Locked DVDs(?), Subtitling, and Profile question.

[Nusakan]

I wasn't sure where to put this so I'll stick it here for now. This is three questions. I'm pretty new to EMC9 so doing stuff with it is brand new to me. I have used EMC7 before BUT I only used it to burn CD/DVDs and never touched any of the other stuff like video editing so I'm a total newbie.

 

My first question is about locked (?) DVDs on EMC9 using the Disc Copier (Videos -> Convert Videos). When I go to Video Compilation and then Add Movies and select a DVD on a DVD drive, it will show me Individual movies as well as Individual Extras but the thumbnails has a picture of a DVD and a lock which already tells me, well it's locked because it won't let me click OK. Some DVDs will have this "lock" and others don't. So the question(s) is, how do I "unlock" this or what is causing this to be locked? This happens when I rip the DVDs to the hard drive as well. My guess it has something to do with copyright and such which I understand but sucks for me because I actually own my DVDs and want to make good personal use of them, which is to convert them to PSP so I can watch it on the go.

 

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The second question is using the same program but with an unlocked DVD and it’s about putting in subtitling that comes with the DVD. I'll explain what I did on the next paragraph but basically I can get it to be in Japanese audio (as a final product) but subtitles will not show up at all. Preview doesn't show it either, but it also doesn't play the correct audio but that's another story.

 

So going into Add movie, I select the movie I want and click OK. The program will start "caching title" or it sounds like it is just copying that movie/episode somewhere. Once that is done, the movie is now in the list. I click on the list and click on Language Option. Now I see two sections "Audio and Subtitling” and "Video File Output". According to the manual and help the Audio and Subtitling is for if I want to create another DVD and the Video File Output is if I want to create a video file out of it. A video file is what I want so I select Japanese and the Subtitle I select English. From there I select the format (PSP) and have it Output to a file/folder and finally, when I'm ready, click on Save As, pick a location and ok. When it's done, it plays in Japanese Audio but I don't see subtitles anywhere. Some DVDs have multiple "English" and I tried them both as well as even touching the Audio and subtitling section which was only supposed to apply to creating a DVD.

 

Did I miss a step somewhere?

 

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One more question, sorry. Is there a way to create custom encoding profiles for converting videos? If I click on "More" when selecting a Format, there is only a very few things I can modify. I'm looking for something more advanced like changing frame rates or resolution and so forth.

 

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A little Background: I have about 400+ DVDs of anime and I am able to convert those DVDs to AVI in Japanese audio and subtitles that came with the DVD with the use of 5 programs. I've done it this way for 2+ years now actually. Basically rip, Demux, and put them back together in a different format. I was basically getting sick of wasting so much time doing the prep work just to finally be able to encode the video the way I want it. My goal was to convert those AVI files that I created to eventually go into my PSP and soon a PS3 and iPod.

 

Thanks for any help you guys can give me. I really don't want to have this program become a $70 paper weight.

 

Nusakan

http://home.comcast.net/~nusakan

[Nusakan]

I tried a few more DVDs and still can't get the subtitles to show up. I think I pretty much lost this battle. Time to see if I can return it.

 

Thanks for your help =)

[Nusakan]

Ouch, I was afraid of that. it sounds like i'm out of luck and have to go back to my old methods. I was hoping that my ripper would at least be able to remove this copy protection so that I can use EMC9 to take care of the middle stuff that takes me longer to do if I did it manually. So since the manual and help files is not giving me a whole lot of information. What are those subitle options for then? Other than the top option for making disc and bottom for making files. Does it not look at the ifo of the DVD to get that information or is that something for custom made subtitles and it has to be in a certain file format? That's what is confusing me. In my perspective, it just sounds like that feature is broken or non functional.

 

In terms of divx dvds, they're actual dvds (off the retail stores) and not custom made dvds. Unless the manufacturers are doing something new that I wasn't aware of. So I'm not sure this will help me here.

[ggrussell]

You don't seem to understand how subtitles work. On a DVD it's fairly simple. Subtitles are text files that are displayed by the DVD player as an overlay. That way the user has the option of turning them on or off.

 

There is no such thing for a single video file. There is only two options: 1) that the subtitle is actually encoded into the video FRAME which means totally re-encoding the entire file, or 2) using something like closed captioning which is done in the vertical blanking area and isn't supported with most software players. I don't know of any video editing software that does either one.

[Nusakan]

Yes, I understand that. The way I do it is pretty much the same thing, encode the subtitles(idx/sub), video, and audio all into one package. But then what is that subtitle option for in Disc Copier? I was under the assumption that it would take the information subtitles (ifo and vob) and put it in as part of the encoding process. It obviously works when I chose a different audio language but it's just the subtitles that don't even show up at all. Am I just not understanding what it is actually supposed to do?

 

*scratches head*

 

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This is what the help states:

Language Options—Compilation

This dialog box lets you select the languages, subtitles, and audio formats that you want to include. These options are only available for DVD-Video source movies.

 

In the Audio & Subtitle area, select the languages to include if you are creating a DVD-Video disc or image file. For each language, you can also choose whether to include subtitles.

 

Note: Only DVD-Video output supports multiple languages. If you choose a video file format as your output, you must select one language.

 

In the Video file output area, select the language and subtitle to include if you are creating a file or disc.

 

 

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From what it says there I believe that the program can encode a DVD to a single video file by pulling subtitle, audio, and video information from the DVD and encoding it.

 

Thanks for you guy's help btw. I am unfortunatly disliking this program more and more =/. So far Xilisoft's DVD ripper is the only program that works but even their program has their bugs in subtitling. The subtitles will (a majority of the time) appear and then miliseconds later, disappear.

 

One last assumption, I noticed that after selecting the subtitle and audio that Disc copier will change it's information accordingly so it will say the title of the movie (based on DVD info), Playtime, Audio language (which does change depend on what I select), and the Source (eg H:\DVD Title\VIDEO_TS) BUT doesn't have anything for subtitling even those there is a drop box for one when you go into the language option. Did Roxio forget something in their scripting that may be causing this?

[gi7omy]

OK - I'll try to be brief on a couple of points

 

The 'locked' files - if they are DivX, this post may explain how to correct that

 

http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=8841

 

(You may need to repaid the .ax files)

 

Subtitling - I don't think there's a method for that (I stand open for correction here) but I think that it can be done with DVDit Pro but not with EMC9

 

Perhaps someone else can help out with your remaining questions

[ggrussell]

Basically, Nothing in EMC9 will copy a protected disc whether it is an audio CD or video DVD.

 

If you have an unprotected DVD, I don' t think any conversion app will include the subtitles when ripping to a file because the subtitles would have to be encoded in the video. On a DVD, subtitles are 'text' files that are added to the display by the DVD player.

 

You might be able to select which audio is converted if the unprotected DVD has more than one audio stream.

[ggrussell]

From reading the Help file, it does sound like the subtitle would be included. Unfortunately, I don't have any DVDs with subtitles to try this out.