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Subtitles cannot be turned off in a few HB converted m4v's

3

3282868

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jan 8, 2009
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In Handbrake I added subtitles to my m4v's and I noticed that in playing [some] movies either in iTunes or otherwise the subtitles cannot be turned off.

Settings I used in HB:
Track: English - (Bitmap) (VOBSUB) w/ Burned In

I didn't select burned in at first as I thought it meant you could not turn them off until I read it simply meant the same format as the DVD.

UPDATE: Only a few movies have this issue. "Dark Water" is one, but playing others in VLC or in XBMC I can disable/enable the tracks.

What did I do wrong and is there anything I can do?

Thanks guys, I know I posted a lot of questions as of late, and I'm sorry, but you've all been so amazingly helping!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
P

peterjcat

macrumors 6502
Jun 14, 2010
457
1
You were right the first time, burned-in means you can't turn them off, they're now part of the picture permanently.
 
3

3282868

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jan 8, 2009
5,281
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peterjcat said:
You were right the first time, burned-in means you can't turn them off, they're now part of the picture permanently.
Click to expand...

LOL You're kidding! hahahaha I noticed that in "Dark Water" I cannot turn them on, in others I can. Guess I'll have to go through all my m4v's and re-encode.

So what is the best option, just do not use "Burned In"? Also noticed different subtitle options, such as "Closed Captioning" and the (Bitmap)(VOBSUB) with the "Burned In" option?" (I'm gonna kill who ever wrote the HB reference on burned in subtitles LOL)

Thanks man, very helpful!

Oh and is there a way to simply extract them from the m4v without re-encoding?
 
Sedulous

Sedulous

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Dec 10, 2002
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Handbrake cannot include softsubs unless you choose one that is listed as "text". If the DVD does not have that, the best option is to download a .srt (I usually use http://www.subs.to) and drop that into your encoded mp4/m4v using subler. Try to get one that matches the frame rate of your video. Occasionally the subtitles may be off by one or two seconds and this can be adjusted using the "offset" found in the Edit menu drop down. Hope that is helpful.
 
3

3282868

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jan 8, 2009
5,281
0
Sedulous said:
Handbrake cannot include softsubs unless you choose one that is listed as "text". If the DVD does not have that, the best option is to download a .srt (I usually use http://www.subs.to) and drop that into your encoded mp4/m4v using subler. Try to get one that matches the frame rate of your video. Occasionally the subtitles may be off by one or two seconds and this can be adjusted using the "offset" found in the Edit menu drop down. Hope that is helpful.
Click to expand...

Totally helpful. I just had to delete 14 movies. You're exactly right, I must have misread HB about burned in subtitles and some of the films didn't have any other choice.

Question: I'm using MetaX to tag (and I adjust much of the info manually). I don't recall a subtitle option, so do I have to run movies without subtitle's through Subler or can I just simply de-select the "burn-in" option in HB and still get subtitles (or use the closed captioning option)?

Thanks so much!
 
Sedulous

Sedulous

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Dec 10, 2002
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bedifferent said:
Totally helpful. I just had to delete 14 movies. You're exactly right, I must have misread HB about burned in subtitles and some of the films didn't have any other choice.

Question: I'm using MetaX to tag (and I adjust much of the info manually). I don't recall a subtitle option, so do I have to run movies without subtitle's through Subler or can I just simply de-select the "burn-in" option in HB and still get subtitles (or use the closed captioning option)?

Thanks so much!
Click to expand...

MetaX only does tagging. Subler does not need to re-encode your file if you are dropping in a .srt. It just just dumps the .srt into the .mp4 container. Actually, you might find Subler more useful for tagging too, since you can choose File/Import/Search Metadata online. The advantage being that it doesn't need to re-write the file so it is much faster than MetaX in that regard. The only downside to Subler tagging is that I don't think it imports chapter names the way MetaX does (although subler can add chapters or totally create chapters from scratch using a txt file with the format 00:00:00.00 chapter X).
 
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3282868

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jan 8, 2009
5,281
0
Sedulous said:
MetaX only does tagging. Subler does not need to re-encode your file if you are dropping in a .srt. It just just dumps the .srt into the .mp4 container. Actually, you might find Subler more useful for tagging too, since you can choose File/Import/Search Metadata online. The advantage being that it doesn't need to re-write the file so it is much faster than MetaX in that regard. The only downside to Subler tagging is that I don't think it imports chapter names the way MetaX does (although subler can add chapters or totally create chapters from scratch using a txt file with the format 00:00:00.00 chapter X).
Click to expand...

I tried Subler but couldn't get it to recognize an m4v file. I'll give it a go again. I got a 3.33GHz 6-Core Westmere so MetaX takes about 30 seconds to work, and I use IMDB and http://www.allmovies.com which has the official studio release information re: plot summary and chapters. Thankfully I can re-encode the 14 I lost in 2 days.
 
Sedulous

Sedulous

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Dec 10, 2002
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bedifferent said:
I tried Subler but couldn't get it to recognize an m4v file. I'll give it a go again. I got a 3.33GHz 6-Core Westmere so MetaX takes about 30 seconds to work, and I use IMDB and http://www.allmovies.com which has the official studio release information re: plot summary and chapters. Thankfully I can re-encode the 14 I lost in 2 days.
Click to expand...

Subler definitely does recognize m4v/mp4/mkv, so I cannot imagine why it isn't opening.
 
Sedulous

Sedulous

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Dec 10, 2002
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Thanks, hope I was helpful. After you open your m4v in subler, just drag the desired .srt file over the track listings and it will add it.
 
E

eddyg

macrumors 6502
Sep 5, 2003
331
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Christchurch, New Zealand
"burned in" - kind of self explanatory really :) With a finite amount of time for doc writing more attention was probably applied to difficult concepts. Possibly this was an oversight.

Unless using the windows version of metax, use subler. Metax for Mac is no longer supported by the developer, and does have bugs. I've had great success with subler, plus it uses the same back ends as Handbrake, so things tend to just work.

Watch out for forced subtitles, I generally would burn those in, in addition to the text subs (if added).

Cheers Ed.
 
3

3282868

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jan 8, 2009
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eddyg said:
"burned in" - kind of self explanatory really :) With a finite amount of time for doc writing more attention was probably applied to difficult concepts. Possibly this was an oversight.

Unless using the windows version of metax, use subler. Metax for Mac is no longer supported by the developer, and does have bugs. I've had great success with subler, plus it uses the same back ends as Handbrake, so things tend to just work.

Watch out for forced subtitles, I generally would burn those in, in addition to the text subs (if added).

Cheers Ed.
Click to expand...

Thanks Ed. I should have gone with my gut but being new to tagging and encoding I probably over researched (I'm a perfectionist lol) and misread it. I thought it simply meant the subtitles would be "burned in" exactly as they are on the DVD (color, font, etc.).

Actually, here's what I read on HB:

When burned into the video, all styling (e.g. fonts, colors, etc) is preserved.
Animated effects (e.g. fade in/out, karaoke) are not currently supported. (Only the middle frame of the animation will be used.)
When passed-thru as text, only bold/italic/underline styles are preserved. Some players may not support the simultaneous display of multiple passed-thru SSA subtitles.
Click to expand...

I completely over-looked the obvious, WHEN burned in lol.

So MetaX has been ditched by the developer? Didn't know that. I read that there is a MetaZ and tried it but as I'm on Lion it didn't load.

I'm re-encoding the 14 m4v's and I'll be using Subler, although I have to admit MetaX is pretty good.

Thanks again everyone! Happy Easter! :)
 
S

spacepower7

macrumors 68000
May 6, 2004
1,509
1
bedifferent said:
Thanks Ed. I should have gone with my gut but being new to tagging and encoding I probably over researched (I'm a perfectionist lol) and misread it. I thought it simply meant the subtitles would be "burned in" exactly as they are on the DVD (color, font, etc.).

Actually, here's what I read on HB:



I completely over-looked the obvious, WHEN burned in lol.

So MetaX has been ditched by the developer? Didn't know that. I read that there is a MetaZ and tried it but as I'm on Lion it didn't load.

I'm re-encoding the 14 m4v's and I'll be using Subler, although I have to admit MetaX is pretty good.

Thanks again everyone! Happy Easter! :)
Click to expand...

MetaX is blaaaahhhhh

Subler is decent at tagging but I still can't get it to work to tag existing files, it might be my fault.

iFlicks is good on and off, doing things differently in different versions.

Identify2 now has a light version that will do much of your tagging for free. There are extra options if you get the paid version.

I've used subler for awhile and just started testing iFlicks and Indentify Lite throughout the last week. I haven't made a final decision yet, I prefer iflicks interface but I played with 3 different versions that all function a little differently. I've been using identify lite more the last 2 days and also like it. I might buy the full versions of both, and see how they progress over time.
 
3

3282868

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jan 8, 2009
5,281
0
spacepower7 said:
MetaX is blaaaahhhhh

Subler is decent at tagging but I still can't get it to work to tag existing files, it might be my fault.

iFlicks is good on and off, doing things differently in different versions.

Identify2 now has a light version that will do much of your tagging for free. There are extra options if you get the paid version.

I've used subler for awhile and just started testing iFlicks and Indentify Lite throughout the last week. I haven't made a final decision yet, I prefer iflicks interface but I played with 3 different versions that all function a little differently. I've been using identify lite more the last 2 days and also like it. I might buy the full versions of both, and see how they progress over time.
Click to expand...

I just tried and bought iDentify, I like it. Nice GUI, it checks a myriad of sources and seems easy to configure. The reviews were very positive so I'm hopeful this might make my life a little easier. :)

Thanks mate!
 
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