Subtitle with empty title

[JanCeuleers]

I have a DVD which has several subtitle tracks which have their languages specified. Then there are additional subtitle tracks (which contain only the forced subtitles) which do not. I am unable to rip that DVD with the forced subtitles because MakeMKV skips those unnamed subtitle tracks. How can I teach it to not do that?

[Woodstock]

Have you told MakeMKV you have a preferred language? If so, un-check that box. The general rule for MakeMKV (which you can change in Expert mode) is to only select subtitle and language tracks in your preferred language, if you selected one.

[JanCeuleers]

No, the preferred language is set to none.

[JanCeuleers]

Also, where can I find documentation about Expert Mode?

[Woodstock]

Some information about Expert mode: Changing names with Expert mode enabled

[Grauhaar]

I am unable to rip that DVD with the forced subtitles because MakeMKV skips those unnamed subtitle tracks. How can I teach it to not do that?

Extract of "Forced flagged" subtitles works only for Blu-ray and not for DVD. There is also no selection for DVDs Forced flagged subtitles.

For DVDs MakeMKV writes the complete subtitle track (with or without forced flagged subtiltes) in one file. If you want the flagged titles seperated you can do this with the Tool "BD SUB2SUP". Extract first the subtitle track with other tools (f.e. MKVExtract) from the created MKV file and remerge the new forced track later with MKVToolNIX.

[JanCeuleers]

Thanks for the replies. Perhaps I'm not asking the question clearly.

See the attached screenshot. On the right you can see that vlc has found more subtitle tracks than MakeMKV has. The one I want is no. 13 - I have experimentally determined that it contains forced-only English subtitles. How can I get MakeMKV to see that subtitle track? And perhaps rename it so that Handbrake also sees it?

[Woodstock]

Would the unnamed subtitles happen to be for German, English, Turkish, German, English, German, English, and Turkish, respectively?

I'm wondering if VLC is "creating" subtitle tracks on the fly because it detected "forced only" flags in use.

[JanCeuleers]

According to https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/1135 VLC does not currently know about forced subtitles on DVDs. So no, the unnamed subtitles do not seem to have been created by VLC.

Note that whereas this VLC ticket was opened a long time ago the most recent entries are not that old (3 months)

[Grauhaar]

I think there is a flag in the DVDs IFO files with indicates that an specific subtitle stream contains normal and forced flagged subtitles. Maybe that VLC analyse this flag and shows the selection option that only the forced flagged subtitles from this subtitle stream are played.

But you can get the needed subtitles, as written above, MakeMKV cannot separate forced flagged subtitles from an mixxed subtitle track (normal and forced flagged) for DVDs. Rip the file with the needed subtitle tracks with MakeMKV and extract the subtitle track with an tool (f.e. mkvextract) and use "BD Sub2Sup" to extract only the forced flagges subtitles (the save dialog from "BD Sub2Sup" have this the option) into an new subitle track. Then use "MKVToolNIX GUI" to include the old mkv file and the new subtitle file (move to the right position and set the right language and flags) and muxx it into a new complete mkv file.
This works and I have done this many times (automated with an Powershell script) to get the forced flagged subs extracted, check if any forced, separate them and remuxx it.