Subtitles!

[MorpheusOne]

I'm an American but, realistically, any English subtitles will do! In researching this problem I located what could have been a possible answer on a Google search...


"VLC doesn't display all subtitles -

If VLC has autodetected your subtitles file, or if you opened it manually, but VLC only diplays some subtitles from time to time, you will need to change the subtitles file encoding.

Go to Preferences -> Input / Codecs -> Other codecs -> Subtitles, and set Subtitle text encoding to the right one.

See this reference: ISO Standard for various characters sets."


Well, I went to "Preferences" & "Input & Codecs". The "Input & Codecs" ended up being called "Input & Codecs Settings" near the top of that window. Within that window there is four area's. On top is "Optical Drive". Obviously, this does not appear to be relevant to my problem. Then, the next one down, there was "Codecs" ...and this looked promising! Below that is "Files", which also appears to be irrelevant. And on the bottom "Network", which appears to be irrelevant, too.

In the second area down, "Codecs", there are two area's, the one on the left & the one on the right. Which reads as follows...


"Video quality post-processing level"

"[square] Use GPU acceleration (experimental)"

"Skip H.264 in-loop deblocking filter"

"[square] Use system codecs if available (better quality, but dangerous)"


In the area on the right, under "Codecs", there is two drop boxes. The one on top, the shorter one, seems to have a "6" in it by default & nothing goes into it but numbers, mostly single digits it seems. The longer one, on the bottom, has five choices and NONE OF THIS has anything to do with subtitles...

This situation is made even more aggravating by the presence of subtitles, in this video that I would like to understand, of some language that I really don't recognize but, I did get the impression that it was either Danish or Swedish as it appears to resemble German, which appears to be the language that the video that I am trying to watch is in. Is it possible to remove subtitles of a language once it has already been applied to a video?? I really hope so! It's annoying but, if I can slap some English subtitles on this puppy I'll try my darnedest to ignore the other unnecessary subtitles as best I can...

I am running Windows XP, 64 bit. And I have "VLC media player 1.1.9 The Luggage" and "Compiler: gcc version 4.4.4 (GCC)". I can't think of any other information that is necessary, or that might be, that I should include but if there is any other technical information that would be helpful then, please, ask!

Thank you...
Morpheus

[VLC_help]

For subtitles
Tools -> Preferences (Show settings: All) Input / Codecs -> Subtitle codecs -> Subtitles

You cannot remove burned-in subtitles with VLC. But if subtitles are soft subtitles, you can disable them via Video -> Subtitles track

[MorpheusOne]

Under "Input / Codecs" there is, from top to bottom, "Track settings", "Playback control", "Default devices", "Network settings", "Socks proxy", "Metadata", and Advanced". There is no "Subtitle codecs". "Subtitles", in some form, gets mentioned a few times under "Track settings" but it does so as "Subtitles track", "Subtitle language" and "Subtitles track ID". And that is the only area under "Input / Codecs" that even mentions it at all.

I don't have a clue WTF the difference is between subtitles and "soft subtitles" but, please, do explain that to me...

I clicked "Video" and hovering my cursor over "Subtitles Track" brings up a small rectangular box that has "Open File..." in it. When I click that it brings up a window that is apparently called "Open subtitles..."; it doesn't give me anything to disable! It is apparent that I am going to have to dl something, a file that will display English subtitles in a video, to be able to understand this video. I would appreciate it if you would just tell me exactly what that is and exactly where I can get it.

[VLC_help]

http://i.imgur.com/52RBy.jpg

If the Subtitles Track section only shows Open File... option, then the subtitles are burned into video.

[MorpheusOne]

Okay, so how do I display English subtitles in this video? From what I understand, it should be a file that has one of the following suffixes, .cdg, .idx, .srt, .sub, .utf, & .ass.

[VLC_help]

Yes, then use Subtitles Track -> Open File... and select the subtitle file. VLC will then display it.

[solazy]

Hi guys,

May I resume your words, concerning subtitles.
So it appears there are 3 different kind of subtitles :

1) Burned-in subtitles (or "hard subs")
Which can be compared to "hot iron cow branding"
Now that they're burned in the image, there is no way to make them disappear properly, as they're totally part of the image.
These burned-in subtitles won't appear in Vlc subtitle menu and there is no way to hide them

2) Soft subtitles
Imagine our movie is a single avi file.
Those "soft" subtitles are hidden somewhere within the avi file, but they're not burned in the image.
You may find different languages for these soft subtitles (for example up to 8 different languages in the same avi !)
Those soft subtitles will appear in Vlc subtitle menu (one menu bar = 1 language) and you can tick the one you want (or untick all if you don't want to see any subtitle)
At least, you know they are embedded in the movie and you can make them appear or disappear at your wish.

3) External subtitles
These are external individual files (as MorpheusOne noted it) : most usual are .srt files (which contain only 1 language) or the couple of files .sub + .idx that may contain up to 32 different languages !)

If you want those external subtitles files to be opened automatically when you double clic a movie in Windows Explorer, then you'll have to give those external subtitles files the same name that your movie, for example :

Dark Star.avi <= the movie file
Dark Star.srt <= the external subtitle file

If both names match, then Vlc will automatically open the subtitle file and display subtitles, as soon as you double click the movie file name.
This 3rd kind of subtitles (external files) will appear in Vlc subtitle menu, and you can tick /untick them, at your wish.

***********************
Now, MorpheusOne, you should be able to know where you're at :
As you wrote : "This situation is made even more aggravating by the presence of subtitles, in this video that I would like to understand, of some language that I really don't recognize"

With what explained before, you should exactly know what kind of subtitles you already got with your movie :
* case 1 = hard subs = nothing shows in Vlc subtitle menu and no external subtitle file matches the movie name in Windows Explorer
* case 2 = soft subs = bars show in Vlc subtitles menu (one bar = 1 language) and no external subtitle file matches the movie name in Windows Explorer
* case 3 = external subs = bars show in Vlc subtitles menu (one bar = 1 language) and there are external subtitle file(s) matching the movie name in Windows Explorer

If you're in case 2 or 3 and you don't find english subtitles after ticking each different bar in Vlc subtitles menu, then you'll have to google and find an external subtitle file (.srt is the best) on one of the numerous subtitles websites, download the file, rename it so its name matches exactly the movie name (as explained before)

I hope you'll make it, because when you'll find the external subtitle file, you'll have to cross your fingers that the sync is ok, without any lag between what you hear and what you read... but that's another problem.

Good luck

PS: Maybe Vlc_help will explain us that "external subtitles" are often considered as "soft subtitles" but I thought it was better to make a clear distinction between them, to avoid confusion.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

You know, there is a wiki for those kind of awesome posts!

[solazy]

Wow "awesome post", we're honored j-b !
Not sure they'd compare "Burned-in subtitles" to "Hot iron cow branding" on wiki
You'll read this on Vlc Forums only lol

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

This is excellent documentation. It should go on the wiki. http://wiki.videolan.org/Subtitles

[VLC_help]

I added it to Wiki. After few days we should see PETA attacking us.