Subtitles/closed captions in video files ripped from DVDs

Marianna

Dedicated Member
This one's for the technical experts out there and assumes that it's legal to rip from a DVD for the sole use of the owner of that DVD.

When a video file that has closed captions is ripped and converted to AVI format, is it possible to activate the captions when viewing in the new format?

On the discs in question, Last of the Summer Wine from season 3 forward, the captions are turned on from the main menu for all the episodes on the disc for as long as the disc remains in the player, so does the AVI file need to consist of the entire contents of the disc in order to have access to the captions for viewing that format?

I'm just beginning to dip the tip of one toe into these seemingly very murky waters. At least that's my excuse for asking what's probably a question with an obvious answer.

Marianna
 
The next obvious question is "Just what software are
you using to rip DVDs to AVI files??".

I have tried a few with little luck. The HANDBRAKE did not have
an AVI output option. The IMtoo worked on some once I
figgered out the right options, but would not work on
any of the The Royal discs I got in trade years ago.
 
This one's for the technical experts out there and assumes that it's legal to rip from a DVD for the sole use of the owner of that DVD.

When a video file that has closed captions is ripped and converted to AVI format, is it possible to activate the captions when viewing in the new format?

On the discs in question, Last of the Summer Wine from season 3 forward, the captions are turned on from the main menu for all the episodes on the disc for as long as the disc remains in the player, so does the AVI file need to consist of the entire contents of the disc in order to have access to the captions for viewing that format?

I'm just beginning to dip the tip of one toe into these seemingly very murky waters. At least that's my excuse for asking what's probably a question with an obvious answer.

Marianna

With Imtoo you can select subtitles to rip with the movie
 
The next obvious question is "Just what software are you using to rip DVDs to AVI files??".

I have the Aimersoft family of DVD ripping/editing software. One of the possible output settings in the DVD Ripper is AVI. I haven't used it yet, mainly because it isn't the default and when I began doing this a few weeks ago I had no idea what I was doing. I'm exploring further now because it would be useful to have a high-quality, compact back-up of my precious LOTSW discs to use for viewing.

Up to this point, I've ripped only the first two seasons, because those discs don't have closed captions and I wanted to caption them so I could fully enjoy viewing those episodes. BTW, I use Subtitle Workshop version 6.0b to ensure that the show and hide times for each line of dialog are correct. Among other outputs, it will write an .sst file (Sonic Scenarist) and I use that format because that's the format of the subtitle files I uploaded for editing. I then use Aimersoft Video Converter Ultimate to merge the subtitles with the audio/video file. I've been I've been outputting those files as MP4s, again because it's the default and because my current DVD player will play that format.

The above technique doesn't produce closed captions. These subtitles are permanently visible, but I'd always have them on even if there were a choice, so that's fine.

I briefly tried Handbrake and concluded that you get what you pay for. So then I paid (not very much) for Aimersoft's products.

Marianna
 
With Imtoo you can select subtitles to rip with the movie

I'll take a look at it.

The Aimersoft DVD Ripper doesn't give me the option to rip subtitles or ignore them, but it does include the disc's top level menu, with the captions on/off selection. When I output in MP4 format and play via Windows Media Player I can turn the captions on and they work just as they do when I play the DVD.

The root of my question is, what is the general technique for saving an AVI copy of that type of DVD so that when I play the file I can turn the captions on and view them normally. Or can this be done at all? If not I'll stop thinking about it.

Marianna
 
I'll take a look at it.

The Aimersoft DVD Ripper doesn't give me the option to rip subtitles or ignore them, but it does include the disc's top level menu, with the captions on/off selection. When I output in MP4 format and play via Windows Media Player I can turn the captions on and they work just as they do when I play the DVD.

The root of my question is, what is the general technique for saving an AVI copy of that type of DVD so that when I play the file I can turn the captions on and view them normally. Or can this be done at all? If not I'll stop thinking about it.

Marianna

Not sure I will have to find a disc and try it,Terry
 
Not sure I will have to find a disc and try it,Terry

I had begun to rip an entire disc to AVI even as we "spoke". It just finished, and to my surprise, it's only about 1.56GB. That takes care of one of my concerns. I had no conception of what size an entire six episode disc would rip to.

Good so far, but the Aimersoft DVD Ripper doesn't seem to know that there's a menu on the disc, and it isn't accessible in the resulting files. I need to find a way to rip the menu in a usable form if I'm going to make back-up of the captioned discs for viewing. Apparently the Ripper can deal with subtitles (as for foreign language discs), but not with captions (as for hearing impaired viewers). My hearing is no longer impaired now that I have hearing aids, but my understanding of accents other than Northeast US is too slow to keep up with some of the dialog, so I use the captions more like subtitles. Back to the drawing board.

Marianna
 
Major breakthrough, at least for me! I'd had the WonderFox DVD Video Converter for a while, so yesterday I tried that one first when I was ready to rip the episodes, with the subtitles, from my First of the Summer Wine DVDs. It worked as expected on the first disc, but not on the others. It ripped the sound and the subtitles from those, but not the video.

So I resorted to an internet search for "best DVD rippers with subtitles", or words to that effect. After trying several free ones, I ended up buying WinX DVD Ripper Platinum (not as costly as the precious metal platinum, though!). The user can choose to download the subtitles, and there are options for "use high quality engine" and "deinterlacing". I don't know whether or not the latter has any effect on these discs, but I've been keeping both options turned on. I tried one episode without those options, and the resolution looks sharper to me with them, although that may be wishful thinking.

My plan is to eventually move the content of all of the DVDs that I view frequently to my huge external hard drive, which is automatically and continuously backed up to Carbonite, and to put a copy on a set of USB drives to save prime physical storage space near the TV sets and to reduce wear on the discs. Both of my TVs have jacks for USB drives. Then I can store the discs properly, according to the most recent archival storage parameter that I could find, ISO TC 171/SC from January, 2002. It specifies 41-68 degrees F and 30-50% humidity. That sounds to me like a refrigerator with the temp at its highest setting, tucked away in an otherwise useless corner above the 1972 flood line. An under-counter apartment-sized one would be big enough for my current collection and llikely future additions.
 
Hi Marianna
For some time I have been using Make MKV https://www.makemkv.com/ to rip the files, it does include the subtitles but not the menu, for me this is not a problem,as all my videos are stored on a large Synology NAS box, currently fitted with 54 TB of storage, the box is connected to my router, my TV's are connected via wifi to the router, all other devices like mobiles and tablets work via a app worldwide as long as you have a wifi connection, so I can watch my collection anywhere, I add stuff to the box several times a week, as larger hard drives become affordable I can add more space by swooping discs.
Make MKV rips the disc in excellent quality, I think each losw episode is around 1.4 gig, it's currently free to use
NAS.jpg
 
Glad you had a breakthrough and are making progress, Marianna. I agree with Terry in using MakeMKV to rip your files to disk. It is free and stores them in the .mkv format which is newer and more flexible than the .avi container. This way you can still keep the default AC3 audio file and extended Dolby channels 5.1+ which avi does not like without mods. Using .mp4 would be better than avi but not as good as mkv in my opinion. You do need to download a new version of MakeMkv every few months or so when they update the software. The only cost is if you plan to use it for blu-rays.

Sorry, I did not see this thread sooner to offer help or advice. I enjoy dabbling in this kind of stuff. Not sure what you are using as playback software but most should handle the subtitles fine as well as de-interlace for you on playback to screen - Kodi, VLC, MPC-HC, etc. De-interlacing while compressing it can be a slippery slope at times quality-wise. What does one do?... Leave it alone, convert to progressive, inverse telecine (IVTC), lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Is your plan to compress the video also, or just leave as is?

Sounds like you both have nice storage systems set up. My 10 or so TB multi-hdd setup is jealous :21:. I am also in the process of putting my LotSW dvd's on to hard drives for viewing playback. Mucking about with cleaning them up a little to try and improve the picture some. Don't want to over do it and remove the details.
 
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As an absolute technophobe, can I ask someone in the know - am I able to save all my LOTSW and other DVD's to some sort of hard drive system and attach this to my TV (a bit like Sky Plus)? If this can be done can I ask 2 more basic questions, when I last tried this about 20 years ago the copyright wouldn't let me and secondly if it can be done are the episodes easy to access (ie via a menu)

I'd love to be able to do this with my LOTSW as the labeling is absolute bobbins !
 
As an absolute technophobe, can I ask someone in the know - am I able to save all my LOTSW and other DVD's to some sort of hard drive system and attach this to my TV (a bit like Sky Plus)? If this can be done can I ask 2 more basic questions, when I last tried this about 20 years ago the copyright wouldn't let me and secondly if it can be done are the episodes easy to access (ie via a menu)

I'd love to be able to do this with my LOTSW as the labeling is absolute bobbins !

First thing for me to ask is doing you have a computer
 
First thing for me to ask is doing you have a computer
Yes I have 2, a macbook air and a normal pc laptop, the latter is only a couple of years old. If it helps I also have a DVD player I attach to my PC so I can watch LOTSW on the go! I've checked it and it says RW re writable. It was cheap though think it only cost twenty quid i
 
Barry, not sure how new your TV is or the types of input connections you have in the UK. My TV has several HDMI inputs which I connect one to the video card on my computer. You should be able to play them just as you would a video on your computer with TV acting as an external monitor. I have a second computer that I use as an HTPC and the TV acts as it's monitor. Or you can use software like Kodi (I use it) that has an interface which allows you to scroll through your vids just like if you have the TV (or computer) connected to the internet for Amazon / Hulu / whatever streaming service you might use.

With MakeMKV ripping you should not need to worry about copyright protection as of such. It is still there in the file it rips but plays as if it was a DVD or normal video file on your computer. I've not had an issue like it used to be years ago. DVD's are 'old tech' and companies are more interested in protecting blu-rays and the next gen. Might depend on your playback software. Can discuss more if need be.

The RW re-writable is a type of DVD that you can add and erase data to numerous times. If using the DVD on a computer you do not need to 'close or finalized it'. To use on a regular (non RW) stand alone DVD player then you would need to 'close it' and thus not be able to write to it again.

Does your DVD player that you hook to the computer have a 'pass through' so you can still keep it connected to the TV and play what the computer plays? There should be connectors you can get easily enough to connect your computer to the TV. Best option is if your TV and computer have HDMI inputs.
 
Yes I have 2, a macbook air and a normal pc laptop, the latter is only a couple of years old. If it helps I also have a DVD player I attach to my PC so I can watch LOTSW on the go! I've checked it and it says RW re writable. It was cheap though think it only cost twenty quid i

Barry in the past I have found firstly rip the disc on the computer using mkv, buy a portable hard drive, if it's only LOSW you want to do then is is more than big enough for the entire series https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-Element...2500&sprefix=poetable+hdd,aps,146&sr=8-1&th=1

Buy one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sumvision-...d=1596522640&sprefix=sumvision,aps,159&sr=8-2

Plug the Hard drive into the media player once you have filled it with losw, plug the media player into your TV via HDMI and away you go
 
Rick & Terry, thank you both for your technical help, it's massively appreciated. I'm going to invest in one of those hard drives on Amazon, having them saved down will save the hassle when wanting to jump between series. I've got pretty modern Samsung Smart TV's so I'm sure I can just plug in and play. I can see your point about not wasting money on a TV license if I have all my vintage boxsets on a hard drive!!!
 
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