AEGISUB and DVDs

[Ghitulescu]

Reading the manual at the Aegisub homepage and it looks like it's a great program to subtitles. Apparently it does what I need, eg placing the subtitles in various positions, sizes and colors (there's a limit on DVD), unlike other subtitle program I've seen.

Hopefully I've understood correctly the aforementioned features, I go to the real question:

I haven't seen any indication how the subtitles can be used on a DVD. All the examples are around the MKV container, all the scripts make use of AviSynth, and so on.

How can one use the subtitles og AEGISUB on a DVD, or, alternatively, it there other software that can do the above features for a DVD?

[Midzuki]

MaestroSBT is able to convert SSA files to "VOB friendly" subtitle formats. However the subtitle pictures for DVD-Video do not support many of the "fanciful" features which the SSA format is capable of. More importantly, MaestroSBT does not recognize the Advanced SubStation Alpha as a valid input.

[sneaker_ger]

Alternatively you may also want to try PunkGraphicStream (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=148030) or AVS to BDN XML (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=146493) to convert the ASS/SSA files to Blu-Ray-Sup format and then convert them into a DVD compatible format with BDSup2Sub (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=145277).

[Ghitulescu]

Alternatively you may also want to try PunkGraphicStream (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=148030) or AVS to BDN XML (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=146493) to convert the ASS/SSA files to Blu-Ray-Sup format and then convert them into a DVD compatible format with BDSup2Sub (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=145277).

So, I edit my subtitles in AEGISUB, export them to ASS, take the ASS through PunkGraphicStream/AVS2BDN to obtain a BD-SUP, then use BDsup2sub to obtain a SUP file ready to be muxed in a DVD.

Did I understand it correctly?

[Adub]

Yes, if you want to have fancy graphics. If you just have plain sups, then Midzuki's suggestion works as well.

[Ghitulescu]

For "regular" DVD subtitles I have my tools.

What I want is to have 2 zones with different fonts and colours, that are more or less independent in timings. One of the problems I have with some software solutions is the characters in foreign languages.

[sneaker_ger]

The only I problem I see is the limited numbers of colors you can use on a DVD. I don't know any way to work around that. In terms of positioning, sizing and special characters I don't see any problems as DVD subtitles are bitmaps. You could theoretically draw pictures on top of your video...

[Ghitulescu]

The only I problem I see is the limited numbers of colors you can use on a DVD. I don't know any way to work around that. In terms of positioning, sizing and special characters I don't see any problems as DVD subtitles are bitmaps. You could theoretically draw pictures on top of your video...

Thank you, I know that. However, unless a clever software would appear, the only way of doing what I intended was to create the bitmaps by hand, and convert them into SUP (the scenarist way), ready to be muxed. AEGISUB does not simplify the creative work, hoped at least for some automation for SUP creation. But this software is oriented towards BD and/or MKV.

I'll try at home both ways.

[sneaker_ger]

Yeah, you said in your first post that you knew about the limited palette...

Can't help you on the "creative work" - you should probably look into some anime fansub forums for that - they have lot's of experience in that field. Those fansubbers are doing a really fine job using AEGISUB. Converting the completed ass to bd sup and then to dvd sup/sub is neither much work nor hard to do with the programs I posted above.

[Ghitulescu]

Now the very last question:

does any of the aforementioned software use an installer (admin rights) or tries to change something in the OS, or installs drivers (graphic, audio, video), codecs etc.?

I try to keep my system as clean as possible ...

[sneaker_ger]

All of them are available without installers (There's a portable version of AEGISUB) and they don't install anything. I don't know if you need admin rights for any of them but I guess not.

[Midzuki]

One of the problems I have with some software solutions is the characters in foreign languages.

The safest choice when dealing with multilanguage subtitles is indeed to use Unicode-written SSA files — MaestroSBT, if configured correctly, deals with them without problems (except for the Right-2-Left languages, which require a workaround). I have several posts @ the VideoHelp's Subtitle forum regarding this subject in particular, I hope they have been helpful so far. :)

[TheFluff]

For "regular" DVD subtitles I have my tools.

What I want is to have 2 zones with different fonts and colours, that are more or less independent in timings. One of the problems I have with some software solutions is the characters in foreign languages.

Different fonts is no problem, but you only have 4 colors available on a DVD. Usually one is primary fill, one is border and one is used for antialiasing, which gives you one left to play with for a secondary fill. You might be able to skip the AA, but that's pretty much all you can do.

[Ghitulescu]

Different fonts is no problem, but you only have 4 colors available on a DVD. Usually one is primary fill, one is border and one is used for antialiasing, which gives you one left to play with for a secondary fill. You might be able to skip the AA, but that's pretty much all you can do.

I know about the colours. There is also a trick concerning the colours that allows me to use more than 4 colours, however only 4 of them simultaneusly.

It might be for you no problem with the fonts and sizes, but no software I know allows me to write E=mc2 wherein 2 is superscript, to give an example.

The maximum versatility I am aware of is to use bold and italic for each character (but not different fonts, sizes or international page codes - like mixing Japanese with Russian and English within the same line).

The weekend is close here in Europe, I'll try home the proposed chain of software to see what can really do this AEGISUB.

[0xdeadbeef]

DVD subtitles are essentially RLE encoded bitmaps. So if there's a limitation regarding fonts or styles, it's only a limitation of the tool, not the format.

About the colors: there's a global palette of 16 colors, where one subtitle can only use 4 of these colors. One of these 4 colors is the background color, which is typically transparent, so there are usually only 3 colors left for the visible pixels.