Move subtitles

[Yo]

I recently created an AVI film with AutoGK that includes subtitles.

However, I find the subtitles too high up on my 320x240 Pocket PC screen, in the middle of the screen, blocking too much of the picture. (The movie is 4:3 aspect ratio, I set the resolution to width 320, so the the movie is 320x240, and fills the screen.

Is there a way to re-do it and move the subtitles lower, to the bottom of the screen?

I know there are no such settings (subtitle placement) in AutoGK. However, I still have the intermediate files that AutoGk created, the .d2v file, the .avs file, the .ac3 and .mp3 audio files, etc.

I don't know much about scripting, am still a newbie about this, but would it be possible to open with Notepad the .AVS file that AutoGK created, and add a couple lines for positioning the subtitles lower. Then save the changed AVS file, open it in VDub or vdubmod, add the mp3 audio stream to it, and save to AVI?

If that is possible, considering the size, resolution, AR that I mentioned above, could someone give me the exact text to paste into the AVS file, to position the subtitles at the bottom of the screen?

And--for the final stage of processing with vdub--is it just a matter of loading the AVS file, adding the audio stream, and choosing save as AVI? Would I have to make any other settings in Vdub before the save?

Thanks a lot for your help!

[piscator]

I suppose the resolution you want (320x240) is way too low for standard vobsub subtitles. These bitmaps are supposed to be displayed on video for a resolution of 720 by something. So in effect, the bitmaps are more than twice to big, hence the weird placement.

I don't know if you can do much more with the VobSub(...) command in your aviscript, since I don't like hardcodes subs so much anyway. A workaround could be to OCR your subs to subrip subtitles and add these on the proper position and with the proper size in your aviscript. (I think you have to look for AddText or something. search for that, I've seen it b4 on the forum).

But isn't it easier to use softsubs on your PockerPC and adjust the dispplay of the subs during playback?

greetz,
Piscator

[Yo]

Originally posted by piscator
I suppose the resolution you want (320x240) is way too low for standard vobsub subtitles. These bitmaps are supposed to be displayed on video for a resolution of 720 by something. So in effect, the bitmaps are more than twice to big, hence the weird placement.

I don't know if you can do much more with the VobSub(...) command in your aviscript, since I don't like hardcodes subs so much anyway. A workaround could be to OCR your subs to subrip subtitles and add these on the proper position and with the proper size in your aviscript. (I think you have to look for AddText or something. search for that, I've seen it b4 on the forum).

But isn't it easier to use softsubs on your PockerPC and adjust the dispplay of the subs during playback?

greetz,
Piscator

Well, I have made the same small size (for PPC) movies with subtitles before using AutoGK, and they appeared correctly.

I'm not sure if the subtitles are too large, if they were too much smaller they would be too hard to read.

Isn't there text that could be put in the AVS file to move the titles down, even if they are not made smaller? What would that text be?

By softsubs, do you mean like on the DVD, where you can choose whethet or not they appear during playback? Of course that would be nicer, but I thought that is only possible for DVD playback. Do you know if Betaplayer (a new movie player for Pocket PC, great program!) or Windows Media Player 9 for PPC auppoert softsubs? I never saw anything about them in menu options, etc.?

[manono]

Hi-

Yes, piscator is talking about external subtitles that have been converted to text files in, most likely, SRT or SSA formats. I think that WMP9 should display SRT subs (don't know about SSA or other formats).

However, it may not be too late to reencode the previous movie and put the subs in at a lower position. Did you run the Preview before encoding so you could spot the problem before wasting all that time? Maybe not. Anyway, when you reencode, AutoGK is going to rip the subs again. Set it to run the Preview. At that time the .idx and sub files are created. Open the .idx file in Notepad, and where you see this:

# Origin, relative to the upper-left corner, can be overloaded by aligment
org: 0, 0

Raising that bold-faced "0" will lower them. You might try 30 for starters. Then open the .avs in VDubMod and scroll around to see if they're OK for you. If not, adjust the number until you get it the way you like. Then after the Preview is run, and you set it to encode, AutoGK will create the subs again. After it does, maybe when the audio is being created, open the .idx again and put the number back in. That should do it.

And if you'd like to try out piscator's suggestion (a very good one), and OCR the subs into text files, then here's Doom9's guide:

http://www.doom9.org/subtitle_guide.htm

Or you can keep the .idx and .sub files and play them as external subs also. It's a feature of AutoGK.