Subtitles and Ulead

[FirstDVDCam]

I have a Sony HandyCam and have created a few finialized DVD's. I have posted many questions on a Sony board trying to figure out how to "rip" the subtitles (time and date while the video is running). I have read through various posts on this topic on this board and still have some questions.

1. I now belive that I cannot "rip" subtitles from ULEAD from a DVD. Is this correct?

2. I have seen it mentioned that you can "create" you own files with subtitles, and then import them. Is there any software people use to "rip" subtitles from a DVD and the edit/reimport them into ULEAD?

[PeterMilliken]

I am confused as to your definition of "subtitles". My definition is that a subtitle is the text that appears on the bottom of the screen when playing a (usually) commercial DVD - the subtitle text is the written form of the sounds (voice, music etc) occuring in the movie. You can turn "subtitles" on and off through a menu control on your DVD player.

In your submission, you seem to be refering to time/date that the video was shot as being a "subtitle"?

Given your reference to "finalized" DVDs I am assuming that your Sony HandyCam writes directly to a DVD. I believe that the video files on each disk will have the time/date information held in the file name.

Normally, when using a mini-DVD camera that writes to mini-DVD tape, if you capture the video to your computer in .avi format (your files will probably be mpeg2 or some possibly custom Sony format) then the time/date information is held in the file itself - VS has a preference bit that can be used to display this information in the preview window as you are previewing the clip. At no time does VS place this information into a viewable section on your rendered video output - you either have to do that manually by creating a title screen with the information (that you type in) or there are third-party programs that will embed it for you - but only if you have the video files in avi format.

Mpeg2 format doesn't retain the time/date of shooting, so cameras that record directly in this format "get around" this limitation by embedding the information into the file name somehow i.e. each time you stop shooting and start again, a new file is created on the storage medium that contains the time/date information.

So back to uour questions and assuming you are refering to date/time when using the terms "subtitles":

1. You can't "rip" the information from the DVD and have it automatically appear in the video somehow using any ULead product (or any other product that I am aware of).

2. As I mention above, the file names on your finalized DVD should have the information you require, so just look at them and then create your title screens (with the required information) in the shape and form you are happy with

Hope this helps,
Peter

[FirstDVDCam]

Hmmm..

This is interesting. It is not a "one time" date and time when I view the video, but rather a date and time second by second "subtitle" on every clip\frame of the movie. I think it is a "subtitle" in the general sense of the word. When I view the DVD in my player and turn subtitles off, it shuts off, when "on, " I can see them on every scene/clip/or frame.

In fact when importing the DVD into Ulead, it says every clip has a "Subtitle 0"

So, I ask again (phrased differently based on your comments),

1. Is there any program that can rip generic subtitles off of regular DVDs? If so, how hard would that be to import into ULead? Is this possible? Has anyone tried it?

2. You mentioned I can create a title. Since this is a running time line I would have to put a different second on each frame, and that would be impossible to do by hand. How do you create a running time on the bottom right portion of the screen in ulead. You are correct, I do know what time it started, and I could input that as at the first frame, but does ULead have some this that will keep a timer running as a subtitle?

Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.

[PeterMilliken]

Ok, I understand better now

Your only hope for 'riping' might be DVD Workshop 2 - this is the ULead product that allows the creation of subtitles - so it "might" allow capturing of video that contains subtitles.

"Subtitle 0" is refering to the subtitle track number - I think you can have up to 32 tracks of subtitles - presumably with a multilingual DVD (commercial that is) then they put different languages on different tracks i.e. English - Subtitle 0, French - Subtitle 1 etc etc

So download DVD Workshop 2 (trial) and give it a go - unfortunately, it is starting to appear that Ulead might be abandoning DVD WS - they were rumoured to have a beta version of WS 3 available at the beginning of the year - but hasn't been released to the chosen beta testers. The WS forum has a "we want WS 3" article that people keep bringing to the top by placing another entry in the bottom but nobody from ULead have answered it - so I don't have great hopes for it.

I don't know of any ULead product that maintains a running counter or anything - ideally, you want the time/date information to be unobtrusive in your video - so you could either put it into the subtitle (WS is the ONLY Ulead product that allows subtitle production!) or put the information in a (one off) title screen at the beginning of each section of your video - i.e. Mary's 6th Birthday - held on 6th March, 2006 at 3:00pm.

Anyway, hope this has helped, have a look at DVD WS 2 - that is your best (Ulead) bet for extracting the information from your finalised DVD.

Peter

[maddrummer3301]

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[Terry Stetler]

Let me introduce you to SubRip;

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video ... subrip.cfm

It also requires the use of AVISynth, which is a powerful video scripting/modification language. It's scripts are straight text saved with an *.avs extension. SubRip provides a graphical front end just for this purpose.

[sjj1805]

I was just browsing the Corel Knowledge base and stumpled across this relating to VideoStudio but may be of interest to the OP.

Q: Can I combine DVD subtitles with video when I import video from DVD?
A: Yes, when you use the "Import from DVD/DVD-VR" tool, you can now select a subtitle track in the language of your choice, which will be included with your video.

[brywkeo]

I was just browsing the Corel Knowledge base and stumpled across this relating to VideoStudio but may be of interest to the OP.

Q: Can I combine DVD subtitles with video when I import video from DVD?
A: Yes, when you use the "Import from DVD/DVD-VR" tool, you can now select a subtitle track in the language of your choice, which will be included with your video.

I've done just that, but when I come to play the video I get a back screen from the top of the subtitle up to the top of the screen. The video plays fine other than every time a subtitle appears 3/4 of the screen is balck.

Any ideas???

[Black Lab]

It seems that many playback or preview issues are solved by updating to the current version of Microsoft DirectX. Worth a try.

[brywkeo]

Thanks for your quick reply and suggestion Jeff. I updated DirectX and rebooted my system. I then imported a song from a DVD with subtitle in English checked. When I came to preview it I had the same results. Whenever the subtitle comes up it blackens all of my screen above the subtitle. In between subtitles the screen is fine and the audio is fine throughout. I'm not sure what else to try.

Bryan

[Black Lab]

Just out of curiosity, what does the video look like if you don't import the sub-titles?

[brywkeo]

Without importing the subtitles the video looks great and sounds great. Absolutely no complaints. I really do need the subtitles however.

Bryan

[seedar]

Not sure if this helps but I am looking to add the date as a subtitle to my home videos and I'm doing this by:

1. Capturing the video using Visual Studio DV Quick Capture and getting the date added as a title.
2. edit the video using Visual Studio
3. Save the titles as a subtitle file
4. strip out the titles from the avi
5. save and quit visual studio
6. Start Movie Factory and load video
7. Load subtitle file
8. Author DVD

this way you get true subtitles you can turn on and off with your dvd player remote.

regards,
Seedar.

[Ken Berry]

Seedar -- thanks for the workflow, which I am sure would be useful. But frankly, I just don't understand parts of it.

First, I assume in Step 1, that you are referring to DVD Quick Scan (as opposed to Quick Capture). But can you explain how you go about "getting the date added as a title". I don't see any setting for that in Quick Scan. In fact, to be honest, I am not sure what you mean by "title" in this context. Consequently, I don't know what you mean in Step 4 either.

[seedar]

Sorry, yes you are right "DVD Quick Capture" didnt have it in front of me. The second screen after a first pass scan of the tape allows you to get the wizard to do an automatic insertion of the date (no time though) into the title track of visual studio. You can get this inserted either for the whole tape or just for a few seconds on scene changes I believe.

Step 4 is selecting the title track in visual studio and deleting them so you have clear video with no permanent titles so you can later add them as a switchable subtitle.

Does that all make sense ?

rgds,
Seedar.