How to add subtitles to a DVD?!! - Croatian & English tutorial

I made my own tutorial ''How to add subtitles to a DVD'' in Croatian and English translation (by Mikky)



How to add subtitles to a DVD?!!


I believe many of you have faced the problem of how to add subtitles to a DVD at one time or another. Whether it was because you bought a DVD in another country and it didn’t support your language or because every piece of software you ever encountered made this trivial action just too complicated. There are in fact many ways to add subtitles, but one is the best, fastest and of course, completely free.
In this tutorial I’ll explain how to add subtitles to an existing DVD, that is, to a DVD you have created yourselves. In order to do this, you’ll need the following software:

DVD Decrypter (for ripping the DVD to your hard disk)
Txt2Sup (for converting subtitles from srt, sub or txt to sup format)
VobEdit (for demuxing video, audio and subtitles)
IfoEdit (for muxing and authoring video, audio and subtitles)
Nero or some other commercial software for DVD burning


0: Set up

Start up DVD Decrypter in Mode/File, choose a destination folder and begin ripping the DVD to your hard disk. To do this you can also use DVD Shrink if you wish to eliminate unnecessary parts or the Stream Processing option in DVD Decrypter. All of you who have created your DVD yourselves or already have your movie on your hard disk can simply skip this step and proceed to demuxing.
I should also mention that the example I’ll be using in this tutorial is the first episode of the popular series Star Trek Voyager which is comprised of audio and English subtitle only.



1: Demuxing

Once DVD Decrypter is done, start up VobEdit, Open your DVD and begin with demuxing the video, audio and subtitle. Choose the option Demux…



…a new window will open in which you will select Demux all Video streams, Demux all Audio streams and Demux all Subp streams.



Confirm by selecting OK, choose your destination folder and demuxing will begin.
Tip: if you have more than one hard disk, don’t choose the one where your ripped DVD is located; you’re dealing with large files here and by choosing a different hard disk you’ll definitely speed up the whole process. And another piece of advice: before you move on, rename the SUP files according to their corresponding languages especially if the DVD contains more than one subtitle: English.sup, French.sup, German.sup… just to avoid getting them mixed up later on… You can see the order in which the subtitles appear under Stream Processing in DVD Decrypter or DVD Shrink.


2: Getting the subtitles ready

Since subtitles are saved on a DVD in bitmap format, you need to convert (render) them first. We’ll use Txt2Sup to get the subtitles ready for conversion but you can also use software like Srt2Sup or SubtitleCreator.
Let’s assume that your subtitle is already in order, in other words, that its frame rate is accurate. I won’t go into how to adjust the frame rate at this point, but I will mention that Subtitle Workshop can help you to do this.

Start up Txt2Sup and Load IFO file. Since our DVD’s IFO file doesn’t include support for SUP, Txt2Sup will add the necessary colors to your subtitle all on its own. Given that in this case we’re dealing with a NTSC DVD you need to check this circle in case Txt2Sup hasn’t done checked it automatically. Otherwise your subtitles might end up being displayed irregularly.
Load the subtitle (Load Srt, Sub, Txt). As a template Txt2Sup gives us a light image with numerous colors which helps us to determine our subtitle colors as best possible. The default settings are standard for DVD subtitles and should be satisfactory to just about anyone. Nevertheless, it’s possible to change the colors of your subtitles, the position of the subtitles on the screen, the font, font style and font size. Every change will be visible in the window.



Once you have adjusted your settings, select Generate Sup. Txt2Sup will begin conversion and when done, he’ll save your converted subtitle under the name Generated.sup along with the Txt2Sup_Help_File.txt file which contains the color codes for your subtitle.


3: Multiplexing

It’s time to join everything together for your new DVD. Start up IfoEdit and select Author new DVD from the drop-down menu.



A new window will open, first drag and drop the video stream, then the audio stream and last but not least, the subtitles. Once you have selected your audio stream, add the corresponding language on the left in the drop-down menu. Do the same for the subtitles.



Confirm by selecting OK, choose your destination and multiplexing will begin…



After a few minutes, in the main window IfoEdit will provide you with information on your new DVD.



The only thing remaining is to write in the subtitle color codes in the IFO of the DVD. In the upper part of the window select VTS_01_0.IFO, then VTS_PGCITI and finally VTS_PGC_1.



You’ll notice that in the bottom part of the window the information changes as you click on each line. Find the lines describing the subtitle color codes (Color 0 Y Cr CB, Color 1 Y Cr CB, Color 2 Y Cr CB and Color 3 Y Cr CB) and enter the new values which Txt2Sup has provided in the Txt2Sup_Help_File.txt file.



Do this by double-clicking on the line in question and a new window will open in which you’ll enter the assigned values.



Color codes for subtitles usually have the following values:

Color 0 Y Cr CB = 00 80 80
Color 1 Y Cr CB = 55 80 80
Color 2 Y Cr CB = AA 80 80
Color 3 Y Cr CB = FF 80 80



Save your new IFO file by selecting Save. IfoEdit will warn you that an IFO file already exists, but you’ll overwrite it with the new one. When closing the program, IfoEdit will warn you that your material has not been saved and ask you once again if you wish to save. Just ignore him.


4: Check and burn

The only thing left for you to do is to check whether your new DVD works properly. My favorite player is PowerDVD, but you can use any other player.



If you’re satisfied with the result, proceed to burn.

And that’s all. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Tutorial in pdf

Neotronic

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Last edited by Da_Taxman; 19-10-2005 at 08:41. Reason: Updated upon request

Thanx a lot for the comprehensive and very useful "how-to".

very good guide Excalibur!

Very nice!
Dobra stvar , pozdrav!

Question 1: Hello Neotronic, Thank you very much for your tutorial.

Today I tried to follow your step-guide, but I have some problems with the demuxing, so I hope you can help me a little.

The problem is that I have a series, containing 7 DVDs. But the DVDs are already ripped, so I only have a AUDIO_TS map (empty) and the VIDEO_TS map with multiple .vob files. It is a series containing 4 episodes on 1 DVD. In this case, I opened vobedit and selected the VIDEO_TS.vob. That part is loaded (not all the vobs, as you described in one of your replies) and when I try to demux the files conform your guide, it indeed asks for a Saving Location, but after pressing 'ok' nothing happens. Could you help me on basis of this information?

Thank you for your co-operation!

REPLY:
You said '' and selected the VIDEO_TS.vob''. You have to select VIDEO_TS.ifo. IFO contains information about your DVD. Tell me if it works.

But, you said there is more than one episode. My tutorial explains how to add one subtitle to one episode, that means that you have to repeat the procedure for every episode.

Hi!

Yes, it worked excellent, but now I have the following problem:

- After doing the whole procedure and saving the files with Ifoedit, a file is created like VTS_01_0.vob eated, as well as Video_ts and Video_ifo. The problem is that my DVD contains four series, whereby series 1 starts with VTS_05_0. So, finally I renamed the created files to VTS_05_0 etc and copied the files in the original folder.

Problem: it doesn't work: WinDVD or other programs do not respond anymore. So I do something wrong, but what?

And do you also know what I should do with the new created Video_TS files etc? Because, if I have to add the subtitiles 4 times (4 series per DVD), this will cause errors I think?

Thanx again for your help!

reijn.

Maybe this will help you:

http://ifoedit.wh.fr0zen.com/splitdvd.html
http://ifoedit.wh.fr0zen.com/guides.html
http://www.mpucoder.com/DVD/

Tell me if it works.

Thanks for your tips! Till now I couldn't find the right information, but I have to read more documents on these sites. At the moment I do have no time because of a deadline...so will try it later!

Thanks Excalibur, but when i´m doing multiplexing exactly in 20 % appear message about problem in buffer , do you know something about this ???

Hi, i've been going to a lot of forums to try and figure out how to put subtitles onto a DVD. So far this one has got me closest to achieving this goal but something goes wrong on Step 3: Multiplexing. When I enter all my things is the output folder supposed to be the drive where my DVD is located or anywhere I want it? Does the DVD have to be blank or is it supposed to be the DVD that has the movie on it? When the output folder is set to D:\ It says "can't open for writing". When the output folder is set to somewhere else it says "too many frame drops". Someone please help me. I'm getting frustrated looking at tutorials all day and I just want to finish. Thanks in advance.

Hello there! Is this tutorial refers on how to convert subtitles from one language to another or on how to add subtitles to a dvd movie that has no subtitles at all? I'm asking this because I have a series "Twilight Zone" which has no subtitles at all. The audio language is english of cource but as I tried to follow the above guide I somehow got confused at step 2!!! Could you please help me? Thanks in advance

Gizzishere

This guide is about how to ADD subtitles to a DVD movie. So, you have to have/get the subtitle for that special movie somewhere.

This method does keep all the menus and goodies intact, right?

hey

i followed the whole toturial and i quess i did everything right.. but now the problem is that i started out with 15 files and now i end with 18 files.. 4 bup's 4 ifo's and 10 vob's.. resulting in that the movie is now almost 7.5 gb and which will not fit on 1 dvd.. did i do something wrong or is it supposed 2 go like this?! when i looked in powerdvd to see is everything was ok thew sub didnt appear.. please help.

I got Batman Begins From A Friend, It was Already In Mltiple VOB files, but no Dutch SUB
Tried to use the tutorial, Got stuck at step 1 : demuxing, I open vob file 1: Video_ts.Vob
checked demux all video Streams
checked demux all audio streams
checked demux all SubP streams

set a location , chose save and nothing happened
What must I do??????

I have drive C D E And F , movie is on E, want to put demuxed files on F

Nice thread. I basically managed to add new subtitles to a DVD I had; however, I cannot seem to synchronize the subtitles with the movie. I got the subtitle files in srt format online, then edited them to synchronize them with the movie by using Subtitle Workshop. After I created sub files from them and remuxed everything, they start off fine but end up completely out of sync (6 seconds differential on the last ones).

I've also tried to synchronize them through Subtitle Creator by using the inner dvd synchronization module, to no avail. Once I open the remuxed DVD copy, they're out of sync, no matter what I do. It's driving me crazy!

Any suggestions?

Hi there, thanx for posting for starters...

i have tried to do the things you wrote, but i got stuck (3 times) at the last phase. when ifoedit is doing his job, i continuesly get the sentence Too many frames drop! then the whole action is aborted.
can you tell me what to do, i think i'm so close.

thanx

I gave this tutorial a run and there are a few things I find out about Txt2Sup v42.3.

1. Loading the Srt file cannot parse the tags (<i>, <b>, <font>, etc.) appropriately that was ripped by SubRip.
2. Loading the Sub file (dvdsubtitle or microdvd format), ripped by SubRip, gives an invalid integer value error message. Haven't tested this thoroughly though.
3. It seems that Txt2Sup only has one font format (font type, style, size) and same offset throughout the file. e.g., it's either all normal or italics style. Cannot mix it in different subtitle lines.

So maybe Srt2Sup, Subtitle Creator, or Subtitle Workshop can handle this better?

Before reaching step 2, you must have the subtitle file, say Srt format, ready. It's easy to create one with a new subtitle. Use Subrip to extract one of the existing languages from the movie, save it with the correct frame rate. Then open this file with a text editor and modify it with a new language. Do not mess with the time code as it is already synchronized unless you know what you're doing.

Since you're adding a subtitle, just load the movie ifo ("Load Ifo") in Txt2Sup to obtain all the colors for your subtitle. Then load in the new subtitle file. After conversion is finished, it's time to mux everything back.

On step 3, for some reason, I find IfoEdit 0.97 doesn't mux back correctly. Subtitle and audio are in sync, but not together with video. Video is lagging way behind gradually. And there's no audio delay originally either. Maybe this is why some of you have synchronization issues. Part of the issue could be the frame rate was not selected correctly in the creation of new subtitle, or the timing of the displayed subtitle is not correct.

So instead I used MuxMan, and everything's in sync. Be sure to select the correct Language attribute for the Audio and Subpictures. As for Subpictures, remember to select LB and Wide buttons if they are enabled. To add each Subpicture, just click the next numbered radio button. Make sure they're in order like the original movie, with the added subtitle being the last.

After muxing is done. It's time to get the original subtitle colors back, since MuxMan uses its own default colors. Open the original movie ifo with IfoEdit, like Step 3 in the tutorial. Go to VTS_PGCITI/VTS_PGC_1, instead select "Subtitle Color" menu, then "Copy Colors from this PGC". Then in the same IfoEdit window, open the newly created ifo by MuxMan, VTS_01_0.IFO. Go to VTS_PGCITI/VTS_PGC_1, and select "Paste Colors into this PGC". Then save the ifo and you're done.

As a precaution, always save the newly created files by MuxMan into a new directory. Test it independently to see if everything's in sync. Once satisfied, copy all the new VTS files, not the VIDEO_TS files, back to the original DVD (be sure to make a backup of all ifos & bups first), then open the movie ifo with IfoEdit and "Get VTS sectors". Then do some more testing.

Good luck!

I have a problem when I use windows media player play this file can not see subtitle but when I play with power DVD can see subtitle .
The second problem when I burn it to dvd I can not see subtitle on both Windows media player and power dvd.
please help me for this problem

Thank in advancd

ctrn99

I have a problem when I use windows media player play this file which I have created form your method can not see subtitle but when I play with power DVD can see subtitle .
The second problem when I burn it to dvd I can not see subtitle on both Windows media player and power dvd.
please help me for this problem

Thank in advancd

ctrn99[/QUOTE]

hi, only i have one question about how to put subtitles in dvd, i did it but i got only the movie, i lost the menus and the extras, i did something wrong?

thanks in advance

Sorry, this tutorial is only for a main movie without menus and extras...

My question is: how i save with the correct frame rate?

thnx
i followed your guiding successfully & i have 2 questions:
1. when i sync the subs on divx subtitler the preview is in yellow, which is very good 4 me (i translate old movies, some in black & white). how can i get the final subtitles to be in color too?
2. the final movie displays the subtitles almost in the middlw of the screen. Does it have 2 do with the movie being of 4"3 ratio, and where do i go to move them further down on the screen?
thnx again
shlomo

Unfortunately Txt2Sup is not able to color your subtitles, but DVDSubEdit can. You can reposition your subtitles exactly where you want them, horizontally or vertically, also you can change the transparency and the color of each subtitle, or hide them entirely and much more without demuxing and muxing your DVD.