How to rip subtitles from a dvd?
March 12, 2022 11:38 AM Subscribe
I have a dvd that I'm trying to rip. I've managed to rip the video, but I'd also like to rip the subtitles as an .srt file. What's the easiest way to do this? I've tried following a few guides online, but I've struggled to have any success. I'm using a Windows 10 PC.
DVD subtitles (vobsubs) are images and not text so you can't convert them directly, you have to OCR them, which is a bit of a time-consuming and error-prone process.
Subtitle Edit can convert vobsubs to srt using OCR but it requires a fair amount of babysitting to get good results.
If it's a reasonably common movie you've ripped you may have an easier time poking around on dubious subtitle sites for the subs. Someone's probably already done the work.
posted by neckro23 at 11:51 AM on March 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
Subtitle Edit can convert vobsubs to srt using OCR but it requires a fair amount of babysitting to get good results.
If it's a reasonably common movie you've ripped you may have an easier time poking around on dubious subtitle sites for the subs. Someone's probably already done the work.
posted by neckro23 at 11:51 AM on March 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
Yep, if it’s a common movie they are out there. .srt is the extension I see most often; try googling the title and .srt
posted by mermaidcafe at 12:04 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by mermaidcafe at 12:04 PM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
You need to rip the DVD to HD first. Merely copying won't work as the files would still be encrypted.
Follow the guide here. https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/209730-How-do-I-convert-DVD-or-sub-idx-to-text-srt-subtitles
As @neckro23 explained, the subtitles in DVD are timed image overlays that run concurrently over the main video movie. You have to OCR individual characters to generate the text. It works reasonably well for simple stuff such as English, but struggles with more complicated languages with a lot of markup or accent marks, and completely breaks down with alternate language encodings.
The problem with downloaded subtitles is you have to match the timing and mismatches are not obviously until you're well into the movie, esp. if you got like director's cut with extra footage or such. And often the downloadable stuff are timed for already extracted videos like MP4 or AVI or such, not DVD video files that haven't been extracted from the DVD VOB files.
posted by kschang at 1:02 PM on March 12, 2022
Follow the guide here. https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/209730-How-do-I-convert-DVD-or-sub-idx-to-text-srt-subtitles
As @neckro23 explained, the subtitles in DVD are timed image overlays that run concurrently over the main video movie. You have to OCR individual characters to generate the text. It works reasonably well for simple stuff such as English, but struggles with more complicated languages with a lot of markup or accent marks, and completely breaks down with alternate language encodings.
The problem with downloaded subtitles is you have to match the timing and mismatches are not obviously until you're well into the movie, esp. if you got like director's cut with extra footage or such. And often the downloadable stuff are timed for already extracted videos like MP4 or AVI or such, not DVD video files that haven't been extracted from the DVD VOB files.
posted by kschang at 1:02 PM on March 12, 2022
Response by poster: Thanks for all the help so far!
1. I've tried SubRip. It tells me it can find closed captions, however the language stream selection box only shows hyphens next to the options. When I searched (https://forums.afterdawn.com/threads/languages-selectable-in-subrip.658361/), it said "A title with no subtitles will show a blank list." So, I'm not sure how to get around that.
2. When I use Subtitle Edit, I'm given an error the "An error occured while reading file: Copy Protection Error - The read failed because the sector is encryped". Not sure how to get around that. I tried using DVD Decrypter to rip a decrypter version of the dvd, but Subtitle Edit says no subtitles were found.
3. I've search opensubtitles.org for the subtitles and didn't find anything. The DVD is a performance of Twelfth Night from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival: https://www.worldcat.org/title/twelfth-night/oclc/937548918. I'm not sure if there are other places I could look? I'm guessing it might not be popular enough to have the subtitles available online.
4. I followed the link here: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/209730-How-do-I-convert-DVD-or-sub-idx-to-text-srt-subtitles, but the first steps require using DVDFab Decrypter which is a paid application. Loading the VOBs into DVDSubEdit shows that 0 Subpics are found. Again, not really sure why. The link also had links to other sources of subtitles, but after trying a few I wasn't having any luck finding what I needed.
Here are a few screenshots of the errors I got in case it's helpful:
https://imgur.com/a/CO0SabY
posted by NoneOfTheAbove at 5:10 PM on March 12, 2022
1. I've tried SubRip. It tells me it can find closed captions, however the language stream selection box only shows hyphens next to the options. When I searched (https://forums.afterdawn.com/threads/languages-selectable-in-subrip.658361/), it said "A title with no subtitles will show a blank list." So, I'm not sure how to get around that.
2. When I use Subtitle Edit, I'm given an error the "An error occured while reading file: Copy Protection Error - The read failed because the sector is encryped". Not sure how to get around that. I tried using DVD Decrypter to rip a decrypter version of the dvd, but Subtitle Edit says no subtitles were found.
3. I've search opensubtitles.org for the subtitles and didn't find anything. The DVD is a performance of Twelfth Night from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival: https://www.worldcat.org/title/twelfth-night/oclc/937548918. I'm not sure if there are other places I could look? I'm guessing it might not be popular enough to have the subtitles available online.
4. I followed the link here: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/209730-How-do-I-convert-DVD-or-sub-idx-to-text-srt-subtitles, but the first steps require using DVDFab Decrypter which is a paid application. Loading the VOBs into DVDSubEdit shows that 0 Subpics are found. Again, not really sure why. The link also had links to other sources of subtitles, but after trying a few I wasn't having any luck finding what I needed.
Here are a few screenshots of the errors I got in case it's helpful:
https://imgur.com/a/CO0SabY
posted by NoneOfTheAbove at 5:10 PM on March 12, 2022
I tried using DVD Decrypter to rip a decrypter version of the dvd, but Subtitle Edit says no subtitles were found.
I'm not sure if Subtitle Edit works directly on DVD video. Most video software doesn't. I think it maybe has some sort of rudimentary DVD support but won't decrypt anything copy protected. Ripping an ISO image with DVD Decrypter first ought to fix this, you can then mount the ISO as a virtual drive in Windows (built-in Win10 feature).
Alternatively you can easily convert DVDs to MKV files for free with MakeMKV. These ought to include the (vobsub) subtitles embedded in the file, which you can then load in Subtitle Edit or whatever. Again I don't think it likes copy protected discs so you need DVD Decrypter first.
(Also, some later DVD discs have enhanced copy protection which means DVD Decrypter won't work.)
posted by neckro23 at 6:37 PM on March 12, 2022
I'm not sure if Subtitle Edit works directly on DVD video. Most video software doesn't. I think it maybe has some sort of rudimentary DVD support but won't decrypt anything copy protected. Ripping an ISO image with DVD Decrypter first ought to fix this, you can then mount the ISO as a virtual drive in Windows (built-in Win10 feature).
Alternatively you can easily convert DVDs to MKV files for free with MakeMKV. These ought to include the (vobsub) subtitles embedded in the file, which you can then load in Subtitle Edit or whatever. Again I don't think it likes copy protected discs so you need DVD Decrypter first.
(Also, some later DVD discs have enhanced copy protection which means DVD Decrypter won't work.)
posted by neckro23 at 6:37 PM on March 12, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by sailoreagle at 11:46 AM on March 12, 2022