Displaying 2 subtitles simultaneously - a solution and a request for a better one

[shenflindell]

At last my 5 day waiting period is up and I can post...

I've seen this question posted several times but without (for me) a satisfying answer. In fact this question usually goes unanswered! I've found a solution but I'm looking for a better one...

I want to be able to display subtitles in English and Japanese simultaneously (so I can watch French/Hindi/etc movies with my Japanese girlfriend).

The solution I've ended up with is to encode the movie with permanent English subtitles and then play it back in BSPlayer and add the Japanese subtitles during playback. That works fine but of course it takes time to re-encode the movie (eg as XviD) and for me an ideal solution would be to rip the DVD and then work with just the subtitles. (My girlfriend is busy so when we have time to rent a DVD we want to watch it the same night.)

I can imagine that there's probably a relatively easy solution if I could use text-format subtitle files. Eg, I read that MicroDVD can display multiple subtitles (is that right?). But I believe MicroDVD can only handle text-format subtitles. Ripping subs to text in European script is fine but I don't want to think about doing it with Japanese/Chinese characters!

It seems to me that it should be possible to rip to a graphical subtitle format, merge the .BMPs for the 2 languages into a single set of .BMPs including both languages, and then re-code that as a VobSub file or something. Is there any utility around that can do that or is anybody up for the challenge of writing it? There might be slight timing differences between the subtitles of the two languages but as they are synced to the same source (the soundtrack) I'm guessing it should be OK just to use the timing of either language.

BTW I just want to say thanks to Mr. Doom9 for creating a great website and forum! I've learnt a lot about backing up movies in the last 5 days and gotten some great software! (Also want to add the comment that Subtitle Workshop seems much more useful and usable than SubRip.)

Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

[E-Male]

powerdvd supports 2 subtitles at the same time, one bottom, one top

[DAvenger]

So does RL.

[shenflindell]

Gee, that's the solution I was looking for!

PowerDVD costs far too much for me, so I'm using RadLight (Beta version - no adware, free, just doesn't close properly is the only problem I've found so far). That works fine with a ripped DVD and ripped subs.

Now I just need to find a good source of English subs for obscure French movies... (DVDs in Japan generally only have subtitles in Japanese and the original soundtrack language.)

[DAvenger]

The fix for not closing properly can be found here - http://www.radlight.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=873&view=findpost&p=6968

Glad you liked it ;)

[stupoh]

Umm, i'm trying to solve same problem, but in my case i just have the DVD-rip and separated .idx/.sub subtitle (VobSub). The subtitle contains two languages, english and korean (after that I've separated each language subtitle to different files).
I want to display both subtitles at the same time, is it possible? I've tried many things but i'm still not satisfied.

First, I tried to re-encode with VirtualDubMod, adding vobsub filter, one for each language. I did it, but because i have to re-encode i lost some quality, not to mention i'm not experience with encoding stuffs..

Then i tried to make AviSynth script, i call VobSub function twice, one for each language. here is my simple script:

AVISource("60s.avi")
VobSub("60s.english.sub")
VobSub("60s.korean.sub")

I watched the script with Media Player Classic. Both subtitles showed up but the video wasnt running smoothly (high CPU processing too). Maybe because avisynth script isnt meant for direct watching? I opened the script with VirtualDubMod, re-encode, and the result was running smoothly, unlike when i directly watched with MPClassic :(

The third time i tried to mux the subtitles together into MKV, with mkvmergeGUI tool. Watched the result, but only 1 subtitle showed, I can choose which one to show but not both. Then i use SubRip to convert the english subtitle to .srt file. Merge them again, this time one .idx/.sub for the korean subtitle and one .srt for the english subtitle. But still only one subtitles showed, depends on which one i added first at muxing time :eek:

Is there any other way? One possible idea that i'm thinking of is to convert korean subtitle to .srt too and then manually merge them with text editor. But, i couldnt convert the korean subtitle with SubRip, the OCR always made mistake when recognizing korean characters :mad:
Is is possible to merge/edit/create VobSub subtitles instead? I couldnt find any software that can do that :(

Somebody help.. :scared:
I already search this forum and in fact i got some of the ideas above from reading this forum. Enlighten me please.

Thanks in advance :thanks: , and please forgive my bad english.

[niamh]

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=92568

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=92569

A couple of potential answers :)

[stupoh]

Originally posted by niamh
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=92568

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=92569

A couple of potential answers :)
IFO/VOB Editors forum threads! :eek:
I never thought i'd find anything inside that scary place :scared:

Ugh, okay.. I'll try to ruminate.. err, digest.. those threads.. slowly.. :stupid:

I'll post later if i found anything

Many thanks for pointing them out :thanks:

[Flash_Git]

Why not just run VSFilter + ffdshow (contains VSFilter). Or if you want three sets add Media Player Classic as well (also contains VSFilter). That's what I do when I want to compare subtitle scripts.

[stupoh]

I know about Media Player Classic trick, enabling both its VobSub filter and DirectVobSub at the same time. But i have to alter the subtitle position setting of MPC, otherwise i'd get two overlapping subtitles. That's still okay, but i have to set the position differently when in window mode and full screen mode. This become painful at some point because i like to switch between default window mode and full screen mode very often, window mode when i need to check dictionary, full screen mode when i'm confident without it. FYI i will most likely have watched the movie before with just english subtitle, so when i use two subtitle i'm more to understand the language (thus the need to look up dictionary).

I dont really understand how you can display three at the same time? can you explain more?

Anyway, after reading some more threads starting from what niamh pointed out, I've finally found a relatively satisfying solution (well so far). I use 3 utilities to do it:

1. SubRip (http://zuggy.wz.cz/)
VobSub -> DVDMaestro SON
This will convert VobSub into a .son file, a .spf file and a bunch of bmp images. Son file keeps the
sub timestamp and position, .spf file keeps the pallete, while the subs itself are saved in form of bmp images.
2. SONMerge (http://www.perpika.net/stupoh/)
SON+SON -> SON
This program will analyze two .son sub, merging them into one and sorting the subs according to their timing info. And if two sub have the same timing, this program will concatenate the two respective bmp images into one.
3. Son2VobSub (http://www.anime.cz/s2v/)
SON -> VobSub
Convert back to VobSub

Why i said relatively satisfying, because the utility number 2, is a simple self-made program (see how desperate i am). So far it still has some bugs but good enough for merging few movie subtitles i've tried. Everyone is welcome to try and maybe give me some feedback or bug report :rolleyes: