How to backup and add new subtitles to a DVD

http://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/197950.php

When I create a backup of a DVD, or when I make my own DVDs from AVI files, I sometimes want to include
additional subtitles in another language, while keeping the original menu and other extras. Although I could find
many tips or principal approaches about how to do it, it wasn’t so easy to find a dummy’s guide, so I wrote it
myself. There are probably many alternatives, but this one works for me. However, if somebody knows of a way to
do it quicker, I would be very interested.

What do you need (see www.doom9.org or www.dvdrhelp.com):

• DVDshrink (release 3.0 beta 5)
• Subtitle workshop (to synchronise subtitles and convert them to SupRip *.srt format)
• Srt2sup (to convert *.srt files to *.sup subtitle streams)
• VobEdit 0.6b (to demux DVD *.vob files to movie and audio streams)
• IFOEdit (to put video, audio, and subtitles back together again)
Optionally• TMPGEnc and BeSweet (the first to demultiplex an avi-file to MPEG-2 m2v and mp2, the second to
convert the audio from 44.1 to 48kHz sampling frequency)
DVD burning• software
At least 9Gb available on your HD•

The main steps are explained below:

1. Copy the original DVD to your hard disk using DVD Shrink (see Figure 1).
a) Open disc
b) Deselect everything you don’t need. As shown in the figure, here I tried to keep the original menu, which might
work in some cases, but probably not in all. If you want to be certain, re-author the DVD and only drag the main
movie title to the new window. Furthermore, in this new window, I only keep the original audio file, and th
esubtitles I want. DVD Shrink automatically determines how much he needs to compress the movie in order to fit
on a DVD+R.
c) In order to keep room for the new subtitles, my last step is to set the movie’s compression ratio manually to 1%
below the automatic setting.
d) Backup DVD

Figure 1. DVD Shrink is used to extract the DVD to the HD.

2. Convert subtitles to SubRip (*.srt) format using Subtitle workshop (see Figure 2)
While DVDshrink is creating a backup of my DVD, I download a subtitle and convert it using subtitle workshop to
SubRip format. Note the input and output frame rate settings (2a). Knowing the length of my DVD (from its box), I
can check the time of the last subtitle to see whether it was in NTSC or PAL (2c). Finally, save it as SubRip.

Further note that I first had some trouble to see the special characters correctly (2b+d): I had to use the Central
European font in this tool, but I also needed to change my general computer settings (Control panel/Regional
settings/Advanced/Non-unicode language/ to Romanian).

Subtitle workshop also allows you to synchronize your subtitles while viewing the movie (see Movie menu). In
principal, for a DVD it shouldn’t be necessary, but if you are using an avi file, where the opening scenes have been
shortened, do the following. Go to the first dialogue in the movie and press ALT-F. Then, go the last dialogue and
press ALT-L. Now, synchronize using CTRL-B. Alternatively, if the first or last dialogue are not there, you can do
the same for other subtitles, but now using CTRL-1 and CTRL-2. If this still doesn’t work, maybe the subtitles are
based on a slightly different DVD, for example an American DVD where some juicy scenes have been removed.

Figure 2. Subtitle workshop allows you to synchronize your subtitles with the movie, and to convert many different
formats to SubRip format.

3. Convert subtitles (*.srt) to a bitmap stream (*.sup) using SRT2SUP (see Figure 3).
a) Open *.srt file
b) Select Settings/Global settings and change the color and font that you want to use for your subtitles. For
example, use a black transparent background, white letters, a silver outline (or set it to 0) and silver anti-aliasing.
c) Select ‘All’ subtitles
d) Save the sup file – this can take some time.
e) Write down the IFO color settings (you need this later while using IfoEdit)
Note that Srt2sup has a documented memory leak of 10kb per line, so after generating your *.sup file, close down
the program.
Figure 3. Srt2Sup converts your subtitles to a 4 color-coded bitmap stream, which can be multiplexed with the
DVD's video and audio streams.
4. Demultiplex original DVD VOB files using VobEdit (see Figure 4)
By this time, DVDshrink will probably be ready, and you have a set of IFO (InFOrmation), BUP (BackUP copies of
IFO), and VOB (Video OBject) files on your hard disk. The largest IFO contains the movie.
a) Start VobEdit, and open the DVDshrink movie (*.VOB) file. It has the same name as the largest IFO file (4c).
b) Demux the VOB: as you already have selected everything in DVDshrink that you want to keep, you can demux
all video (*.m2v), audio (*.ac3), and subtitles (*.sup) to a new location on your HD (4a+b).
c) Optionally, if the original film was an avi-film that you converted to MPEG-2 and demultiplexed into an m2v and
mp2 file using TMPGEnc, you may need to change the sampling frequency of the audio file from 44.1kHz to 48kHz
using BeSweet in order to remain compatible with the DVD format. In that case, you might also need to change
the extension of the audio file to m2a, so IfoEdit can see the file.
Figure 4. VobEdit is used to demultiplex the DVD's VOB (Video Object) files, i.e. to split them in separate video
(*.mv2), audio (*.ac3) and subtitles (*.sup) files.

5. Author new DVD using IfoEdit (see Figure 5)

a) Start IfoEdit and open IFO file of movie (same file as in step 4)
b) Save cell times under the tools menu (tells you where a chapter begins) and CLOSE IfoEdit
c) Start IfoEdit again and select menu item DVD Author/Author new DVD (this has to be the first thing that you do
in IfoEdit, else this item is not available).
d) Select the files created by VobEdit: first the m2v, then all audio files (you may have to change the extension to
something that IfoEdit can read), finally all subtitles, including the one you created in step 3.
e) Set the corresponding languages of all subtitles
f) Load the cell times (previously saved in step 5b) for the chapters.
g) Save the new VOB – this one containing your new subtitle!
Note: If you don’t have a lot of free space on your HD, you can now delete the original VOB files used in step 4
(don’t delete the IFO file with the same name).
h) Copy the subtitle color from the original IFO to the new IFO: open the original IFO (see Figure 6, h1), select
VTS_PGC_1 (h2), and go to the subtitle color menu (h3): copy color info. Now, open the new IFO (h1), go to the
same location (h2), and paste the color info. Save the IFO again (h4).
Note: Depending on the color settings in srt2sup, you now have good color settings for the original subtitles, but
maybe not for your own. I haven’t figured out a solution to this yet. You can change the color settings in srt2sup
and try again (I tried several settings, and tested them all at the same time). Or you can manually enter the color
info from SRT2SUP, generated at the end of the conversion (see Figure 3e), and enter the hexadecimal values in
your IFO file (see Figure 6). Now, however, probably only your subs are OK, and the originals are lousy (in which
case you might decide to leave them out: the perfectionist would convert the originals SUPs to text, e.g. by using
SupRip, and back to SUP again using SRT2SUP, so all color settings are the same). In case you forgot to write
down the color values, start SRT2SUP and use the Settings menu to show the colors again.
i) Move the new IFO, BUP and VOBs back to the original location (where DVD Shrink wrote its output).
Figure 5. IfoEdit allows you to create new DVDs using its authoring tool: several video, audio, and subtitle streams
can be multiplexed together to create new DVD VOB files.

Figure 6. IfoEdit also allows you to copy the original subtitle colors from the original DVD IFO (Information) file,
i.e. the file that was originally ripped by DVD Shrink, to your own IFO file. Or you can set them manually (scroll
down in the lower window – only the first 4 colors must be set).

6. Test the output and write to an empty DVD

Using a DVD player (e.g. Nero ShowTime) that can play from the hard disk, you can already inspect whether the
DVD you authored was correct. If you are satisfied, burn the files to a DVD (in the VIDEO_TS folder). In case that
you maintained the original menu, you might have some troubles playing the movie (maybe there are some
missing references in the new IFO file to the menu or video_ts.ifo file). In that case, try again, but now without the
original menu. A bit unsatisfactorily, I realize, but I don’t know another solution (yet).