Hey there.

I just started getting into watching subbed anime, as I slowly began to realize it's the only way I'm going to get to see certain series. The only problem is that I convert my series from whatever format (AVI, MKV) to the MP4 format, so that I can watch series on my iPod Classic. Now, I'm not totally clear on the different types of subs (i.e. fansubs, hardsubs, softsubs, etc.), but I've read that converting an MKV file with softsubs will not copy the subs onto the MP4 file. From what I've tried, this appears to be true.

Now, I'm just wondering if anyone can provide me with a guide to extracting subs, then re-encoding them onto an MKV file to be converted into MP4. Thanks for any help you can provide!

I believe you can do what you want with the latest version of Handbrake (0.9.4). You just need to open it in that program. Then, select the iPOD preset on the right side of the window. On the subtitle tab, add the subtitle file and click the checkbox that says "Burned in" for it. This will re-encode the video, but it will hardsub the subtitles (they will be directly added to the video frame). This way, you will re-encode it to iPod format and get the subtitles burned into the video all at once.

Without going into too much technicalities:

Hardsubs - subs encoded into the video itself (AVI is often hardsubbed)
Softsubs - subs on a separate subtrack in the video (MKV is often softsubbed)

Fansubs - is a version of a foreign film or foreign television program which has been translated by fans and subtitled into a language other than that of the original (wiki); also the term used for the group doing fansubs

Thank you both for your help.

It still doesn't work, though. I've downloaded the latest version of Handbrake, and I've followed Ragna's instructions. I've also tried checking the other boxes under the subtitles tab, and tried putting the converted file back into an MKV container, to convert again using a different MKV converter. None of these have worked so far. Even when I playback the converted MKV file, the subtitles don't show up; they work fine from the original files.

Well, any more help or tips you can provide is appreciated!

Can you post a link to one of the files that you want converted? I can see if I can find a way for you to convert it properly.

Yup.

Darker Than Black 2

I'm beginning to think that it's just this download that's not working; I have yet to try it on any other series.

Umm, FUNimation just recently licensed that you know, so there's no need to watch it subbed, if you preferred the english dub of Season 1.

You could convert to a hard subbed avi first and then use your program to convert that avi with the hard subs to MP4.


You can try alltoavi, I written a guide on how to convert a MKV to AVI. Sometimes you do run across a MKV that this can not convert to AVI.
http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=233672

I don't quite understand what you mean by this. Do you mean that they're dubbing the second season in English, or that due to some licensing agreements, it's not possible to find a good subbed version of Darker Than Black, season 2?

And I always prefer dubs over subs. I don't care what people say about watching it in Japanese. It makes it so much easier, not having to read the subtitles instead of actually watching the show.

@ezikialrage:
I've followed your tutorial for Alltoavi, but when I finally click "Convert!" it gives me an error message:
"Run-time error '70'
Permission denied"

Any advice?

For the first + second paragraph you said: Funimation has licensed Darker Than Black Season 2. It will be released some time in 2011 in english. Funimation always dubs the main series of something they license. Rarely do they ot dub what they license, if at all. That is why they always have the money to license and dub more series.

For the third paragraph, asking about ezikialrage: Are you running Windows Vista? If so, close AllToAVI and right-click its icon. Then click Run as Administrator. This should solve the problem.

No, I'm running a 64-bit version of Windows 7.

EDIT: Sorry, my bad. I just assumed that right-clicking on the little icon on the taskbar would present me with the option of running the program as the admin, but I didn't try the desktop icon. It works fine now.

Yes, that is exactly what I meant.

They probably won't be releasing Season 2 until next year (2011) in a complete season box set.

This might be a pesky little problem called driver signing enforcement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_ ... equirement

You can disable driver signing by rebooting the computer and while its rebooting press F8 and selecting it from there.Which has to be done every time you wish to run a program that does not have driver signing. The second option is to download a program that does this automatically for you every time you reboot. I have used this when I used to have Vista 64 bit edition on my pc and since I have had windows 7 64 bit edition on my pc. http://www.citadelindustries.net/readydriverplus/



Disabling driver signing will let a lot of programs and games work but it is not going to make all them work work. Because some programs and games actually do have compatibility issues, not because they didn't pay microsoft extra cash. But its better to know that the program is not working due to compatibility issues instead of microsoft trying to weasel extra cash out of software and game companies.