HandBrake

Description of problem or question:

Under some conditions, the Burned In option is greyed out, or only available if I select Foreign Audio Search, but this latter doesn't give me burned-in subs.

Is there a work-around for this? Why is this happening?

Steps to reproduce the problem (If Applicable):

Unclear. I've seen it happen with some MKV files, and some VIDEO_TS rips.

HandBrake version (e.g., 1.0.0):

1.3.3

Operating system and version (e.g., Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, macOS 10.13 High Sierra, Windows 10 Creators Update):

macOS Mojave

HandBrake Activity Log ***required*** (see How-to get an activity log)

N/A, since I can't even get the option selected.

What are the conditions? Are you trying to set Burned In to multiple tracks?

I'm just trying to burn in a single set of subtitles. I.e., I just want to choose one.

P.S. Hope I understood your question correctly.

Maybe there is something useful in the scan log, please post it if you can.

Since the GUI is smarter than it used to be about not showing "impossible" options, there can be a number of reasons you can't change the "burned in" option.

For example, if you have a BD source with PGS subtitles, and have selected "MP4" as your output type, the subtitles can ONLY be burned in, so you cannot change that setting. If you change the output file type to MKV, though, the option would reappear.

This is where the required logs would help - they tell us what handbrake saw, and what you were asking it to do with it.

Thanks all. Here's the activity log:

https://pastebin.pl/view/b928319d

HTH

Given your source, if you select "MP4" as your target, you have the choice of ONE subtitle, which must be burned in, so the "burn in" checkbox will be grayed out. You would still have the "forced only" checkbox available, but "default" will also be grayed out.

Selecting "MKV", you should have all of the options available. MKV does not force PGS subtitles to be burned in, so the GUI does not limit your options.

I'm a little confused. So, if I'm writing an MP4 and I select a subtitle from the dropdown menu, it will be burned in on the MP4, even if "Burned In" isn't enabled/selected?

I normally use MKV, but for this task I must use MP4, unfortunately.

Correct. MP4 does not allow PGS subtitles, so they must be burned in. And the current GUI will make the burn-in checkbox unavailable.

I tried again. It's not working. The subs are PGS. They're not burning in.

Can you post the encode portion of the activity log? The scan portion tells us what was in the file, but the encode portion tells us what you asked handbrake to do.

A friend advised me to downgrade to HandBrake 0.10.5. He said the newer versions have a bunch of problems.

I tried that, and it worked.

Now it gets weird. 0.10.5 is years old, and the 1.x and later series fixed a lot of problems it had. They also improved the codecs available. But 0.10.5 GUI won't prevent you from trying "impossible" combinations.

Having access to the encode logs from both 1.3.3 and 0.10.5 might reveal why it "suddenly" works.