Subtitles should be seen only when you want them to be seen. Adding soft subtitles to your movie rips is the answer.

HandBrake wants to burn subtitles into your video so they're visible all the time. Extracting a separate subtitle track with D-Subtitler is the best workaround.

Difficulty Level: Medium

What You Need:

>> HandBrake 0.9.4 or later (free, handbrake.fr)

>> D-Subtitler 1.0 or later (free, versiontracker.com)

>> A DVD-ripping program like MacTheRipper (free, versiontracker.com) or RipIt ($19.95, thelittleappfactory.com)

>> A DVD with subtitles

Digital copies of your DVDs can be a great way to pass the time when traveling, but you lose some of the DVD’s functionality in the ripping process. For instance, in the past, subtitles had to be permanently on or off in a rip, but we’ve developed a simple workaround that will let you add soft subtitles (ones that can be toggled on or off) whether you’re watching your film in QuickTime, in iTunes, or on your iPhone. You can even add subtitles in multiple languages by adding more than one soft-subtitle track.
 
The main software for this process is HandBrake, which lets you add subtitles to your ripped films, but its default option is to permanently burn the subtitle track into your video. The latest release (version 0.9.4) can add soft subtitles instead, but you have to extract the subtitle track from your DVD rip and import it into HandBrake separately. You’ll need an additional application called D-Subtitler for this. We’ll show you how to get it and how to make it work for you.

1. Rip Your DVD

First up: Ripping the DVD. Use an application such as RipIt or MacTheRipper, which will create a Video_TS folder on your hard drive. If you’re using RipIt, make sure the “Use .dvdmedia Extension” preference is off. Save the Video_TS folder somewhere memorable, like the Desktop.

Uncheck the "Use .dvdmedia Extension" checkbox in RipIt's preferences before ripping.

Is this legal? Well, ripping a commercial DVD does break the copy protection, which violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. But if you own that DVD, making a copy for your personal use is allowed. Just don’t sell or distribute your rips in any way. That’s what that big FBI warning is about, don’tcha know?

2. Getting D-Subtitler

It's easiest to just grab D-Subtitler from VersionTracker.

Download D-Subtitler from VersionTracker (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/27402). (The developer’s site, objectifmac.com, is mostly in French.) Drag the icon to your Applications folder and launch the program. Go to File > Open and select that Video_TS folder from Step 1.

3. Making Choices

Verify that your choices are correct, then click the green button.

When your DVD’s Video_TS folder has loaded, you’ll use the pop-up menus to choose the title you wish to analyze (usually, the longest one is the movie you’re after) and the subtitle language you’d like to extract. To make sure you chose correctly, click Preview to play your selections in a separate window. When you’re satisfied, click the main window’s big green button.

4. The Right Setting

Keep trying options in the "Choice of gray levels" dropdown until the text appears black on a white background.

D-Subtitler will take a while to analyze your subtitle track. Once it’s done, you’ll see a preview of it. For the conversion to work, the text needs to appear black on a white background, and the interface offers you four settings to choose from in order to make this happen. Try them one at a time, and once it looks good, click Continue.

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