Finally giving up on ffmpeg, I asked the search engine if any other tools were able to extract image-based subtitles as rendered images/pictures from the video. Some claimed mencoder could do that and I actually found example commands, but none worked for me and all examples centered around DVD and VobSub format type of work, like writing.idx. Farhad Mohammadi Majd (2018-03-08): $ ffmpeg -i VTS011.VOB Do not do that. Never access the VOB files in a DVD-video structure directly, they do not contain only the title video data but also menus and garbage. You can use tools/dvd2concat to extract only the parts of the VOB file that matters. Or MPlayer to dump them into a file. Ffmpeg -i myfile.mkv -f webvtt outfile or implied by file extension: ffmpeg -i myfile.mkv outfile.vtt or one subtitle type file to another: ffmpeg -i myfile.srt outfile.vtt If there are multiple subtitle tracks in your video file, then by default it will select only the first. You can use the Map command to select which ones you want. Convert MKV to MP4 from the terminal using FFmpeg on PC/Mac. Find the MKV video you want to convert to MP4. And then you can run the following command to convert a MKV to a MP4 in Terminal. Ffmpeg -i mymovie.mkv -vcodec copy -acodec copy mymovie.mp4. After that, you can get converted MKV to MP4 video lossless on Mac, PC and other platforms.
- 'How to simply convert MKV to MP4 with FFmpeg?'
- 'FFmpeg converting from MKV to MP4 without re-encoding.'
- 'How to convert MKV to MP4 in terminal?'
- 'Convert MKV to MP4 with the output file viewable in the process'
You can see these or those questions asked online about how to use FFmpeg to convert MKV to MP4. Compares with other online MKV to MP4 converters and MKV to MP4 converter freeware, FFmpeg seems different and kind of difficult to handle at the beginning. But do not worry about that, you can read this article to figure out what FFmpeg is and how to convert MKV to MP4 with FFmpeg with ease.
Part 1: How to convert MKV to MP4 using FFmpeg
FFmpeg is the free cross-platform converter that enables you to convert MKV to MP4 and other video formats. And you can use FFmpeg to stream and record media files in free way too. You will not get the common MKV to MP4 interface such as 'Add File' 'Output Format' and other buttons to optimize with. To be more specific, converting .mkv to .mp4 with FFmpeg is faster than common video converters like Audacity, Handbrake and others.
Key Features:
You can decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream, filter and play pretty much anything that humans and machines have created. And FFmpeg is compatible with Linux, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows and other platforms. There are many FFmpeg tools like ffmpeg, ffserver, ffplay and ffprobe that enable you to manage multimedia files in one-stop. Once you open ffmpeg.org website, you may be shocked with the black-based interface with only one blank to fill with. Just spend one minute to read the following guidance to convert MKV to MP4 with FFmpeg lossless.
How to Convert MKV Videos to MP4 on PC/Mac
Download and install FFmpeg on PC/Mac
Open www.ffmpeg.org to click the huge green 'Download' icon. You can choose FFmpeg versions and which operating system to install including OS X, Windows and Linux mainly.
- Install FFmpeg in Windows:
- 1. Download FFmpeg Windows package.
- 2. Right click it and then use 7-Zip to unpack.
- 3. Open a command prompt with the administrator's rights such as CMD.exe.
- 4. Run the command: setx /M PATH 'pathtoffmpegbin;%PATH%'.
- 5. Alter the command so that pathto reflects the folder path from your root to ffmpegbin
- Install FFmpeg in Mac OS X/11:
- 1. Install homebrew by running the following command on your Terminal.
$ /usr/bin/ruby -e '$(curl –fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)' - 2. Install FFmpeg on Mac computer later and run the command below.
$ brew install ffmpeg
Convert MKV to MP4 from the terminal using FFmpeg on PC/Mac
Find the MKV video you want to convert to MP4. And then you can run the following command to convert a MKV to a MP4 in Terminal.
ffmpeg -i my_movie.mkv -vcodec copy -acodec copy my_movie.mp4
After that, you can get converted MKV to MP4 video lossless on Mac, PC and other platforms for free.
Part 2: Best FFmpeg alternative to convert MKV to MP4
If you still feel hard of understanding the above MKV to MP4 FFmpeg conversion, then you can get another MKV to MP4 converter with easy-to-use interface. It is AnyMP4 Video Converter Ultimate that can batch convert MKV to MP4 with fast conversion speed and highest video quality. The whole interface is well-designed with all kinds of filters displayed simply. And you can get more video-editing filters to customize video settings and video effects of converted MKV to MP4 files on Windows and Mac computers. In a word, Video Converter Ultimate app can satisfy your daily video and audio management, so you do not have to use FFMPEG to convert MKV to MP4 in hassle.
- • Convert MKV to MP4 and other 200 formats at high speed
- • Enhance MKV video quality in multi-method automatically to get the best quality
- • Customize video settings and audio settings
- • Highly compatible output MP4 videos with most popular digital devices like iPhone X and more
- • Download and convert YouTube videos to play on portable devices
- • Convert DVD to various videos and set the 3D settings
- • Easy to use interface with intuitive design
How to Convert MKV to MP4
Add MKV videos to FFmpeg alternative video converter
You can free download AnyMP4 Video Converter Ultimate from AnyMP4 official site. For Mac users, you need to drag Video Converter Ultimate to the 'Application' folder to complete the FFmpeg alternative app installation. Launch the FFmpeg alternative on Windows or Mac computer. Tap 'Add File' in the toolbar. There will be the popping up window that you can select which MKV video to import.
Edit MKV video effect
Tap 'Edit' in the top right corner to enter the MKV video-editing page. You can rotate video, adjust 3D settings, crop video, add video effect, enhance video quality and add watermark mainly. Moreover, you can also choose 'Video Enhance' in the main interface to upscale lower resolution video to higher resolution.
Convert MKV to MP4 with FFmpeg alternative
Select '4K H.265/HEVC Video(*.mp4)' from the drop-down 'Profile' menu. You can tap 'Apply to All' besides to batch convert MKV files to MP4. Click 'Browse' to select any folder to save converted MKV to MP4 video in 'Destination'. It is also supported to merge MKV videos into one MKV file and then convert to MP4. Tap 'Convert' button to start converting MKV videos to MP4 videos on PC or Mac in high quality.
You can choose FFmpeg to convert MKV to MP4 from the terminal. Or you can seek the easier solution to batch convert MKV to MP4 with the Video Converter Ultimate in ultrafast speed. Actually, the latter video converter is more suitable for most users, which has simplified all video conversion processes already.
Part 3: FAQs of using FFmpeg to convert MKV to MP4
Question 1. Why there is a lack of audio after FFmpeg MKV to MP4 conversion?
There are 2 reasons for explaining this problem.
➤ The input MKV files has the DTS audio. Though it is supported in MP4, it may do not work with your player. You will have to select the supported audio codec by your player from AC3, MP2, WAV1, WAV2, AAC, Vorbis, MP3 and Opus from FFmpeg conversion.
➤ The FFmpeg is old. You can download the latest FFmpeg to install the audio codec with improvements.
Question 2. How to fix subtitles loss after using FFmpeg to convert MKV to MP4?
There are 2 ways to fix FFmpeg not adding subtitles while converting MKV to MP4.
➤ Add the subtitle as a separate optional track, and it will need your MP4 player (e.g. VLC) to show the subtitle.
Add the following command into FFmpeg:
ffmpeg -i infile.mp4 -i infile.srt -c copy -c:s mov_text outfile.mp4
➤ Add the subtitle as the hard-soft one.
1. Use the libass library to convert the subtitles to .ass format from .srt first by inputting the following command:
ffmpeg -i subtitles.srt subtitles.ass
2. Add the subtitles using a video filter by inputting the following command:
ffmpeg -i mymovie.mp4 -vf ass=subtitles.ass mysubtitledmovie.mp4
Question 3. Which is the best? MP4 or MKV?
Compatibility: MP4 can be played by almost all players while MKV is supported by some devices.
File size: Commonly, MKV has a larger file size than MP4.
Audio track and subtitle support: MKV supports the selectable subtitles of ASS and SSA, and audio tracks, while MP4 does not support. When you want to rip DVD or Blu-ray, MKV is the best choice.
Question 4. How can I convert MKV to MP4 faster?
AnyMP4 Video Converter Ultimate supports hardware acceleration while converting MKV files. So, you just need to enable the acceleration option to change MKV to MP4 faster.
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Question: “Simple way to extract subtitles from VOB to SRT file? - Hi! Is there a simple and easy way to extract only the subs from a DVD? Not the whole movie! I need to generate regular soft coded subtitles. I feel it should be easy, but I've been searching everywhere and can't find a good solution! Doesn't have to be free. Looks like D-Subtitler could do it, but it doesn't work on High Sierra. Any ideas will be welcome.”
Such questions are not rare among movie fans. .srt subtitles are much handier. It's plain text, so it is small sized and can be formatted by the player. Also it is very easy to merge in containers like mkv so that you can have video, audio and subtitles in one file. However, to extract subtitles from DVD to SRT file, you might find that most DVD ripping tools out there handle video and audio pretty well but unfortunately they just do not manage subtitles that good at all. They either 'burn' the subtitles on the video, which means you cannot turn them off or create .sub files.
Well, in this guide, we would like to show you how to extract subtitles from DVD to SRT in different ways. Check the content below.
Part 1: How to extract subtitles from DVD with HandBrake
Handbrake is the very first tool we would like to recommend to you for extracting subtitles from DVD to SRT file. As a free and open-source transcoder for digital video files, Handbrake could help you easily convert video, audio, DVD, Blu-ray files for multiple media players and devices as you need.
By default, Handbrake doesn't include the subtitles when you rip DVDs so it can keep the ripped movie's file size small. Thankfully, it's really easy to keep the subtitles on when you rip the DVD. The below steps would show you how to extract subtitles from DVD with Handbrake in detail:
1. Launch Handbrake.
2. Put your movie in your disc drive and wait for Handbrake to scan it.
3. Click the “Source” button to add your DVD movies from disc drive.
4. After adding source DVD movies, click over to the 'Subtitles' tab.
5. You have two different options here. Select the language you want, and then the 'Burned In' checkbox to lock the subtitles to the movie, or select Closed Captions from the drop-down list to get the subtitles in the original language of the film.
6. Under Destination, click Browse to set output directory for saving output files.
7. Click 'Start Encode' button and you'll rip the subtitles from DVD with Handbrake.
Obviously, with Handbrake, you could easily extract subtitles from DVD in several simple clicks. The whole conversion will be finished quite soon.
Part 2: How to extract subtitles from DVD to srt via Subrip
The second tool to extract subtitles from DVD to SRT file we would like to recommend to you is Subrip, a professional subtitle extracting tool that could help you easily extract subtitles from DVD to SRT file in clicks.
The below steps would show you how to extract subtitles from DVD by using Subrip in detail. Check the guide below:
1. Download and install SubRip on your computer. Currently the latest version of SubRip is V1.57.1 released in November 2018. Download is available on SourceForge.
2. Launch SubRip tool on your computer.
3. On the main window, click the 'VOB' button in the toolbar to click Open IFO and load the first .IFO file of the DVD. That will probably be VTS_01_0.IFO.
4. After you load it, check the filenames to make sure everything is OK. There should be 4 or more VOB files of a big size (size appears in the right).
5. Select all of them, and right at the top select the Language stream you want to rip.
6. In the right part of the window, leave Characters matrix file to New File and make sure 'SubPictures to Text via OCR' is selected in the Actions option.
7. Finally, click Start to begin the ripping process.
The operation to extract subtitles from DVD to SRT file with SubRip seems to be a little bit more complicated than that of Handbrake, but finally it could do the job well.
Part 3: How to extract subtitles from DVD using Subtitle Edit
As a professional subtitle extractor tool, Subtitle Edit is our third pick for you to extract subtitles from DVD to SRT file. Subtitle Edit is a free editor for video subtitles - a subtitle editor. With Subtitle Edit, you can easily adjust a subtitle if it is out of sync with the video and much more, visually sync/adjust a subtitle (start/end position and speed), import Blu-ray SUP titles or VobSub sub/idx binary subtitles and OCR to text srt subtitles, convert SUP to SRT, SUB to SRT., and DVD to SRT.
Check the below steps to learn how to extract subtitles from DVD with Subtitle Edit program. Please remember that Subtitle Edit requires Microsoft .NET Framework Version 4.0 or later installed on your computer.
1. Download and install Subtitle Edit on your computer.
2. Launch Subtitle Edit on your computer and then insert DVD disc into the disc drive.
3. On Subtitle Edit main interface, open the “File” menu and then click “Import/OCR subtitle from vob/ifo (dvd)” option.
4. Click the browse button with 2 dots in the “IFO file” section and then browse and add DVD IFO file to Subtitle Edit (you can directly add from your DVD disc, or use Leawo DVD Copy to remove the copy-protection upon your DVD disc for IFO file adding if necessary).
5. You could then see all VOB files automatically added to the “VOB Files” section.
6. Then, click the “Start ripping” button at the bottom left corner to start to extract subtitles from DVD into SRT file within Subtitle Edit.
7. After ripping, click the “Save” button on the sub-menu bar to save the SRT subtitle file into your local drive. Of course, you need to give the output SRT file a name.
8. Finally, click the “Save” button on the “Save subtitle as” window to save output SRT file.
Subtitle Edit could help you firstly convert DVD to video with subtitles and then extract subtitles from video converted from DVD files to SRT file. The operation seems to be more complicated than the above mentioned 2 methods, but it really works. You could freely choose the method you prefer from the above 3 ones.
Bonus: How to rip and convert DVD with subtitles with Leawo DVD Ripper
As a bonus, we would like to show you how to rip and convert DVD movies with subtitles since once you have ripped and converted DVD movies to video files with subtitles retained, it would be easier to get subtitles from video files.
Leawo DVD Ripper could help you easily rip and convert DVD files to videos in 180+ file formats for any use on any media player or device, no matter the DVD files are copy protected or not. It could help you rip and convert DVD to MKV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, FLV, MOV, etc. Moreover, to meet your needs more, with Leawo DVD Ripper, you can even adjust the parameters of the target file, including video codec, audio codec, video bit rate, aspect ratio, resolution, frame rate and etc. This makes output video files more suitable to your computer media players, iPhone, iPad, Android devices, Microsoft Phones, etc.
Download and install Leawo DVD Ripper on your computer (it’s a module of Leawo Prof. Media). Then, follow the below steps to learn how to rip and convert DVD movies to general videos with Leawo DVD Ripper in detail.
Step 1. Add source DVD files
After launching Leawo Prof. Media on your computer hit the “Convert” option on the top panel. After that click on the “Add Blu-ray/DVD” option to load the DVD file that you want to burn.
Note: Three content loading modes will be available on the main interface: Full Movie, Main Movie and Custom Mode. Full Movie means to load all contents of the source DVD including files like subtitle, audio track and many more. Main Movie only imports the longest chapter of DVD content, by default the main movie of source DVD file, and Custom Mode allows users to select chapters for loading upon personal needs.
Step 2. Set output format
Now, hit the drop-down box before the big green “Convert” button and choose the Change option to select the output format on the Profile panel. You could choose from either “Format” or “Device” group according to your own needs.
Step 3. Set output profile parameters
Then, to meet your needs more, edit the parameter information of the output file including video codec, channel, resolution and many more. To do this, click the “Edit” button on the drop-down panel right before the big green “Convert” button. Click “OK” button to save settings and exit.
Ffmpeg Extract Subtitles From Ts
Step 4. Set output directory
Click the big green icon of “Convert” option to continue. After that, on the popup sidebar, set output directory in the “Save to” box.
Ffmpeg Subtitle Srt
After that, click the bottom “Convert” button to start to convert DVD movies to video files with Leawo DVD Ripper. You then only need to wait for the conversion.
In fact, Leawo DVD Ripper could not only help you rip and convert DVD files to general video files, but also edit DVD movies, apply 3D movie effect, select subtitles and audio tracks, etc. It’s far more than a simple DVD to video converter.