re-encoded. But to be able to display subtitles you would like to hardcode the sub to the VOB file but that requires re-encoding the video stream, which takes time and reduces quality. And I have not been able to find any tool that can do this for that matter.

But, strangely enough, the PS3 apparently supports selectable subtitles in an XViD file, as stated in the head of this thread, which as far as I understand it, is done in a similar way as in a VOB file. Hopefully, PS3 will eventually support the subtitle part of the VOB file and this problem will be gone for ever. But until then...

New verision AVIAddXSubs v8.1 has been released. this release includes a new feature to pre-select subtitle from idx file which allows the batch operation to complete without any select language dialogs popping up, nice!

I'm still having a little bit of trubbel with getting the VP stable, it depends on the video resolution. But by setting the video resolution as close as possible for all movies when ripping with DVDfab this is not a big problem anymore. It would be nice though if the program had a setting for selecting different device configurations, that calculate a proper reference for the VP automatically based on video resolution. And giving the user the possibility to select an offset from the bottom of the screen.

Anyway, AVIAddXSubs was greatly improved in v8.1 and works really well with DVDfab!

Thanks

I noticed that 5.1.0.0 will let you rip a PS3 VOB with separate idx and sub files, how do you go about knitting these back together so you can turn them on and off on the PS3?

There is no container format that can hold MPEG2 (whats in a VOB) and selectable subtitles where the subtitles work on the PS3. Currently, you would need to re-encode to H264 in an MP4 container or as XVID/DIVX in a DIVX container. If you want the original AC3 audio then only the DIVX option will work (as previously described in this thread).

Bout what I thought, I've used the info and program you mentioned in this thread with good success. Thanks.

I have tried the method of extracting the DVD to Generic (using AVI or DIVX) and adding back the subtitles with AVIAddXSub. It works great.

my question is more to the quality side. I don't care about space and encoding time, I just want to get the best possible resolution DVD quality, if possible.

what parameter in DVDFAB should I use to obtain this quality?

using "generic.avi.xvid.audiocopy" and High quality encoding

what should be my...

frame resoluation?
bitrate?
framerate?

i have never undestood these values

TV is a Samsumg 52" 120hz 1080p


thanks in advance!

The best yardstick for quality is the bits/pixel number. Keep it above .5 or.6 (or higher), somewhere in there. This is subjective and you may need to experiment some. The number is recalculated as you change framerate/bitrate/screen size. For big screen TV conversions I use Framerate: 23.97fps and large screen size (8??Xxx) that matches the cropped aspect ratio of the original. I use H264, but the xvid looks very good also. I don't think it will never look as good as a properly upscaled SD DVD or blu-ray.