lost subtitles with mkv conversion

[ah.ni.may]

In another thread I posted a few days ago, I bought a portable DVD player and wanted to use that to watch my anime episodes ... most of my anime episodes are download in AVI, rmbv and mkv format and usually burned into a DVD data disc ... I wanted to convert my animes into a DVD format (vob) so that I can play it with my portbale DVD player ...

I got a warez program ConvertXtoDVD which was very nice ... it can convert all formats (avi, rmvb and mkv) into DVD ... not only that but it can fit all episodes of a series in one DVD with some loss of video quality, of course ...

My problem was in converting mkv to DVD format, the subtitles are lost in conversion ... it was just so lucky that the first series that I converted was Kare Kano which I downloaded from nit3-senpai's sharefolder ... all episodes were in mkv format with subtitles and dual audio (meaning japanese dub and english dub) ... when I converted this series, the subtitles were lost, but I can still watch it because I can select audio into either English or Japanese (although I did not like the English dub because I thought the girl's voice was a little too flirty while the guy's voice was too mature and serious)

I experimented with another anime episode in mkv format with no English audio and converted it into dvd with the same results ... no subtitles and with Japanese audio (which of course I did not understand) ... I tried to experiment in another way, I converted the mkv into AVI format first before converting it to DVD format ... but also with the same result: no subtitle and with japanese audio, so I still cannot understand it ...

Has anyone tried converting mkv into another format? How did you retain the subtitles? ... *waving at BlackBlade* ... if anyone can help ... onegai?


PS. sorry for the long read .... hehehehehehe

[BlackBlade]

Lol. *Waves back*. I would be glad to help you! For all of my transcoding stuff, I use MediaCoder. In MediaCoder, down at the bottom of the program are all the ways to customize the file output. If you click the "right" arrow key, you will eventually come up to a Subtitle tab. If the MKV video file already has the subtitles built into it, just click on the file once in the MediaCoder interface, go to the subtitle tab, and under Language choose "English" (or the language of the subtitle). Then, upon output, the subtitles will be there in the language that you choose.



More detailed info may be found here:

MediaCoder Subtitling Guide - MediaCoderWiki

[ah.ni.may]

Hi BlackBlade *waving wildly* ... thanks for your response ... I tried to DL MediaCoder and convert 1 episode of mkv video ... I had some problems at first, it would not convert ... until I found out I need to choose mp3 as the audio code ... I also clicked the subtitle as you mentioned and waited for it to convert ... I was kinda disappointed because it took so long ... then more disappointed because I was expecting the 25 minutes anime video but it only converted only around 10 minutes of video (is it because it is freeware?) ... the subtitle appeared (yehey!) ... but as I was watching the 10 minute video, I noticed the audio and video was out of sync ... I must be doing something wrong ... although I notice the MediaCoder has a lot of features that I can use to convert other formats ... mkv format is really a problem for me ... I even tried to use VirtualDub but it does not recognize mkv format :(

I found a software MKV TO AVI CONVERTER, they had a trial download which I tried and it seems promising, even a fast conversion and the subtitles showed up, too ... but I'm thinking whether to shell out $30 for it ... still thinking ... hmmmm

[BlackBlade]

If the audio and video were out of sync, then it was just a codec issue. If you don't need any of the advancing coding options, then just leave it all on the default settings, but be sure to go to the "Subtitle" tab to enable the subtitles. To get an AVI file, go to the "Video" tab, choose "XviD as the format, and under "Container" set at "Default". You can also play around with the bitrate options if you wish, if you find that the video is not at a quality that you desire.

To get the audio correct, go to the "Audio" tab, and under "Encoder" choose "LAME MP3". Leave everything else default.

If you are only transcoding for 10 Min for some reason, check the "Time" tab. They should all be set to either "00:00" or "0.000". MediaCoder is freeware, but it is not a limited or a trial version of anything. It is a complete, full program.

As for the other software, there is no need to pay! Why pay when you can get better software for free?

[ah.ni.may]

yippeee!!! BlackBlade, you are a genius!!! ... have successfully converted three mkv format into avi and subtitles have appeared ... have even experimented a few and was able to change subtitle fonts to bigger and better ones ... I am also able to change picture size of video into 640 x 480 which I prefer and if I play around some more, maybe can do some other interesting stuff ... mediacoder is really nice, have so much features ... thanks for recommending this one (+rep for you) ... and its for FREE!!! ... do I need to be connected to the internet whenever I open it? my firefox opens up whenever I click on my MediaCoder desktop icon ... its not really a problem, just wondering .... hyahyahyahya

[BlackBlade]

Thank you very much for the rep! It is my pleasure to help you! MediaCoder really is a great little program. And, as you were able to do, it gives you full control over the output of your file.

MediaCoder does use the Internet every time that you use it, but it only uses it to detect for updates. And every week there seems to be an update to it. Lol, the guy behind MediaCoder has been really working hard ^_^. Once you update MediaCoder, you will also see that your web browser will open, and there is a button on the page that says something like "Start MediaCoder". Beneath that, there is a check box that says something like "Don't show this window again". If you check that box, then click the "Start" button, then that window will not open until you update MediaCoder again.

So, long story short, you do not need to be connected to the Internet for MediaCoder to work. It only uses the Internet for program updates.

I hope all goes well ah.ni.may! If you ever need more assistance, please don't hesitate to post on the forum or send me a PM. Thanks again for the rep and happy coding!

--BB--

[ah.ni.may]

A. first convert ... don't know how I did it and what font was used or what setting were there




B. second convertion - using Arial Rounded Bold ... too big




C. third conversion - using Comic Sans font ... still too big





BlackBlade sorry for the bother ... but how do you make the subtitle smaller?

the first one is the one I converted first, but I wanted to change the font style so I used Arial Rounded ... but when It can out, it was too big ... I changed the font style to Comic Sans but its still too big ... I wanted to go back to the first one but when it was converted no subtitle appeared at all ... got kinda confused ... maybe because I've been pulling an all-nighter downloading and converting anime ... maybe I should give my comp a rest and go to sleep first *yawn* ... but if you have an idea of what I'm doing wrong please enlighten me ...

... thanks for all your help

[BlackBlade]

Hummm....first off the subtitles are in very bad English. ^_^ That aside, the guy behind MediaCoder was working on a font size script for the program, but he seemed to have abandoned it. Check out these posts on MediaCoder's forum:

MediaCoder :: View topic - Subtitle size

Below link of a post a year ago:
MediaCoder :: View topic - Big subtitles! PLEASE HELP!

So, sorry ah.ni.may, I would just go with the default font for that. To go back to defaults, open up MediaCoder, go to the subtitle tab, click on the "Advanced" button, and then click on the "Revert" button on the pop-up window. Conversion A looked fine to me, and I beleive that is the default settings.

[ah.ni.may]

Thanks very much BlackBlade ... I didn't know how to go back to default settings ... hehehehehe ... I've tried it again and I got the first subtitle format again ... arigatou gozaimasu *bow*



PS. lolz, I know some subtitles are not so good ... this if from Kare Kano nit3-senpai's share folder, it has english dub also, but I still wanna hear the japanese voices hehehehehehe

[BlackBlade]

Originally Posted by ah.ni.may

Thanks very much BlackBlade ... I didn't know how to go back to default settings ... hehehehehe ... I've tried it again and I got the first subtitle format again ... arigatou gozaimasu *bow*



PS. lolz, I know some subtitles are not so good ... this if from Kare Kano nit3-senpai's share folder, it has english dub also, but I still wanna hear the japanese voices hehehehehehe

So this did not work?

"To go back to defaults, open up MediaCoder, go to the subtitle tab, click on the "Advanced" button, and then click on the "Revert" button on the pop-up window."

What are the 3 top Fonts in your Font pull down menu underneath the "Subtitle" tag?