A vital content of this guide is based on another guide in the www, "DVD2SVCDs", authored by "MB1" (http://www.mb1.de.vu, it is in German ), MB1 has even "proofread" the following.

This guide may help home video enthusiast and others who want to use switchable subtitles to

• comment their videos but not change or "disturb" the audio by dubbing
• comment in or translate to another/other language(s)

You can add up to four different subtitles to your SVCD. Most DVD-standalones which do re-play SVCDs do also re-play SVCD-subtitles.

To find out whether yours can: /dvdplayers.php. If you can't find your model there test it by downloading a sample with subs from vcdhelp, burn it on a CD-RW an test the standalone(s). Check /svcd.htm or http://vcdhelper.framtid.nu/SVCDPALSAMPLE_2AUDIO4_SUBTI.NRG (to be opened with NERO). Or make your own test-SVCD with subs by following this guide.

To create the subs and to "glue" them to your video you'll need I-Author (difficult, if not impossible to buy, but anyhow available somewhere in the www, maybe in Spain or Russia).

You'll also need a SVCD conformable .mpg-file, maybe an .avi converted to mpeg2 by TMPGEnc, http://www.tmpgenc.net/. TMPGEnc is (Oct 2001) freeware and one of the best encoders available, it runs even on slower PCs (PII/400 and higher).
Your video should not be longer than 60 minutes, I-Author's subtitler is limited to that. If your video is longer than 60 minutes you can split it and after you have added the subs merge it again with TMPEG (or another editing software).
You'll also need a program to de-multiplex the file into an audio and a video stream, TPMGEnc could again be the one (open "File", "MPEG Tools" .
Last not least it could become necessary to reduce your original video's transfer rate (=bit rate), even that is possible with TMPGEnc (or other editing software). To find out the actual transfer rate use a bitrate viewer (a free one: http://www.tecoltd.com ).

Step 1: Check transfer rate
Check the transfer rate of your basic material. According to MB1's guide I-Author does not accept transfer rates higher than 2.772 kbits/sec.
However, the subs add some kbits/sec to your stream. How many depends on the quantity of subs, but it is around 20 kbits/sec. Depending on the transfer rate of your basic material, the video without subs it could be necessary to reduce the rate of it to make "space" for your subs. If so do it in step 4.

Step 2: Start your software player and load the video
You'll need a software player to watch your video and find the start and end time for your subs.

Step 3: De-multiplex
Split (=de-multiplex) the video into a video and an audio stream. Change the ending of the audio from .mp2 to .mpa (replace the 2 by an a), the video's from .m2p to .mpv. Example with the TMPG-De-multiplexer.

Step 4: Reduce transfer rate (if necessary)
The easiest/fastest method is to reduce the audio rate.
If you have used a standard SVCD template to encode your video the audio rate is probably 224 kbits/sec. Reduce to 192 (use TMPGEnc or other software).
If you get problems later in the process (step 6) (Message from I-Author's multiplexer: "MUX OGT channel 1, first time over" means actually the bit rate is too high), you must repeat step 4 and lower the transfer rate to 160 or even lower.
If you choose to reduce the transfer rate of the video part you have to encode it again.
Example: TMPGEnc, change .mp2 to .mpa, "Audio only", click "Setting", choose bit rate

Step 5: Make subs
Open I-Authors OgtCreator. Expand the window to full screen, pull the lower half of the window down below the middle of the window (a).
In the menu bar choose "Build" and disable "Karaoke" (b). Then enable the OgtCreator by mark the "OGT ON" (c). Press F2. Click "Font" (f). The preset font is 24 point. Choose a font between 18 and 22, your choise limits even the number of characters or with other words the maximum text length. Smaler fonts = more text and vice versa. Actually 20 point bold seems to be a reasonable size with a good readability, larger fonts can appear "edged" on your TV.
Play the video on your software player and then write your text into the "Text Property" (f) and centre it by using the space bar.

Double-click "Primary Palette" (g) and choose a text colour. Black or white can be "invisible" on your TV, but try it yourself. This pink is maybe a bit out of style but very good visible on a TV screen.
Double click the time line (just below the bar with "Start", "End" and "Content") (h), Key in the start and end time (start time must be larger than 4 seconds, end time less than 60 minutes) (i). Time setting is by minute, second and tenth of a second (not frame).
Press F2 and repeat the procedure for your next sub… (if you have problems with black and/or white: remember to choose anothe color again…)
Save your work by choosing "Build" in the menu bar and than "Build all" (j). The file name you choose must be of two letters/digits, like A1 or bb or 34…. OgtCreator will add some extra digits.
Close OgtCreator.

Step 6: Multiplexing audio and video
Open I-Author's Multiplexer. Choose your video file (k). Choose your audio file (l). Enable "OGT active" (m). Choose Sub OGT #1 (n), it is the .txt you need. You can add up to four different subtitles (OGT #2, etc.).

If you want to author and/or use any other burning program press "Start" (p). After end process (the "Converted OK!" tells you) continue with I-Authors authoring tool…
If you do not need/want to author but just want to burn the SVCD with NERO: enable "PS format" (o) and press "start" (p). After end process continue with Nero. Nero will protest, but just choose "Turn off standard compliance and continue", it works anyway.

Problems?

• Multiplexer stops with this message
  
  Reduce transfer rate (=bit rate, step 4)
  
  
• Multiplexer stops multiplexing, the very window disappears without any "comment"? Change the file name of your input files.
• Don't switch subs on or off, neither try to switch between the running sub channel and another one, otherwise the subs can disappear until you restart the video.