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On a DVD movie disc, all the video content is contained within a set of files in the VOB format. Most DVD ripping tools out there can extract the video from VOB to MP4, AVI, etc for desktop media player playback but few DVD ripping tools can extract SRT subtitles from VOB that good at all for using and playing. I try to use the free DVD Ripper software Handbrake or Avidemux to extract SRT subtitles from DVD movies, but both of them only allows me to rip the DVD file with the subtitles encoded in the video. But what I really want to do is only ripping the subtitles and not the video. ImTOO DVD to Subtitle Converter is a comprehensive Home DVD subtitle converting tool which can extract Home DVD subtitle and output subtitle files as IDX+SUB, PDF, JPG and other image formats. You can choose to output one language subtitle file or multilingual comparison subtitle file in PDF or image formats.
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.
Note: This procedure may or may not be legal in your country, depending on whether they consider it fair use. I own the DVD used in the tutorial and I am not going to distribute anything from it, plus I live in a country where this sounds reasonable, so I believe I am in the safe side. But your mileage may vary.
This tutorial will teach you how to go from a DVD in your shelf to a transcript of its closed captions. Basically there are these steps:
1 - Install DVDDecrypter (a program to extract the DVD data from the physical DVD). You only need to do this once.2 - Install CCExtractor (our beloved program; it gets the data from the previous step and extracts the closed caption track). You only need to do this once.
3 - Use DVDDecrypter to extract the DVD data into your hard disk.
4 - Use CCExtractor to extract the closed caption track from the DVD data.
As an example, I will be using the movie Merlin. Remember that DVD subtitles and closed captions are two different things. Closed captions come from the NTSC (USA and Canada) TV world, and they are usually prevent in DVDs from TV shows, documentaries, old movies and so on. If you buy a brand new DVD with a film from last year it's unlikely to have closed captions - it will have DVD subtitles, which require different tools to extract. Many tutorials exist on DVD subtitle extraction.
1 - Install DVDDecrypter
As explained before, DVDDecrypter is the tool we will use to copy the DVD data from the physical DVD into the hard disk. DVDDecrypter reads the DVD, decrypts it (so other tools can actually use the data) and writes it to the hard disk. There are other tools that do the same thing, so you can use whichever you prefer. DVDDecrypter is free, use to use, and does a good job, so it's the one I use regularly.First, download DVDDecrypter, which is available from this page. You can get the file directly here.
Depending on your browser, it may ask you whether you want to run the program, or save it, etc.
Run it if possible directly, or save it somewhere and run it later if your browser insists.
If you are using Internet Explorer it might warn you about the file not being signed, and ask you again if you want to run it:
Say yes. If you are running Vista it will show you yet another window to reconfirm you haven't changed your mind. I couldn't get a snapshot but it you are a Vista user you have seen that windows a billion times anyway.
The installation program starts. All defaults are correct, so the only thing you need to do is say Next at every chance. A screenshot of all screens follows:
When asked about whether you want DVDDecrypter to check for new versions say no. The program is no longer being maintained so it will never find a new version anyway.
The installation ends. In the last screen you have an option to start DVDDecrypter inmediately. Since we are going to install CCExtractor now, uncheck the box.
2 - Install CCExtractor
CCExtractor is the program that does the actual work of getting the closed caption text from the data. It supports DVDs as well as many other formats. This is its home page (you probably know that already). Follow the link 'Download Windows installer' (I don't link to the installer directly because it's updated from time to time and the link would be out of date soon). As before, run the installer if possible or save and run later if needed.3 - Extract the data from the DVD using DVDDecrypter
Insert the DVD in the DVD player if you haven't done it already. Most likely it will start making noise for a few seconds, until Windows is done analyzing it. Wait for the noise to stop (so it's ready) and then start DVDDecrypter, either by clicking on its icon (on your desktop) our by selecting it in the program menu (Start -> Programs -> DVD Decrypter -> DVD Decrypter).Initially the screen looks like this (assuming DVDDecrypter detects the DVD correctly - if not you may have to select the correct drive from the combo box):
The first time, go to the settings area (Tools -> Settings). There are a lot of things there but the default settings are fine, except for the file splitting. We don't want the output video to be split in several files (the only exception would be if your hard drive couldn't handle large files). Having all the output in one file makes things easier later.
So go to the settings area as explained, and the select the 'IFO mode' tab. In file splitting choose 'None' from the combox box and then press OK. Done with the settings.
Back to the main screen, you can see that there's a 'Destination' that DVD Decrypter automatically sets. You may need to choose a different folder. For me that directory is OK (F:MERLINVIDEO_TS).
Notice too that all the files in the DVD are selected. If were trying to get the data from say, one specific episode of a TV show (where usually there are 4 episodes or so in each DVD) we would have to guess which file is correct. Since this is a complete movie, we're going to get all the files, so we leave the selection as is.
OK, so we press the large 'Decrypt' button (see below) and DVD Decrypter does its magic.
File selection
Take a look at the destination directory:The VOB files are the actual video data. In DVDs, they usually have more stuff that just the movie. For example, the chapter selection video is there. In order to get a clean transcript, you need to tell CCExtractor which files to use. Usually the right files are easy to spot. In this example, you can see that the file VTS_01_0.VOB is 330 Mb long, while VTS_01_1.VOB is 1 Gb, VTS_02_2.VOB is one Gb too, etc. This is a clear indicator that it is not part of the same video stream. In order to verify it, we just play the file with any DVD capable player:
This is indeed the chapter selection video, which we don't want. Just to make sure, we start playing VTS_01_1.VOB, which should be the actual start of the movie:
Indeed it is.
4 - Extract the transcript with CCExtractor
Open CCExtractor, by click on its desktop icon or by selecting it from the program menu (Start -> Programs -> CCExtractor -> CCExtractorGUI).
Now, open Windows Explorer if you didn't have it already, and choose the files VTS_01_1.VOB up to VTS_01_01_8.VOB (so all of them except the one we already know not to be part of the movie):Drag and drop the files from Windows Explorer to CCExtractor:
Now you can see that CCExtractor has queued the files:
You can notice that CCExtractor has a lot of tabs with lots of options. The good news is that the default settings are OK, so you don't need to worry about them. The one thing you may want to change is the output format in the Output tab. By default it exports to .srt, which is the standard format that most players support. Suppose you want a plain transcript with no timing information. Just check the .txt option (transcript):
Finally, go to the Execution tab and press Start:
You can see the progress:
Once CCExtractor finishes, a file with the same name as the first file in the input is created in the same directory (this can all be changed in the settings). In this case, the file is called VTS_01_1.txt (note that it ends with .txt instead of .VOB). Here's the contents (the first 10 lines):
ONCE UPON A TIME...
NO, NO, THAT'S
NOT THE WAY TO START.
YOU'LL THINK THIS IS
A FAIRY TALE, AND IT ISN'T.
IT HAS ELEMENTS
OF A FAIRY TALE--
DRAGONS, ELVES
GRIFFINS, FAIRIES AND SO ON--
AND IT HAS MAGIC.
NOW, IN MY DAY,
We're done.
Question: “Simple way to extract subtitles from VOB to SRT file? - Hi! Is there a simple and easy way to extract only the subs from a DVD? Not the whole movie! I need to generate regular soft coded subtitles. I feel it should be easy, but I've been searching everywhere and can't find a good solution! Doesn't have to be free. Looks like D-Subtitler could do it, but it doesn't work on High Sierra. Any ideas will be welcome.”
Such questions are not rare among movie fans. .srt subtitles are much handier. It's plain text, so it is small sized and can be formatted by the player. Also it is very easy to merge in containers like mkv so that you can have video, audio and subtitles in one file. However, to extract subtitles from DVD to SRT file, you might find that most DVD ripping tools out there handle video and audio pretty well but unfortunately they 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.
Well, in this guide, we would like to show you how to extract subtitles from DVD to SRT in different ways. Check the content below.
Part 1: How to extract subtitles from DVD with HandBrake
Handbrake is the very first tool we would like to recommend to you for extracting subtitles from DVD to SRT file. As a free and open-source transcoder for digital video files, Handbrake could help you easily convert video, audio, DVD, Blu-ray files for multiple media players and devices as you need.
By default, Handbrake doesn't include the subtitles when you rip DVDs so it can keep the ripped movie's file size small. Thankfully, it's really easy to keep the subtitles on when you rip the DVD. The below steps would show you how to extract subtitles from DVD with Handbrake in detail:
1. Launch Handbrake.
2. Put your movie in your disc drive and wait for Handbrake to scan it.
3. Click the “Source” button to add your DVD movies from disc drive.
4. After adding source DVD movies, click over to the 'Subtitles' tab.
5. You have two different options here. Select the language you want, and then the 'Burned In' checkbox to lock the subtitles to the movie, or select Closed Captions from the drop-down list to get the subtitles in the original language of the film.
6. Under Destination, click Browse to set output directory for saving output files.
7. Click 'Start Encode' button and you'll rip the subtitles from DVD with Handbrake.
Obviously, with Handbrake, you could easily extract subtitles from DVD in several simple clicks. The whole conversion will be finished quite soon.
Convert Dvd Subtitles To Srt
Part 2: How to extract subtitles from DVD to srt via Subrip
The second tool to extract subtitles from DVD to SRT file we would like to recommend to you is Subrip, a professional subtitle extracting tool that could help you easily extract subtitles from DVD to SRT file in clicks.
The below steps would show you how to extract subtitles from DVD by using Subrip in detail. Check the guide below:
1. Download and install SubRip on your computer. Currently the latest version of SubRip is V1.57.1 released in November 2018. Download is available on SourceForge.
2. Launch SubRip tool on your computer.
3. On the main window, click the 'VOB' button in the toolbar to click Open IFO and load the first .IFO file of the DVD. That will probably be VTS_01_0.IFO.
4. 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).
5. Select all of them, and right at the top select the Language stream you want to rip.
6. In the right part of the window, leave Characters matrix file to New File and make sure 'SubPictures to Text via OCR' is selected in the Actions option.
7. Finally, click Start to begin the ripping process.
The operation to extract subtitles from DVD to SRT file with SubRip seems to be a little bit more complicated than that of Handbrake, but finally it could do the job well.
Extract Subtitle From Dvd
Part 3: How to extract subtitles from DVD using Subtitle Edit
As a professional subtitle extractor tool, Subtitle Edit is our third pick for you to extract subtitles from DVD to SRT file. Subtitle Edit is a free editor for video subtitles - a subtitle editor. With Subtitle Edit, you can easily adjust a subtitle if it is out of sync with the video and much more, visually sync/adjust a subtitle (start/end position and speed), import Blu-ray SUP titles or VobSub sub/idx binary subtitles and OCR to text srt subtitles, convert SUP to SRT, SUB to SRT., and DVD to SRT.
Check the below steps to learn how to extract subtitles from DVD with Subtitle Edit program. Please remember that Subtitle Edit requires Microsoft .NET Framework Version 4.0 or later installed on your computer.
1. Download and install Subtitle Edit on your computer.
2. Launch Subtitle Edit on your computer and then insert DVD disc into the disc drive.
3. On Subtitle Edit main interface, open the “File” menu and then click “Import/OCR subtitle from vob/ifo (dvd)” option.
4. Click the browse button with 2 dots in the “IFO file” section and then browse and add DVD IFO file to Subtitle Edit (you can directly add from your DVD disc, or use Leawo DVD Copy to remove the copy-protection upon your DVD disc for IFO file adding if necessary).
5. You could then see all VOB files automatically added to the “VOB Files” section.
6. Then, click the “Start ripping” button at the bottom left corner to start to extract subtitles from DVD into SRT file within Subtitle Edit.
7. After ripping, click the “Save” button on the sub-menu bar to save the SRT subtitle file into your local drive. Of course, you need to give the output SRT file a name.
8. Finally, click the “Save” button on the “Save subtitle as” window to save output SRT file.
Subtitle Edit could help you firstly convert DVD to video with subtitles and then extract subtitles from video converted from DVD files to SRT file. The operation seems to be more complicated than the above mentioned 2 methods, but it really works. You could freely choose the method you prefer from the above 3 ones.
Extract Subtitles From Dvd To Sub+idx
Bonus: How to rip and convert DVD with subtitles with Leawo DVD Ripper
As a bonus, we would like to show you how to rip and convert DVD movies with subtitles since once you have ripped and converted DVD movies to video files with subtitles retained, it would be easier to get subtitles from video files.
Leawo DVD Ripper could help you easily rip and convert DVD files to videos in 180+ file formats for any use on any media player or device, no matter the DVD files are copy protected or not. It could help you rip and convert DVD to MKV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, FLV, MOV, etc. Moreover, to meet your needs more, with Leawo DVD Ripper, you can even adjust the parameters of the target file, including video codec, audio codec, video bit rate, aspect ratio, resolution, frame rate and etc. This makes output video files more suitable to your computer media players, iPhone, iPad, Android devices, Microsoft Phones, etc.
Download and install Leawo DVD Ripper on your computer (it’s a module of Leawo Prof. Media). Then, follow the below steps to learn how to rip and convert DVD movies to general videos with Leawo DVD Ripper in detail.
Step 1. Add source DVD files
After launching Leawo Prof. Media on your computer hit the “Convert” option on the top panel. After that click on the “Add Blu-ray/DVD” option to load the DVD file that you want to burn.
Note: Three content loading modes will be available on the main interface: Full Movie, Main Movie and Custom Mode. Full Movie means to load all contents of the source DVD including files like subtitle, audio track and many more. Main Movie only imports the longest chapter of DVD content, by default the main movie of source DVD file, and Custom Mode allows users to select chapters for loading upon personal needs.
Step 2. Set output format
Now, hit the drop-down box before the big green “Convert” button and choose the Change option to select the output format on the Profile panel. You could choose from either “Format” or “Device” group according to your own needs.
Step 3. Set output profile parameters
Then, to meet your needs more, edit the parameter information of the output file including video codec, channel, resolution and many more. To do this, click the “Edit” button on the drop-down panel right before the big green “Convert” button. Click “OK” button to save settings and exit.
Extract Subtitles From Dvd Mac
Step 4. Set output directory
Click the big green icon of “Convert” option to continue. After that, on the popup sidebar, set output directory in the “Save to” box.
Extract Subtitles From Iso
After that, click the bottom “Convert” button to start to convert DVD movies to video files with Leawo DVD Ripper. You then only need to wait for the conversion.
In fact, Leawo DVD Ripper could not only help you rip and convert DVD files to general video files, but also edit DVD movies, apply 3D movie effect, select subtitles and audio tracks, etc. It’s far more than a simple DVD to video converter.