How do i put in subtitles (srt) into an mpeg2?

[apeness]

hi guys, i have this foreign movie in svcd and i had just found it's english subtitles (srt). how do i view the movie with the subtitles?

is there any way of merging them together after extracting out mpeg2 and watching the movie as a whole without encoding?

thanks in advance.

[castellanos]

Hi, Do you want to put permanent subtitles on a SVCD or as a subtitle stream?

Here is a link for permanent subtitles:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73181&perpage=20&pagenumber=2

Here for subtitle stream:

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SVCD + switchable subtitles.

At input you have the .AVI (DivX, XviD, MPG4 or something else) file, subtitles in .SRT/.SUB./.SMI or some other text format.

First of all, you should create .MPG (MPEG2 for SVCD of course) file. There has been a lot of information everywhere on how to do it. As for me, I use TMPGEnc, though your choice is not limited to that one in this case.


Now you start dealing with the subtitles. What should you need for that?

SubtitleTool
MaestroSBT
WinSubMux

(all of those programs are free)

You may also need some player with the subtitles support. I personally use BSPlayer or DivxG400 DirectShow Filter.

Step 1
+ Check subtitles for synchronization.
+ Split subtitles into two files (as you will have two SVCD discs at output)

Open the subtitles file with SubtitleTool

Choose "Split subtitles" tab and input the length of the first SVCD (the formula is easy - as you split the film into two parts, same thing should be done to the subtitles)

As a result you will have two files. The best format for recording is .SRT(SubRip), as it does not depend on the time rate.

Step 2
+ Create SSA(SubStation Alfa) files.

Open the subtitle file with SubtitleTool (either the first or the second part of the split subtitles)

Click on the "Save" button (it is on top).
Choose format - SSA - SubStation Alfa script (for VirtualDub)
Specify name and folder.

WARNING!!!!!

I strongly recommend using short filenames!!! Always!!! Both in folders and in filenames.

For instance, it would be correct to name it like this: C:\SVCD\SUBS\DISC1\1.ssa

"C:\SuperVideoCD\Subtitles\DISC1\ghost_ship_part1.ssa" will be wrong!!!!

Another piece of advice - I recommend using a single letter for a filename (you will later find out why).

Step 3
+ Create .SUB files for WinSubMux

Launch MaestroSBT

After launch, you will be asked the SSA subtitles filename. Input the filename.

Click on the "Set Files" button:

- Output Script (browse and set .SUB for SubMux)
The filename should consist of a single letter!!! WinSubMux does not understand files with longer filenames.
Click "OK"

Click on the "Rendering" button

- Script: .sub (submux)
- Bitmaps: Windows BMP 4 bits (never choose "compressed"!)
- Output Resolution: it mainly depends on your .MPG file (if it is in NTSC, then choose NTSC... if PAL, choose PAL)
- Remove mark the "Don't clip bitmaps" checkbox (It is extremely important!)
- Script font code page: specify the code page you need. (For instance, Forse Russian)
- Color Rendering: Whatever you may prefer: with anti-aliasing or without it...
Without changing anything else here,
press "OK"

Click the "Timing" button

- Depending on the frame rate of your Mpeg file (for PAL it will be 25 frames per second) set two equal values. For instance, for MPEG with 25FPS set it to 25 everywhere.
Click "OK"

Click the "Styles" button

- Choose "default" style and click on the "Edit Style" button

- Choose "Subtitle" subtitle
- Set "Bottom Margin" to 40
- Change colors if you want to.
- Change the font size to not less than 22 Bold
Click "OK"

For preview click "Edit and Preview"

Click "Generate"


That's it!!! Everything is ready for attaching the subtitles to Mpeg.

Step 4
+ Attach the subtitles to the .MPG file

Launch WinSubMux

- Input MPEG filename: specify the MPEG file that you already have
- Output MPEG filename: that's the name of the output file as you might have guessed
- Subtitles. SVCD can contain up to 4 streams of switchable subtitles. Specify the name/names of the .SUB files that you had created in Step 3 (you can attach both Russian and English subtitles simultaneously, for instance).
Click "Load All" button

If the procedure is followed precisely, everything will be loaded instantly.

To double-check you can look into "Preview" tab (I strongly recommend doing this)

In the main "Files" tab, click "Multiplex" button ...

and you will get the output .MPG file with attached subtitles.

Step 5 (final step)

Burn SVCD with the help of, let's say, Nero. Nero may show error after an attempt to add the output MPEG file and offer to recompress the file. Skip this offer and switch off the SVCD-compliance (we know what we do). Burn the SVCD... that's it! The disc is ready for playback in your DVD player.

The only way to see a SVCD with subtitle streams in a computer is with Media Player Classics, if not, it should work on a standard DVD player.

Good luck!

[apeness]

hi there thanks for the fast reply. i was going to make an svcd with permanent subtitles.

actually i already have the mpeg2 and the subtitle file ready. what i need to know actually is to how to combine them together. when i tried to play the movie (same name as the srt file), the subtitles only show up once in a while.

can u help me solve this problem?

[apeness]

hello again

maybe i should rephrase my question. how do i insert downloaded subtitles (.srt) into an mpeg2?

is there any way i can convert the mpeg2 to avi without any loss of quality, without any compression. that's because the .srt file doesn't work well with the mpeg2. They just don't show up. i was thinking maybe they work better with avi.

so after converting to avi, then i'll just use tmpgenc to encode it back to mpeg2 again, this time with the subs.

or is there another simpler way to do this?

[castellanos]

Hi. First of all, you must know that your downloaded subtitles must be synchronized with your mpeg, I asume is everything right in this point. If not, you can use Subtitle Work Shop to synchronize them... That is a very hard work!
But if you have already the mpeg file, you have many possibilities:
You can use TMPGEnc to create an avi or a new mpeg with permanent subtitles, using of course VobSub (as you see in the link I sent you).
If you want to create an avi file, I suggest to use Dr. DivX: You can also attach permanent subtitles with the same procces as TMPGEnc.
Certainly, if you have already the mpeg file, why don't you make a subtitle stream, as I told you?
Greetings!