Noob trying to put subs on JP Dragon Box GT

[kioku25]

I was following this guide http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/1639 ... ING-GUIDE) to put the english subtitles I ripped from my Region 1 DVDs, on my japanese Dragon Box GT and lo and behold, I even ended up with a somewhat working DVD. Albeit the audio is progressively going out of sync now.

I already tried demultiplexing the VOB files but I always end up with just an m2v and an ac3 file, which oddly enough show a delay of 0 ms. But when i check the individual VTS files, ranging from VTS_01_1 to VTS_01_8, they each show a distinct delay, ranging from -154 ms to -260 ms,

Does anyone have an idea how to fix that pesky delay?

[MCDaveG]

Well, I wish you good luck, I tried to match subs from Blue Boxes to first DBOX and the subs are out of sync, no matter what.

[kioku25]

Well, I wish you good luck, I tried to match subs from Blue Boxes to first DBOX and the subs are out of sync, no matter what.

Was the delay gradually getting worse for you too, or was it a fixed delay? Also, I take it your audio was in sync then? Would you care to elaborate how you ripped your DVDs?

[BluezaBladeNZ]

There shouldn't be any delay with the audio on this. Well there wasn't when I synced subtitles to it.

[kioku25]

There shouldn't be any delay with the audio on this. Well there wasn't when I synced subtitles to it.

Then how did you go about it? What tools did you use ?

[BluezaBladeNZ]

My method was a bit different. It involved using TMPGEnc Authoring Works, PGCDemux, Muxman, VobBlanker, DVDSubEdit and IFOEdit. Haven't used it for years but I'll see if I can find the guide I made.

EDIT: Just sent you a PM.

[kioku25]

My method was a bit different. It involved using TMPGEnc Authoring Works, PGCDemux, Muxman, VobBlanker, DVDSubEdit and IFOEdit. Haven't used it for years but I'll see if I can find the guide I made.

That would be tremendously helpful.

Also, since the episodes per DVD on the Dragon Box are divided differently (e.g. Disc 1 only contains episodes 1-6 and Disc 1 of the green bricks contains episodes 1-7), how did you manage to retain the correct timing for the subs from Disc 2 onwards? I had planned to edit the timing manually (e.g. cut the subs for episode 7 and insert them into the .srt file for Disc 2 and so on), but maybe there exists a software solution or something.

[ect5150]

The reason you are all getting subs/audio out of sync is because the R1 and R2 discs have a different frame count in them. You can't tell the subtitles to start at the same time. Also, the frame count is different for each section of the episode... so just adding a single offset won't work. Go ahead and rip a section from each episode if you have both versions. Take the part after the theme song up (including the last-episode recap) until the commercial break (eye-catch). You'll find one version typically has more frames. My own experience says the DBox versions have a few extra frames in them (generally anywhere from 8 frames to almost 40 frames). I imagine this was due to the remastering process. Try it out and verify it yourself.

To correct for it, all you need to do is to adjust the subtitles (within that particular section) by the number of additional frames that you've calculated. I've been doing this for quite some time and the results are spot on (let me know if you want a demo)! I don't have the GT box set, but I do have DBZ and the DB singles and have done this for all the DBZ eps and the majority of the DB eps (Hell... I even have an episode encoding in the background right now). The difference in my episodes is I'm not trying to put them back on discs, I'm just encoding them to file and I stream them from the PC to the BluRay player or PS3 (or iPad, etc...).

The same thing works for the audio, but you have to take a different path. I don't enjoy the english version at all, so I've only ever done one or two audio syncs. But again, it's all based on the additional frames you find in the episode. This technique is far faster than "eyeballing" an estimate of your own to see where you think the subtitle "should" be... and it should yield far more accurate results. You could use this to generate a correct SRT file and then mux that back into your DVD image if you still want to have it on a disc.

I'll post a small sample here shortly when I can upload something.
EDIT: Here is a file of DB episode 119 (no English DBox exists of this). I also may have screwed up the aspect ratio just making a small encode of it. Also, no audio... but you'll get the idea.

Just as an FYI - I find you should break down the typical episode into 5 sections:

1. Opening
2. Episode Recap up until the commercial break (including the first eyecatch)
3. The second eyecatch up until the credits
4. Closing credits
5. Next episode preview

Each of those sections above have a different frame count between the R1 and R2 discs. You'd need to calculate an offset for each section and apply the offset to your subtitles for subtitles that fall within each section. Dump the ripped files into VirtualDub and count the frames (or just find a specific frame... see what frame number it is... then use the other version and see what frame it appears on ... then calculate the difference).

On a different note... I dump everything into an AVISynth script. This allows me to adjust the audio, the video (color correction) and the order of everything. I place the Next Episode Preview back before the credits (where it is supposed to be). If you guys want a file or two for the subtitles, let me know.

EDIT: Instructions