Tools and other software Do I need handrake as well as videoredo? (1 Viewer)

[doveman]

Unfortunately it seems that Mediaportal stores the subtitles in the .ts as images, unlike MCE or NPVR which store them as text and this means that MCEBuddy can't extract and convert them.

I'll ask if this can be changed so that the subs are stored in the .ts as text.

 

[foxbenw]

I don't really know enough about this, but I thought that DVB subs were images anyway? Are you sure that MCE/NPVR convert them to text? That would require some form of OCR, no? That's what i have played with in the past but got bored and kept the ts files as they are instead.

 

[doveman]

I think it's more the case that in other countries the subs are transmitted as text, as I was discussing this with some users in the US and Australia.

There do seem to be some programs (DVDSubDecode, Subrip) that might be able to convert the images to text though.

 

[foxbenw]

Sorry, that is what i meant. I saw that you are in the UK too. From what i have read, everyone that does this at the moment seems to use ProjectX to demux and then one of those programs to convert to text. However when I have tried in the past I have always had some problems using the output from projectx in subrip.
The only program i had success with was called Subtitle Edit. However I like the way that subrip stores and builds up the character map, so that in theory it should become faster through time, as opposed to the auto ocr that other programs use.
That's why I gave up in the end. I wanted to use subrip but it didn't seem to work all the time, and other programs only use automatic ocr. It may have just been working out all the right settings in projectx but whatever i tried at the time didn't seem to work.
I might have another play and see if i can get it right. I'll let you know if it works.
In the meantime, if you want to do it using automatic ocr, projectx plus subtitle edit should work quite well.

 

[foxbenw]

Given that the whole point of this thread was to shrink the file size while retaining subtitles, i should also have pointed out that the idx exported by projectx can be used in mkvmerge with the original ts file to create a mkv with vobsub subtitles. ie one that can be used in handbrake or whatever. This does not need any ocr.

I have just done exactly that with an sd recording, like this:
1 demux only subtitle stream from ts file using projectx
2 remux ts file together with idx from step 1 into an mkv file using mkv merge. Helps to add in the 'english' flag at this point too.
3 use that mkv in handbrake to do whatever - the subs now show up.

Given my previous tests with projectx the results may be mixed, and will depend on which colour palette you choose and the other settings, but at least i have hopefully helped to answer the original question. (because rather amusingly after all that, when i open the mkv in videoredo, the vobsub subtitles are not shown!)
Therefore if you want to retain the subtitles and shrink the file size, you do need both - videoredo to strip out ads, and handbrake to shrink/convert the resulting file with the vobsub track.

 

[doveman]

I had a play with ProjectX yesterday but couldn't get it working at all. Some versions I tried wouldn't let me browse to any folder other than My Documents and others just crashed when I tried to open a file. Hopefully there's a simpler app that can be used to extract the subtitle stream as ProjectX seems rather over-complicated for just doing that.

The author of MCEBuddy is looking into this and hopefully he'll be able to come up with a method that he can incorporate into the program so that we don't have to mess about doing it manually.

 

[foxbenw]

Not the easiest, i agree. But i have only dragged files onto it and that seems to work. i have versions 0.91.0.0 and 0.91.0.3 compiled and working.
My 'presettings' are:
options: enable hd checked
output: uncheck the audio and video
subtitles: keep original timecode checked, all others in that section unchecked. on the right hand side, only vobsub export checked, and using the 256 colour palette.
then drag and drop the file onto it, click prepare, and then click play. the files don't take long to produce.
i tried using the uk freeview palette but it seems to lose the colours for different speakers.
remuxing the ts with the idx files in mkvmerge takes seconds.

i assume you'd want to do all this (or mcebuddy if it can implement the subtitle conversion) after videoredo editing.

 

[doveman]

Thanks for that. I got v0.91.0.02 Portable working with those settings and drag-and-drop. It produces a .sup, .sup.idx, .sup.IFO and .sup.sub file.

Yep, I'd be editing the files (at least to trim the start and end, if not remove the adverts) before compressing the recordings. I do use VideoReDo myself but have been looking for a free alternative for my brother, although I haven't found anything so far.

 

[foxbenw]

don't know if this thread might help:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/free-ts-mpeg2-h-264-editing-software.80842/

 

[doveman]

Thanks, I tried DVBCut and TSSniper but neither have very accurate control over the position (VideoReDo lets me use the mouse wheel and arrow keys to adjust it) and TSSniper doesn't support subtitles apparently.