SubRip 1.01 - Question about timestamps

[LoKi128]

Disclamer: This is my first attempt at ripping subs. I've read as many guides as I could find but I'm sure that is still not enough.

Ok, I have a slow computer (Celeron 400MHz) so to "practice" I ripped chapters 2 & 3 from "What Dreams May Come" and I'm just encoding those. My goal is to have a OGM with XviD+AC3+OGG+SRT (like a lot of other people, I imagine).

Anyway, the problem now lies on the SRT side. But I don't think its a real problem. The thing is, when I rip the subs from my VOB, the first sub entry has a timestamp of about 4mins into the clip, when in reality the people start talking a lot sooner.

I imagine this is because the subs have a timestamp that starts counting from the begining of the movie, instead of from the start of the VOB.

Am I right with that assumption?

Also, is there a way to fix it so that the timing is correct? Sadly, I don't have a DVD drive on my computer (used a friend's) and my cheap DVD player died last week and I don't have money to buy a new one. I was just going to look up the time when Chapter 2 starts and substract that from all the subs, but I dont have that info :(. Is there a way to tell SubRip to start counting seconds from where the VOB starts?

Thank You!

[Swede]

Try 'Time Correction' in the Correction-menu..

[LoKi128]

I know about the time correction features. The point is that I don't know when the first subtitle actually starts in the video. I could substract by the full offset, which would place the first sub at time 0, so it would display even if no one is talking yet.

So I was wondering if there was a way for SubRip to align the subs from the time the current VOB starts, not when it SHOULD start (if it were a full movie).

I tried doing it "by ear", but even a few seconds off on that first sub will make all the other ones be out of place later on in the clip.

[Swede]

I know about the time correction features. Oh, sorry.. :)
Well, I've done quite a bit of subs 'by ear' since the NTSC-releases comes first and the swedish subtitles arrives later. Instead of getting a PAL-release too I normaly download the subs and sync them using SubSync just 'by ear' (The old 25 FPS-problem). I don't think it's difficult to get them right...
So I'm sorry but I can't help you on the VOB issue.

[manono]

Hi-

I'm not positive this'll answer the question, but I've done similar things before. Take the audio and convert it to WAV. Then load the WAV file in a WAV Editor, such as Exact Audio Copy, find when the first voice speaks and adjust the subs accordingly. You should be able to get them real accurate that way.

[LoKi128]

manono: hehe one of those ideas that make me go "doh! I should have thought of that!"

thanks! it worked very very well :) now to hunt for a font that both looks good on screen and displays some international characters (for example, the upsidedown question mark in spanish)

thanks again to everyone!