How to convert DivX/XviD with AC3 to a DVD with AC3 and subtitles

There already many AVI to DVD guides around but this one is by far the most complete and easy one. It wil explain in detail what you need to do to create a DVD with AC3 sound and subtitles from a DivX/XviD file with AC3. You will find VirtualDubMod, AC3Filter and VobSub in our downloads section, as well as TMPGEnc which contains a 30 day trial of the MPEG2 encoder. Note that you can use whatever encoder and authoring tool you want, we show the preperation process and then how to use some popular tools, you can use your favourite programs, or see the other guides of the sites for some other solutions!

Install AC3Filter. Then open VirtualDubMod and load the AVI file. If your rip is a 2 CD one, read the next step about how to join them, if not then proceed to step 3.

For a 2 CD rip first load the first AVI and then select File -> Append segment and open the second file as well. This will open the second file and put it straight at the end of the first one. Now you can edit the files as if it was only one of them. Just to be sure that both files are successfully loaded click the icon to go in the last frame and see if the length is correct.

Now select Video -> Direct Stream Copy.

Time to extract (demux) the AC3 audio from our files. To do that go to Streams -> Stream List.
You should see an AC3 audio stream. Click Demux to save it in the hard drive.

Give it a name like sound.ac3 and save it in a temp folder in your hard disk. It should not take more than 5-10 minutes. When it ends you will be back in the Stream list window.

Now click the button named Disable (it's the one that says Enable in this picture). The audio stream should go grey and get lines all over it. He are doing this as after we extracted the audio, we don't need it in the AVI file too. Now we are gonna save the AVI file with no sound. If you have only one file you may want to skip this step and use the original file, if not, the next step with merge the 2 CD files also, so you gotta do it.

Finally you'll need to save the video file. Go to File -> Save As. Select the directory you want to save the file into, name it like video.avi and make sure that Direct Stream Copy is selected. Then click Save and wait for the proccess to finish.

It should not take more than 10-15 minutes. When it ends you should have a video.avi video file and a sound.ac3 audio file.
Next step will be to configure the subtitles, so if you don't want to add subtitles you can proceed to step 9, where we are going to encode the video file.

There are actually not many things that need to be done with the subtitles. You have to obtain subtitles either from ripping them for the original DVD or by downloading off a subtitle site. Then install VobSub (find it in the downloads section) and from the shortcuts it creates in the start menu select DirectVobSub Configure. All you need to take care here are the fonts and paths. Make sure you click the button with the name of the font on (Arial is OK but you can use whatever you want) and set the size to something bigger than the default, like 20 or 22. The other options should be just fine as in the picture. Also in the Paths tab make sure "." is there. If it's not add it using the add button. Then click OK.
Now all you have to do is name the subtitles file video.srt or whatever the original sub type was and put it in the same folder as the video file. Now you should check whether the audio and the subs match. To do that get BSPlayer (find it in the downloads section) and load the subtitles and the ac3 audio file (using the Load Extermal Audio option that appears if you right-click on the video while playing back).
Now if the subtitles are out of sync you need to try and fix them using Subtitle Workshop, a great free tool. You can find it in the downloads section too. You can also use it to join subtitles if they are in different files. Please do not come in the forum and ask why some subtitle file is out of sync, try to find one that works with your file or use Subtitle Workshop to see if you can fix it by setting the start time and / or changing the fps.
Now we are ready to encode our video to a MPEG2 file than will include subtitles and then author to a DVD with AC3 audio! To do that, load TMPGEnc and click Next to go to the next page of the guide.

{mospagebreak}

Here you need to select the type of the MPEG file you want to create. Select DVD of course and then it's type depending on the file you have (if it is NTSC or PAL, 16:9 or 4:3). Select whatever you want about the audio, we are not gonna use it anyway.

OK here click Browse and select the video file. In the Content of video field select video for 29,97 fps movies and Film for 23,976 ones. Note that this option appears for NTSC DVDs only. Leave the other options as is, click Next and then Next again to go to the next screen that we need to make setting to!

In the next screen we're gonna have a look in the Expert settings. Locate the expert button somewhere in the right top of the window and click on it.

Now you gotta select what mode you're gonna use. CBR is faster, but VBR (2-pass) will create much better quality file. Note that it's gonna take twice the time CBR takes, so the choice is yours. Motion search precision is OK at the default Motion estimate search (fast) option. Now click Advanced tab.

Here select the right source aspect ratio depending on your source file. In that case it's 16:9 NTSC. In the Video arrange method you should use Full screen (keep aspect ratio). The Inverse telecine option you see selected below, should be selected only for NTSC Film movies, and that it is enabled by default.
The settings we need to make here are done, click OK to go back in the previous screen.

Here you need to set the file size to 99% of the disc. Be sure you select 384 as the audio bitrate, as we need to make sure that both the audio and the video will fit in the disc after authoring. Then click Next.

In the next screen just leave all options blank and click OK to go back in TMPGEnc's main window.

Finally in this window select ES (Video only) and then click Start for the encoding to begin. It's a good idea to wait and see in the preview window if the subtitles are displayed correctly. After encoding finishes you should have an m2v file with MPEG2 video plus subtitles in it and an AC3 audio file. Next comes the authoring, so load TMPGEnc DVD Author and proceed to the next step.

In the first screen of TMPGEnc DVD Author select Create new project.

Select Add file in the next screen.

And open your video.m2v file.

It should look like that after you load the video file. So click Browse and load the ac3 audio file as well.

Everything should be like that after you load both the files. Now you can select Chapter cut edit to add some chapters. Then click OK.

The next steps of the TMPGEnc DVD Author are rather simple and you can see them in detail in the authoring guide here.
After authoring finishes you just have to burn, and your DVD, containing AC3 audio and subtitles is ready! To burn you can use TMPGEnc DVD Author's DVD burner or an external program like CopyToDVD.

If you have any trouble or suggestions considering this guide, feel free to come and ask in the forum!

Comments

#12 PieterSD 2007-09-18 00:56

What a crap tutorial ! It is a farce ! Spamming for the crap & overprised TmpgEnc bloatware.

#11 xarca 2007-06-07 05:06

I did the whole subtitle encoding onto the video with virtualdub, and the subtitles came out with at the end of the lines... is there a subtitle issue?

#10 Desperate 2007-05-05 14:31

First off, thank you for the tutorial. Second, I have this error message which appears on Step 13 when I try to insert the previously saved audio. I have successfully saved the m2v video file and also the ac3 audio file. Yet, when I try to insert the audio file in, an error message appears which states "Illegal audio format. For a standard DVD, you can only use the following audio formats: Dolby Digital (AC3), MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2, or Linear PCM." My audio format IS ac3. Anyone have any idea what went wrong or how I can solve this?

#9 Amun`Ra 2006-12-18 19:40

In the guide i saw the images added and i did the same but after the title i wonder if only DivX / Xvid movies can be added or .avi ones ????

#8 Amun`Ra 2006-12-18 19:38

Is there something that i`ve missed.....

i mean when you make the demux /extaction of the sound in the movie how the **** can I make to appeare AC3 Stream.... when i do it it appears mpa stream ....did i miss something ...pls explain or good GOD help me !!!!

Sorry for the language and for the typing errors

+1 #7 jpesker 2006-01-16 11:29

This tutorial claims, and I quote "Now all you have to do is name the subtitles file video.srt or whatever the original sub type was and put it in the same folder as the video file. Now you should check whether the audio and the subs match. To do that get BSPlayer (find it in the downloads section) and load the subtitles and the ac3 audio file (using the Load Extermal Audio option that appears if you right-click on the video while playing back)." UH HUH, thats great to check for outta sync problems, but does nothing to add them to the resultant MPG/MV2/DVD. Anyways, I find Windows Media Player 6.4 part of the Kazaa Codec Package alot more useful than BSPlayer, but anyways, doesn't this just tell you that VOBSUB is working and your Subs are in sync with your Video? In my opinion so far, it Does Not tell me that if I go ahead and Author the M2V and Audio, in TMPGEnc Author or some other program, the Subs are actually hard encoded. Does it? I should be able to just delete the SRT at this point, after all, the tutorial never mentions it again? Now try to play in BSPlayer, and see if you have Subs, bet we will not have SUBS. Yes I have a big problem with this tutorial.

#6 jpesker 2006-01-16 11:11

Problems with following this tutorial are that Subtitles are, in fact, NOT HARD-ENCODED into the video (as many other users have also said as well). This is contradictory to what it claims to do and this turtorial should be changed or deleted from this website. Did the author walk through the tutorial to test it?

I agree 100% with the other Post a user claimed that the tutorial just drops the method that actually puts the SRT or subtitles into the movie (the part we all need) And to Afonic's statement, "You are right, the whole thing with VobSub is appearing the subs in the video that TMPGEnc creates. So yes, the subtitles are hard encoded in the video and can't be turned off." I want to reply, that no place in this tutorial does it explain how to use VirtualDubMod with Subtitles. If I'm wrong HERE, PLEASE let me know. There is a very, very, easy way to tell by deleting the SRT file afterwards and play the movie(mpg). If it truly is hard-encoded into the movie, subtitles should show up anyway, after all, they did indeed show as I played the movie with the SRT file. And NO, the latest TMPGENC does not show the subs as it encodes, although VOSUB green arrow should be in the system tray by your clock. So, who has the real answer. Now that I have deleted most of my work from another tutorial and spent another 3 hours on this, I guess I have to try something else. Another tutorial suggested merging my 2 AVIs together and using Srt2Sup.exe and IfoEdit.exe instead, but these are dependent on whether your standalone has Subtitles feature ON, right?. And, before I had to actually turn on WMP subs for them to work, but that's not the case once I reinstalled VOBSUB and/or added the filter, not sure which did the trick so it subs start up right fromt he start of the movie, instead of having to select the Subtitle Filter every time.

Now going on 15 hours later just on "what should be a simple thing", I will have to try something else here that actually describes hard-encoding a subtitle into a movie, but so far this tutorial (and other websites too) is definitely not it. The whole reason I started on Subtitles is that I have 2 AVIs encoding to 2 MPGs and 1 of the MPGs will have about 15 minutes of subtitles. Anyone have any further help as I keep searching, I'm sure it can be helpful for all of us? I wouldn't mind knowing if VirtualDub can help me in this area.

http://www.dvd-guides.com/content/view/70/59/1/1/

#5 warsteiner 2005-07-11 14:15

i thought i had the same problem but its not you just dont see the merged subtitles in tmpgenc, but when you play the made video file you will see that they are there :-)

#4 Caesar_k 2005-07-06 04:25

When I start TMPGEnc to convert, VobSub doesn't start.
I do everything as it is explained.

#3 afonic 2005-05-18 06:46

You are right, the whole thing with VobSub is appearing the subs in the video that TMPGEnc creates. So yes, the subtitles are hard encoded in the video and can't be turned off.

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