Forced Subtitles - I Think!

[AlexHudghton]

I use my Linux system as a home theatre - over 500 films and the same in TV programs work happily through VLC.

However, there are a select few, which I now know contain solmething called 'forced subtitles' which will not play the subtitle at all. (these are subtitles that play when someone is speaking a language foreign to the principle English on the fiilm)

So far I have identified Battle of Britain, A Bridge Too Far, and X-Men First Class. Now I have many others that have subtitles and play them fine - The Way Back for example, so I guess they don't used the 'forced' option

What I cannot understand is why there is no Liunx player that will play these DVD's 'out of the box'. I'm sorry to say Windows Media Player has no trouble.

I have even ripped the DVD to disk and put the files through Handbrake following all the instructions carefully to capture the subtitles, but no; they will not display.

I have tried VLC, mplayer, SMplayer, several different ripping tools and still no result

Has anyone any success in this area?

[shantiq]

hmmm i would suggest take a VOB [insert disc and drag to desktop]from one of those dvds that DO NOT play subs and run through mediainfo [in repo] to see which format they are in and if forced etc there are so many formats for subs

if not srt you may have to convert them first

else go to a search engine then find appropriate srt for the film you want then attach with handbrake or mkvmerge or ffmpeg

PS and more basically run the film you say does not show in vlc then toggle the V key and see if they appear [but you probably know this]

Subtitle formats[edit]

For software video players[edit]

Name	Extension	Type	Text Styling	Metadata	Timings	Timing Precision
AQTitle	.aqt	Text	Yes	Yes	Framings	Dependent on Frame
Gloss Subtitle	.gsub	HTML/XML	Yes	Yes	Elapsed Time	10 Milliseconds
JACOSub[12]	.jss	Text w/markup	Yes	No	Elapsed Time	Dependent on frame
MicroDVD	.sub	Text	No	No	Framings	Dependent on Frame
MPEG-4 Timed Text	.ttxt (or mixed with A/V stream)	XML	Yes	No	Elapsed Time	1 Millisecond
MPSub	.sub	Text	No	Yes	Sequential Time	10 Milliseconds
Ogg Writ	N/A (mixed with audio/video stream)	Text	Yes	Yes	Sequential Granules	Dependent on Bitstream
Phoenix Subtitle	.pjs	Text	No	No	Framings	Dependent on Frame
PowerDivX	.psb	Text	No	No	Elapsed Time	1 Second
RealText[13]	.rt	HTML	Yes	No	Elapsed Time	10 Milliseconds
SAMI	.smi	HTML	Yes	Yes	Framings	Dependent on Frame
Spruce subtitle format[14]	.stl	Text	Yes	Yes	Sequential Time+Frames	Sequential Time+Frames
Structured Subtitle Format	.ssf	XML	Yes	Yes	Elapsed Time	1 Millisecond
SubRip	.srt	Text	Yes	No	Elapsed Time	1 Millisecond
(Advanced) SubStation Alpha	.ssa or .ass (advanced)	Text	Yes	Yes	Elapsed Time	10 Milliseconds
SubViewer	.sub	Text	No	Yes	Elapsed Time	10 Milliseconds
Universal Subtitle Format	.usf	XML	Yes	Yes	Elapsed Time	1 Millisecond
VobSub	.sub + .idx	Image	N/A	N/A	Elapsed Time	1 Millisecond
XSUB	N/A (embedded in .divx container)	Image	N/A	N/A	Elapsed Time	1 Millisecond

There are still many more uncommon formats. Most of them are text-based and have the extension .txt.

[AlexHudghton]

Thanks for the excellent reply!

I took the easy option and got a file from the web, well, several until i found one that worked properly.

I also found one for Battle of Britain, but had a bit of trouble syncing with the video

Amazing what a minefield it all is - I'm thankful that my first language is English and I don't have to do too much messing around .

Thanks again

Alex

[shantiq]

yes Alex glad you cracked it can be a right palaver

[andrew.46]

MPlayer has an option that you could perhaps experiment with:

       -forcedsubsonly
              Display only forced subtitles for the DVD  subtitle  stream  se-
              lected by e.g. -slang.

although I admit that I have no experience with this option but I see that SMPlayer has an option for this under 'Subtitles'...