HOWTO:Blu-ray "Forced" Subtitles-Avatar, District 9, etc...
Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 5:43 am
Hey all,
If you're like me, you want 720p or above video, DD 5.1 or above audio and when there is something specific that needs to be subtitled...it too! Examples woud be the Na'vi language parts of Avatar, the alien language parts of District 9, etc...I'm not interested in Closed Caption or anything else, just the certain subtitles that the director felt it necessary for me to see. The difficult part is that some are already "burned-in" while others, such as Avatar and District 9, you have to do yourself (maybe all the late-2009 and newer Blu-rays?).
I play all of this on my ATV (Apple TV) and don't want to worry about soft subs and making sure it's enabled each time I watch, so I choose to "burn" them in. These are the original fonts/sizes/positions, not the .srt/txt versions.
I have a process that works for me that I thought I would share as it seems there are only bits and pieces of the info available out there. Please do not consider this the only way to approach it as others exist (if not variations of the theme). If anyone has a more efficient way to do this, please speak up! The entire process takes about 8-12 hours although much of it is processing.
If this has already been posted, flame on!
Where the directions may not be too specific, refer to and match the screenshots.
You’ll need a few tools (I wish I could elaborate on how to configure and use each but there's not enough room in a single post):
1. ANYDVD HD (or equivalent Blu-ray ripper) – to rip the disc to your hard drive, unencrypted. http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html
2. Clown_BD – to mux out your video, audio and subtitle tracks. http://www.clownbd.com/
3. BDSup2Sub – to create a track of just the “forced” subtitles. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=145277
4. MKVMerge – to wrap this all into a pretty little package HandBrake can use. http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoo ... loads.html
5. HandBrake – for the obvious reason
STEP #1 (RIP)
If using AnyDVD HD, simply insert your Blu-ray disc and select “Rip Video DVD to Harddisk”. If using something else, please refer to that product’s instructions.
STEP #2 (Mux)
Open up Clown_BD and let’s start (de-)muxxing!
NOTE: I de-selected “Use tsMuxeR” and selected “Force Subtitles”
In the next phase I select the Chapter, the Video, the DTS Master Audio (or TrueHD) and the English Subtitle. That’s it! If you feel you need more choices when it comes to encoding, feel free to choose some other options.
NOTE: I select AC3 at 640 as ultimately this will play from my ATV, feel free to choose something else if it works for you.
Click “Next” when you are ready to go. The process could take a bit (15-25 minutes usually for me).
When this is complete, under the directory you chose in the beginning, you should see at least the following files:
1. Chapters_1.txt
2. Video_2.h264
3. Audio_3_English.AC3
4. Subtitles_9_English.sup
These names could vary, but they should be the only thing created in that directory since you started.
STEP #3 – (Get Your Forced Subtitles)
Launch BDSup2Sub and load the *.sup file you generated above.
Upon load, you are greeted with a conversion screen; the only thing I change is “FPS Target”. I type in “23.976” for my Blu-rays even though it is probably not necessary here (just to make sure).
Click Ok and you’ll now see the main screen. You can adjust various things here but I keep it straight forward. In fact, double-check your output format in the menu bar.
When ready, you’ll want to go to File and Save/Export, make sure to select “Export Forced Only” and click “Save”. I usually save this export back into my same working directory as mentioned above.
STEP #4 – (Prepare It For HandBrake)
The tools you’ll need for this step all come in a package called MKVToolNix. This is where MKVMerge and MMG will be located. MMG is the GUI for MKVMerge.
Launch MMG.exe and open or drag the Video_2.h264 file, the Audio_3_English.AC3 file and the Subtitles_9_English_exp.idx file into the tool (your file names may vary here, but you want video, audio and the “exported” subtitles file or .idx extention).
When you open or drag in the video, you may get a pop-up warning. Close it and highlight the video file, move to the “Format specific options” Tab and make sure to enter the correct frames-per-second in the “FPS:” field, I again use “23.976” for my Blu-ray movies. NOTE: DO NOT FORGET THIS PART!
Choose your output filename in the “Output filename” field at the bottom and “Start muxxing”! (This too can take some time, generally 15-25 minutes for me).
STEP #5 – (Encode!)
For HandBrake, I use the nightly builds and not the general release candidate (0.9.4). Your mileage may vary here, but you can actually install the nightly build version in a separate directory if you want to keep both.
Nevertheless, open your .mkv file you created in Step #4 and define your “Destination File:” (I always use the file extension .m4v and select "Large File Size")
I happen to have my own Preset created so I will show you the settings as I step through this. It is formatted for 720p with DD 5.1. It plays flawlessly on ATV and just as well on my XBOX Media Center (although you only get Dolby Surround with .mp4/.m4v). Many 720p movies I rip end up being between 4 and 8.5 GB.
Picture:
Video Filters:
Video:
Audio: (I do specify the source for Track 2 as my (AC3) (5.1ch) selection. I do NOT use Automatic)
Subtitles: (I specific my English track with “Force”, “Burned In” and “Default” selections, then click Add. "Default" may not be required.)
Chapters: (No chapters for me, never cared)
Advanced: (For those interested, I believe this was based on the AppleTV preset from previous versions. I haven't changed anything intentionally)
This encoding can take some time, usually between 5 and 10 hours for me depending on the movie itself.
Anyway, hope this helps someone. This quick guide may be less-than-perfect (and I did kinda throw it up here), so let me know what I'm missing!
If you're like me, you want 720p or above video, DD 5.1 or above audio and when there is something specific that needs to be subtitled...it too! Examples woud be the Na'vi language parts of Avatar, the alien language parts of District 9, etc...I'm not interested in Closed Caption or anything else, just the certain subtitles that the director felt it necessary for me to see. The difficult part is that some are already "burned-in" while others, such as Avatar and District 9, you have to do yourself (maybe all the late-2009 and newer Blu-rays?).
I play all of this on my ATV (Apple TV) and don't want to worry about soft subs and making sure it's enabled each time I watch, so I choose to "burn" them in. These are the original fonts/sizes/positions, not the .srt/txt versions.
I have a process that works for me that I thought I would share as it seems there are only bits and pieces of the info available out there. Please do not consider this the only way to approach it as others exist (if not variations of the theme). If anyone has a more efficient way to do this, please speak up! The entire process takes about 8-12 hours although much of it is processing.
If this has already been posted, flame on!
Where the directions may not be too specific, refer to and match the screenshots.
You’ll need a few tools (I wish I could elaborate on how to configure and use each but there's not enough room in a single post):
1. ANYDVD HD (or equivalent Blu-ray ripper) – to rip the disc to your hard drive, unencrypted. http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html
2. Clown_BD – to mux out your video, audio and subtitle tracks. http://www.clownbd.com/
3. BDSup2Sub – to create a track of just the “forced” subtitles. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=145277
4. MKVMerge – to wrap this all into a pretty little package HandBrake can use. http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoo ... loads.html
5. HandBrake – for the obvious reason
STEP #1 (RIP)
If using AnyDVD HD, simply insert your Blu-ray disc and select “Rip Video DVD to Harddisk”. If using something else, please refer to that product’s instructions.
STEP #2 (Mux)
Open up Clown_BD and let’s start (de-)muxxing!
NOTE: I de-selected “Use tsMuxeR” and selected “Force Subtitles”
In the next phase I select the Chapter, the Video, the DTS Master Audio (or TrueHD) and the English Subtitle. That’s it! If you feel you need more choices when it comes to encoding, feel free to choose some other options.
NOTE: I select AC3 at 640 as ultimately this will play from my ATV, feel free to choose something else if it works for you.
Click “Next” when you are ready to go. The process could take a bit (15-25 minutes usually for me).
When this is complete, under the directory you chose in the beginning, you should see at least the following files:
1. Chapters_1.txt
2. Video_2.h264
3. Audio_3_English.AC3
4. Subtitles_9_English.sup
These names could vary, but they should be the only thing created in that directory since you started.
STEP #3 – (Get Your Forced Subtitles)
Launch BDSup2Sub and load the *.sup file you generated above.
Upon load, you are greeted with a conversion screen; the only thing I change is “FPS Target”. I type in “23.976” for my Blu-rays even though it is probably not necessary here (just to make sure).
Click Ok and you’ll now see the main screen. You can adjust various things here but I keep it straight forward. In fact, double-check your output format in the menu bar.
When ready, you’ll want to go to File and Save/Export, make sure to select “Export Forced Only” and click “Save”. I usually save this export back into my same working directory as mentioned above.
STEP #4 – (Prepare It For HandBrake)
The tools you’ll need for this step all come in a package called MKVToolNix. This is where MKVMerge and MMG will be located. MMG is the GUI for MKVMerge.
Launch MMG.exe and open or drag the Video_2.h264 file, the Audio_3_English.AC3 file and the Subtitles_9_English_exp.idx file into the tool (your file names may vary here, but you want video, audio and the “exported” subtitles file or .idx extention).
When you open or drag in the video, you may get a pop-up warning. Close it and highlight the video file, move to the “Format specific options” Tab and make sure to enter the correct frames-per-second in the “FPS:” field, I again use “23.976” for my Blu-ray movies. NOTE: DO NOT FORGET THIS PART!
Choose your output filename in the “Output filename” field at the bottom and “Start muxxing”! (This too can take some time, generally 15-25 minutes for me).
STEP #5 – (Encode!)
For HandBrake, I use the nightly builds and not the general release candidate (0.9.4). Your mileage may vary here, but you can actually install the nightly build version in a separate directory if you want to keep both.
Nevertheless, open your .mkv file you created in Step #4 and define your “Destination File:” (I always use the file extension .m4v and select "Large File Size")
I happen to have my own Preset created so I will show you the settings as I step through this. It is formatted for 720p with DD 5.1. It plays flawlessly on ATV and just as well on my XBOX Media Center (although you only get Dolby Surround with .mp4/.m4v). Many 720p movies I rip end up being between 4 and 8.5 GB.
Picture:
Video Filters:
Video:
Audio: (I do specify the source for Track 2 as my (AC3) (5.1ch) selection. I do NOT use Automatic)
Subtitles: (I specific my English track with “Force”, “Burned In” and “Default” selections, then click Add. "Default" may not be required.)
Chapters: (No chapters for me, never cared)
Advanced: (For those interested, I believe this was based on the AppleTV preset from previous versions. I haven't changed anything intentionally)
This encoding can take some time, usually between 5 and 10 hours for me depending on the movie itself.
Anyway, hope this helps someone. This quick guide may be less-than-perfect (and I did kinda throw it up here), so let me know what I'm missing!