How do I enable subtitles in DIVX avi files?

[nicholsona]

I know a lot of this has been covered, but I don't understand the bulk of what I'm reading -- heck, I'm not even sure if what I'm reading is even relevent to my situation.

I have ripped a number of DVDs using Gordian Knot. Some of these movies, like Childern of Men or Kill Bill, have points in the movies where some of the dialog is in another language. As it stands now, I don't see the subtitles during those points. I would like to be able to do so while playing the .avi files in Sage.

I've tried to download .srt files from the internet, but I can't get these to work. Even if I could, I don't want to see subtitles during the entire movie, just during the times when something other than English is being used.

Can anyone tell me the approach I should be taking? I'm willing to change whatever needs to be changed in how I rip or display the movies.

My setup is just the default that comes with installing SageTV Media Center 6.6 for Windows.

I don't know what a lot of the acronyms are that I see in the posts about subtitles, like mkv or smi (though I assume they're formats for subtitles) so please treat me like an idiot. If I can use .srt files, where do they go?

Thanks!

[Fuzzy]

I'd just re-rip with out transcoding, and use sage's built in DVD system. I'm pretty sure it would use the proper sub tracks (such as the non-english parts only track).

[nicholsona]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I'd just re-rip with out transcoding, and use sage's built in DVD system. I'm pretty sure it would use the proper sub tracks (such as the non-english parts only track).

Thanks Fuzzy, but I'm not getting what you mean. Maybe it's because I've never used Sage to rip a movie.

I did manage to answer my own question. What I'm looking for are "forced" subtitles. That appears to be the term for the subtitles used for just the non-english parts of the movie. In Gordian Knot you can use the Subtitiles/Chapters tab. You click on configure, then open the .ifo file in the ripped movie's folder. After indexing the subtitles, you then click resync and open up the .idx file you created under configure. Some movies will have subtitles that contain just the forced subtitles, while others have them all, but with the forced ones markes as forced. Just delete the non-forced ones.

That's simplistic, but it might give someone else a place to start if they're doing the same thing I wanted to do.

[Fuzzy]

If you are using SageTV for playback, there is no real need to go through the whole gordian knot re-encoding step. Just use AnyDVD and copy the actual DVD files to a folder on hard drive. Sage then will support full menus and subtitles direct from this folder structure. it IS a lot quicker than having to re-encode the files.

[MalibuDave42]

Fuzzy, what is your reccomendation for BD's? I use Sage as a server/client. It does not support BD trees at the client. Thanks!

[Fuzzy]

Myself, I copy the entire disc (because I like the menus and such) in original folder structure. HD space is cheap. For playback, I use Arcsoft TMT3 (along with some local genius' BD-Playback STVi to launch from the video library) Control of Arcsoft is handled by Girder (as well as sagetv, and some other apps).