I recently attempted converting a movie with the nightly version of handbrake and the resulting mp4 file does not seem to have any subtitles. I selected a few subtitle tracks I wanted and chose not to burn them in, in hopes that I could select the subtitle track I wanted. Yet, none of these tracks made it through to the final file. Is it possible to make the subtitles from a blu ray mkv selectable in an mp4 file, or do you have to burn them in? Really, I just want to be able to have the forced subtitles burned in, but I am afraid to use the foreign audio search and screw up a bunch of rips by burning in subtitles!
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Subtitles with Handbrake?
- Thread starter hi-fi-video
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To make them selectable, they have to be .srt files. That is, they have to be text files. The subtitles in regular dvd's and blu rays are image files. Think of it as one movie overlaid on another. The base movie is one image and the subtitle movie is a different image, sort of like a double exposure. This applies to regular and forced subtitles. You can use OCR to take these image files and convert them to text files, but that is process that I would only recommend in circumstances where you have to have soft subtitles and you can't find them anywhere else.
If you are ok with burning BR forced subtitles in the rip, I would recommend using the HB nightly, using Foreign Audio Search, forced, burn-in. At worst, it will not find your forced subtitles and do nothing.
I used the nightly build to convert the PGS subtitles for the mp4 file. I am assuming that this is an issue with the nightly build of handbrake and that the solution is to just use the burn-in option.
Yes, you have to burn them in or you will get nothing.
Like I said, there are processes for "soft" subs, ones that you can turn on/off and if you search my posts on the forum you will find them. Good luck.
I've read this thread, along with countless others, but I just can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong, and hope someone can help me out.
I'm trying to make a copy of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. When I put the disc through MakeMKV the first time, I checked only English forced subtitles:
![ScreenShot2012-08-23at72312AM.png]()
I checked the MKV under VLC, and saw no subtitles during the Russian language part of the movie, but decided to continue anyway.
I put this MKV through Handbrake, clicked foreign audio search under Subtitles, and did the conversion process. No subtitles came out in the result.
I then made another MKV, this time checking ALL English subtitle boxes:
![ScreenShot2012-08-23at72503AM-1.jpg]()
I saw all subtitles, English and Russian, in VLC. Put this through Handbrake the same as before, and got no forced subs during the Russian part.
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, and hoping someone can walk me through the process to get it right.
Thanks
I'm trying to make a copy of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. When I put the disc through MakeMKV the first time, I checked only English forced subtitles:
I checked the MKV under VLC, and saw no subtitles during the Russian language part of the movie, but decided to continue anyway.
I put this MKV through Handbrake, clicked foreign audio search under Subtitles, and did the conversion process. No subtitles came out in the result.
I then made another MKV, this time checking ALL English subtitle boxes:
I saw all subtitles, English and Russian, in VLC. Put this through Handbrake the same as before, and got no forced subs during the Russian part.
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, and hoping someone can walk me through the process to get it right.
Thanks
Ben,
I recently ripped Ghost Protocol using the latest official build of HB (not a nightly). I selected "foreign bitmap search" on the subtitle page, and got all the non-English dialog subtitles burned in on the resulting file.
There are some movies that this feature misses (as discussed above), but MIGP is not one of them.
I recently ripped Ghost Protocol using the latest official build of HB (not a nightly). I selected "foreign bitmap search" on the subtitle page, and got all the non-English dialog subtitles burned in on the resulting file.
There are some movies that this feature misses (as discussed above), but MIGP is not one of them.
I would recommend checking the highest level of english subtitles and not checking forced. Then take it to VLC to make sure you have the forced subs and what track they are (there may or may not be multiple subtitle tracks). After that, select the foreign audio search in HB (regular build for dvd/nightly build for BR).
The problem is that foreign language subtitles are handled in different ways by different movies. Some are imbedded and use a force flag to turn on/off the subtitle track (these are true forced subs), others have a separate track (not actually forced), etc. That's why forced subs are always so problematic. So the best thing is to provide ALL subtitles to HB and let it see if it can find the forced sub. If it can't find them, then it may be necessary to isolate the particular subtitle track from the original, eliminate other subtitles and remux the foreign language track back in. The send it to HB, select the track and burn it in.
Everyone hates forced subs. They can take some work. Sometimes it's just easier to find an srt online and mux it in using something like Subler.
Update: Thought you might be interested in this link about MI: Ghost Protocol forced subs: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1176923/movies-with-forced-subtitles/420
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I think this is it. I have elected English as my default language in MakeMKV, so it deselects everything but English audio and subtitle tracks automatically. It selects both the main and forced subtitle tracks, and I leave all this well alone.
Quite often, the "forced" subtitle track is actually an alternative English track of its own, and not a sub-set of the main track. It's best to select all English subs, and let HB sort 'em out.
I would like to give Dynaflash credit for that approach. IIRC, he provided that "hint" somewhere in this forum.
I bet if you scroll down, there's additional English subtitle tracks - one of those will be the non-English dialog so make sure to always select all English subtitle tracks, main and forced.
There were extra English tracks I missed. I checked them, threw it through Handrake, and still nothing?
Could you give me a step-by-step of your workflow with Mission Impossible so I can see where I'm going wrong?
Not much of a workflow. I ripped with MakeMKV, making sure that every English subtitle track was checked (forced and unforced). Then I loaded the rip into HB, using the ATV3 preset, I added the foreign bitmap search on the subtitle screen, checked Web Optimise, then encoded away.
MI:GP has some very complicated subs. Some start out in Russian and then fade into English. Some switch back and forth between italics and regular font (as the scene switches from one end of a phone call to the other). They were all there using the above process. I have no idea why you are getting a different result.
I have failed to do that one step before, as it often gets left out of instructions. You won't get the subtitles if you check the boxes but don't "Add" the track.
Am I doing something wrong here? Do I need to do anything additional to add them? Sorry for all the questions, but it's really annoying when I'm seemingly doing everything right.
Have you taken your mkv, that you are bringing to HB, and play it in VLC to make sure the forced subs play as expected?
Is it Blu ray? Is it US or other?
Try this:
Open it in VLC, go to a spot in the movie that has foreign language subtitles, when you see them, go to the subtitles tab pulldown in VLC and make a note of which subtitle track # is checked. Now load it into HB, go to the subtitle tab and choose the track # that you noted was checked in VLC. Run. (If you know exactly what chapter this occurs in, you can just run on that chapter to check)
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I forgot to mention, that after you select the track in HB, check burn-in (do not check "forced").
That looks right to me, (not for what mic J is saying to try, but for a normal situation) but I'm not used to the Mac version. The Windows version requires you to click a button labeled "Add" to include a subtitle. It doesn't appear that the Mac version requires that step.
Yeah, no add button on the Mac. I think he is doing things ok in HB. From what I have looked into, this BR has the "forced" subs in a separate track and often, when doing it that way, there is no "force" flag, so HB won't see it that way. HB has a second way to test for forced subs. It looks for a track that has <10% hits vs the other tracks (or something like that, not totally sure of the mechanism), but if you have any hits over that, it will ignore the track. Sometimes with these types of subtitles, it's just easier to locate the track yourself and tell HB what to do with it.
Since I set MakeMKV to include all English subs though, won't not selecting forced in HB cause HB to include all subs?
Not if you select the track manually. The way it sounds like you have your mkv ripped, when you click on the track window in HB you should see multiple VOBSUB tracks: none, 0, 1, 2 etc. Select the one the was being used by VLC to display the "forced" subtitles (although they are not really "forced" if there is no forced flag). If you select forced it will only burn in a track that has a forced flag. I don't think your's does and that's why HB is not picking it up. I've seen this occur before.