www.makemkv.com

Handbrake has supported forced subtitles for sometimes. It's PGS subtitles that have only recently been supported.

However, the technique you mentioned should work.

SC

Hmmm... I just tried what I described. Take the main sub track, burn it once "normally" in handbrake and choose it again and choose "forced" and "burned in" but it did not work.

You can only burn in one track.

I'm not sure what you are seeing in Handbrake's Subtitles tab, but the first line would just be the subtitle stream that you want, then the second stream would have Forced, and Burn In checked (if that's what you wanted).

Of course posting a log goes a looooong way to helping us to help you.

SC

If the output is MP4, then yes, you can only do one track, and it is burned in...

But, if the output is MKV, handbrake will copy the PGS subtitles to the resulting MKV file, and (assuming player support) they are all available.

The player support of PGS is the problem...

I should point out that my challenge/issue appears to be with handbrake and not with MakeMKV, I was just hoping that others more experienced than myself could help me understand how handbrake deals with forced and regular subs in the same title as I have always gotten an extremely frosty reception at the handbrake forums.

I rip to MKV with MakeMKV and rip the main and forced subs. Since the main sub track should also include the forced subs I try to set handbrake (compressing to MKV not MP4) to use the main sub track twice, once as a full sub track (not burned in not forced) and a 2nd time with forced and burned-in options selected. This does not seem to work.

I will keep experimenting. If I find a solution I will respond here. My end goal is to have an MKV file that is compressed to 720P (I just use the ATV2 preset for convenience and then change from MP4 to MKV) but has both the full PGS subtitle track as well as the forced subs either set to come on automatically (forced flag) or burned into the video.

Also, using XBMC, which fully supports PGS and forced PGS subs.

Once again, an encode log would really help!

SC

What debug level would be required in the encode log to provide useful information? P.S. This is what I'm trying to do, although I'd be even happier of the 2nd track could be marked "forced" for playback without having to be burned in video.

If your output is to and MKV, then you don't need to burn any subs in.

I believe the highest logging level is 2. You would set it from the preferences screen. I forget which tab has it, but go through them and you'll find the one for Logging Level.

SC

Smithcraft wrote:If your output is to and MKV, then you don't need to burn any subs in.

I believe the highest logging level is 2. You would set it from the preferences screen. I forget which tab has it, but go through them and you'll find the one for Logging Level.

SC

Okay, I will get a log, here's my question.

If the subs aren't burned in, and the "forced" option is selected in Handbrake, is it supposed to turn the "forced" flag on so that the subtitles that are forced display automatically? I am suspecting that this is not the current behavior.

Thanks.

Burned In means that the subtitles become a part of the image. When you select Forced Only, it looks at the codes in the subtitle stream to find the forced subs and makes a new stream with the forced subs and not all of the subs.

SC

voip-ninja wrote:

Smithcraft wrote:If your output is to and MKV, then you don't need to burn any subs in.

I believe the highest logging level is 2. You would set it from the preferences screen. I forget which tab has it, but go through them and you'll find the one for Logging Level.

SC

Okay, I will get a log, here's my question.

If the subs aren't burned in, and the "forced" option is selected in Handbrake, is it supposed to turn the "forced" flag on so that the subtitles that are forced display automatically? I am suspecting that this is not the current behavior.

No. It means HandBrake will only include subtitle "frames" that are flagged as forced in the source subtitle track.

Romansh wrote:

voip-ninja wrote:

Smithcraft wrote:If your output is to and MKV, then you don't need to burn any subs in.

I believe the highest logging level is 2. You would set it from the preferences screen. I forget which tab has it, but go through them and you'll find the one for Logging Level.

SC

Okay, I will get a log, here's my question.

If the subs aren't burned in, and the "forced" option is selected in Handbrake, is it supposed to turn the "forced" flag on so that the subtitles that are forced display automatically? I am suspecting that this is not the current behavior.

No. It means HandBrake will only include subtitle "frames" that are flagged as forced in the source subtitle track.

Ok, so basically it will separate out the forced frames just like MakeMKV does when it creates a separate forced subtitle track if I am understanding you correctly.

And, to get the subs to appear automatically that are forced, I would still need to go into MKVMerge or another similar application and mark the "forced" sub track (whether created in MakeMKV or Handbrake) as "forced flag=y".

If that's the case, I will see if I can make an enhancement request for Handbrake to automatically mark the forced subs that it finds as "forced" so that they display automatically during playback in media players that support forced subs (XBMC, Boxee, PCH and others).

That feature request has already been made. Not sure if/when it'd get implemented though.

OK, thanks, that answers it. I think I will just do what I ended up going with for these rips which was I just took the forced track from MakeMKV and told Handbrake to burn it in.