Hard subtitles (hardsubs) are burned into the video image and cannot be toggled off. Extracting—or more precisely removing—hardsubs is different from extracting soft subtitles (subtitle files). This post explains options, trade-offs, and step-by-step methods for two common goals: (A) remove hardsubs to produce a “clean” video, and (B) extract subtitle text from hardsubs into an editable subtitle file (OCR). I cover tools, workflows, and practical tips.
Then feed the preprocessed video into Subtitle Edit.
This review focuses on the latter. Because the text is part of the image, you cannot simply "demux" or extract it. You must essentially "watch" the video, identify pixels that look like text, and run OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to convert those pixels back into editable text.
The technology is there, but it is not a magic button. It is a powerful tool that still requires a human touch at the end.