Manually selecting certain vob subs to be forced

[chipzoller]

I have a badly authored DVD source from a subtitles standpoint where the movie switches between English, German, and French, yet when the English audio track is activated, no subtitles are displayed because there is not a dedicated subtitle track for English nor are there forced sub flags in the english subtitle track. So to be able to see the english subtitles where you would expect, you have to activate the only subtitle track which then turns on ALL the subtitles.

So...I'd like to extract the subs and either keep in vobsub format or OCR but manually go in and specify which ones I'd like to be forced. Would there be an easier way to do this other than OCR the whole bunch, then go in and delete subtitles not needed and mux that track in?

[manusse]

There is no need to OCR. I think about two ways for doing that:

First way:
-Open your VobSub subtitle with SubtitleCreator (Tools -> manipulate ...)
-Then for each sub you don't want, right-click on it (on the subtitle box, on the right) and choose Remove current subtitle.
-When you're done click on save sub. and choose the VobSub format.

Second way:
-Edit the idx file and remove each line corresponding to subpic you don't want to keep. Save it
-Open it with SubtitleCreator (Tools->Manipulate ...) and save it. It will recreate the corresponding sub (removing all unneeded subtitles).

Cheers
Manusse

[chipzoller]

One thing about the first way:

-There's no way to Ctrl+select or Shift+select a number of subs
-There's no Delete key access to the 'Remove current subtitle' command.
Because there are so many subtitles that would have to be removed going one by one and right-clicking and removing, it would take days.

Second way:
-How do you find out which line in the idx file corresponds to which subpicture? I know removing each corresponding line in the .idx file would work, but how are you to know (aside from writing down timestamps) which subpic you'll be deleting?

The needed subs are scattered throughout the entire length of the movie with scenes jumping back and forth frequently, so it's not so easy to select one whole block and delete the indexes.

[manusse]

I really don't know how to help you more. Maybe you can try VobSubStrip or better SubResynch?

Hope this helps
Manusse

[chipzoller]

Are you the author of SubtitleCreator? Maybe it would be possible to add a Ctrl/Shift+select and 'Delete' key functionality? I couldn't imagine it would require a ton of work or be overly complicated.

[manusse]

I couldn't imagine it would require a ton of work or be overly complicated.
It took me 30 minutes but 30 minutes are still 30 minutes. Next time use "please"!
Also, I am not the author of SC. It's Paddington.

Cheers
Manusse

PS: If you're happy with this function, (available in next version), don't hesitate to donate (http://sourceforge.net/donate/index.php?group_id=120228) then.

:D

[chipzoller]

I didn't mean to sound pushy with my last post...didn't even know you were a contributing member to the project. At any rate, THANKS! and I'm looking forward to trying this new feature out whenever the next version is availble. A donation would be certain :)

[manusse]

The new 2.1 version is already available and includes this function. I hope it does what you wanted.
I didn't mean to sound pushy with my last post
That's the problem when we write like we talk. As there is no voice intonation it leads to misunderstandings. It's very common with emails.
:)

Cheers
Manusse

[chipzoller]

Yes, it does nicely! The only other comment I have is that once selecting subtitles and deleting, the next subtitle on the list should then be highlighted instead of it jumping back to number 1.

Thanks for the great work so quickly! I sure this will be a much appreciated feature for other users, too.

[jeanl]

Yet another way, assuming all you have is the VOB files.
Open your VOBs in DVDSubEdit, find the subs you want forced, and mark them forced. Save, done. Takes 5mn.
Jeanl