dvd subtitle programs

I am having some trouble with dvd format movies, some of them, especially the ones with stripped menus won't show subtitles, or even let me pick out subtitles from mpc's menu. The option seems to be grey'd out in mpc and powerdvd both, although I know fo sure the movie has multiple subtitle tracks. i am using the latest version of K-lite codec pack.

 

BSPlayer is the best player for subtitle playback IMO. I'm not sure the free version handles DVD files but it does list VOB as a file format. Worth a try.

Another option would be to use SubRip to create a .srt for the subtitles. It takes several minutes because you have to teach its optical recognition program to understand the letters in the subtitle track. I've had good luck with it and then you can point MPC or other player to the .srt.

Lastly, often on stripped menu DVD files a standard DVD player will have no problem reading the subtitles so it may be worth a try burning the files in standard DVD format to disk and trying it on a standalone player.

 

Thanks for the tip, burning the dvd will indeed show the subtitles, but I have my pc connected to my 42" plasma so it would be nice to be able to watch the dvd's right off the pc. This is really frustraring since i'm not really a noob, never had problems with avi's. Anyway I'm at a loss with dvd's it seems certain renderers do not support subtitles. mpc settings say:

"Subtitling for directshow is available when the video renderer called "VMR7" or "VMR9" is set. VMR9 requires directx9,....."

I use vista ultimate 64 bit, I wondered if there could be a connection between the video decoders used for one specific movie and the showing/not showing the subtitles, since it only happens in certain ones. If anyone has in-depth knowlege of how codecs work please drop a hint. Thanks!