Hello, guys, I am a first-time-poster, although I am no newbie to video editing. But, there is a point when advice would help. Namely, what I would like to do is convert a DVD movie from original DVD into an mpeg2 file (720x576, approx. 8 mbps, PAL) in that way that the subtitles would be burnt into the mpeg file. I need this for cable TV broadacast of licensed movies (the publisher gives me movies on original DVDs) and I have been solving this issue so far by real time S-VHS playout with subtitles and recording the movie into hard disk recorder or into the playout PC via video capture card. It would save me a lot of time if I could convert the DVD movie directly to MPEG2 file with subtitles already "burnt" into the file. I will appreciate any possible advice and help. Basically, I have a DVD with selectable subtitles and what I would like to do is an original quality mpeg2 file with subtitles already embedded (hardcoded) into the file. Thank you for your help and advice on which software to use.
Embedded subs means re-encoding, which since MPEG-2 is a lossy format means a loss in quality. Re-encoding to AVI (assuming a lossy codec such as XviD or lmp4 (pocket DivX encoder doesn't actually do DivX)) will only further degrade quality.
So basically no way to have the original quality and hard coded subs.
Easiest, most direct way I can think of would be mencoder (pocket DivX encoder is actually mencoder based, at least last I checked).
mencoder -dvd-device x: dvd://1 -sid 0 -oac copy -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video etc.
Otherwise you could run through rip, run through dgindex and frameserve to an MPEG-2 encoder (HCenc, CCE, etc.) via AVISynth.
Thanks guys, for your thoughts. So, basically, the best way is S-VHS recording (realtime) with subtitles played out and high bitrate (9 mbps), this is what I did so far.
Dear Friend, for this you just need some fine dvd rip software for ex. #1 DVD ripper (see softarchive.net) and to extract the movie and the title file you want (don't forget the language-sound file...)
You can save the video in AVI or wmv format (or any other you may choose and add the subtitles as I already told you.
Alternatively you can search for better subtitle files on the web through Yahoo or even write your own.
btw We are in broadcasting too! contact me priveate if you have any more doubts or comments.
