RoadMovie: batch encode movies with subtitles

If you've been looking for a way to get subtitled movies onto your iPod, Apple TV, or web server, then RoadMovie may be for you. RoadMovie has subtitle support from SubRip (.srt), SubViewer 1 & 2 (.sub), and MicroDVD. It has built-in presets for Apple TV, Cellphone, iPhone, iPod, PSP and Web. You can also use Elgato's Turbo.264 hardware for encoding at higher speeds. Some of the main features in RoadMovie include:

Batch encode a list of movies
Use presets to encode or create your own
Batch upload to FTP, SFTP, .Mac, WebDav or Amazon S3
Add to iTunes after encode

To get subtitle files, you will need an application like Submerge (from the same company). Doom9.net has a guide for getting subtitles in sync with your movies. With RoadMovie's beautiful looks and strong feature list, this could be the bridge for no subtitles in iTunes. RoadMovie is available from Bitfield's website and costs $19.95 (US); a demo is also available.

Is subtitle support important to you for movies/video on your iPhone or in iTunes?
Yes, in iTunes	118 (4.2%)
Yes, on my portable device	150 (5.4%)
Yes, everywhere	917 (33.0%)
Only sometimes	552 (19.8%)
No, I don't need subtitles	1045 (37.6%)

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Source: http://www.bitfield.se/roadmovie/index.html

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If you've been looking for a way to get subtitled movies onto your iPod, Apple TV, or web server, then RoadMovie may be for you. RoadMovie...

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Joel

Deaf people need captions/subtitles!
Let's not go back in time 30 years, and leave thousands of Americans out.

March 18 2008 at 2:49 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

emily.

I like the option of subtitles. It would be nice if more encoding software made this an easier process, of if more media players (including iTunes and iPods) included a simple subtitle-support standard comparable to VLC's subtitle file support.

March 18 2008 at 1:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to emily.'s comment

emily.

I would also like to specify that I like the option of no subtitles too. Is it really that hard to adopt a digital video subtitle file standard that allows one to use subtitles and customize their settings (size, timing, etc.)?

March 18 2008 at 1:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Chris G

I just use Handbrake, if you go into the options you can have it encode the movie with subtitles, its just ends up taking a lot longer to finish but its FREE!!!!

March 18 2008 at 8:55 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

andy

Ok, there is support for the Elgato Turbo, but am I wrong, I thought, if you have any given srt files you can just throw them into the Turbo app and it will merge them? (if you want to have subtitles to play everywhere)

March 18 2008 at 5:54 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to andy's comment

hagar

There is a free tool (VideoDrive) that lets you import videos in batch in iTunes, including SRT subtitles (without reconversion or hard coding the subtitles). It is called VideoDrive (http://www.aroona.net). The current version has some shortcomings, but a new version will be released shortly.

March 18 2008 at 7:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tom Waterhouse

Subtitles are important for many reasons, accessibility or perhaps you're not watching the same old drab hollywood film and watching something foreign?!

March 18 2008 at 5:00 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

James O\'Leary

apple's support for subtitles is a joke, and submerge itself is a poor, expensive, hack. QuickTime Pro can do exactly what submerge does (add a text track to a movie), but neither can add subtitles in a format compatible with Apple TV 2/iphone 1.1.3. I spent 6 hours finding this out yesterday. I cannot believe Apple was demoing subtitle support on iPhone when there is no way for someone to add them even with quicktime pro, but they did.

March 18 2008 at 12:20 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

autoy

For non-english speaking countries subtitles are essential. It's the only way to watch shows that will not ever be released here. As an example, AppleTVs are not very successful but HDs that support the DivX+Srt combo sell like hotcackes as cheap media servers.

On the main topic, I'd really like to know if there's any utility that converts from srt to Quicktime subtitle format.

March 17 2008 at 10:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

John Doe

What??!?!?!? The iPhone can't use .srt files? noobs. get an archos.

March 17 2008 at 8:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

dsbrq

little bit confusing note on Submerge -- ie. you 'don't need' Submerge for subtitles -- as Roadmovie has Submerge features already embedded (at least that's my understanding). I think the main difference is batch processing (and price -- $10 more for Roadmovie)

March 17 2008 at 7:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ThaddyBoy

I would love to have the ability to watch a DVD with the commentary. That'd be worthwhile. Subtitles don't mean anything to me.

March 17 2008 at 7:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply