Does anyone know of a DVD player which can play movies without forced subtitles?

[Rooster6975]

I have some DVDs bought in France. They are all English movies with French subs. In the Audio option on the DVD, you have the choice of French-dubbed audio, or English audio with French subs. There are no other choices. If I select English audio, I get the French subtitles no matter what.

Both WinDVD and PowerDVD have their subtitle menu greyed out. I can't deselect them. Also, I have run the DVDs through an AVI maker just for fun and made a DivX with no subs! Therefore, the subs are not part of the original image. They can be removed, but the software is forcing me to watch them. It's annoying. There must be a player out there which will allow me to remove the forced subs!!

Thanks,
Rooster.

[smiller667]

Try dvdsubber (it has an experimental feature to disable forced subs). It does not work for all DVDs and depends on the playback filters you use, though ... give this thread a read: http://www.darkwet.net/dvdsubber/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=387
As for standalones, some older chipped Sonys and some older Cyberhome models were able to ignore user prohibitions.
I'd love to hear of alternative ways to diable prohibitions in software players.

NB: Of course you can use dvddecrypter to rip them and remove prohibitions, then play them back from HD ...

[Rooster6975]

I installed DVDSubber and found the right-click option hidden underneath the play button. I turned on the Disable Subtitles (Experimental) option, but no dice. I changed filters between the PowerDVD filters and the WinDVD ones, but same problem, still have forced subs.

I know that the DVD I am trying (The Jackal bought in France) does not have subs embedded on this image because if I rip a VOB with Gordian Knot, I do not get subs by default. If I want to put the French subs back, I have to use some DivX subtitle program to do so. Therefore, there should be a way to remove the forced subs with software. I could (and have) already created a no-sub DivX from the DVD, but I would like to know if there is a way to playback the DVD on a computer without the subtitles. I have quite a few DVDs with forced subs and making DivX AVIs from all of them is not the best answer.

From my research, it appears as if the IFO file on the DVD itself is forcing the players to disable the subtitle option upon playback. It seems to me that it should be possible to have a player which can use the IFO file from the DVD, copy it locally, and allow a user to change the entries at will. Then use the local copy to instruct the player how to play the VOB files on the DVD. Does anyone know of any software which can do this? Or is it even possible? I would love to turn off the forced subs on many of my English-language DVDs purchased in France.

Thanks,
Rooster.

[smiller667]

I do know the problem, I have quite a few excellent French DVDs with forced subs (HK Vidéo or Studio Canal's Kitano discs)
Anyway, two or three workarounds for you:

(mentioned this in my NB note, so pardon the repetition) Use dvddecrypter to copy the DVD to your HDD. Use it in Iso mode and check the settings regarding the removal of user prohibitions. Then mount the disc image in daemon tools and play back using a player of your choice - restrictions will be gone. Alternatively, rip to HDD in file mode & use the doom9 hdd playback guide to properly set up ypur software player for harddisk playback. This effectively modifies the ifos ...

If you are willing to reencode, use Instantcopy or something similar to make a main movie-only DVD copy - yes, you will lose some quality as quite a few French DVDs use the capacity to the max.

Third: Use sthsvcd 5.5 or sthdvd 2001. sthsvcd/dvd is a Chinese software player and will NOT play menu structures etc., instead it will try to detect the main movie and play that back. It does have its limitations (no chapter support), it is sometimes a bit unstable, but in general it does its job and it lets you disable forced subs. sthsvcd is freeware (do a forum search for the download link). sthsdvd2001 is no longer offered by Herosoft (heroshare.com or herosoft.com for the Chinese site), but instead you can find it on this Swiss page (right at the bottom): www.pctip.ch/library/downloads/dl.asp?id=2041). There's a patch for XP as well. The package is stated to be freeware as well, and I have seen nothing in the accompanying documentation to suggest otherwise.
This will install the package, including the DVD player ... it more reliably identifies the main movie(s) and fixes quite a few bugs.
Herosoft now offers the "DVD III" player and a "Super Player" instead, demos are available, but I haven't tried them out.

These are all the options I know of ... I'd be more than happy to learn of other methods to achieve the goal :).

[smiller667]

I just tried the DVD III player from Herosoft ... it is shareware (pauses after 5 or 10 mins and gives you a nag screen). It installs two players, one ("Hero DVD player general") supports all menu structures etc. but does not allow subtitle removal (plus it obeys other user prohibitions like not allowing to switch languages). The other one offers tons of options (including placement of subs) plus lets you diable or switch subs.
Seems to be a bit of a cpu hog, too - about 70 % load on 1 GHz Athlon, Win2k.

[htc10825]

Ya do forget to play the VOBs of the DVD in file mode(PDVD,WinDVD etc.), then they play only the video and the 2nd audio(WinDVD) or the first audio(PDVD), no subs. The easist way!

[smiller667]

hehe ... htc is back! Yep, the file mode for pdvd etc. does work, of course, thanks for reminding me :) ...

[Rooster6975]

Hi,

File mode doesn't play subs, it's true! However, file mode does play the French audio track and not the English audio track. How can I change it to English if the audio option is greyed out when I launch in file mode?

I have a number of American movies purchased in France. As a consequence, the default language is French. In File Mode, both PowerDVD and WinDVD correctly play the first VOB file, but both choose to play it in French. Is there a way I can make it play the English track ?

Also, I downloaded and tried Herosoft2001.zip directly from the link you provided. It DLs fine, and unzips to a bunch of files and folders including a SETUP.EXE. When I try to run that, it comes up with an error message I can't read in Chinese. I can't install it. I can install the picture viewer that it comes with, but not the DVD player.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Rooser.

[htc10825]

If still no success, check:
witch version do you use? how do you start the playback?

[Rooster6975]

I am using PowerDVD XP and WinDVD

For PDVD, I clicked the "Select Source" button and selected "Open Media Files". I then went to the VIDEO_TS folder on the DVD and selected the 5 VOB files starting with VTS_01_1.VOB. I then clicked play.

The movie (The Jackal) started and I could move anywhere into the movie with the control bar. I selected randomly a sequence about an hour in, but it was in French. There were no subs. The subtitle menu was greyed out.

I then repeated the procedure with WinDVD hoping it would select the 2nd audio track (which should be English). In this case, it is WinDVD Version 4.0. I selected the "Playlist/WinCinema" dropdown option and picked "Open File". I went to the DVD drive, and selected the Video_TS directory, and the first VOB. It came up in French. Also, because it doesn't automatically play the next VOB, I tried it again by selecting "Open Playlist". I made myself a quick playlist with all 5 VOBs and launched that. Unfortunately, it was French again and the language option is greyed out in the menu.

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks,
Rooster

[htc10825]

try it with WinDVD 3.1

[Rooster6975]

I have PowerDVD XP, WinDVD 4.0, Interactual DVD 2.0, DVD Station connected to a Real Magic DVD Accelerator card (which I don't use any longer and should remove from my machine), DVD Subber, and some chinese one which won't load from a previous poster.

The only ones which support file mode are pdvd and windvd. Station on XP is really flakey and is considered a Real Magic legacy product, so even the latest drivers don't help and will never be updated.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Rooster

[smiller667]

Sorry for not giving you the full URL to the page: it is at http://www.pctip.ch/downloads/dl/18709.asp & also has the link to the XP patch.

It also describes a workaround for the bug you describe: move the SETUPLUG.DLL from the directory were you unpacked the .zip to another directory. Run install. You will not be able to start sthsvcd yet. Move setuplug.dll back to the dir where you unpacked the archive and re-run the install ... apparently this is required for some systems only.

When applying the XP patch, the same procedure is required if you encounter errors.

[Doom9]

rip the main movie VOBs, enable stream processing and get rid of the french audio track. If there's no audio you have to remap the English audio to 0x80 during ripping.

Or, you could try to get your hands on a SMC DVD-300.. it's an old player which doesn't care about user option disables.. it allows you to disable any forced subs, skip any content you're not supposed to skip and it has the best remote control I've ever seen on a DVD player (design wise that is, the buttons are placed where it makes sense).

[htc10825]

I think it is easier to find a WinDVD 3.1 rather than to search the DVD player in a antique shop. If you have the v4.0, it will be not a big (licence-)problem when you download it from Internet(e.g. edonkey). I have tested it on all my 2-audiotrack-SVCDs(mpeg2 files direkt from CD/DVD) years ago. Copy to hdd or remux ect - not needed.

[Rooster6975]

Thanks!

Got it going and I had to follow your directions exactly. Moved the DLL file and installed it, then put it back and installed again. Worked like a charm! Tried out my bought-in-France English DVD and voila! Subs are gone!

In the 2 DVD players that Herosoft installs, the first one called Herosoft DVD 2.0, you can actually get rid of the subs by choosing the options SubPic Control - Move Subpic, and then maxing out the Y coordinates to -720. Click OK, and the subs are moved right off the screen! Works perfectly. In the other player it installs, called SthSVCD 2001, there is an actual option called Disable SubPics which removes them from your screen entirely. Either solution works!

Thanks for the suggestion, I have been trying to figure this one out for months! Also, if I come across WinDVD 3.1, I'll give that a try as well but for now, this is a completely free and legal solution. I own a license for WinDVD 4.0, but not 3.1.

Cheers,
Rooster.

[htc10825]

I have a good news for ya:

the newly released Cyberlink PowerDVD 5.0 has many inprovements, the quality of display graphics is now (nearly)equal to that of WinDVD. However, more interesting is the feature multiple audio tracks support in file mode. So rightnow you can test your VOB files without have to correct author it first. I've tested this feature.

So it is realy a relief for many ppl. You need only one DVD Player installed for all situation!

[Rooster6975]

Thanks! I'll have to give it a look. I need to know if the subpics can be turned off or moved out of the viewing area. I have done loads of research on this problem. If the vendor puts in User Option Prohibitions, like the name says, it turns off some features and most commercial DVD players abide by them. For instance, that is how they force you to watch studio logos, subtitles, and sometimes even ads for upcoming movies. They don't allow the purchaser to fast forward or chapter skip these scenes. They are located in the VIDEO_TS.IFO file on the DVD, and loaded into memory by the player. The player than carries out the instructions within the file, including disabling features if the IFO file instructs it to do so.

It is the same problem with the DVDs I bought in France. For whatever reason, the vendor decided that anyone who doesn't watch the American movie in "La Belle Langue" must have French subs whether they want them or not. It's called VOST (version originale sous-titrée). Very annoying. I can understand forcing a purchaser to see the studio's logo, even 4 of them in a row if they all participated in a release, but forcing them to watch subs? What possible advantage could the vendor gain?????

At any rate, the Chinese player from HeroSoft works because it doesn't take into account Prohibitions. Development stopped on it in 2001 so it may simply have never been an option in that player. But all widely used commercial players do not give you the option to remove prohibitions. If PowerDVD does, I will buy it in a second. In the Chinese player, it gives you the option to "Disable Subtitles" in the debug version, and "Move Subpics" in the non-debug. You can simply move them off the screen. Do you know if PowerDVD 5 allows such niceties?

Thanks,
Rooster.

[htc10825]

The situation in subpictures is the same - no subs, no menus, no chapters, no PGCs and no user op. prohibitions in file mode. You can press "ff" at any time to skip the unwanted scenes. Important: File Mode.

By the way: the Cyberlink PowerDVD are also developed by Chinese - in Taiwan, a part of China, there is a different government at the present(no seat in UN). But onedays, so said the most Chinese, will reuion, just like the West and East Germany.

[Rooster6975]

Definitely have to check it out!

By the way, the Taiwanese hate the Chinese. The only way they will ever be part of China is if the Chinese invade. However, the Americans will have something to say about that, so instead, China contents itself with periodically threatening Taiwan.

But who knows? The Chinese are the most patient people on earth. What's another thousand years to them? Makes western history seem like a flash in the pan.

Thanks for the info, I had no idea PowerDVD was from Taiwan.

Cheers,
Rooster.

[smiller667]

Poitical statements aside, I just had a look at the specs for AnyDVD (a filter which removes region protection & CSS on the fly), and it claims to be able to remove user prohibitions as well (read: forced subs, FBI warnings etc).
Haven't tried it myself so far, but this might be an option for people who want to stick with their favourite player or don't want to rip the DVD first.NB: Update: it seems to work, tried it on a few French titles and it allows you to switch off the subs. DVD region free is another software which claims to diasble User prohibitions.