Forum archive - Guide How to make a dvd with selectable subtitles on Mac OSX with ffmpegX

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Guide How to make a dvd with selectable subtitles on Mac OSX with ffmpegX

ulmis posted 2009 Mar 07 08:46

Hi, a newbie question below in http://homepage.mac.com/major4/dvd_sub.html is a nice guide HOW TO MAKE A DVD WITH SELECTABLE SUBTITLES ON MAC OSX WITH FFMPEGX Problem: I follow the guidelines but end up encoding an MPG FILE as result but in burning chapter the Toast is reading dvd directories AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS... What is the correct target format to create these DVD directories, obviously not "DVD ffmpeg" or "DVD mpeg2enc" (like written in guide).

Case posted 2009 Mar 07 09:59

I understand you copy-and-pasted the subject title, but please edit it to words with lower case letters, which is much easier to read. When the encoding (using "DVD ffmpeg" or "DVD mpeg2enc") goes well, and the "Author as [DVD (VIDEO_TS)]" checkbox is set in the Options tab, then ffmpegX should do one more step and create a VIDEO_TS folder from the MPG file. If it doesn't produce this authored folder, then perhaps some part of the conversion didn't succeed. Please provide the Process Information log for us to check for errors. You may access this log by clicking the blue (i) in the ffmpegX Progress window after a conversion.

ulmis posted 2009 Mar 07 10:32

Thanks for reply, title edited to lowercase. You must be right, something went wrong during encoding. I'll check and post the log when I return home to my Mac. Just guessing but perhaps the problem is with sub/srt mismatch described elsewhere in this forum... (I understood that ffmpegX would not support .sub filetype, instead it needs .srt subtext file...)

Case posted 2009 Mar 08 09:40

ulmis : I understood that ffmpegX would not support .sub filetype, instead it needs .srt subtext file. A little more complex: the .sub filename extension is used by more than one subtitle format: VOBSub (image-based), SubViewer (text-based), MicroDVD (text-based) and MPSub (text-based). The important thing is that ffmpegX creates its selectable subtitles from a text-based source. VOBSub (.idx+.sub) is a quite common subtitle format for DVD rips, as it is easy to create and doesn't need spell checking (as the subs are images of text) or unusual text encoding. One the other hand, SubRip (.srt) is the most common text-based subtitle format, and readily available (1, 2) if you need to download it for a particular title.

ulmis posted 2009 Mar 08 14:26

Hi there, I made another trial with .sub file and now everything went OK! I am not able to say why my first encoding failed because I didn't save the log :( Obviously I had some other options setup differently or the phase of the moon was incorrect. Anyway, my .sub-file was not the reason for failure. It would be great if ffmpegX could report errors / warnings more clearly, now it is a little bit too easy to close the log and find later that everything was not OK. But otherwise really userfriendly program, of course. Thanks for your valuable help.

georgebaron007 posted 2009 Mar 09 18:41

New at this. I'm trying to combine (w/ffmpegX 0.0.9y) an AVI file with it's subtitles to put on a DVD eventually. The folder has the AVI file, a idx file, and a sub file. The AVI plays fine w/subs from the folder but I'm unable to to get the sub file to combine as a single standalone file that I can burn. Help

Case posted 2009 Mar 09 19:15

You can encode to DVD using the DVD mpeg2enc preset with Decode with mplayer activated. That seems to be the only setting that supports idx/sub for input in ffmpegX. The subtitles will not be selectable if you do this, but permanent part of the video. If you want selectable subtitles, the you should find a matching .srt subtitle file.

georgebaron007 posted 2009 Mar 10 14:04

Like I said, I'm new to this software. So I drag the AVI file to the "Drop File Here" window under the "Summary Source Format" window. The go to "Video" menu and select "MPEG2[.MPG] (mpeg2enc)". Then to the "Options" menu and select "Decode with mplayer." I've tried this but it's not working. Are there any subtitle setting under the "Filters" menu I should be setting like I have to for the .srt files? or any other setting I should be making. BTW this folder started out as a .rar foldder with an AVI, idx, and sub file in a folder after the .rar file was decompressed. I don't need selectable subtitles; it's a Korean film with a english subtitle.

Case posted 2009 Mar 10 15:05

georgebaron007 : Are there any subtitle setting under the "Filters" menu I should be setting like I have to for the .srt files? Yes, you should use the "Load subs" button, and select the .idx file.

georgebaron007 posted 2009 Mar 10 20:34

Well I solved my own problem by importing the AVI file to Quicktime Pro, did a "save as" command then selecting "Save as a self contained movie." The subs came out perfectly. I used Visual hub to "stitch" and burn the DVD.

maruz posted 2009 Sep 29 09:28

Case : You can encode to DVD using the DVD mpeg2enc preset with Decode with mplayer activated. That seems to be the only setting that supports idx/sub for input in ffmpegX. The subtitles will not be selectable if you do this, but permanent part of the video. If you want selectable subtitles, the you should find a matching .srt subtitle file. Hi. I'm new. I have the same issue. I tried the above. And I also tried Case : Yes, you should use the "Load subs" button, and select the .idx file. But nothing happened. The subtitle did not appear when I tried to preview. If I have selected the *.idx file, where should the *.sub file go? From what I gather around (which is confusing me), both the files worked together, no?

Case posted 2009 Oct 04 17:20

maruz : But nothing happened. The subtitle did not appear when I tried to preview. Please note that ffmpegX has confusingly TWO preview buttons, which have each a different use. Use the Preview button in the lower right of the Filters tab to see your subtitles. (The upper right Preview button is for previewing the already converted video output while the conversion is in progress.) maruz : If I have selected the *.idx file, where should the *.sub file go? From what I gather around (which is confusing me), both the files worked together, no? The *.idx file is an index file which points to the *.sub file. They should be in the same folder.

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