7/30/2019 Subtitles HandBrake.pdf

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Last modified 23 months ago

Subtitles

Subtitles may be stored in different formats within media or as additional files:

Bitmaps (Pictures), e.g. DVD VOBSUBs

Text with markup, e.g. Closed Captions and SRT files.

Styled SSA, e.g. most anime subtitles in MKV files

HandBrake can use subtitles tracks as INPUT from the following sources:

From DVDs Either embedded VOBSUB or CC tracks.

User supplied SRT files.

From Files (such as mkv or mp4) - Embedded subtitle tracks.

HandBrake has two methods of subtitle OUTPUT:

Hard Burn: This means the subtitles are written on top of the image permanently. They

cannot be turned on or off like on the DVD.

Soft Subtitles: This means the subtitles will appear as separate selectable tracks in your

output file. With the correct playback software, youll be able to enable / disable these

subtitles as required.

Subtitle Outputs

DVD and ASTC Closed Captions - When selected, these will be passed through from your

source file to the MKV or MP4 output file.

CC tracks cannot be burned into the video.

Only 1 CC track can be read from the source.

CC tracks within an MP4 appear as a subtitle track, not a CC track.

SRT subtitle import You can import SRT files into HandBrake through the Subtitles tab.

SRT files are pass-through only. They cannot be burnt into the video.

You can import multiple SRT subtitle tracks.

You can set an offset (measured in milliseconds) to change the start time that the

first and subsequent SRT subtitles will appear. Use trial and error encoding a single

chapter to obtain the correct offset.

You should make sure the correct character code is selected from the Char Code

dropdown. Selecting the wrong code, will result in your output file having no subtitle

track, and can cause the player to crash when playing that track.

SRT Passthru

SRT Subtitles can also be passed through from input video files.

DVD Bitmap Subtitles (VOBSUB)

With MP4, you can burn ONLY 1 subtitle track into the video.With MP4, you can not pass-through VOBSUB tracks.

With MKV, you can pass-through multiple VOBSUB tracks. These are not burned into

the video unless you choose to do so however you can only burn 1 subtitle track into

the file. The rest must be passed through.

SSA Subtitles

SSA Subtitles can be passed-thru or burned into the video.

When burned into the video, all styling (e.g. fonts, colors, etc) is preserved.

Animated effects (e.g. fade in/out, karaoke) are not currently supported. (Only

the middle frame of the animation will be used.)

When passed-thru as text, only bold/italic/underline styles are preserved. Some

players may not support the simultaneous display of multiple passed-thru SSAsubtitles.

Setting a Default Subtitle track

If you wish to have your player automatically select a subtitle track during playback, then you

https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/Subtitles

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can select the default checkbox for the subtitle track you wish to enable. You should note that

this does not currently work with Apple software or playback devices.

While this option is available for mp4 files, it does not currently serve any purpose. Default

subtitle tracks will only be enabled on playback when using mkv files.

Forced Subtitles

With some DVD sources, there is a subtitle track which only displays during foreign languagesections of the video. On some titles this is a unique subtitle track in the same language as the

main audio track, on others it uses the standard subtitle track in the same language as the main

audio track except marks a subset of the subtitles as forced.

In order to select this track, HandBrake can scan the source for subtitles that appear only 10%

(or less) of the time in addition to scanning for the presence of any forced subtitles.

To enable this functionality within the HandBrake user interface, from the Subtitles tab select

the Foreign Audio Search (Bitmap) option from the Track dropdown menu and click the

Forced Checkbox.

If you do not get a foreign section only subtitle track in your output file, then you may have to

manually find and select the correct subtitle track from the Track dropdown menu.

In order to determine which subtitle track to select open the Activity Window and look for the

following text:

[ 10: 08: 16] Subt i t l e st r eam 0x20bd ' Engl i sh' : 421 hi t s ( 0 f or ced)[ 10: 08: 16] Subt i t l e st r eam 0x34bd ' Engl i sh' : 1640 hi t s ( 0 f or ced)[ 10: 08: 16] Subt i t l e st r eam 0x35bd ' Engl i sh' : 3829 hi t s ( 0 f or ced)[ 10: 08: 16] No candi dat e subt i t l e det ect ed dur i ng subt i t l e- scan

In this case you can see that subtitle 0x20bd should probably be selected manually. The subtitle

numbers may be obtained by looking for the output of the scan, the number will correspond withwhere in the drop down menu that subtitle will appear in the GUI.

[ 10: 07: 40] scan: checki ng subt i t l e 1[ 10: 07: 40] scan: i d=20bd, l ang=Engl i sh, 3cc=eng[ 10: 07: 40] scan: checki ng subt i t l e 2[ 10: 07: 40] scan: i d=21bd, l ang=I t al i ano, 3cc=i t a[ 10: 07: 40] scan: checki ng subt i t l e 3[ 10: 07: 40] scan: i d=22bd, l ang=Neder l ands, 3cc=dut[ 10: 07: 40] scan: checki ng subt i t l e 4[ 10: 07: 40] scan: i d=23bd, l ang=Ar abi c, 3cc=ara[ 10: 07: 40] scan: checki ng subt i t l e 5[ 10: 07: 40] scan: i d=24bd, l ang=Bul gar i an, 3cc=bul

[ 10: 07: 40] scan: checki ng subt i t l e 6[ 10: 07: 40] scan: i d=25bd, l ang=Hr vat ski , 3cc=scr[ 10: 07: 40] scan: checki ng subt i t l e 7[ 10: 07: 40] scan: i d=26bd, l ang=Dansk, 3cc=dan[ 10: 07: 40] scan: checki ng subt i t l e 8[ 10: 07: 40] scan: i d=27bd, l ang=Suomi , 3cc=f i n[ 10: 07: 40] scan: checki ng subt i t l e 9[ 10: 07: 40] scan: i d=28bd, l ang=Gr eek, Modern, 3cc=gre

https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/Subtitles

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