Convert .mkv and keep subtitles

[John Jason Jordan]

Xubuntu 14.04, up to date.

I have an .mkv file of a video in a language that I do not speak. The video includes optional (not burned in) subtitles in English, which are vobsub. It plays just fine in VLC (no error messages). The file is 6.6 GB and I wish to shrink it to about 1 GB. Normally I would do this in Handbrake, but Handbrake will not open the file; that is, it appears to open it, but the GUI still says New Video and it clearly has not imported the file.

I can successfully convert it to a new .mkv with mkvmerge-gui, but the subtitles get stripped out of the output file. This, in spite of the fact that the subs are listed as vobsub in mkvmerge-gui. I tried Arista, but again the subtitles get stripped out. Ditto for winff. I also tried Avidemux, but Avidemux will apparently only encode subs if they are in a separate file. I have DVD:rip, but I have never figured out how to use it.

I need some suggestions. I'll try anything.

[shantiq]

➊ have you tried handbrake from CLI sometimes it might fly this way and not GUI

example of syntax:


HandBrakeCLI -i inputfile.mkv -o outfile.mkv -e ffmpeg4 -b 3000 -E ac3 -B 192 -r 30 -s 1,2,3 --subtitle-default 2

from
HandBrakeCLI -h




### Subtitle Options------------------------------------------------------

--subtitle-lang-list Specifiy a comma separated list of subtitle
<string> languages you would like to select from the
source title. By default, the first subtitle
matching each language will be added to your
output. Provide the language's iso639-2 code
(fre, eng, spa, dut, et cetera)
--all-subtitles Select all subtitle tracks matching languages in
the specified language list
(--subtitle-lang-list).
Any language if list is not specified.
--first-subtitle Select first subtitle track matching languages in
the specified language list
(--subtitle-lang-list).
Any language if list is not specified.
-s, --subtitle <string> Select subtitle track(s), separated by commas
More than one output track can be used for one
input. "none" for no subtitles.
Example: "1,2,3" for multiple tracks.
A special track name "scan" adds an extra 1st
pass. This extra pass scans subtitles matching
the language of the first audio or the language
selected by --native-language.
The one that's only used 10 percent of the time
or less is selected. This should locate subtitles
for short foreign language segments. Best used in
conjunction with --subtitle-forced.
-F, --subtitle-forced Only display subtitles from the selected stream
<string> if the subtitle has the forced flag set. The
values in "string" are indexes into the
subtitle list specified with '--subtitle'.
Separate tracks by commas.
Example: "1,2,3" for multiple tracks.
If "string" is omitted, the first track is
forced.
--subtitle-burned "Burn" the selected subtitle into the video
<subtitle> track. If "subtitle" is omitted, the first
track is burned. "subtitle" is an index into
the subtitle list specified with '--subtitle'
or "native" to burn the subtitle track that may
be added by the 'native-language' option.
--subtitle-default Flag the selected subtitle as the default
<number> subtitle to be displayed upon playback. Setting
no default means no subtitle will be displayed
automatically. "number" is an index into the
subtitle list specified with '--subtitle'.
-N, --native-language Specifiy your language preference. When the first
<string> audio track does not match your native language
then select the first subtitle that does. When
used in conjunction with --native-dub the audio
track is changed in preference to subtitles.
Provide the language's iso639-2 code:
(fre, eng, spa, dut, et cetera)
--native-dub Used in conjunction with --native-language
requests that if no audio tracks are selected the
default selected audio track will be the first
one that matches the --native-language. If there
are no matching audio tracks then the first
matching subtitle track is used instead.
--srt-file <string> SubRip SRT filename(s), separated by commas.
--srt-codeset Character codeset(s) that the SRT file(s) are
<string> encoded in, separated by commas.
Use 'iconv -l' for a list of valid
codesets. If not specified, 'latin1' is assumed
--srt-offset Offset (in milliseconds) to apply to the SRT
<string> file(s), separated by commas. If not specified,
zero is assumed. Offsets may be negative.
--srt-lang <string> SRT track language as an iso639-2 code:
(fre, eng, spa, dut, et cetera)
Separated by commas. If not specified, then 'und'
is used.
--srt-default Flag the selected srt as the default subtitle
<number> to be displayed upon playback. Setting no default
means no subtitle will be automatically displayed
If "number" is omitted, the first SRT is the
default. "number" is an 1 based index into the
'srt-file' list
--srt-burn "Burn" the selected SRT subtitle into the
<number> video track. If "number" is omitted, the first
SRT is burned. "number" is an 1 based index
into the 'srt-file' list





➋ second route

using CLI mkvextract


sudo apt-get install mkvtoolnix

mkvmerge -i MovieFile.mkv
You’ll see a listing similar to this:

File 'MovieFile.mkv': container: Matroska
Track ID 1: subtitles (S_TEXT/ASS)
Track ID 2: audio (A_MPEG/L3)
Track ID 3: video (V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC)
Next, use mkvextract to extract certain tracks / attachments based on the output from the above command:

mkvextract tracks yourfile.mkv 3:chinese.srt
2:theaudio.mp3 3:thevideo.mkv




and to add sub default

mkvmerge -o <output>.mkv --default-track 0 --language 0:<language> <subtitles>.srt <input> [replace --forced-track]
mkvmerge -o <output>.mkv --default-track 0 --language 0:eng <subtitles>.srt <input>

You can list the language codes by invoking mkvmerge with the --list-languages (e.g. eng for English, ger for German) parameter. The --default-track parameter just sets the newly muxed subtitles as default for the player to use. If you are muxing multiple subtitles, you of course have to change the language code preceding number.

[John Jason Jordan]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I couldn't get the HandBrakeCLI code to work - too complicated for me unless I spent a long time studying it. But 'mkvextract tracks yourfile.mkv 3:chinese.srt' worked to extract the subs. The mkvmerge -i command found that there was both a .sub and an .srt file in the video, so first I extracted the .srt. I had a copy of the video (sans subs) that I had previously re-encoded with the mkvmerge-gui, and I knew that HandBrake would open it properly. So I used HandBrake to re-encode it with the .srt file, but HandBrake failed to add the subs. I opened the .srt file in aegisub, which bitched that the encoding was unknown - so that is probably why HandBrake failed to include them.

Then I went back to mkvextract and used it to extract the .sub and .idx files. These work fine, except that HandBrake cannot add .idx/.sub files, so I will have to add them manually in VLC. This is not a problem, so I am calling the problem solved. And in the future I am going to user mkvmerge more and more, with the goal of learning it better.

Thanks again for your suggestions!

[shantiq]

ok so now to complete you can mux soundless vid and newly extracted srt :]


mkvmerge -o videowithsrt.mkv yoursoundlessmkv.mkv --default-track 0 --language 0:eng yourextractedsrt.srt



PS set to --default-track will mean you can toggle it off with v key