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How to rip DVD subtitles to .srt PDF Print E-mail
I guess you'll agree with me that most DVD ripping tools out there handle video and audio pretty well but unfortunately just do not manage subtitles that good at all. They either "burn" the subtitles on the video which means you cannot turn them off or create .sub files. In the other hand, .srt subtitles is much more handy than any of the choices above. It's plain text, so it is small sized and can be formated by the player to the liking of the user. Also it is very easy to merge in containers like mkv so that you can have video, audio and subtitles in one file.

So the best solution is to create the video file using the DVD rip program of your choice and then rip the subtitles using something else. In this guide we will use one of the most popular programs that can do this task, SubRip.

Step01
Subrip01

Load SubRip and in the main window click the "VOB" button in the toolbar (it is the very first one). The window above will open. First, you will have to click Open IFO and load the first .IFO file of the DVD. That will probably be VTS_01_0.IFO. After you load it, check the filenames to make sure everything is OK, there should be 4 or more VOB files of a big size (size appears in the right). Make sure you select all of them but the first, and right at the top select the Language stream you want to rip.

In the right part of the window, leave Characters matrix file to New File (we will explain what that means at the end) and make sure "SubPictures to Text via OCR" is selected in the Actions option. Finally, click Start to begin the ripping process.

Subrip02

SubRip is using OCR (optical character recognition) to convert the subtitles, which in the DVD are stored as images, to text. Because of that you'll need to manually input each character the first time SubRip finds it. It may sound like a big job, but usually in 5-10 minutes you will enter everything SubRip needs to continue the ripping automatically.

You can see an example dialog above. All you have to do is check the blue character in the image, enter it below and click OK. Just make sure you enter the correct one (they are case-sensitive) or the subtitle created will have dozens of errors.


Subrip03

Above you can see SubRib working. Usually ripping a 2 hour movie's subtitles after you're done with the manual character input takes a little less than an hour. Just make sure you are around, since SubRip might find an unrecognizable character anytime, and of course halt the ripping process waiting for your input.


Subrip04

When it is finished you have to save to .srt file. Click the save button as shown in the image above and your subtitles file is ready! Before you close SubRip it would be a good idea to save the Characters Matrix, so check the next step as well.


Subrip05

The Characters Matrix file holds all OCR information that we inputted manually before, so it's a very good idea to save it by selecting Characters Matrix -> Save Characters Matrix File As. Then you can load it in Step 1 in the next DVD you will rip in order to save yourself time by not starting the recognition process all over again, but instead just enter any extra characters SubRip can't understand.

This pretty much concludes this simple guide for ripping the subtitles from a DVD. Of course SubRip is a much more advanced utility with many more options that we may explain in  future guide. Until then feel free to use our forum for any question.
Comments (10)Add Comment
advanced question :p
written by tsaponi, April 26, 2009
How can I change the red border of the program, when the characters are being identified? Let me illustrate the problem I have:

"?" is the character, that when the program comes across, I only have the option to assign a character to the left dot on the top of the "?". I want to be able to encircle the whole "?" and then assign the proper character to it.
Brilliant!
written by DuckyDK, July 20, 2009
Nice little and simple guide. Will prove very useful to me in the future. smilies/smiley.gif
...
written by MD, December 05, 2009
Thnx for this simple guide. Took me about 15 mins to make srt's from my DVD.
rip dvd
written by fsfsss, December 15, 2009
How to rip dvd on mac?here is a step.
app is missing subs
written by chambaralord, January 23, 2010
Subrip is missing subs that display in yellow; any ideas??
unicode
written by grymulv, March 13, 2010
Well you got your srt as UNICODE which is useless anyway so dont bother

Forced subs only (i.e. 'alien speak')?
written by Bardmaster, May 23, 2010
Any way to filter out those subs flagged as forced? All I want is the aliens and foreigners who don't speak English, like the Navi speak in Avatar, or the Huttese in the Star Wars movies.
Thankyou
written by Srinvias, June 16, 2010
Thankyou very much for the Guide..
sod this program
written by sicksTseven, August 09, 2010
Sod this program, i was nakerd after about 1/2 an hour just typing away, would be quicker using windows movie maker with > make titles or credits tool.
sod this program
written by sicksT7, August 09, 2010
sod this program

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