Demuxing avi softsubs

[Anubis169]

Hey all, i was watching some anime episodes earlier and found the subtitles to be a bit sub-par, at first i thought they were hardcoded but i found i was able to turn them on and off like normal softsubs.

a seperate group have since made some custom (corrected) subs in srt format. now as i assume the avi's subs aren't hardcoded.. is there a way to swap out the old subtitle file for the new one.. or at least remove the older ones so i can put the video, audio and the new subs in an mkv? but without having to re-encode everything and losing quality.

vid: xvid
aud: mp3 vbr
subtitles: srt
container: .avi
me: :confused:

[hamletiii]

it's probably MKV file, with the extension changed to avi.
AFAIK, avi can't contain soft subtitles.

[Anubis169]

no it's definately an avi, and i can turn the subs on and off.. (they're not part of the video). though on that advice i tried changing the extension to .mkv, no dice.. mkvextract and mkvmerge don't show any subtitle tracks, which is seriously strange for softsubs :S

[hamletiii]

which player are you using and how do you turn the subs on and off (does the subtitle using vobsub?) ?

[Anubis169]

i'm using Zoomplayer Pro 4.51, and using the CCCP filter pack (DirectVobSub i think)

[Abond]

Load the avi in VDubMod. Streams->Stream list. Highlight the subtitle stream, click disable. Click add, select the new subtitles. Click ok. File->save as. Select direct stream copy, save.

[Anubis169]

did that, it gave me a weird error saying "Warning: Nothing to output, B Frame Decoder Lag.", and the only selectable stream was the mp3 audio. also it gave me some weird thing about having to rewrite the header because of it being vbr audio and having some skew :/

Edit: i still think it's very strange that i can turn the subs on and off.. but it only shows two streams when i try to do anything with it (video, and audio) :confused:

[check]

The fact there's only mp3 audio in VDM means there is no subtitle stream. Chances are the subs are loading from an external file. Is there a .srt .ssa or .ass file in the same directory with the same filename?

[Anubis169]

nope, just the video file on its own :/

i have got an external srt for it (the fixed subtitles), though if i put that in the same folder with the same name as the vid.. it just gives me an extra subtitle option. 2 rather than one

[Anubis169]

ooooookay then, i've spent the past few hours playing around with it, and found that the subtitle file attached to the avi which i can't get rid of is attached somehow to the video itself.

i put the video and audio (along with the fixed subtitles) into an mkv container which was my end result anyway, and the result was that i had 3 streams, but 2 sets of subtitles.. one in stream #3, and one nowhere to be seen. I then demuxed only the video with mkvextract, and found that the subtitles (although not selectable anymore and turned off) were still there.

this has completely confused me as i didn't think it was possible to do that. personally i think the person who encoded it fiddled with some strange settings to get that result, but that's my opinion and i could be wrong. anyone have any further ideas on how to remove a subtitle file from a single video stream?

Edit: problem soooooooolved :D
someone managed to attach an ssa subtitle file to the avi's video stream.. i have no idea how they did it, but AviMux GUI remuxed the video and audio leaving the subtitles out. Just as a reference for anyone else who has this problem with avi's, load the avi into AviMux GUI, select it in its box, and click on 'generate data source from files' to see if there is a subtitle attached. if there is then check the box labeled 'No Subtitles', enter the name/resolution of the vid (not sure if this is optional or not but i played it safe), and select the 'start' option. Choose the output name of the file and then select save. Hey presto, no more subs fixed to your video stream and no re-encoding needed so it doesn't lose any quality.. i think AviMux also supports extraction if you want to keep the subs too ;).

[msh_20004]

i had the same problem as u ?

but i wanted to get the subtitle out of the avi stream to get the ssa file.....

can u tell me how?

edit:

sorry.... i managed to do it by AviMux GUI .....
right click on the subtitle stream -> save to txt file

thanx