Adding black borders to 16:9 AR movies with AGK

[SpOmA]

Hi there,
I want to ask you, is it possible to make AutoGK add those black borders to the bottom and top of movies with 16:9 AR so I will be able to put on them the subs?

yes, I know it will change the whole resolution, and I'm not quite sure it's possible with AGK but I must give it a chance..
My eyes are tired of reading the subtitles on the movie itself since it's very small and hard to read , and of course I didnt mention that it takes almost half of the movie itself..

if you guys have any idea I'd like to hear it :)
please dont tell me it's impossible I really can't hear it anymore :(

thanks in advance guys!

[CWR03]

How are you watching the videos? If you're using a PC, you can change the location of the subs with DirectVobSub Filter, changing the window to 4:3 so the subs will be below a 16:9 picture.

[SpOmA]

watching at TV on a DVD of course, I wouldnt ask it if I was using my PC to watch movies.

[manono]

I wouldn't suggest you be rude to one of our most valuable and helpful members, especially after leaving out a crucial bit of information. We have visitors with all levels of knowledge and experience, and his question wasn't out of line at all.

please dont tell me it's impossible I really can't hear it anymore

Ok, I won't tell you it can't be done in AutoGK. But you'll have better luck doing it in the more fully featured GKnot, editing the .avs to add an AddBorders command to add some black below the AVI.

[CWR03]

I don't believe AutoGK has that feature. Gordian Knot does allow script editing, and "addborders" is among the available ones.

watching at TV on a DVD of course, I wouldnt ask it if I was using my PC to watch movies.
I asked because you didn't say - I have no idea of what you know or what hardware you have, so I offered up a common solution based on your usual lack of input.

[SpOmA]

CWR03, I'm sorry if I was rude, really didnt mean to
I answered your question and just mentioned a little fact.

sorry man

manono, isn't it possible to edit .avs files with AGK too?

I've been using GK for some time, but I really like AGK more.. I dont have problems with AGK exept for this little thing, which I'm sure can be solved.

[SpOmA]

OK I decided to move back to Gordian Knot..
so the same question.. how do I add black borders to 16:9 AR movies..
You told me I can use AddBorders command, I looked over the site to see the syntax of the command but I still dont understand it..
to simplify things.. let's say I got a movie, I cropped it from the top 60 PIXELS and from the bottom 60 PIXELS.. let's say I chose a resolution of 640x272
now..I want to add borders so the movie will become FULLSCREEN (not the movie itself, just the AR), and put the subtitles on the black borders.. what do I do, what shall the command be (execatly if possible)
that would help a lot and I can learn from this for other encodes in the future :)

thanks again guys!

[ricardo.santos]

i always crop my videos when converting them to divx, to add subs(srt) to divx without reconverting the video and position them in the black borders all you have to do is to use srt2bmp to add them. when you open the program you can customize where they will appear.

Add black borders? my dvd/divx player adds them all i have to do is set srt2bmp to display them on top of them.

Altough the tutorial is in portuguese you can have alook at what i mean by looking at the screenshots at my website.

http://ricardouk.no.sapo.pt/Srt2bmp.htm

i will try to translate it to english soon


im surprised this method is not talked enough here in the forums.

have a look at srt2bmp here

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=89718&highlight=srt2bmp

Ricardo

[SpOmA]

this sounds to me like a great solution.
but..
I tried it just now on two XVID encoded movies, just like the guide says (and I just read about it in other places), and the final file is a .divx file, which means it can be played by Divx Player and standalones..
anyway I changed it to .avi just to run it through media player and I dont really see any subtitles on it..
it's not really burning the subs on the movie, is it?
anyway I'm gonna test it on the standalone to see if it shows subs, let's hope it is :)
will let you know :)
thanks man!

[manono]

SpOmA-

OK, say you've cropped and resized to 640x272. Next have the AddBorders in the script. If you have 640x272, and you want to make the video full screen, then you want 640x480. 480-272=208. That seems a bit excessive to me, but that's what you asked for. So, the AddBorders command will be:

AddBorders(0,0,0,208)

That will add 208 pixels of black to the bottom of the video. And after that you can have the line for the subtitles. When done, but before doing the encoding, save the script and open it in VDubMod to make sure everything's all right. If the subs seem too high or too low to you, and they're in IDX/SUB format, you can raise or lower them by adjusting the Y Axis in VobSub Configure.

If you decide you've added too much black, just lower that number in the AddBorders command, and the player will add black to the top and bottom on its own to make it full screen.

You can get explanations of all the built in AviSynth commands over at AviSynth.org:

http://www.avisynth.org/

and for the AddBorders command specifically:

http://www.avisynth.org/AddBorders

[SpOmA]

manono,
You are great man, thanks a lot.
I'm gonna test it now.. but just a question..
usually the movie itself is shown on the middle of the screen so there are same size of black in the top and the bottom. That command, as you just said, adds black only to the bottom which means the movie will be shown in the top of the screen since there is no black in there..

isn't it better to put 104 pixels on the bottom and 104 on the top ?

anyway I'm gonna test it and see if everything ok, and maybe will try what I just said, myself :)

UPDATE:
I just tested it and checked some options with avisynth, and I'm very pleased, it's gonna make my life a lot easier in the media section, thanks to this great Gordian Knot and avisynth.
and as an answer to my question (if other people will look for it in the future), so YES there is need to put 104 pixels in the bottom and 104 in the top, else that would looked sux (the movie will take half screen and the black borders will take half).
anyway just wanted to say thanks for all your help, it will help me a lot in other future encodes and I learnt some other useful options :)
thanks and thanks again!

ricardo.santos,
I just tested the result .divx file of the program in my dvd player and it doesnt show any subs at all.. I tried the SUBTITLE button and no use.. it's like there is no subs
that sux..but thanks anyway !

[manono]

Hi-

isn't it better to put 104 pixels on the bottom and 104 on the top ?

Sure, to split the black:

AddBorders(0,104,0,104)

Edit: Oh, you figured it out on your own. What's the saying? "You give a man a fish and he eats for a day. You teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime." Isn't it much more satisfying to figure it out on your own? Study the AviSynth site carefully and you'll be amazed at what you can teach yourself to do.

However, I would recommend adding just enough black to get the subtitles, maybe 40 or so pixels on the bottom, depending on the size of the subs and their positioning. Why waste precious bits encoding all that black into the video? Then let your player add the rest of the needed black on playback.

[SpOmA]

yup, of course it's much better to learn things by yourself.. I always supported this, but you see.. a guy can't start from zero, he needs some basics. After you helped me a bit I could handle it on my own.

And for your suggestion.. it's not that matter since in most of the movies I get 1000 + bitrate and the quality is great, a bit of black won't change much .. but it depends on the movie.. movies with long lentgh won't give me 1000 bitrate for 2 cds so of course when I get long movie I will not add full black bars just to save bitrate for the movie.

it's great now I can watch and read the subtitles without killing my eyes :)

[ricardo.santos]

ricardo.santos,
I just tested the result .divx file of the program in my dvd player and it doesnt show any subs at all.. I tried the SUBTITLE button and no use.. it's like there is no subs
that sux..but thanks anyway !

your player has to be divx certified(just saying that it play divx is not enough) to be able to display the xsubs, ive done 30+ dvds that way and every single one worked



My eyes are tired of reading the subtitles on the movie itself since it's very small and hard to read , and of course I didnt mention that it takes almost half of the movie itself!

that is why i recommended the srt2bmp solution has it has a high kevel of sub customization(change colour, size. position on screen)

too bad it doesnt work for u

[SpOmA]

Sorry for topping this thread once again after a month, but I decided that I still want to hear the answer, if it exists, for adding the borders with AutoGK.
So yeah, I moved to GK and everything is pretty fine.. but even though, when I want to reencode AVI files with GK, I sometimes face problems with the audio (sync problems).. AutoGK doesnt give me the problems..
but hi, it's not the reason that I'm asking.. for general knowledge..manono said it is not impossible to add borders or modify .avs files with AutoGK, so if it possible, how can I do it?
in the latest few days I've been playing a lot with every setting in AutoGK, I tried to even fool the program so it will write the AddBorders command instead of some other unusefull commands.. but I didnt succeed much..

any help will be appreciated!

[manono]

Hi-

In your first post you said you didn't want to be told it was impossible to add black using AutoGK, so I replied that I wouldn't tell you that. It was a bad joke that didn't seem to translate well, as you didn't understand what I was implying (that it really is impossible). So I'll say it clearly this time. You can't add black. You can't use the AddBorders command when using AutoGK. About all you can do is to allow any black already on the DVD to remain as a place to put the subs. I apologize for the misunderstanding, and for causing you unnecessary work.

I seem to remember a thread in the (Auto)GK Development Forum about somehow editing the .avs to add filters. It was a long time ago, but a search might turn it up.

Edit: I found it. It's called AutoGK Tweaker. There's a working link to it on the second page. Here's the thread:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=79227&page=1&pp=20&highlight=AutoGK+Tweaker

[SpOmA]

Well.. I just succeeded to add Black Borders with AutoGK, but it's not a very good way..this is it:
When AGK works, it makes a temp folder where it puts all the temp files (audio, and avs files).. anyway, I ran an encode on AGK for few seconds just to see how the "movie" avs files is called and then I aborted the encode.
I deleted all the other files that AGK created in the temp folder except for that movie avs file.. I opened it with notepad and added the AddBorder command in the bottom of the file.. I saved but didnt close the window.. I ran the encode for the second time, and I figured out that every time you run an encode with AGK it deletes all the temp files, including the movie avs..
so, luckily, as I said, I didnt close the window, so while AGK ran the comp test thing, I quickly saved the avs as it was called before, with the new settings I put it (AddBorder) command..
all I had to do no is wait untill the comp test will be about 98 - 99 % and then repeatedly press ctrl + s in the avs file window..
now, the program will probably make its own avs file but, as I save it over and over again, it will be quick enough to replace the original file with the on I just made, and that what virtual dub will load..

now I still need to work on it but I think if you make the avs file a "read-only" file from the first place, AutoGK will not be able to overwrite anyway..
I tried it on the preview avs file and it just gave en error that the avs file cannot be created.. so I'm not sure about the movie avs..
I'll probably build a little program in VB that saves the avs file automatically when the comp test is done..

ok so I know it's not the best solution, and it's kinda tricky, but hi.. it helps me so I guess I will keep using it untill a better solution will be find :)

and manono, I probably didnt understand the joke at the begining, but it's ok :) you helped a lot throughout this whole thread.
The Tweaker link doesnt work in the thread you gave me, I tried it even few months ago and it just was the same..but thanks :)

[manono]

The working link to AutoGK Tweaker is on the second page of the thread. I just tried it (the link) and it works. Here it is:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3316G14C

You have to wait 45 seconds and read their ads, and then click to download.