Tuesday, July 19, 2011

How to Add New Subtitles to an Existing DVD 2

If you want to add another subtitle language to your DVD, and you don’t mind loosing the menu, here is a guide to help you do it, using only freeware tools.

What do you need (see [url=http://www.doom9.org[/url] or ):
DVDshrink (release 3.1 or later), to compress the DVD, and create a backup on your hard disk.
Subtitle workshop (optional), to convert subtitles to SubRip *.srt or *.sub format.
SubtitleCreator (needs .NET or WinXP SP2) to convert *.srt or *.sub files to *.sup subtitles streams
VobEdit, to demux DVD *.vob files to separate movie, audio and subtitle streams
IfoEdit, to put video, audio, and subtitles back together again
• Alternatively, in case you have NTSC movies instead of PAL, use ReJig instead of VobEdit and IfoEdit, as there have been many problems reported with IfoEdit+NTSC.
• DVD burning software
• At least 9Gb available on your hard disk.

The main steps are explained below:
1) Rip the DVD to the hard disk
2) Demultiplex DVD using VobEdit to separate audio, video and subtitle streams
3) [Optional] Convert subtitles to *.srt or *.sub
4) Convert and synchronise subtitles to *.sup (DVD format)
5) Multiplex DVD using IfoEdit of ReJig to a full DVD again
6) Test & burn

1. Copy the original DVD to your hard disk using DVD Shrink (see Figure 1).
a) Open disc (top left)
b) Enter re-author mode (top middle): Drag everything that you want to keep, excluding the menus, from the right DVD browser window to the left window. Here, only the main movie is preserved. But, alternatively, you can also copy the extras to your re-authored DVD, and they will be included as additional chapters at the end of your movie.
Although DVD Shrink is very good in keeping the menus, after adding the subtitles they won’t work anymore unless you go through some very elaborate steps. The reason for this is that the corresponding IFO file, generated at the end of the process described here, doesn’t know anything about the menu structure. There are two elaborate solutions that I didn’t try myself, that you might want to look into if you are really keen on preserving everything. The first is by searching for IfoUpdate, the other is by doing everything
manually.
c) Select the compression tab, and deselect any audio and subtitles that you don’t need – deselect the audio because they cost a lot of space, deselect the subtitles so you don’t have to include them anymore later on.
d) As you see, I've only selected the main movie, although you might add some additional deleted scenes...
e) Press backup DVD (top menu) and select where you want the output to go. Although DVD shrink includes an interface with Nero, allowing it to directly write your stuff to a DVD, you would be better to deselect this option in the preferences, as we still need to add our new subtitle. Additionally, if you have to compress a lot (say to less than 80%), it is good to set the deep analysis mode (tab ‘Backup options’), leading to a better video quality.

Figure 1. DVDShrink allows you to copy only the selected features to your hard disk. In also automatically computes the optimal compression for you, so the movie will fit on a single-sided DVD.

2. Demultiplex original DVD VOB files using VobEdit or ReJig file mode (see Figure 2)
After DVDshrink has copied everything to the hard disk, you will have a set of IFO (InFOrmation), BUP (BackUP copies of IFO), and VOB (Video OBject) files on your hard disk. The largest IFO contains the movie.
a) Start VobEdit, and open the first *.VOB file, which has the same name as the largest IFO file (2c).
b) Demux the VOB: as you already have selected everything in DVDshrink that you want to keep, you can demux all video (*.m2v), audio (*.ac3), and subtitles (*.sup) to a new location on your HD (4a+b).
NOTE: Sometimes, IfoEdit will complain about “Too many frame drops”. The only remedy is to either remove some of the original subtitle streams and try again or to try with ReJig.

Figure 2. VobEdit allows you to demultiplex (unpack) the VOB files to separate mpeg2 video (*.m2v) files, audio (*.ac3) files, and subtitle (*.sup) files.

3. Convert subtitles to SubRip (*.srt) format using Subtitle workshop (see Figure 3)
Optionally, it sometimes happens that the subtitle files you download from sites such as http://extratitles.to are not in *.srt or *.sub format. In that case, I recommend Subtitle Workshop to convert it to *.srt format. Note the input and output frame rate settings (3a). Knowing the length of my DVD (from the box), I can check the time of the last subtitle to see whether it was in NTSC or PAL (3b) – note that you need to reserve some room for the end titles (actors names etc). Finally, save it as SubRip.

Figure 3. Subtitle Workshop can convert every subtitle format to any other. It also allows you to create new subtitles, but we don't need that feature here.
Further note that I first had some trouble to see special characters correctly (3c+d): I had to use the Central European font in this tool, but I also needed to change my general computer settings (Control panel/Regional settings/Advanced/Non-unicode language/ to Romanian).

4. Convert *.srt or *.sub subtitles to *.sup stream using SubtitleCreator (see Figure 4).
a) Open your downloaded subtitle file (in *.srt or *.sub format). If the source subtitle file consists of multiple parts, you can concatenate them.
b) Open the IFO file of the current DVD (normally VTS_01_0.IFO)
c) Press start to generate your *.sup file
Optionally, you might use:
• The Font Settings tab, to select different colors (Figure 4a)
• The Synchronize tab, to shift time or synchronize with an original *.sup. (Figure 4b)
• The Preview button, to change the position of the subtitle based on the DVD format (Figure 4c)

Figure 4. SubtitleCreator's main window is simple: choose the subtitle and IFO file, and convert it to a *.sup file.


Figure 4a. SubttitleCreator can do fancier stuff though. You can choose the font, font size, and colors (from the IFO palette) to use for the subtitle (default is white letters with a black outline and grey anti-aliasing on a transparent dark grey background).


Figure 4b. Except simple synchronization, like time shifting and frame rate conversion, you can also use an original and therefore synchronized subtitle (*.sup) file, and by selecting similar lines in the original and new subtitle, you can synchronize the new one as well.


Figure 4c. And finally, you can preview the position of the subtitle, also by opening a screenshot from your movie.

(Sorry that I have so many of these, but I wrote this program myself, so I hope you don't mind it too much - BTW, it's open source, so if you don't like it, you can change it...)

Note that the following two steps can also be done using Nik’s freeware tool, ReJig, which has almost identical interfaces, and has better support for NTSC movies: instead of step 4, select ReJig’s file mode, instead of step 5, select ReJig’s DVD Author mode. However, it is slower and produces large temporary files, so I normally prefer IfoEdit and VobEdit.

5. Author new DVD using IfoEdit or ReJig DVD author mode (see Figure 5a+b)
a) Start IfoEdit and open (a) the IFO file of movie (same file as in step 2)
b) Select VTS_PGC_1 (b) and save cell times to file (c) under the tools menu (tells you where a chapter begins) and CLOSE IfoEdit
c) Start IfoEdit again and select menu item DVD Author (e)/Author new DVD (this has to be the first thing that you do in IfoEdit, else this item is not available).
d) Now have a look at Figure 5b: Select the files created by VobEdit: first the *.m2v (a), then all audio files (b), finally all subtitles (c), including the one you created in step 3.
e) Set the corresponding languages of all subtitles (d)
f) Load the cell times (previously saved in step 5b) for the chapters (e). If you use ReJig, you can also load the original IFO file, containing the color palette.
g) Select where you want your output to go (f) and save the new DVD (g) – this one containing your new subtitle!
Note: If you don’t have a lot of free space on your HD, you can now delete the original DVD files used in step 4, as long as you don’t delete the IFO file with the same name.


Figure 5a. IfoEdit (or ReJig) allows you to multiplex (package) your DVD together again. It also allows you to save the celltimes, i.e. the start times expressed as framenumber of your chapters, and to copy the color palette from the original IFO file to the new one created by IfoEdit.


Figure 5b. Select all the files to pack them together again. After IfoEdit has finished (30 minutes), you still need to copy the colors from the original to the new one, save it, and you are finally done!

h) After IfoEdit finishes, you only need to copy the subtitle colors from the original IFO to the new IFO: open the original IFO (see Figure 5a, item(a)), select VTS_PGC_1 (b), and go to the subtitle color menu (d): copy color info. Now, select the new IFO (second file in the top window), go to the same location in this file (b), and paste the color info (d). Save the IFO (e). In case you use ReJig, you don’t have to do this anymore, as you already selected the IFO in step f.

6. Test the output and write to an empty DVD
Using a DVD player (e.g. VideoLAN, WinDVD or VLC media player) that can play from the hard disk, you can already inspect whether the DVD was authored correctly. If you are satisfied, burn the files to a DVD (in the VIDEO_TS folder and enjoy!

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