How to extract closed captions from DVR-MS videos and import them into a DVD

This tutorial will step you through the process of extracting closed captions, also called TV subtitles in NTSC, or American TV captions (text based only) and will teach you how to add them to a DVD using DVD Architect (DVDA).

When we record videos on our computers using Media Center, the videos will be created in DVR-MS format. When converting the videos from DVR-MS to MPEG-2, which is an editable format, the text subtitles are lost. That can be an inconvenience for people who find closed captions helpful to understand what is said on the videos, especially those whose native languages are different than the one spoken in such videos. That's why I thought I would write this tutorial, to help anyone who would be interested in learning how to convert DVR-MS videos to DVDs without losing the subtitles.

Softwares you'll need

• Vegas Pro (Sony Vegas) (Trial). For this tutorial I'll be using version 8.0. You may download the trial/demo version from here. This is a great video editing software.
• DVD Architect Pro (Trial) For this tutorial I'll be using the the version 5.0, which is the one I have. We'll need this tool to add the subtitles to the MPEG-2 video and create the DVD. For the trial/demo download page, please, click here.
• DVRMSToolboxGUI (freeware). This software converts DVR-MS files to MPEG-2 format. You can download it from here: DVRMSToolboxGUI Download Page.
• CCExtractor (freeware). It has the capability of extracting closed captions from DVR-MS. This is the CCExtractor's download page. CCExtractor generates text files in eather one of these two formats: .srt (SubRip) and .smi (SAMI captioning-Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange-, which is a Microsoft standard).
• Subtitle Workshop (freeware). This is the software that will help you manipulate, edit and save the subtitles in a DVD Architect compatible format. There are different versions but I recomment this one: Subtitle Workshop Version 2.51

Procedure:

Now that we know which softwares we'll need, and assuming you already have them installed in your computer, I'll explain to you what you'll need to convert a DVR-MS file into a DVD keeping the subtitles (if they were originally included in your DVR-MS video file):

Step 1. Using DVRMSToolboxGUI convert the DVR-MS file into an MPEG-2 file. For detailed instructions on how to do that, please read the article How to use DVRMSToolboxGUI to convert DVR-MS videos to MPEG-2. Once you have the MPEG-2 video file, create a new folder and move it there. We'll use that same folder to store the subtitles as well. It's always a good idea to make a copy of the srt subtitles file and keep it safe somewhere, just in case you accidentally mess up the subtitles and don't find a way to fix them, you still have an intact original srt file that you can copy again to experiment and make changes until you are satisfied with the results.

Step 2. Extract the subtitles in srt format from the DVR-MS file following the instructions provided here. Move the srt file to the folder you created and feel free to delete the DVR-MS file. You won't need it anymore.

Step 3. Use Sony Vegas Pro to edit your video according to your needs and preferences (example: remove commercials and unwanted scenes, synchronize the sound with the image if the recording is out of sync, etc). This tutorial is assuming you are already familiar with Sony Vegas, but if not, you may read one of my previous tutorials Editing and processing your video with Sony Vegas Pro where I taught how to edit videos in order to convert them to DVDs. If your movie is longer than 2 hours and you wouldn't like the quality to be affected when you transfer it to a DVD, it would be convenient for you to split it in 2 separate videos. When I am working with videos that are 3 hours long, I split them in 2 separate videos of approximately 1 hour and a half each. Render your video(s) as MPEG-2 and template DVD-NTSC.

Step 4. Step number 4 will be a little more extensive than the previous ones since it will show you how to use Subtitle Workshop to synchronize the MPEG-2 file(s) we just rendered with the subtitles. I'm not an authority or an expert about this software, but I'll share with you what I could learn from my own experience. I think it will be enough for now to approach what we need, but if you have the time to go deeper and learn more on your own, please, go for it! Something that will help you deduce what each button is for is rolling your mouse over them, since doing that will make word balloons pop up explaining what the buttons are for. Here you have the printscreens of each one of the buttons with their captions so you get familiar with them:

So now we'll need to load the MPEG-2 video (if you split your movie in two parts, load the first one). To do this, go Movie/Open from the top menu or (Ctrl+P), like this:

If the movie starts playing right away, you can just hit the "Stop" button since we don't need to watch the movie yet. Now let's load the srt subtitles file by going File/Load subtitle from the top menu or (Ctrl+O) from your keyboard.

In order to synchronize the subtitles with the movie, we need to move all the subtitles at the same time, right where the first subtitle should start playing. Let's say that the movie actor is saying "Hello!" and that's the first subtitle of the movie, I won't just move that subtitle line but all the lines, so they all move as a block. The reason is you need to keep the distance (in time) between subtitle and subtitle. To explain this a little better, let's say we have "subtitle 1" and "subtitle 2". There is a distance of 1 minute between the end of "subtitle 1" and the beginning of "subtitle 2". If I see that I need to push "subtitle 1" 30 seconds forward because that's when the actor says "Hello!", but I just move "subtitle 1" and not "subtitle 2". What so you think will happen if I do that? Well, "Subtitle 2" will remain in the same place it was originally, so instead of having the original 1 minute distance between both subtitles, now they'll have only 30 seconds of separation. So, to avoid that problem, you'll need to select all the subtitles, play the movie and once the first word is pronounced or the first subtitle should be displayed, you need to move all the subtitles so they start showing up from that point and keep the original time distance between them. So let's start by selecting all the subtitles by going Ctrl+A on your keyboard or Edit/Select All from the top menu.

Once the subtitles are selected, they'll look like this:

Now you need to play the movie and locate the exact start time for the subtitles. You will probably have to rewind and forward several times until you find it and assuming you still have all your subtitles selected, just click on the "Move subtitle" button as soon as the actor starts talking or whenever you find the subtitles start time. To see how the "Move subtitle" button looks like, just scroll up this page and you'll find a printscreen of it. You may also just go Alt+M on your keyboard to move the subtitles. If you think it's still out of sync, you may keep the subtitles selected, then rewind or forward the movie as many times as needed and click on the same button until the sound and the video are very well synchronized. Sometimes it happens that everything seems to be in sync, but if you forward the movie a little bit then you realize the sound and image do not coincide anymore. From a certain part of the movie suddenly it gets out of sync. Let's say the desynchronization starts from subtitle on line 41 and forward. Then you need to select line 41, scroll down until you find the last subtitle, hold down the Shift key and click it, all subtitles, starting from line 41 until the last one will be selected.

Then once you find the right spot where subtitle 41 should start playing, just click on the "Move subtitle" button. Rewind a little bit and make sure it's synchronized now, if not repeat the process until you get it right.

If the subtitles are for the full movie but you had split it in two parts, then you'll have to remove the subtitles that go beyond the end time of the movie. Just select the subtitles that need to be removed and go Edit/Remove selected, from the top menu. If, on the other hand, you need to join two subtitles, just synchronize them individually and then go Tools/Join subtitles from the top menu or Ctrl+J on your keyboard.

A box like this will pop up:

Just click on the "Add" button and select the subtitle files in the right order and when you are done adding click on the "Join!" button. You will need to type a name for a new srt file that will merge the subtitles you added to the Join list. Don't forget to save this new file in the same folder you created for this project. Subtitle Workshop will automatically load this new subtitles file. If you are satisfied with it, now there is one more step you'll need to take from Subtitle Workshop: Save it as a SonicDVD Creator sub file, which is compatible with DVD Architect, the software we'll use to create our DVD(s). To do that just go File/Save as from the top menu, or Shift+Ctrl+S from your keyboard. A box like this will pop up. Keep scrolling down until you see the SonicDVD Creator icon, double click on it and save the sub file in your project folder.

This would be it in regards to the subtitles manipulation using Subtitle Workshop. Exhausted already? I give you permission to take a break if you need to, because we are not done yet. We still have to go through a couple more steps. Well, I'll wait here until you are done and get back to this tutorial :D You see how nice I am? ;)

Step 5. We need to create another set of MPEG-2 (video) and ac3 (sound) files out of the same MPEG-2 files we used to synchronize the movie with the subtitles using Vegas Pro (Sony Vegas). Detailed instructions about this topic can be found here. That article will teach you how to add markers on your video to separate chapters or scenes and which settings to use to render your files.

Step 6. I hope you have already the MPEG-2 and ac3 files you'll use to create your movie video with DVD Architect. If you do, you can already add them to your DVDA project. I won't go into much detail on how to use DVD Architect to create a movie DVD. If you need to learn more about that, please read my other tutorial "Creating Your DVD With DVD Architect Pro". But now here I'll just show you how to insert the sub file in your DVD project. From the DVDA Project Overview window double click on the name of your movie in order to load it on the timeline, like this:

As you may see there is an Audio and a Video track. We need to insert a Subtitle track now. To do that, click on the "Insert Track" icon:

and select "Insert Subtitle Track":

You'll see a new track called "Subtitle". It's time to choose the language for your subtitles:

After doing that, now we need to import the sub file we created earlier. So click on the "Import Subtitles" icon and select your sub file from your folder.

Once you load your file the subtitle track should look like this:

You may preview your movie activating the subtitles to see how it looks. Hopefully it's looking great.

This is the end of this tutorial. If you found it helpful, please, share it with the ones you feel may benefit fom it. Thanks for stopping by and happy learning!