Saving subtitle/video setting

[Marcellino]

I have a Spanish divx video without subtitles for which I've managed to download the subtitles (.srt file).

When I play the video with VLC player, enabling subtitles and synchronizing the subtitles with the video, it plays perfectly. However, after viewing the film and closing the player, if I want to re-open the player to view the film again I find that I have to go through the same process of subtitles and video synchronization each time I do so. Is there any way that I can save the settings so as not to have to do this each time I view that particular video? Thank you.

[akbeaman]

There is no way to save settings individually for different files.

There is a way to do what you want outside of VLC but it may not be easy.

The first part is easy enough. Just rename the movie file and/or the subtitles file to have the same name and VLC will automatically load the subtitles when you play the movie. For example "Jesus.Loves.Me.avi" and "Jesus.Loves.Me.srt" in the same folder and every time you watch "Jesus.Loves.Me.avi" the subtitles will load automatically.

To adjust the synchronizing of the subtitles to where they should appear in the movie you can open the .srt file in a text editor and manually edit the time points that each subtitle displays between. Or you can use a free subtitles editor to make it easier. If you think the movie is worth the extra effort to fix the subtitles file, here are a few freeware subtitle editors (or you can Google it and find more).

SubCreator http://www.radioactivepages.com/subcreator.aspx

Subtitle Workshop http://www.urusoft.net/products.php?cat=sw&lang=1

Subtitle Processor http://sourceforge.net/projects/subtitleproc/

[akbeaman]

Also:

SubMagic http://www.submagic.tk/

VisualSubSync http://www.visualsubsync.org/

Subtitle Edit http://www.nikse.dk/se/

This is the fix for what you want. Have fun.

[akbeaman]

You've got to try this one too.

Time Adjuster http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Time_Adjuster

So simple! It changes all the time points by the measure you set - all at once. Quick work!

[Marcellino]

Thanks very much for those links, Akbeaman.

I'm trying 'Submagic' and will get back to you with my results. At the moment, while in the process of adding the video and .srt subtitles to my burner, it's indicating that codec tag "DXSB" is unsupported. It's burning away though, so I'll let you know how things go.

[akbeaman]

You're welcome.

I had the same wish but VLC couldn't do it. Maybe that feature could be incorporated into a new playlist format some day.

Meanwhile there are other ways!

I think SubMagic is great but it sure could use a help file. Subtitle Workshop is also good but maybe a little complicated with all the features (it does have a help file though). Subtitle Edit may not have a jazzy title but it looks like the best to me for the combination of features, simplicity, and a great help file (although the help page is on the web).

I installed them all. After all they are FREE.

Yes, let me know how well your editing goes with SubMagic.

[Marcellino]

Ok, so here's how things went with SubMagic.

I added the .srt file to SubMagic and went into 'Synchronization'. I chose to advance the start of the subtitles 7.7 seconds ahead of the audio, as the the original .srt subtitles were lagging 7.7 seconds behind. Now when I play the divx video in VLC Player and add the .srt file (video>subtitles track>open file) the audio and the subtitles are playing at the same time every time.

This program is fine for editing .srt files, but is obviously designed for playing .avi movies. It won't for example, play .divx files if you want to check how well you've synchronized things. I'll review the other programs you mentioned - and many thanks!

By the way, when I used my 'ConvertXtoDVD4' program (an excellent tool) to burn both .divx and .srt files onto the one dvd disk I got the message 'codec tag "DXSB" unsupported'. So apparently 'ConvertXtoDVD4' has a problem with DXSB. I'll need to get another which can do the burning job. If I find one I'll let you know.

[Marcellino]

To play a '.divx+.srt' combo in VLC player, go to 'media>advanced open files', then in 'file selection' choose 'add' to select your .divx file. At the same time put a tick in the 'uses a subtitles file' box and browse for your .srt file. Click 'play' and they'll both play together. As akbeaman said, give both files (.divx & .srt) the same name before their relevent file type.

[akbeaman]

VLC should automatically load the .srt file without being told to just by playing the movie file when the .srt file has the same name and is in the same directory as the movie file. Always does for me. When I get a movie with subtitles I don't need or want I always make a new subfolder to put them in so they won't get loaded. Otherwise I would have to manually disable the subtitle track after the movie starts. If you are renaming the files and they are in the same folder VLC does't need to be told where they nor asked to load them. It loads the like-named .srt by default.

As far as playing .divx movies is concerned, I could be wrong but I believe divx movies are always AVI files encoded with a divx codec. So if you change the file ext to .avi it should play as long as the codec is installed on your system. Since VLC installs all its own codecs instead of using the codecs installed on your system, just because a file plays in VLC doesn't necessarily mean its codec is installed in your system.

If you need to install system codecs to make another application work, there are more choices at this place than anywhere else:

http://www.codecs.com/

SubMagic offers a lot but I like Subtitle Edit http://www.nikse.dk/se/ because of its help page. It also does most (not all) of what SubMagic does but it seems simpler. It also lets you view the movie inside its program window. Stick with SubMagic though if you like it and already have mastered using it. Viewing the movie just depends on installing the codecs.

The reason behind the error you were getting when you were burning your files to a disk is that .srt files are not the correct subtitle format for DVD. You need to convert your subtitle file to .sub format which SubMagic (and most of the other editors) can do for you. Then try supplying the .sub file to ConvertXtoDVD for the subtitle track instead of specifying the .srt file. Everything should work the way you want then.

Good luck and let me know if this helped.