Subtitles positioned below active video area - is it possible?

[kypec]

I've encoded my video to 1920x800 resolution (AVC stream is DXVA compatible).
The video is muxed in MP4 with SRT subtitles. I've tried MPC-HC and SMPlayer but couldn't achieve that the subtitles be displayed below the picture i.e. in the unoccupied horizontal black bar which is present on FullHD screen (1920x1080).
Example of what I want to achieve:
http://i54.tinypic.com/xle04i.jpg

I'm willing to try any other player or even remux to MKV if necessary. I rather stick with SRT format instead of graphical SUB/SUP/PGS if possible. Also re-encoding video to 1920x1080 is my last resort. :(
I'm afraid that my goal perhaps can't be achieved without dedicating the video decoding to CPU instead of GPU (because of DXVA limited post-processing), is this assumption correct?

[Superb]

Of course you can place the subtitles there. It works w/ the latest MPC-HC and DXVA just fine (and is the default position, btw).
Use the latest version from www.xvidvideo.ru, but make sure you uninstall the current version first (and remove its leftover settings).

[Ghitulescu]

I thought the reason of having 1920x800 was to get rid of the black bars. Now you want them back ...

[kypec]

Of course you can place the subtitles there. It works w/ the latest MPC-HC and DXVA just fine (and is the default position, btw).
Use the latest version from www.xvidvideo.ru, but make sure you uninstall the current version first (and remove its leftover settings).
This is the version of MPC-HC I'm using MPC-Homecinema.1.4.2646_(x86)_MSVC2008, though I didn't use the installer package, just unzipped it to new folder. I haven't had any MPC-HC installed before so leftover settings shouldn't be a problem.
Please provide screenshots/textual info how must be settings/filters configured to display embedded SRT subtitles below video. I've tried various options without success, subtitles were always position at the bottom of video but never below it.

For anyone willing to help I prepared a short sample (video+subtitle) here (23MB) (http://www.mediafire.com/?1wcr4qwgg5147kx). This one is actually non-DXVA compliant but resolution is also 1920x800.
Solutions (with described relevant settings of software player used) are very appreciated, thanks.

[kypec]

I thought the reason of having 1920x800 was to get rid of the black bars. Now you want them back ...
I don't see what your point is, sorry. Video stream has 1920x800 resolution with 1:1 PAR ~ 2.40:1 DAR. FullHD screen has 1920x1080 native resolution. When my video is displayed on such screen there are inevitably horizontal black bars added automatically by display device. I just want to make use of that area by placing the subtitles over there, is it so hard to understand what am I trying to achieve?

[sneaker_ger]

In MPC-HC go into "View" > "Options..." > "Subtitles: Default Style" and make sure that "Position subtitles relative to the video frame" is either not checked or only has a gray mark, not a black one. Also make sure that MPC's subtitle renderer actually gets used and not some external one.

[Ghitulescu]

I don't see what your point is, sorry. Video stream has 1920x800 resolution with 1:1 PAR ~ 2.40:1 DAR. FullHD screen has 1920x1080 native resolution. When my video is displayed on such screen there are inevitably horizontal black bars added automatically by display device. I just want to make use of that area by placing the subtitles over there, is it so hard to understand what am I trying to achieve?
I know no source for 1920x800 (not even weird photo cameras), while all the devices observe 1920x1080 (bzw. 1088), even if they need to use matting to accommodate a 2.35:1 source. Wouldn't be easier to reuse the native FullHD source and let the subtitles be placed there, as standard?

[kypec]

Wouldn't be easier to reuse the native FullHD source and let the subtitles be placed there, as standard?
Probably yes, if all other attempts fail. I was just unaware of possible issues with subtitle positioning. Full encoding of bluray source (which is 1920x1080 as you pointed out) with medium MCTemporalDenoise took me over 3 days on i7-920 so I'd rather find a way to configure the player accordingly without need of re-encoding whole stuff again as 1920x1080.
Just a thought, has anyone got a rough idea what are the bitrate costs for those 2 black bars (1920x280 pixels of black area) when compared to cropped encode High@Level4.1?

[Ghitulescu]

It's very low. I can't tell you, as I never step outside the industry norms, but I'm pretty sure a developer can confirm it (maybe with some figures too).

[kypec]

In MPC-HC go into "View" > "Options..." > "Subtitles: Default Style" and make sure that "Position subtitles relative to the video frame" is either not checked or only has a gray mark, not a black one. Also make sure that MPC's subtitle renderer actually gets used and not some external one.
:goodpost::thanks:
Though I had to do one more thing to make it work as intended - check the option to use Default Style under Play > Subtitles.
I'm so happy that re-encoding the video is not necessary, yay!

[Keiyakusha]

Nice to hear it worked for you but enabling Default Style under Play > Subtitles doesn't seems right. Srt subtitles are NOT styled subtitles so default style should be used for them anyway. Smells like a bug in MPC-HC. There actually was something wrong with this option to begin with, when srt subs was displayed with different size depending on this option checked or not, which shouldn't happens...

[sneaker_ger]

I agree. This seems to be borked.