81

I am trying to extract subtitle from video as .srt file, I used the following command: 

FFMPEG -i mytestmovie.mkv -vn -an -codec:s:0.1 srt sub.srt

But, I got an error as Unrecognized option codec:s:0:1 So, can you tell me the exact command and how to extract a subtitle as .srt file in video?

Giacomo1968
  • 53,069
  • 19
  • 162
  • 212
vijay
  • 821
  • 1
  • 8
  • 5

5 Answers5

146

Simple:

ffmpeg -i Movie.mkv -map 0:s:0 subs.srt
  • -i: Input file URL/path.
  • -map: Designate one or more input streams as a source for the output file.
  • s:0: Select the subtitle stream.
Giacomo1968
  • 53,069
  • 19
  • 162
  • 212
jm3
  • 1,756
  • 1
  • 11
  • 8
  • 36
    This would download the first subtitle track. If there are several, use `0:s:1` to download the second one, `0:s:2` to download the third one, and so on. – Fabien Snauwaert Nov 10 '16 at 19:06
  • 7
    @jm3 Would you happen to know any way to automatically extract all subtitle streams from a file, naming them after their language identifier (e.g. eng, fre, dut etc.)? – Fr. Dec 01 '17 at 00:30
  • 1
    why is it so slow when extracting from big MKV container (~4 gb)? – user25 Jun 02 '18 at 16:24
  • 13
    To extract more subtitles at once you have to duplicate the `-map` parameters for each file. Also include `-c copy` so that it just extracts the file without trying to process it: `ffmpeg -i Movie.mkv -c copy -map 0:s:0 subs.01.srt -c copy -map 0:s:1 subs.02.srt`. Anyway it will take long time because ffmpeg must read whole video file to find all parts of the subtitle streams. – Radek Pech Apr 20 '19 at 08:39
  • 1
    @RadekPech Why would it try to process it? Or rather I guess it can't not process it since you extract it into a file. As such, what's wrong with the default "processor"? – x-yuri Dec 16 '21 at 06:26
  • 2
    @x-yuri FFMPEG's default action is to process (convert) everything on input. Which means if you don't use `-c` parameter, it will automatically select a codec (or output format for subtitles - and FFMPEG actually CAN convert subtitle formats!) and process it. It may look OK to convert SRT into SRT, but it may mess up the input file if it contains something bad or unknown (wrong encoding, typo in timecode, overlapping or too short subtitles, etc.). So you should always include `-c copy` if want a 100% copy of the input. – Radek Pech Dec 17 '21 at 08:16
  • doesn't work, says that it matches no stream, and VLC does see subtitles – Flash Thunder Jan 03 '22 at 14:29
  • What the hell, I tried it on a MP4 file and it extracts the subtitles with EXTRA BIG XXXXL font size (39pt), totally different / bigger size as how it is displayed when playing the mp4 file. – ElektroStudios Mar 18 '22 at 19:03
13

-codec:s:0:1 is incorrect. If you use -codec:s:0 then ffmpeg will use the stated codec for the first subtitle stream being passed to the output, if you use -codec:s:1 then it will use it for the second subtitle stream, etc.

You can also use -codec:s to select all output subtitle streams, or -codec:2 to select the third output stream, regardless of what it is.

You are probably confused because the -map option behaves in a different way - there, you have to select which input the selected stream comes from. (so, -map 0:s:0 would take the first subtitle stream from the first input, and feed it to the output). However, -map is for selecting which streams you want to take from the inputs; whereas most of the other options that use stream mapping are for use on the streams after they have been selected (so there's no need to specify which input file they're from), as they are passed to the output.

evilsoup
  • 13,097
  • 3
  • 59
  • 80
  • evilsoup:i would using the following command E:\FFMpeg_Latest>ffmpeg -i E:\Routine\routine.mkv -vn -an -map 0:s:0 srt E:\Routine\sub.srt,it seems an error i got Unable to find a suitable output format for 'srt',can u tell me the command for extracting an subtitle in video... – vijay Apr 16 '13 at 09:38
  • 2
    Try: `ffmpeg -i E:\Routine\routine.mkv -map 0:s:0 E:\Routine\sub.srt` (ffmpeg should detect that you want srt subtitles from the output file name) – evilsoup Apr 16 '13 at 14:31
  • 1
    I used: `ffmpeg -i film.mp4 -vn -an -codec:s srt film.srt` that should copy all the subtitles to the srt file. – Stuart Apr 05 '16 at 19:05
  • @Stuart it doesn't extract all subtitles – user25 Jun 02 '18 at 17:28
  • @evilsoup `-codec:s` so what is the point to use it if it's not going to extract all subtitles at the time? `-codec:s:idx` seems only this will work? but this way we have to execute this command many times to extract all subtitles – user25 Jun 02 '18 at 17:31
  • 1
    @evilsoup `-codec:s` is equal to `-codec:s:0` so it doesn't select all subtitles... it will extract first text track – user25 Jun 02 '18 at 18:15
  • @evilsoup Neither `-codec:s` nor `codec:s:0` "selects" anything. Both tell `ffmpeg` which codec to _apply_ to an _output_ stream, or streams, of subtitles. The `-map` option is used to select the stream(s) from the source. To select all the subtitle streams, without knowing how many there are, or their indices, use `-map 0:s` and if there may, or may not, be any subtitles, the map can be optional, and not cause `ffmpeg` to fail by using `-map 0:s?` See the [Advanced Options](https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.html#Advanced-options) in the `ffmpeg` docs. – Chindraba Feb 11 '19 at 06:59
11
ffmpeg -i video.mkv subs.srt

Wicked, right?

Worked for me just now, for a bunch of MKVs containing a single SRT stream. Apparently this is the default behavior. My ffmpeg version is 20170516, from ubuntu 16.4

Berry Tsakala
  • 1,385
  • 3
  • 18
  • 33
1

If the subtitles are separately muxed into the MP4, and not hardcoded, I always use mkvmerge -o output.mkv theinput.mp4. Then use mkvextract tracks output.mkv 2:thetrackidof.vob.

Then use vobsub2srt thetrackidof (with "thetrackidof" being the file name of the subtitle files without IDX or VOB file extensions). Works every time.

galacticninja
  • 6,188
  • 16
  • 78
  • 120
Floris Naaijkens
  • 11
  • 1
  • 1
    Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Jul 09 '23 at 14:49
-1

updated the code to v6 ver.

work pretty good.

usage:

ffmpegSubExtract Mp4 Srt

ffmpegSubExtract mkv Srt 1

@echo off
cls
title ffmpegSubExtract TOOL

if "%1"=="" (
echo.
echo Usage:
echo ffmpegSubsubExtract mp4 srt
echo ffmpegSubsubExtract mp4 srt 1
goto :eof )

if "%2"=="" (
echo.
echo Usage:
echo ffmpegSubsubExtract mp4 srt
echo ffmpegSubsubExtract mp4 srt 1
goto :eof )

set fleExt=%1
set subExt=%2
set stream=%3

for %%i in ("*.%fleExt%") do (
    set fname=%%i
    call :process
    )
    
goto :eof

:process
if exist "%fname:~0,-4%.%subExt%" (
    del "%fname:~0,-4%.%subExt%" )

if "%stream%"=="" (
    set stream=0 )


if "%subExt%" == "srt" (
    title ffmpegSubExtract TOOL ~ SubRip mode
    ffmpeg -i "%fname%" -map 0:s:%stream% "%fname:~0,-4%.%subExt%"
) else (
    title ffmpegSubExtract TOOL ~ "%subExt%" mode
    ffmpeg -i "%fname%" -c copy -map 0:s:%stream% "%fname:~0,-4%.%subExt%" 
)

goto :eof
Mr.X
  • 11
  • 1