Adding Thai Subtitles To Movies

[PattayaPete]

I am a movie fan and have hundreds of movies which I keep on an HTPC. My Thai wife has picked up the addiction from me and also enjoys watching movies. Although her English is OK she prefers movies with Thai subtitles as she otherwise misses stuff.

I buy Blu Ray or DVDs. Some have Thai subtitles some do not. Thaisubtitles.com is a site that has Thai subtitles available for download that can be added to movies (if you know how). Unfortunately the selection there can be a bit odd. They rarely have what I'd call quality movies but more your shoot'em up action style stuff. Also a definite lack of older titles. Also as the subtitles are created by the members translating English subtitles and is a group effort the quality of the translation can be variable.

I often end up buying a second copy of a movie I already own just to get the Thai subtitles. I have become quite good at ripping subtitles and adding them to movies I own. It's not that complicated but it is very hard to learn as subtitles come in many formats and the process differs depending on what format you have.

Native subtitles on DVD and Blu Ray are image files and not generally shared because they can not be manipulated the way text files can be. However it seems to me for non-Thai speakers wanting to add Thai subtitles, these "image" files have a great advantage in so far as you do not need to understand Thai to deal with them.

So, my question is how many people are there like me and would there be enough interest to set up a Thai subtitle sharing site dealing in "image" type Thai subtitles. That's vobsub and pgs subtitles for the technically minded. Given my experience and the number of movies I own with these subtitles I thought I might set it up myself. The I thought there is probably no interest in this so I would be wasting my time.

I started working on the site but the feeling that no one would be interested kind of slowed me down. My reason for posting here is to see what interest there is. The bare bones of the site exists now at www.toozer.com/ThaiSubs

If there is some interest in this then I will finish the site. If this is something you would be interested in let me know by posting here or better joining the site and posting a positive comment. This is absolutely a free site with no advertising.

If you are interested but feel the whole thing would be too technical, express an interest anyway. I am happy to write comprehensive guides to the whole process.

[dave_boo]

*.srt files may be better to go with. That way you can actually edit them.

It's not that terribly hard either. Assuming that you know how to dump the pgs/vobsubfile file, you already know how to find the track number. And using mkvextract you can dump them to a *.sup file. Use BDSup2Sub and presto...there's your file. Furthermore you can then use the mkvmerge programme to add them into your transcoded movie.

**disclaimer**

This works really well on Linux and I make no guarantees that it will perform the same on OSX or Windows.

[SpaceKadet]

Assuming that you want to use MKV container for your movies. But any conversion from vobsub to srt will have to rely on an OCR routine that doesn't always work correctly even on English images, probably much less so on Thai.

Even the OP states:

"...for non-Thai speakers wanting to add Thai subtitles, these "image" files have a great advantage in so far as you do not need to understand Thai to deal with them."

[NotEinstein]

I've only found thaisubtitles.com for any volume of Thai subs for English movies. I downloaded the 51 I could find for my collection and uploaded them to subscene.com

[Pawpcorn]

Ah! The dream site with a BROAD source of Thai subtitles, already exists.

It's at www.1080p.com, with the graphics (idx/sub) format primarily, and many .ser files too.

You can browse the site without becoming a member, but you must be a member in orded to download subtitle files.

Membership is free.

Only catch to becoming a member is that the pages are ALL in Thai, so you will probably need help getting your membership set up. (I had three people help me before successfully becoming a member.)

The second "catch" is that you have to earn "satong" (fake money) in order to have "credit" to download.

In theory, you are supposed to "earn" these fake satong credit by spending time navigating around the site.... Which, if you can't read Thai (like me) could be a rather tedious exercise.

Luckily, someone has created a little Google app that runs in the background, earning you credit 24/7, with no effort on your part.

The sysop speaks passible English, and he can point you to the spot in the forum that explains how to download and use the app.

I know this may all sound like a massive nuisance, but when you start searchin for ANY movie's subtitle, and FINDING it (including the older movies and classics... I know you'll be amazed.

If you need some help getting up and going on the 1080p site, let me know.

Take care!

[PattayaPete]

Pawpcorn

It does sound like the dream site BUT when I go there I get redirected to an American site - www.axstv.com. No subtitles there.

Did you post the corect url?

[Pawpcorn]

So sorry!!!! I was posting from my BB while traveling... and committed a typo....

SHOULD have said http://1080ip.com

Let me know what you think!

Good luck,

Pawpcorn

[alphason]

So sorry!!!! I was posting from my BB while traveling... and committed a typo....

SHOULD have said http://1080ip.com

Let me know what you think!

Good luck,

Pawpcorn

Thanks looks interesting, although it looks like the site is now invitation only from existing members?

Do you have any spare invites? Thanks,