Preserving Subtitles

[taran42]

I recently found Make MKV and have began using it to rip my Blu-Ray and DVD collections. I often watch movies/shows when the children are in bed, so I turn the volume down an turn subtitles on, but this isn't always the case. So I want to keep the availability to turn subtitles on/off, depending on when I'm watching something. Make MKV allows me to embed the subtitles with the availability to do this, but the file size is too large so I have been converting the videos. When I convert the videos, I can't seem to find a way to keep the optional subtitles - I have to choose to leave them off or burned in. I'm using Handbrake to do this, and from my understanding, Handbrake doesn't have the option to use optional subtitles.

My question is: are there better/other converting programs out there that will allow me to make MP4s (or even MKVs) and keep optional subtitles within the video (not using an external text file)?

[Woodstock]

If your player can handle MKV files, you can preserve switchable subtitles. If you're limited to MP4 (m4v) files, your subtitle choices get very limited.

Handbrake (from handbrake.fr) can do both file types. MP4 can only handle text-based subtitles (officially) and DVD-type image subtitles (an extension that does NOT work for Apple products!). The PGS subtitles found in Bluray must be burned into the video on MP4, and you're limited to a single subtitle track.

When the output is MKV, the subtitle choices expand to text-based, and both VOBSUB (DVD) and PGS (BD) image-based subtitles.

[taran42]

Woodstock, thanks for the reply. I tried using Handbrake to convert my large MKV to a smaller MKV and keep the optional subtitles, but I can't seem to get it to work. I must be doing something wrong. I'm selecting the PGS subtitles from the subtitle tab, but's it's not giving me optional subtitles in the video output. I've tried a combination of settings with Force Only and Default, but none seem to work. Do you have any additional suggestions?

[Woodstock]

You'll need your encode log from handbrake, and can post the question over on forum.handbrake.fr. If you don't know where the logs are, they have a link (outlined in "pink") explaining where they are.

The one thing to watch for is that some (most?) players automatically play the first subtitle track, no matter what. To "fix" that, you may need to rearrange the subtitle tracks, or create a fake "forced only" track as the first track. If there are two subtitle tracks per language, about 80% of the time, the "signs and writing only" track is the first, and the second one is "everything". But about 20% of the time, they're reversed.

You can find out if this is the case by watching the original MKV file in VLC, and toggling between the subtitle tracks.

[taran42]

Yeah, I ran into that multiple-subtitle-track thing. I was able to rip the MKV with just the one subtitle track that I wanted. So in my current MKV, there is only one subtitle track available. I just can't seem to get it to stay available when compressing it with Handbrake. I'll post over on their forums and see if I can get an answer. Thanks.

Do you know of a better utility for compressing my MKV file other than Handbrake?

[Woodstock]

Not really. Some would say that, if you can manage the command line options, ffmpeg is more powerful, but I'll stick with handbrake.

[Chetwood]

I've tried a combination of settings with Force Only and Default, but none seem to work.

https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php? ... ost1529562

[taran42]

Thanks for the link Chetwood. I'll see what MKVToolNix can do for me.

[taran42]

So I was finally able to get this to work in Handbrake. It looks like I was just selecting the wrong options (although I swear I looked through all possible combinations).

To get it to work, I chose Foreign Audio Scan in the first subtitle option and checked off Forced Only and Burn In. I chose my subtitle language (English) in the second line and checked off Default for it. I guess that's the combination I missed before. Below is my post on Handbrake with the code and all.

https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.ph ... 83#p171683