Submerge
I had been spending some time trying to figure out how to get encode a movie and embed the subtitles so that I could watch it with my iPod. I had tried VLC but I couldn’t get it to work.
Then I found Submerge. The software name basically does what it says—it merges the subtitle file with the main feature. Now, together with Mac The Ripper and Handbrake, Submerge has become part of my essential tools for exporting video into my iPod.
Using Submerge is easy. First, click on File -> Open and pick the movie you want to “submerge.”
Click on Choose and pick the file containing the subtitles.
Click Render and wait for a few seconds.
Here is the result with the default settings.
You can even change how the subtitles appear. Since I am going to watch this through my iPod Touch, the subtitles have to be prominent enough to read. I can alter the default settings—for example, I altered the size to Large and the Attributes to Bold. I removed the Plate since I found it distracting.
Click on the Render button and after a few more seconds, you can check out how the subtitles will look.
Saving the movie will create a .mov file which you can watch using Quicktime.
The most painful part of the process is when the file is exported to the iPod. The process took me 2.5 hours and it made me wish I bought Elgato’s turbo H.264 encoder.
One last thing. I had problems getting the software activated. I already received the serial number but, for some strange reason, the software was rejecting the code. I immediately sent an email to the developer (Bitfield), and I was surprised to get a reply within a few minutes! We traded a few emails to further isolate the problem and all was resolved before dinner time! I got great support for a software that only costs 9 dollars (less than PHP 40).
April 01 2008 09:20 pm | Software and Video and iPod
