The VideoLAN Forums

G'day folks...

I have a hearing loss and can only watch movies with english subtitles (or captions, etc). All is rosy when the given DVD title has an english subtitle option. But this isn't always the case. In the circumstance where subtitles are not an option, I have been trying to use open source .srt files with VLC. I say "trying" because I'm only part-way through achieving success with this method. Hence this call for help...

I've tried loading the .srt file in the MRL, then switching to the "disc" tab and opening the DVD from there. This comes up with lots of errors along the lines of "main: demux doesn't like DEMUX_GET_TIME".

I then tried opening the first chapter .vob file, whilst loading the .srt file from the the MRL "file" tab. This was successful until that chapter ends because the player does not automatically jump to the next chapters .vob file.

So, I'd really like to be able to use .srt files with my DVD titles, successfully, and any help would be mostly appreciated.

Kind Regards
Ryan

Don't open the vob but open the DVD without the menus.
And then open a subtitle.

Don't open the vob but open the DVD without the menus.
And then open a subtitle.

How do I do this, exactly? Sorry! Me Ignoramus!

Go to:
File >> Open Disc...

And select "DVD" (not "DVD (menus)") as the "Disc type". The main DVD title should start playback (without menus). Then drag and drop the *.srt file onto the video to add it.

Arite.

Go to:
File >> Open Disc...

And select "DVD" (not "DVD (menus)") as the "Disc type". The main DVD title should start playback (without menus). Then drag and drop the *.srt file onto the video to add it.

Arite.

Brilliance. Thanks all!

Go to:
File >> Open Disc...

And select "DVD" (not "DVD (menus)") as the "Disc type". The main DVD title should start playback (without menus). Then drag and drop the *.srt file onto the video to add it.

Arite.

Ok. Two things. 1. I hate to drag this on. 2. This may get OS specific?

The drag n drop part is simply not working.

I have Mac OS X 10.4, and VLC 0.8.6d.

Cheers again.

Go to:
File >> Open Disc...

And select "DVD" (not "DVD (menus)") as the "Disc type". The main DVD title should start playback (without menus). Then drag and drop the *.srt file onto the video to add it.

Arite.

this feature clearly doesn't work. I have the same behavior. Sometimes they show up, sometimes not, sometimes not for the specified time (usually shorter)
What is strange is that this is the method specified in the MacOS X readme file...

I need:
- extract the movie
- convert it to avi
- play it with quicktime player with Perian installed. I have perfect syncing when I do that.

10.4.11, vlc 0.8.6f

Go to:
File >> Open Disc...

And select "DVD" (not "DVD (menus)") as the "Disc type". The main DVD title should start playback (without menus). Then drag and drop the *.srt file onto the video to add it.

Arite.

this feature clearly doesn't work. I have the same behavior. Sometimes they show up, sometimes not, sometimes not for the specified time (usually shorter)
What is strange is that this is the method specified in the MacOS X readme file...

I need:
- extract the movie
- convert it to avi
- play it with quicktime player with Perian installed. I have perfect syncing when I do that.

10.4.11, vlc 0.8.6f

Okay. Are there any alternatives to this work around? Why is the drag n drop not working?

Right. Whether I drag n drop the .srt, or open the DVD "without menus" and load the .srt, the same problem exists. That is, the subtitles only appear briefly part way into the DVD and then disappear. What's going on?

Go to:
File >> Open Disc...

And select "DVD" (not "DVD (menus)") as the "Disc type". The main DVD title should start playback (without menus). Then drag and drop the *.srt file onto the video to add it.

This doesn't work for me either. I'm using VLC 1.0.3 (I loyally update my VLC installation ).

Question(s): Is this problems solved or discussed in another thread? If not, is there a bug tracking item I can subscribe to?

Thank you,
foobar

SRT with DVD is still not working

Media Player Classic does support this. I think it is time for VLC to solve this, cause this is a big disadvantage.

It works fine for me. I just select the right DVD title/chapter, than Right click -> Videos / Subtitles / Open file.

For me it's still not working.

Sometimes I do get it working when playing a DVD from the begin without forwarding/seeking, and that for 20 minutes. Then after that time the subtitle disappears. From that moment I hardly get it working again.
And when you seek or forward on the DVD then you can forget about the subtitle, it doesn't show correctly anymore.

So it's kind of buggy.

@foobar I created a ticket http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/3632

For all other people, is this really working for you? Could you reply and say if it works or doesn't.

We use both DVD Player and VLC for our movie watching. We generally prefer VLC, mostly for the extended "gamma" control. Our projector does not have enough range on this control, and it's very nice to have this control in software. When we don't have enough gamma (like when we use DVD Player) all the night scenes disappear into the darkness. (Some call this phenomenon "black crush".) I wish extended gamma were in the OS's DVD driver, so that all video sources could have the benefit. Maybe one day I'll figure out how to route those other sources through VLC.

We also use subtitles and captions. We prefer captions on musicals because they are likely to have song lyrics, while subtitles rarely do. (We figure it's some kind of licensing issue.) We prefer subtitles over captions on pretty-picture films because we figure the cinematographer just might have a bit more influence on exactly how and where the subtitles appear. Sometimes we put on both at the same time, for various reasons.

Most of our movies come from NetFlix, and we'll just send it back if has neither captions nor subtitles. If it's a good movie, I'll try using earphones, but even they do not always satisfy my need to know what the actors said.

One time a couple of years ago a really good movie had no captions and the dialog wasn't working with the earphones, so I decided to find out what was meant by VLC's "Video -> Subtitles Track -> Open File..." menu. I surfed and was delighted to find that I was able to download an .srt file, choose it via the "Open File" menu, et voila! Subtitles, or captions (Which would they be at this point?), appeared where there had been none!

This was a really cool feature. It warmed my appreciation for VLC considerably. I could foresee a cottage industry abudding.

Excited as I was, I didn't actually use this feature again for years. Until, last night, I did the same thing and it didn't work. A "Track 1" submenu item appeared, but no words appeared.

I looked at the .srt file with TextEdit. I even did a "Save As" to create a new file and examined a hex dump with TextWrangler (in case my internet source was doing some flim-flam with special characters). Everything seemed in place. It looks like a righteous .srt file. Here's a taste:

1
00:01:27,654 --> 00:01:33,820
O great American multitude,
and sports fans everywhere.

2
00:01:33,893 --> 00:01:39,024
Today we inaugurate the 20th annual
Transcontinental Road Race.

(Can you guess the movie?)


I tried it on a different machine. Still no go.


What could be different now from that time when it worked so smoothly years ago?

1) The OS? I'm on Snow now. Back then I was probably on Tiger.

2) VLC? Both machines are on 1.1.5 Intel 64-bit. Heaven alone knows what version I was using when it worked.

3) The DVD? Reading some discussions on this board, I get the impression that DVDs are not quite identical. What sorts of differences might matter?

4) Me? A likely source. I find VLC menus a little above my pay grade. Have you a hunch where I might have made a wrong turn?

I'd appreciate any suggestions. It'd be nice to learn to operate this feature reliably.

Also any recommendation for .srt sources would be welcome. I got this one from http://www.opensubtiles.org (or so it is labelled with a corresponding .nfo file.)

--Gil

Did you try to open the DVD with "no menus" option?

Did you try to open the DVD with "no menus" option?

I hadn't, but I tried it. Didn't seem to make any difference. Here's what I did, in detail:

1. Inserted DVD. (Autostart not enabled.) Waited for DVD icon to appear on the desktop.

2. Launched VLC 1.1.5 from the Dock.

2. Typed Command-D. An "Open Source" window opened.

3. This time I noticed and checked the "No DVD Menus" option. Then I typed the "Enter" key.

4. Waited for the actual movie to start, then scrolled in a few minutes to get to where there would be some dialog.

5. Pulled down from Video to "Subtitles track". The only option was "Open File...". I selected it.

6. Navigated to the file I had downloaded named "Death Race 2000 (1975).srt". After a few seconds the "Open" button turned blue, and I clicked it.

7. No subtitles appeared.

8. Pulled down again from Video to "Subtitles track". Now there were three options: "Open File...", "Disable" and "Track 1". "Track 1" was checked.

9. Still no subtitles after letting movie run for..., now it's over 10 minutes.

--Gil