subtitles won't appear

HandBrake for Mac support
Forum rules
An Activity Log is required for support requests. Please read How-to get an activity log? for details on how and why this should be provided.
Post Reply
thoughtatwork
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:52 pm

subtitles won't appear

Post by thoughtatwork »

Hi all, I'm new here.

I just downloaded the newest version (for OSX 10.4+). Everything has been running fine, and I have been able to convert .vob files into .avi/mp4, etc for the purposes of burning to DVD. The only problem is, I cannot get subtitles to show up at all. I've played around with the subtitle settings, but even when they are all in order, there is no option to display them in the converted file. The "subtitles" options on the drop down menu is not available. This has been the case with all subtitled movies I've tried.


I cruised the message board already for answers to this question, but I didn't find any.

Thanks,
thoughtatwork
rhester
Veteran User
Posts: 2888
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:24 pm

Re: subtitles won't appear

Post by rhester »

thoughtatwork wrote:I have been able to convert .vob files into .avi/mp4, etc for the purposes of burning to DVD.
Please don't. This isn't what HandBrake is intended for, and needlessly wastes video quality. Use a real DVD (re)authoring solution like Toast, or at the very least extract the desired content with MPEG Streamclip.
thoughtatwork wrote:The only problem is, I cannot get subtitles to show up at all. I've played around with the subtitle settings, but even when they are all in order, there is no option to display them in the converted file. The "subtitles" options on the drop down menu is not available. This has been the case with all subtitled movies I've tried.
HandBrake supports "burned-in" subtitles only (they become a permanent part of the video stream), not DVD-style subtitles.

Rodney
thoughtatwork
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:52 pm

I am confused

Post by thoughtatwork »

Wait, what exactly am I supposed to be doing with this program? I thought it was for (I quote the website headline) a " DVD to mpeg-4 converter" . I just want to get them in a format that will let me move them from my computer to external hard drive. Sheeeeeit.


oh, and in terms of subtitles, I have no problem with them being "burned in", as long as they are there...
Nonsanity
Moderator
Posts: 46
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 4:34 am

Re: subtitles won't appear

Post by Nonsanity »

thoughtatwork wrote:...for the purposes of burning to DVD.
If you are trying to make a DVD that will play in a typical DVD player, HandBrake isn't the right tool. HandBrake is a converter, not a copier.

If you are picking a subtitle track, check to see if there is more than one. Sometimes there might be two English subtitle tracks (for example) where the first one is actually a "forced" track which only has subtitles for a few scenes. Like Greebo in Star Wars or snatches of a foreign language in an otherwise English film. The second English track would then be the equivalent to closed captioning, with text for the whole movie.

That may not be the case for you, but it's something to keep in mind. You can try converting just one chapter with each subtitle track to see what it looks like.
rhester
Veteran User
Posts: 2888
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:24 pm

Re: I am confused

Post by rhester »

thoughtatwork wrote:Wait, what exactly am I supposed to be doing with this program? I thought it was for (I quote the website headline) a " DVD to mpeg-4 converter" . I just want to get them in a format that will let me move them from my computer to external hard drive. Sheeeeeit.
DVD (MPEG-2) -> MPEG-4 -> DVD (MPEG-2) is the worst-possible case scenario for quality. If your objective is just to spin a new DVD, use MPEG Streamclip.

Rodney
Post Reply