Forced subtitles as part of main subs. track - advice requested

[LimaAlphaHotel]

Hi (new board member here),

I've been slowly ripping my DVD and BluRay collection so the disks can go in the loft and we don't have to keep swapping them (and my wife get's the shelves back!). Most disks with so-called "forced subtitles" have a separate track with them in or burned into the film itself, which makes them fairly easy to deal with (setting default and forced on the appropriate subs track is enough for Plex).

I've come across a few films, such as 50 First Dates and Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day where the forced subs are part of the full subtitle track but are individually marked as forced for the few subs that are narrating foreign language sections, for example. I've managed to extract just the forced subs using BDSup2Sub but I'm not sure if adding my own sub track to the MKV is the right way to do this, or am I missing something obvious like a flag I need to set to make if just used the "forced" subs from the existing track (and ignore the others) by default?

Any advice or help would be hugely appreciated - I love this forum, I've learnt so much from you guys from just reading other posts already!

[Woodstock]

MakeMKV will try to pull forced subtitles from tracks. It will put them in a separate track, which is deleted if they source didn't use the forced flag.

You are right that use of the flag is very rare; I've only seen it on one title myself, but obviously you've found some others.

Personally, I have MakeMKV rip ALL tracks, including the "forced only" subs from within full tracks, then watch the result with VLC to find out which subtitle tracks have what I want. Then handbrake is used to make the files smaller AND move the audio and subtitle tracks around to what I want. THEN the result goes on the NAS for viewing.

[Grauhaar]

I've managed to extract just the forced subs using BDSup2Sub but I'm not sure if adding my own sub track to the MKV is the right way to do this, or am I missing something obvious like a flag I need to set to make if just used the "forced" subs from the existing track (and ignore the others) by default?

MakeMKV does only support the extraction of forced "flagged" subtitles from the subtitle track for Blu-rays and NOT for DVDs. So for DVDs the only way is to extract the subtitle track from the MKV file, use BDsup2sub to save only the forced "flagged" subtitles to an new subtitle track and add them with "MKVToolNIX GUI".

[LimaAlphaHotel]

MakeMKV will try to pull forced subtitles from tracks. It will put them in a separate track, which is deleted if they source didn't use the forced flag.

It's not ripping the forced subtitles as a separate track for these DVDs. Even with

Code: Select all

+sel:all

it doesn't find a separate track with just the forced subtitles.

Personally, I have MakeMKV rip ALL tracks, including the "forced only" subs from within full tracks, then watch the result with VLC to find out which subtitle tracks have what I want. Then handbrake is used to make the files smaller AND move the audio and subtitle tracks around to what I want. THEN the result goes on the NAS for viewing.

I'm also ripping all tracks, using MKVToolNix to alter the default/forced flags as appropriate then using that mkv for viewing - which works really well for me. Personally, I want as close to the original disk experience (sans menus) as possible so I can store the disks away in the loft without sacrificing quality or extras.

MakeMKV does only support the extraction of forced "flagged" subtitles from the subtitle track for Blu-rays and NOT for DVDs. So for DVDs the only way is to extract the subtitle track from the MKV file, use BDsup2sub to save only the forced "flagged" subtitles to an new subtitle track and add them with "MKVToolNIX GUI".

Perfect, sounds like I'm doing exactly what I need to I just wanted to check I wasn't doing something completely daft!

Thank you both!