enabling subtitles with dvd shrink

DamoKen

Hi, I've trying to back up a few dvds at the moment and have run into a bit of a brick wall regarding subtitles. I've followed the guide word for word on subcaptions but anytime I play the resulting vobs on any player (powerdvd, intervideo WinDVD, classic media player) the subtitles option in the right click menu is greyed out.
I've tried shrinking it a few times, ensuring that the subcaption for English is specified and the audio for French but no joy. The last attempt I made was with no compression, i.e. just create a backup to see if that would work and the same problem!

Last thing I tried was creating a single divx from the seperate vobs but same deal. Anyone have any idea how I can do this?

cheers

DamoKen

just an update on my post earlier. discovered I can play with subtitles through windows media player of all things if I load in the original vob files. Doesn't work on the divx though so I would guess the subcaptions have been stripped out at that stage.
So for the moment it looks like I can backup dvd's with subtitles albeit as quite large files, and in blocks as well i.e. 1gb vob's.
If anyone knows of an app that will convert to a divx and keep the subtitles let me know.

thanks

esquier

You need to rip the subs off the dvd with Subrip or Vobsub.

http://www.divx-digest.com/software/subrip.html

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/subtitle_tools/vobsub.cfm

DamoKen

cheers for the links esquier, I'll have a look at them when I get the chance this week.

spurious

Anytime I've used DVD shrink, I have left everything at default and all the subs worked perfectly, even with a fairly high level of compression.

If I wanted to make a DivX file of the DVD, I would use the Gordian Knot suite of programmes, but it's much easier and quicker to use DVD Shrink, although of course it results in a bigger file.

DamoKen

hi Spurious, what player do you use for viewing the copied dvds? Are you able to choose what subtitles you wish to use from the drop down menu of the player or do you include the original menu of the dvd and select from there?
The only player I could load all the vobs into at the same time was Win Media Player (maybe there are options on the others for doing this, didn't check yet).
This enabled me to play the menu vob first selecting the language and subtitles. Alternatively I was able to load individual vobs and select what subtitles to use. Couldn't do it with the other players as for some reason the subtitles option was greyed out.

Also when you create a divx, are you able to select the subtitles in it?

cheers