How to create SRT files?

[User1138]

Just getting up to speed on MakeMKV & Handbrake on Windows 10. I am trying to figure out how to extract SRT files. I backed up a couple of blu-rays (backup with MakeMKV and encode with HandBrake), but realize now that I did not make any selections for SRT files. I see the option within MakeMKV for the ccextractor location in advanced preferences and pointed it to mmccextr64.exe, but not sure what else I'm supposed to do. I read the below link and still not entirely clear on the process. www.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18285. A few questions: 1) If I have used HandBrake to create MKVs from MakeMKV backups am I able to make SRTs from the *.MKV files? Or do I have to go back and re-encoded? 2) What is the optimal way to create SRT files if I am backing up my blu-rays? I apologize for this new user question; however, I have read a few google searches on this topic and still not 100% clear about where to start.

[Woodstock]

You cannot "extract" an SRT file from a DVD or Bluray, because they aren't any there.

You can use tools to extract the types of subtitles that DO exist there (VOBSUB on DVD, PGS on BD), then convert them to (hopefully good) SRT files with optical character recognition software. There are a few of those out there.

[User1138]

Thank you for the response. Two follow up question: 1) May I ask what what software you use to extract the subtitles and convert them to SRT? 2) When I created a Backup of a bluray when using MakeMkv, does it automatically copy the subtitles? I ask because when I copied a few discs I had the option Advanced>ccextractor executable location blank. Since it blank does that mean I need to go back and make new backups to include the subtitles?

[Woodstock]

To extract the subtitle tracks from an MKV, mkvtoolnix has several ways. You can also use one of the tools, mkvmerge, to put the SRT into the MKV file after you're done.

Converting to SRT isn't something I've ever done, so I cannot make a recommendation there. At least one of the tools I've read about, BD2Sup2Sub, used to require Java to be installed, but that may have changed.

A "Backup" via MakeMKV contains everything the original disk had, minus the encryption if you chose to remove it. The subtitles are usually kept in the M2TS files, but the play list files control what gets displayed.

[Chetwood]

As the name suggests BDSup2Sub converts only bitmap based subs to other bitmap subs, there's no OCR. There's two tools you can use (on Windows) that do the job well:

DVD Subtitle Extractor 1.0.3.2
Unlike the name suggests you can also open PGS subs extracted from BDs/MKVs.

Subtitle Edit
Subtitle edit can even open subs from inside m2ts and MKV and use an engine like Tesseract to OCR.

It depends on your workflow what you prefer to use. You can use TSMuxer to demux the PGS subs from the BD's m2ts or use MKVCleaver to demux them from the MKVs or use Subtitle Edit but I prefer to use Subextractor. If the image quality of the sub is good (usually the case on BDs) it's really fast and easy to use. Subtitle Edit asks for words not in its dictionary which often takes more time.