How to Rip DVDs with Forced Subtitle for Foreign or Alien languages on PC and Mac?

I want to put my DVD collection of 600 discs onto my PC hard drive so as to copy, from time to time, titles to a USB Flash/Thumb drive for use in my cinema or rip DVDs to Apple TV as well as ripping to smart TVs. I’ve tried the following DVD Rippers: Acrok DVD Ripper and Freemake Video Converter, and each has its problems.

Part of my collection contains war films where the German, Russian or Japanese language is spoken, for example, Tora, Tora, Tora, and The Longest Day, and where the appropriate English subtitle appears at the bottom of the screen so the viewer can understand what is being said. However, none of the rippers/converters seem to transfer from the DVD to the PC hard drive the individual language translation subtitle element and to get or engage a translation, and the subtitles appear for the whole film, including when English is spoken, which is not required.

Updates: if you are using DVDFab, and want the forced subtitle as always, check this guide for help. 

Subtitles for Foreign or Alien languages

While we are watching DVD movies, when a foreign or alien language is spoken, there will be subtitles for you so you can understand what they mean, and those kinds of subtitles are called Forced Subtitle in DVDs.

When you are watching the famous 3D file Avatar and a Na’vi is speaking their own language, there are always subtitles for us to understand what they are talking about. Those subtitles are called Forced Subtitle. 

Rip DVD to MP4 AVI iPhone With Forced Subtitle

While ripping DVD to MP4, I’d like the forced subtitles at points in the film where the action takes place in another country. Watching the DVD directly, the subtitles appear automatically when the actors start speaking alien or other languages. I don’t want subtitles throughout the movie, just the ones that appear as they do normally when the language switches over.

What I’d like to recommend today is a DVD ripping program for both Windows and Mac that is able to rip DVDs with just the subtitles for the spoken foreign or alien language. Here is the guide on how to rip DVDs with the Forced Subtitle.

Step 1. Follow the Free Trial button above to download the Forced Subtitle DVD ripper, install and launch it. Please note that what you download will be Leawo Prof. Media, an all-in-one app for all Leawo programs. DVD Ripper is one of the components. Choose DVD ripper in Leawo Prof. Media.

Step 2. Load DVD. Click the “Add Blu-ray/DVD” button and locate the DVD drive to add DVDs from the “Add from CD-ROM” option. You can also add a VIDEO_TS folder or ISO files for ripping from the options “Add from folder” and “Add iso file.” Drag-and-drop is supported as well.

Add Bluray/DVD

Step 3. After a DVD is loaded, the program automatically selects the right title for you with a preview window for you to choose the Main, Full or Custom Movie before ripping. Main Movie comes as default and is recommended for movie DVDs.

Step 4. After the DVD is loaded, go Subtitle and make sure None is checked. 

Yes, the subtitle option for Forced Subtitles in Leawo is the default one, “None,” which does not seem to make sense initially but works. Checking None will work for the below two situations:

  1. If the DVD has a forced subtitle track, there will be forced subtitles for the alien or foreign languages being spoken. 
  2. If the DVD has NO forced subtitles, there will be NO subtitles in the output file.

Using Leawo, the forced subtitle DVD ripper, it is straightforward to have forced subtitles only. Please note if you check English or another subtitle for ripping, you will have that subtitle all the way through the movie. 

Troubleshooting-Forced Subtitle Not Shown on Ripped MP4 File

Ripping DVDs with Leawo DVD Ripper, you won’t forget the subtitle for with foreign or alien languages as it comes the default settings.

However, after ripping some DVDs with foreign or alien languages, while I am watching them, I find no subtitles are shown at all. I see no common point in those DVD movies, but after a couple of tries, I know what the problem is and how to solve the issue with no forced subtitle shown on ripped files.

I have tested and found that those discs just don’t have a separate forced subtitle track as others. Those DVDs hide the actual forced subtitle into regular subtitles, which will be shown generally as English, German etc. So indeed, the program is NOT to be blamed, but those DVDs do give us trouble. We need to play the DVDs and check the actual forced subtitle among the normal ones.

From my experience, I see that some DVDs have more than one subtitle track for the SAME language. Well, this is interesting as we just don’t need the same language track more than once. And from my test, the second same language for subtitles is usually the forced one that is hidden into normal ones.

So, we just have to pick the second one and preview it with the built-in DVD player, and that’s it! Go for it!

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Bill
Bill
1 year ago

Dude…. you rock! Like you, I didn’t want subtitles all through the movie — only when aliens or foreign language was spoken. I use the same Leawo software to rip my DVD’s and Blu-Rays as well and couldn’t figure out why forced subtitles weren’t working. And, like you noticed the different English subtitle tracks but thought they were just duplicates. Googled up and down 5 ways to Sunday and couldn’t find anything. Then stumbled on this page and you explained in like a paragraph. So I tried the second english track and was amazed it gave the forced subtitles. The Leawo software documentation is, well, non-existent. Thank You so much! Movies which have the forced subtitle are much more enjoyable now that I can follow what they are saying in the dialog.

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