VObSub specifications

[teras]

Hello
I am a developer and I am searching for specifications or info on how to load & save VobSub files. I serched in the site and in google but I wasn't able to find any. I only found a page describing the DVD subtitles format (from what I uderstood is different from VobSub).

Can anybody give me a pointer on where to look for such information?

Thank you

[lordyu]

Hi. I am not sure if there is any on the Internet. If you can't find it, you could try checking out VSFilter and VSRip on guliverkli (http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/) project page. Also you could try contacting Gabest there. I think he is the creator of the VobSub file format (.idx/.sub). He must have the spec. Also you could try the source code of VobSub 2.23 (http://www.divx-digest.com/software/vobsub.html). Another VobSub application which comes with source code is Son2VobSub (http://www.anime.cz/s2v/) by Yusaku.

By the way, what VobSub application are you creating? ;)

[movax]

The .sub stores the picture data, and the .idx is pretty well commented and self explanatory. Only took me 30mins or so to make a .idx resyncing app since SubResync was borked for me. :)

[teras]

Hi. I am not sure if there is any on the Internet. If you can't find it, you could try checking out VSFilter and VSRip on guliverkli (http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/) project page. Also you could try contacting Gabest there. I think he is the creator of the VobSub file format (.idx/.sub). He must have the spec. Also you could try the source code of VobSub 2.23 (http://www.divx-digest.com/software/vobsub.html). Another VobSub application which comes with source code is Son2VobSub (http://www.anime.cz/s2v/) by Yusaku.

By the way, what VobSub application are you creating? ;)


First of all thank you for your answer!

I had a look already at the guiverkli site and I also posted a question there, without any answer :-( Also the subprojects VSFilter and VSRip both are DLL only and I can't find their source (at least without trying to downlaod and get every possible file from there).

The VobSub application should do the work but also has many other routines concerning the GUI and the overlaying of the subtitles.

The Son2VobSub though seems just the kind of programm I was looking for. Open source, small and easy to comprehend. I will have a look at it and hope for the best!

I have also found this page: http://sam.zoy.org/writings/dvd/subtitles/ (although it's only for DVD subtitles (which should be similar but not the same)


The program I am writing is a subtitles editor and I thought it would be nice to have the ability to directly export into VobSub format. Currently is under heavy development. The current stable version is in my site http://www.panayotis.com/jubler. This one does not support styles. but my development version in my hard disk does ;-)

[lordyu]

Hi teras. Jubler looks to me like Subtitle Workshop. This is how I normally creat .idx+.sub from .srt.

--.srt/.sub--> Subtitle Workshop --.ssa--> MaestroSBT --son+.spf+.bmp--> Son2VobSub --.idx+.sub-->

MaestroSBT has just gone open source so maybe it can be of any help to your Jubler's rendering engine.

As for the screenshots, I agree with you that "Everyone loves screenshots!". ;) But many screenshots today are in JPG which is not the right choice. Check out my signature. :)

[teras]

Hi teras. Jubler looks to me like Subtitle Workshop. This is how I normally creat .idx+.sub from .srt.

--.srt/.sub--> Subtitle Workshop --.ssa--> MaestroSBT --son+.spf+.bmp--> Son2VobSub --.idx+.sub-->

MaestroSBT has just gone open source so maybe it can be of any help to your Jubler's rendering engine.

As for the screenshots, I agree with you that "Everyone loves screenshots!". ;) But many screenshots today are in JPG which is not the right choice. Check out my signature. :)


Well, you got me there ;)
Actually Subtitle Workshop is my model application for me. Still there are no programs for Linux (since I am a dedicated Linux user) and wine is not always the best solution. That's why I am using Java (to be multi platform).

The path you are talking was the same path I was thinking about (after I learned from you about Son2VobSub). About the rendering I'll try to have a look at the Java rendering methods, but anyway having sources of other projects around is always useful.

About the PNG images... of course I know this format and I am using it sometimes (Jubler icons are in PNG format btw). I think though I did a test and the size was bigger with PNG, so I made a couple of JPEG screenshots. Anyway, probable you're right for presentation reasons, and since there is a need for new screenshots for the next Jubler version (which would drastically change the outlook since I introduce styles), I'll put some PNG images afterwards.


Oh, and another thing: I saw that VobSub isn't able to cope with multi-color subtitles (where words of the same subtitle are in different color from others). Since you have much bigger experience than me in rendered subtitle formats, which would you recommend to use it as an output format? (OK, I can always use PNG images for this - but which is the most popular?)

[movax]

SRT, SSA, and ASS are the most popular subtitle formats, especially in MKV as softsubs.

[teras]

SRT, SSA, and ASS are the most popular subtitle formats, especially in MKV as softsubs.

Well, probably I didn't make myself clear enough :-( . When I said "rendered" I ment bitmapped - not textual.

Is there any bitmapped (non-textual) subtitle format which is able to display more than one color (for the text, not for borders etc.) in each sentence?

I know about ASS, SSA & SRT, and luckily enough I found their spcification.