Need a little help with .mkv and subtitles

[DigitalDivide]

Hi, just need a little assitance with subtitles with .mkv files. I ripped my dvd and the subtitles. I now have Hero.mkv, Hero.idx, and Hero.sub in my folder. When I open up Hero.mkv in Theatertek, the movie won't play. As soon as I remove the subs it plays. Just to make sure my subs were fine I renamed them to another movie which was an .avi file and everything worked. So I know they are fine. I don't have a lot of experience with subtitles but don't .mkv files and .avi files use them the same way??

Do I need to install something else? Any help would be appreciated.

I should add I'm using the x264.

[DigitalDivide]

I downloaded the latest VSfilter and copied it to the System32 folder and the C:\Program Files\GordianKnot\AviSynthPlugins folder. I now get sound but no picture whatsoever.

[iapir]

Do you use Haali's Media Splitter ? Why don't you mux the subtitle in your MKV ?

[foxyshadis]

Probably because they're not text subtitles, if you have an idx. You should get subrip and convert them via OCR to srt, the most common plain-text format. Those will be played easily from the same folder or muxed in.

I think vsfilter has a way of showing picture subs, but I don't remember how.

[iapir]

Yeah, but Matroska supports Vobsub subtitles, so unless he really wants to keep both separate, it would be better muxed inside matroska...

[DigitalDivide]

Okay I'm a little confused. I've now read that .mkv can ONLY handle .srt files muxed in and have also read that .mkv can handle vobsub titles muxed in?? Which is true?

Should I assume that at one point .mkv could only handle .srt muxed in and now has been updated to be able to include vobsub titles?

Also is it correct that the only way to use the subtitles regardless of the type is that they have to be muxed in?

I'm running a test now with .srt subs muxed in. When I get home from work I'll see if that works.

Thanks for the help.

[filewalker]

Okay I'm a little confused. I've now read that .mkv can ONLY handle .srt files muxed in and have also read that .mkv can handle vobsub titles muxed in?? Which is true?

Should I assume that at one point .mkv could only handle .srt muxed in and now has been updated to be able to include vobsub titles?


You can mux both .sub and .srt into MKV perfectly. Both is possible and works like a charme.

IIRC external subs should work, too. But it's way long time ago I tried it.
Maybe try a different player...

Cu

[DigitalDivide]

Okay got home and the .srt subs worked great. Just curious is there a benefit to using one or the other? Am I correct in assuming that once muxed in, you cannot turn off the subs?

[stephanV]

You can turn off the subs when muxed. Benefit of muxed subs is having only one file.

[foxyshadis]

Media players generally have the option to select one or no streams; if not, the vsfilter system tray icon can do the switching. Haali's splitter can be configured to autoload certain language subtitles or none at all.

All I can say is that I've muxed picture .sub files into mkv but never gotten them to display. Maybe it's zoomplayer, directshow, vsfilter, ffdshow, haali... *shrug* ain't directshow fun.

[stax76]

I wonder if ffdshow can display vobsub subtitles in mkv. ffdshow shows a menu for the subtitles in Zoom Player but it won't display the subtitles, maybe I'm missing a setting. It works perfectly using vsfilter but then I have two menu's, the ffdshow one and the vsfilter one.

My other subtitle problem is I'm using the option "Extend to 4:3" in the DirectVobSub options so the subtitle appear at the bottom and not too much in the middle. The problem now is I have to switch the AR in Zoom Player back and forth depending if I watch a movie with or without subtitles. Is there a more convenient method using ZoomPlayer?