Hi,
Is it possible to extract subtitle (.srt) from Handbrake? If so, how because I tried to follow their documentation and they don’t provide step-by-step instructions on how to do it.
If you can’t extract subtitles from Handbrake, what’s a good program to do it?
Thanks!
This information is primarily useful if you choose to use mp4 as your container, rather than mkv.
I choose to use mp4 because I have better luck with direct playing files (which is important to me).
That being said, I’m not sure if Handbrake can extract subs, other than just burning them into the file, or maybe packaging them with mkv. I’ve never really used it for subs as mp4 doesn’t allow subs that aren’t burned in… There are however numerous free softwares that can handle creating separate .srt files. One combo that works well is HDBRStreamExtractor and SubtitleEdit.
HDBRStreamExtractor allows you to extract the sub images from the disc. Per the page instructions, you’ll need to download the eac3to package and place it in the same folder.
https://www.videohelp.com/software/HD-DVD-Blu-Ray-Stream-Extractor/old-versions
You can follow this up by converting the subs to another format, like .srt, using the phenomenal software, SubtitleEdit. There is a beta version currently available that works significantly better than the public version, since it’s been updated from using Tesseract 3.2 up to version 4.0 for the OCR.
https://www.nikse.dk/SubtitleEdit/
https://www.videohelp.com/software/Subtitle-Edit
The 3.5.8 beta is a portable version, and you can download it from VideoHelp’s site.
Hope that helps.
Thanks. I will check them out.
A very fast program to remove srt files from movies is mkvtoolnix. https://mkvtoolnix.download
Do you want the srt files to edit them? Or just remove them?
Great! Thanks!
I’d recommend using MakeMKV to rip to .mkv, which includes the movie, alternate languages, and subtitles into one file. I use it in my server and it works flawlessly.
I do use MakeMKV to rip the entire disc. It rips the disc into three or four folders. Then I use handbrake to convert those folders into mp4s. When handbrake is done, the subtitle .srt is not extracted.
Maybe I’m using Makemkv wrong. Can you tell me how you do it?
Don’t use Handbrake. Plex can read and transcode .mkv files very well.
Are you using Handbrake because your server lacks the horsepower for transcoding or is it just a rookie mistake?
Rookie mistake I guess.
When my MakeMKV rips the disc, it rips it into folders not a single .mkv file. Can MakeMKV rip the disc into a single file?
Also, I use a nuc i7 as server. Mkv files are very large like 30-40gbs. Handbrake coverts it to a 2-10gb file. Isn’t that better for steaming?
Don’t feel bad about rookie mistakes. I had plenty of them too. (My biggest one was making a NAS out of a Raspberry Pi, which severely limited overall speed. I now have a proper NAS with Gigabit connections.)
I assume you’re making MKVs of Blu-Rays? DVD .mkv files are around 5GB if you don’t care as much about picture quality.
I don’t understand why MakeMKV is ripping your movie into several folders and not an .mkv file. Can you elaborate on that?
As for streaming, it doesn’t matter how big your movie file is since it will be automatically transcoded into a smaller format for streaming.
“Also, I use a nuc i7 as server. Mkv files are very large like 30-40gbs. Handbrake coverts it to a 2-10gb file. Isn’t that better for steaming?”
That right there is one other reason I do mp4, not mkv. I’m sure a purist would be horrified that I’m re-encoding the file, but I have storage and bandwidth limitations. I have a fantastic, custom preset for HB that produces files that are essentially indistinguishable from the original media (uses HEVC, and some other magical settings).
That being said, some people like mkv better.
In my opinion, you have two options if you want to stream outside LAN. (1) Pay the CPU time at the front end and encode in small mp4 files, or (2) Pay the CPU time at the back end when having to transcode down to a manageable bitrate that can be streamed. In case (1) you ideally need a powerful PC, in case (2) you need a fairly powerful server.
Especially if you start talking 4k media… Hehe And for what it’s worth, an encode on the front end will always look better than an encode on the fly. I guess it just boils down to each person’s hardware configurations, network speeds, use cases, etc. =)
How do you extract subtitles (.srt) from disc?
To be clear. The disc does not contain an srt track you can extract. DVD’s have vob_sub subtitles and blu-rays have PGS. These are image based subtitles. If you want an SRT, you will need to convert these. Keep in mind that converting from an image based subtitle to text is basically an OCR operation and most likely will not produce 100% correct conversions.
as per marct’s point… depends on your standpoint and priority.
that being said… you can also have Handbrake produce MKVs with the compressed video/audio… this way you could keep the picture based subtitles you got from your disk using MakeMKV. However… that would somehow be counterproductive when it comes to your priority to have your files optimized for streaming (many clients still require subtitles in SRT/text format which would result in the video being transcoded yet again).
If you want to keep the subtitles as “soft subtitles” (so they can be switched on/off), you’ll need an app to create text from the image based subtitles (e.g. vobsub/pgs). On macOS there’s e.g. Subler doing this job – I’m sure there’s alternatives for Windows too.
PS: typing too slow… MovieFan.Plex already mentioned that this “text recognition” doesn’t necessarily work perfectly. Hence some users rely on services such as SubZero or the newly built-in on-demand subtitle support in Plex.
I might be using the MakeMKV program wrong. I’m not in front of my pc now. I’ll let you know later today when I’m back home
Agreed! I posted the Windows software at the top of the thread. It’s SubtitleEdit, and the latest beta version running Tesseract 4.0 is fantastic! But, yes… it can be somewhat tedious to do all of the subs manually. I mostly use SubZero except for when the subs are way off, wrong, or don’t exist. Some of the foreign language movies that I watch in my native language don’t have subs available online, so I have to manually process them. Some people may be ok getting all their subs from online.
I personally like having the subs outside the container, but I get that some people don’t.
Not necessarily wrong… but there’s easier ways.
It seems you made a backup of the entire disc by clicking the folder-icon with the little green arrow pointing “into” it.
When you click on the source instead (the huge disc symbol that takes most of the left half of the MakeMKV window), the app will allow you to pick individual tracks and their streams (e.g. different audio / subtitle tracks).
That explains why handbrake doesn’t rip srt files from the Blu-ray disc.
Yes that’s exactly what I did. I hit the button with the green arrow. I assume it backed up the entire disc since the folders are pretty large. I will try to pick the individual source next time. But from what remember, the other buttons were grayed out. Will check again when I get home.
Subzero is great. It found half of all my movies. The other half needs to be done manually. I will check out your recommendations when I get back.
Hi,
I just became a newly minted Plex Pass member. Thanks to the discount!
Ok I think I have been seduced by the dark side. I am becoming a purist. I just ripped
my bluray disc into mkv format (following tom80H’s instructions) using MakeMKV and I think I like it ahhhh lottt. It not only ripped the subtitles in all the languages like what I wanted but all the audio languages as well. It’s almost like having the actual disc itself on plex. This is awesome!
Here are my some of my questions:
Now, I think I want to rip my entire library into the mkv format. But before I go down this rabbit hole and invest time and money (buying new hardwares), I want to know what are the potential negative consequences of going this route besides file size and hard drive space?
Because the file size is so much bigger (ex: Avatar.mp4 8.7GB, Avatar.mkv 41GB, does the video slow down at all for the client’s side when streaming over the net?
My server is a little NUC 8th gen i7, 16GB, Win10, and newly Plex Pass member. Approximately how many simultaneous streams can my “server” manage at anyone time?
Thanks!
