How to find the correct Subtitles?

Finding the “non English parts” subtitles seems to be more of a art than a science. But the following seems to have the highest rate of success:

1. Go to IMDB or TMDb, search for your movie, and look under the “Languages” section to see if another language besides English is listed. Now if you only see English that doesn’t mean you still wont need subtitles because they do not list a language if it is not a real Language (e.g. Aliens in District 9 do not speak a real language, but you will still need subtitles).
2. Go to a Subtitle web site like Subscene, and search for your movie. In the search results, look for English subtitles that have in the title something like “non-english parts only” or “non english”. In general just looking for the word non will usually find it.
3. Try to find a subtitle that will match your movie best. If you have a high def movie (in mkv format) look for a subtitle that says something like blu-ray or 1080p or 720p. If the movie is a “Extended” version, look for a subtitle that says “Entended” in the title.

NOTE: If the only subtitles you're able to find, are out of sync, see the following tutorial for adjusting your subtitle file:

http://www.ephestione.it/nfosubtitleadjustdivx.php

The version of SubtitleWorkshop used here, is NOT compatible with Windows Vista or Windows 7. The latest build, which is currently in beta, can be found here:

http://www.urusoft.net/download.php?lang=1&id=sw4

What do I do now that I have found the subtitles I needed?

1. The the next step is to place these subtitle files in to your movie folder with the same name as the movie file. This will tell Media Center to play the “.srt” or “.vob” with that particular movie file.

2. The easiest way to play these subtitle files with your movies is to install a codec pack Called Shark007. This codec pack comes in both x32 and x64 versions.

3. Within in this pack of codecs is a program called VobSub.
   

Make sure that this program is turned on: Select Direct VobSub(default) from the “Subtitle Control Panel.

1. then use the VobSub Subtitles button in the “Misc. Configuration” Tab to enter properties. Make sure “Subtitles Hidden” is not selected.

1. Make sure that the external Subtitles are only loaded when needed. Now VobSub will look for those fancy new subtitle files you just downloaded instead of the ones hard coded into the MKV file.

What to Do now that Subtitles are showing up in movies that I don’t want them on?

Because most MKV files have subtitles hard-coded into them, there will probably be subtitles showing up in movies that you don’t want them to (after all, you have told VobSub to look for them in your movie folder).

It’s going to be a big inconvenience to have to minimize Media Center, select VobSub from your Start menu/System Tray and turn it off —(especially on a big screen t.v or home movie theater… ya! and your buddy s there, and he’s all impressed by your wicked, awesome Media Browser movie theater that he’s never seen before, and he thinks your a computer genius, but…why are there subtitles during a movie we don’t need ‘em?).

The best work around for this is to have VobSub read an empty subtitle file.

You are going to have to place an empty “.srt” file in the movies you don’t want subtitles in.

Too much work you say?

Well, as long as the parent folder for you movie has the same name as the movie file itself (eg. C:\movies*Iron Man***Iron Man.mkv** ), there is a batch file that will look for MKV files in your movie collection and place a blank SRT file with the same name as your folder, without erasing the files for “non-english parts” that you have already downloaded.

In short, it will do all the work for you.

You can download the batch file here

Remember this file will only re-name the SRT to the parent folder, so as long as your movie has the same name as the folder it is in this will work for you.

Note: This batch file does not work with UNC paths, if your movies are stored on a network you will have to temporarily map the drive to use this batch file

SRT (or Sub-Rip subTitle) Files

SRT files are a lot easier and perfect if you only want subtitles in one language. You do not need to load any other application or plugin as SRT files are natively supported in Windows MediaCenter and therefore, in MB.

You download a .srt file from any of your preferred subtitle websites, copy this file into your movie folder and make sure the subtitle file has exactly the same name as the original movie file so it looks like this example:

• D:\movies\Iron Man (2008)\Iron Man[2008] DVD-Rip.avi
• D:\movies\Iron Man (2008)\Iron Man[2008] DVD-Rip.srt

If a .srt file is present in the same folder and with the same name as the movie, it will automatically be displayed in MB when using the default player.

How to create MKV files with embedded subtitles without re-encoding Video or Audio?

Tools needed:

1. Go to the Downloads section of the MKVtoolnix website and grab the version of MKVtoolnix that supports your platform. ie: Windows
2. Install MKVtoolnix, answer Yes if you want a shortcut to be created on your desktop.

Procedure to create MVK files:

1. Double click the desktop icon “mkvmerge GUI”.
2. By default the Input tab is selected, if not, click it.

3. Click Add in the Input files section.

4. Navigate to where your video and subtitle files are located and select the video file and click Open. Repeat this step for your subtitle file/s.

5. In the Tracks, chapters and tags: section, click on the SRT file to highlight it. In the General track options section, choose the language of the subtitle file and then click the drop down for Default track flag and select Yes. This option makes this subtitle file the default, important if you want to embed several languages or versions of subtitles. Note, you can omit extra subtitle and audio streams from the final file by simply unchecking the stream here.

6. Next, at the bottom select the Output filename path location and name. By default it generates a name based on the location and file name of the video file you added, but with a MKV extension.

7. Click Start muxing and watch as your new file is created. Check for any warnings or failures in the status window.

For screenshots of this process go HERE.

Considerations for playing your new MKV:

MKV is only a container. You will still need the appropriate codecs installed to be able to play the video inside the container. For instance, if the video inside the MKV is xvid, you will need an xvid codec. If the video is H.264, you will need a codec that handles that video format, such as CoreAVC, or FFDshow. Typically I don’t like codec packs, but Shark007 seems to be less evil than others. One last bit, you will need the HAALI media splitter(or equivalent) to use your new MKV file.

MKVtoolnix Documentation:

A guide to mkvmerge GUI

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