Subtitles from DVD/VCD/Video Cassette Tapes into a computer text file

March 4, 2006 7:59 PM

Subtitles from DVD/VCD/Video Cassette Tapes into a computer text file ----- the fastest way ? Without typing or paying someone to transcribe? Any software or hardware that can do the job? I know of one VCR player made in the early 1990s that can do this but it has been discontinued and the manufacturer no longer around.

The discontinued product is :
"Instant Replay's Caption Writer VCR is an enhancement of its earlier Caption Master, which has a built-in decoder for displaying closed-captions. These captions, invisible without a decoder, accompany the majority of prime-time programming and are intended to let the hearing-impaired enjoy TV. But other viewers find captioning useful too, such as in learning the language.
Expanding on the idea that television is a stream of information as well as entertainment, Instant Replay's Caption Writer allows the user to have a written copy of a script as soon as a show is over. The only requirement is that you have a computer printer, a connecting cable and a program that happens to be closed-captioned."

posted by studentguru to computers & internet (11 comments total)

I have an old ATI All in Wonder 9600 XT video card in the PC that has a built-in tuner and audio/video input jacks. When you watch TV or the A/V input on the PC, you can enable a closed caption window, and the cc text appears in the window, and can be copied/pasted.
posted by jaimev at 8:04 PM on March 4, 2006

A TV tuner in a PC ought to manage it - they can extract and display the captions in a broadcast. If you have the right software and/or can hack some free software, you might be able to get it to save the subtitle data.
posted by polyglot at 8:08 PM on March 4, 2006

damn, I shoulda previewed again...
posted by polyglot at 8:09 PM on March 4, 2006

Note: subtitles on a DVD are completely different from closed captions, although a percentage of DVDs do have closed captions too (you turn DVD subtitles on and off using the setup page or DVD remote, you turn closed captions on and off using your TV remote).
posted by forallmankind at 8:44 PM on March 4, 2006

To further expand on jaimev's recommendation, ATI's TV software has a feature called TV Magazine that will save closed-caption transcripts in a number of formats, both with and without screencaps (hence the name "TV magazine").
posted by chrominance at 12:46 AM on March 5, 2006

A TV-Tuner card can rip captions from broadcast (where they're discrete from the video) channels.
DVD subtitles can be ripped with something like VobSub; Burned-in, or hardsubs, which are part of the picture (as they would on a VCR tape) will require a lot more work.. If the picture is letterboxed and the subs are in the black area, SubRip may get the job done (it can also convert DVD subtitles - which are bitmaps - into text subtitles, via an OCR-type process).

One last option, depending on what your source is, you may be able to find a set of subtitles online, via a site like titles.to.
posted by unmake at 2:01 AM on March 5, 2006

[fixed title in post]
posted by jessamyn at 5:43 AM on March 5, 2006

If you’re trying to capture captioning, say so. If you want subtitles, say so. Do us a favour and stop mixing up the two.

Note that wholesale downloading or rerendering of captions and subtitles may be copyright infringement where you live.
posted by joeclark at 6:43 AM on March 5, 2006

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to answer.

You guys are amazing.

I want every text (be it subtitles or close caption) that can appear on the screen.

By the way, the following site offers subtitles to some stuff , but does not have everything movie / tv series I want. I found it through Media Player Classic. May be the website is integrated with Media Player Classic in some way while viewing movies:


posted by studentguru at 11:20 AM on March 6, 2006

http://gabest.dyndns.org/sub/
posted by studentguru at 11:21 AM on March 6, 2006

I have just found out that the following sites can give you a lot more information:


http://www.google.com/search?domains=www.videohelp.com&sitesearch=www.videohelp.com&safe=off&as_q=McPoodle+&SUBMIT=Search


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&domains=www.videohelp.com&q=capture+close-caption&btnG=Search&sitesearch=www.videohelp.com
posted by studentguru at 10:10 AM on March 9, 2006