Jump to content

Handbrake not burning subtitles!!!


dslite4000

Recommended Posts

I've used handbrake to burn subtitles into my anime encodes before, but now all of a sudden, its not burning the subtitles into my videos anymore. I tried rendering different videos and reinstalling handbrake and it STILL does not burn the subs!!!

Can someone help me please? I'm using the latest version of the Handbrake GUI, 0.9.5.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are you making sure that the Burned In check box has been checked next to the sub you want burned in.

I have had problems in the past were the box wasn't checked but it burned the subs in anyways. I think it is a bug in the gui that causes it to not show what flag is really being set. I usually just check the box then uncheck it so I know it's what I want it to be set to.

If you are using a preset, it could be something wrong with it too. So you might also want to check handbrake's folder in your User/"username"/AppData/Roaming folder, if you're on Win7 or maybe Vista. Don't know where it would be stored in XP, but if I remember right XP has an AppData folder as well.

If this isn't the problem you may need to uninstall handbrake again. Then run a reg cleaner to make sure you have everything cleaned out before you reinstall. Not sure that would really make much of a difference with the problem you're having though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I followed your advice and got some interesting results.

I tried the unchecking the burn flag, but all it gave me was soft subs in subt format. I updated the presets just in case they were the problem, and then proceded to render 4 different episodes from different anime I have. The result, was that 2 of the 4 episodes did not have subtitles burned in, but the others did.

I still don't know what is wrong, so I checked the logs and found that they share the same error lines that I put in the spoiler.

Fontconfig error: Cannot load default config file

[18:54:54] [ass] No usable fontconfig configuration file found, using fallback.

Fontconfig error: Cannot load default config file

What does Handbrake mean when is says "Cannot load default fontconfig file?" And how can I fix this?:baffle:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are you encoding a file that has already been encoded before?

The [ass] part is most likely referring to the .ass subititle format, and I'm not sure that handbrake has full support for .ass. The rest of it looks like it may be a problem with the font the subtitle is using. Is the font in the subtitle track a rare font that may not be included with your OS?

If you have a demuxing program like mkvcleaver for mkvs, you might try running it through that to see if the file has a .ttf (true-type font) file in it. If it does have a .ttf file in the original file you may need to merge that with your new one for the subs to work.

What do the logs for the two videos that did have the subs say? Did it mention if the fontconfig was loaded or not?

As for toggling the Burn In check box I didn't mean to leave it unchecked. The problem you are having is the exact opposite of the one I had, so you would need to reverse what I did. Sorry for not explaining better. What I meant to say was toggle it from the setting you want to the one you don't want, and then back again. From what I'm seeing in the spoiler though I think it is a problem with handbrake not knowing how to handle the .ass subtitle track.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, the file was encoded before. I'm converting it so that I can see the styled subtitles for the japanese audio burned into the video for my ipod.

The log for the videos that had the subs burned in successfully said exactly the same thing about the [ass] part, so I used mkvmerge to compare the contents of the originals. I noticed that the ones that failed in burning in the subs did not have any .ttf files attached. Meanwhile the ones that worked did. I even double checked the original of a file i successfully converted in the past and it also had .ttf files attached.

Do you think this means that, like you said, Handbrake has problems with the .ass that can only be fixed with attached .ttf files?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe the problem is that the fonts used in the subtitle script aren't attached to your mkv and also not installed on your pc so handbrake fails to load the font and therefore throws an error. You may try attaching the font files first. If you don't have them, you can always edit the ass script to different fonts and then attach the files.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah it could be that they haven't worked out all the bugs in supporting .ass format yet. Are you getting a consistent pass/fail with subtitles being burned in with the different presets. I mean if you repeat the encodes you did earlier do you always get the same 2/4 results or is it more luck of the drawl. One working one time and the other working another.

If you are getting the same results, are the presets that do work providing you with the quality of video you want?

I believe the .ttf is required if you want to keep the subs in the same font as the original. I'm not sure but I think that file is what provide the font for the player when the OS doesn't already have it installed. Have you tried merging the .ttf file into one of the failed burned in encodes to see if it fixes it.

Edit: Here is a link to a thread on video help that talks about the .ttf file. It also shows how to add it with mkvmerge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I rendered the videos with different presets and there was no difference in the results(They stayed the same.) I tried remuxing the .ttf files into the finished products with no subs, but there was no change. Then I edited the .ass subs with aegisub to use the Microsoft YaHei font for the subs and muxed the .ttf, the edited subs, and the respective video track into another mkv before running it through Hanbrake again. After that, the subs began to burn into the video.

I also tested out what would happen if Handbrake burns subs into the video, but this time, I muxed in a .ttf file from one of my other videos and did not edit the subs to use them. The text in the spoiler is from the log of that render.

x264 [info]: profile Main, level 3.0

Fontconfig error: Cannot load default config file

[15:35:20] [ass] No usable fontconfig configuration file found, using fallback.

Fontconfig error: Cannot load default config file

[15:35:20] reader: first SCR 0 id 0 DTS 0

[15:35:20] [ass] fontconfig: Selected font is not the requested one: 'ClearfaceGothicLTStd-Roman' != 'Microsoft YaHei'

[15:36:03] [ass] fontconfig: Selected font is not the requested one: 'ClearfaceGothicLTStd-Roman' != 'Microsoft YaHei'

At first, I was woried it wouldn't work. But when I checked the outputted file, the subs were burned into the video in the other font. I think what you both said about Handbrake not supporting .ass is true, and that it can only burn them in if ANY .ttf is attached to the input.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To answer your questions in order(each paragraph is an answer):

I use the AppleTV 1&2 presets and mod them for fps=same as source, no audio track recode, and burn in subs each time I render a video.

The test videos that worked from the get go were the same fonts burned in as they were in the mkv.

One of the other test videos that did not let the subs be burned in had no .ttf file attached, but upon font comparison, had the subs in the font Microsoft YaHei. The .ttf file I muxed in the 2nd time was from one of the videos that burned in subs successfully, and was in no way related to the subs I muxed with the video that would not burn them. The 1st time, I edited the subs to use Microsoft YaHei, but the 2nd time, I didn't change the font they would use.

When I rendered the video the 2nd time, the subs were burned into the video in the ClearfaceGothicLTStd-Roman font from my other video. The ClearfaceGothicLTStd-Roman font was the only .ttf attached to the mkv that I ran through Handbrake.

The font from the original mkv was Microsoft YaHei, not the ClearfaceGothicLTStd-Roman. From my knowledge of computer programming, I know the error log I posted to say that the subs being burned into the video were looking for the Microsoft YaHei .ttf inside the mkv, but instead found the ClearfaceGothicLTStd-Roman .ttf and used that while indicating that it is a different font.

What I was trying to see with the second render(w/the different .ttf) was if Handbrake's support for burning the .ass subs into the video was dependent on there being ANY .ttf attached to the file, whether the subs were edited for using that particular .ttf or not. From my results, I see that Handbrake needs a .ttf attached to burn the .ass into the video.

For my rendering, I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit with ffdshow to decode my video/audio and I also have AviSynth installed. To edit the subs, I used Aegisub 32-bit version 2.1.8.

I'm alright with all the questions, but I think you are right in saying that Handbrake used uninstalled subs with the AppleTV presets to burn the subs into the video.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well it looks like you got it figured out. Sounds alot like what Kobe mentioned in his post.

If you have avisynth installed you might try running the vid through it via megui instead. I would only bother with it if the original video you have could use some sharpening or other detail work. The biggest let down in handbrake is that it doesn't offer anything like the sharpening filters that you get with avisynth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for the help. Your advice was both very in depth and helpful. If it wasn't for you guys, I might never have figured it out(or worse, taken a long time to figure it out on my own).

I don't think I'll need to use any of avisynth's sharpening filters this time around because my current project involves converting a 1080p blu-ray rip into iOS HD and I've done very good on the others I have thus far.

As thanks, I plan to release some of the reencodes I completed so far via bittorrent in the near future(while giving credit to the original encoders).

:happy:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...
Please Sign In or Sign Up