Subtitles problem

[Phototaker]

I haven't had to much luck with subtitles. When I do manage to create a new file with them I can only see them on my PC since it appears that my DVD player can't display them.

I knew that AGK could burn in permanent subtitles into the file but I must have misunderstood just how to do this. I encoded a few programs & thought that I was doing it correctly but apparently not. It seems that they were added OK & can be seen on the outputted file but they aren't being displayed in the correct place. They are all out by several seconds. The resulting file is worse than having no subtitles since you are always seeing on thing while hearing another.

Did I have the wrong box ticked? On the advanced options box should I have 'display only forced subtitles' box ticked or not. Is there anything else that I need to do.

I selected the original file for encoding by using choosing the ifo file if that makes any difference.

[manono]

On the advanced options box should I have 'display only forced subtitles' box ticked or not.
Leave it unticked, unless you really have Forced Subs (subs in a different or alien language, and not always then)

If they're playing at the wrong time that points to a decrypting error, I think. The easiest way to correct the problem, I think, is to find out how much they lag the video and audio and correct the timing of the subs and then reencode the AVI, this time adding in the edited subs using the CTRL-F8 trick.

I'm assuming these are VobSubs (in IDX/SUB format, direct from the DVD). After you find out how much they're off, add in the delay to the IDX, open it in SubResynch (included in the VobSub package) and save the sub to make the change permanent. For example, to make the subs play a second and a half earlier:

# Decomment next line to activate alternative name in DirectVobSub / Windows Media Player 6.x
# alt: Afar
# Vob/Cell ID: 1, 1 (PTS: 0)
delay: -00:00:01:500
timestamp: 00:00:23:957, filepos: 000000000
timestamp: 00:00:38:906, filepos: 000001000
timestamp: 00:00:56:123, filepos: 000002000
timestamp: 00:01:26:653, filepos: 000003000

[Phototaker]

The titles are displaying about 10 seconds too late. Is there any tool that will allow you to see the time difference between the 2 by displaying the number of frames between the 2 etc?

When I selected the subs for input it listed 'English wide" twice'. I note that the program will only allow you to select one or the other but not both. I assume that this is normal. Why there should be 2 different ones listed but with the same name I don't know unless one displays at the top & the other at the bottom.

Will I see any difference if I choose the DIVX codec over the XVID one? Is there really much difference between the 2?

[manono]

Is there any tool that will allow you to see the time difference between the 2 by displaying the number of frames between the 2 etc?
You can probably get a pretty good idea of the delay by opening the finished AVI in VDubMod, scrolling to a place where there's a closeup of the lips moving and then advancing a frame at a time until the subtitle for those lip movements show up. VDubMod shows the time for each frame so you can figure the length of time between the 2.

If you have 2 sub tracks for each language, then one is meant for display with 4:3 television sets and the other for widescreen 16:9 television sets. Unless they're mislabeled, which happens from time to time.

[Phototaker]

Problem fixed. It appears that when I ripped the original video using DVDShrink I had selected main feature only. I then noted that this video started with 3 different sets of company logo's before the film started. I cut these logo's off but it appears that while DVDShrink kept the video & audio correctly aligned it didn't do the same for the subtitles.

[netmask]

Problem fixed. It appears that when I ripped the original video using DVDShrink I had selected main feature only. I then noted that this video started with 3 different sets of company logo's before the film started. I cut these logo's off but it appears that while DVDShrink kept the video & audio correctly aligned it didn't do the same for the subtitles.

This is how I make backups of all my movies; movie only and DVDShrink maintains all the chapter points and subtitles without any problems. I wonder what is happening in your example?

[Phototaker]

The problem appears to that I had chopped about 10 seconds off the beginning of the main movie. Apparently this chopping only applies to the video & audio portions of file & not the subtitle portion.