Help with converting coloured DVB subtitles to idx/vob subtitles

[Talayero]

Hi,

I usually record TV programs with my satellite card in TS format, and then I demuxed them with Projectx. By this way I get the DVB subtitles converted to SUP subtitles. But I haven't found a way to convert these SUP appropriately to idx/vob subtitles in order to use them with the Xvid file that I get after converting the TS/MPEG video.

DVB subtitles have normally many colours, and the idx/vob that I get using the Subtitle Creator tools are simply unwatchable.

Is there a way to convert the coloured (or not coloured) DVB subtitles to a right format (idx/vob, I guess) that can be used with the Xvid format?

[setarip_old]

Hi!

I believe you can load the .SUP file into DVDSubEdit and change the colors...

[Talayero]

Thank you. I tried that, and you're right: DVDSubedit can change the SUP colours, but I'm still having problems, because that SUP comes from DVB subtitles, and the layers are differents or I don't know what is different. For instance, if I change them to white, I can't them put the black border to the letters and they are still unwatchables, too white.

[manusse]

Hi,

The colors are not stored in the sup fıle itself but in the accompanying ifo file. With SC first open the ifo file, then the sup file and finally save as vobsub to get a correct vobsub file pair.

Cheers
Manusse

[Talayero]

Hi,

I've been trying for days to get these subs watchables with an Xvid I made from the original mpeg-2 that was in the transport stream, but there's no way.

I paste here a link to all the subs I ripped with ProjectX. There are three formats: sup, son and idx/vob.

http://rapidshare.com/files/144608202/idx_son_sup.rar.html.

I only want to learn a way to compress my tv recordings keeping all the streams, that's to say, including the DVB subtitles. But I'm giving up. Perhaps somebody could help.

[manusse]

Hi,

Just for my information. Are those three versions of the subtitles directly generated by projectX or did you convert them by any way? (In that case could you describe by which way?).

Cheers
Manusse

[manusse]

Hi again,

I think I've found a way to do it but it includes many manipulations by hand. The idea is to use the SON bitmaps plus the additional information and to import them into SubtitleCreator (last beta only). You will then be able to save them as VobSub as requested.

I give you and example with the sample you've uploaded. The first 5 subtitles of your son files are:

SP_NUMBER START END FILE_NAME
Color (0 1 2 3)
Contrast (0 5 7 10)
Display_Area (000 474 720 518)
0000 00:00:00:06 00:00:10:06 Oscar_st00000p1.bmp
Display_Area (000 474 720 518)
0001 00:02:13:02 00:02:14:14 Oscar_st00001p1.bmp
Display_Area (000 474 720 518)
0002 00:02:17:18 00:02:18:14 Oscar_st00002p1.bmp
Color (0 4 1 2)
Contrast (0 2 5 7)
Display_Area (000 474 720 518)
0003 00:02:19:00 00:02:20:02 Oscar_st00003p1.bmp
Color (0 4 2 3)
Contrast (0 2 7 10)
Display_Area (000 386 720 474)
0004 00:02:20:14 00:02:22:19 Oscar_st00004p1.bmp

Which you can translate by hand in SubtitleCreator's special srt code:

1
00:00:00:060 --> 00:00:10,060 <w 0,474,720,1 ci=0,1,2,3,1 t=0,15,15,15 /w>
<p>Oscar_st00000p1.bmp</p>

2
00:02:13:020 --> 00:02:14,140 <w 0,474,720,1 ci=0,1,2,3,1 t=0,15,15,15 /w>
<p>Oscar_st00001p1.bmp</p>

3
00:02:17:180 --> 00:02:18,140 <w 0,474,720,1 ci=0,4,1,2,1 t=0,15,15,15 /w>
<p>Oscar_st00002p1.bmp</p>

4
00:02:19:000 --> 00:02:20,020 <w 0,474,720,1 ci=0,4,2,3,1 t=0,15,15,15 /w>
<p>Oscar_st00003p1.bmp</p>

5
00:02:20:140 --> 00:02:22,190 <w 0,386,720,1 ci=0,1,2,3,1 t=0,15,15,15 /w>
<p>Oscar_st00004p1.bmp</p>

The bitmaps will open fine and you will be able to save them as VobSub.
However the transparency is lost (look at the first tutorial in this thread: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=139478 to force it back using SubtitleCreator).
The colors are not guaranteed. Please check that they are fine because this is a beta version of SubtitleCreator.

If this method works fine, maybe a future release of SubtitleCreator could directly import son files (tell me if it's needed). A better way would be that ProjectX outputs better quality sup files.

Cheers
Manusse

[Talayero]

Are those three versions of the subtitles directly generated by projectX or did you convert them by any way?

Thanks a lot for answering, manusse. Yes, I generated all the subtitles with ProjectX-09.04.b19, that has an option to get vobsub format, apart from sup and son.

I've just downloaded the beta version of SubtitleCreator. I've tried your first five "translated" subtitles and it works, the five bitmaps are loaded!

But... do I have to translate by hand the 1384 subtitles? I must say I'm willing to do it, if that can represent an advance to fix that problem. I've been reading for days in internet about that very issue of converting dvb subtitles to watchable idx/sub or son, and nobody seems to have found a solution.

Anyway, isn't there a more or less easy way to create that special srt with all the subtitles?

[Talayero]

Well, I'm trying a quicker way to create that srt, but it's not perfect at all.

I load the son file in Subtitle Workshop and save as srt. Then I use the function of find and replace and I get in a couple of seconds the 1384 subtitles written in that way:

1
00:00:00,250 --> 00:00:10,250
<w 0,474,720,1 ci=0,1,2,3,1 t=0,15,15,15 /w><p>Oscar_st00000p1.bmp</p>

etc

The problem is for they to be charged by Subtitle Creator I have to change the 1385 so:

1
00:00:00,250 --> 00:00:10,250 <w 0,474,720,1 ci=0,1,2,3,1 t=0,15,15,15 /w>
<p>Oscar_st00000p1.bmp</p>

But may be there's some script or some find and replace way to get that last form of subtitle.

[manusse]

Hi,

If it's just a matter of replacing line breaks, then MSWord will do it easily.

replace <p> by ^p<p>
replace ^p<w> by <w>

and that should work

Cheers
Manusse

[Talayero]

Thanks. The replacement went very well. But I always have a problem when I use MSword to manipulate srt. When I save the file with MSWord, the resulting srt is a bad srt that can't be recognized by Subtitle Creator or Subtitle Workshop.

[J_Darnley]

Do you save the file as plain text or as some kind of document format? SRT subtitle files are plain text.

[manusse]

Hi,

I agree. When saving use File->Save As and choose something like "text only".

Cheers
Manusse

[Talayero]

I'm very grateful for your help! After two months reading a lot in internet and trying to find a solution for the conversion of dvb subtitles, that's it!

It's perfect! You only need to adjust a couple of things and at the end you get the same subtitles (with all the difficult colours) that you had in dvb format inside the transport stream, but now in vobsub format and accompanying the compressed video. So, that means you can keep your recordings saving a lot of space and keeping also the dvb subtitles.

As for the MSword conversion, you both were right. I had to save it as plain text and then I changed manually the txt extension for the srt extension.

I load it in Subtitle Creator beta and there I could even change the transparency. This is the link with the idx/vob subtitles. I include the first ones with the blue background and the ones I got after removing that background.

http://rapidshare.com/files/145243865/vobsub.rar.html

The thing is I'm not familiarized with the "edit all" function of Subtitle creator. Now the problem is that the subtitles are a bit deplaced on the right and some subtitles get outside the screen, for instance the last letters of number 5 ("M.Barnier") and of number 7 ("C'est urgent"). All the subtitles that are in that position are cut.

How can I change the horizontal position for all the subtitles? I'm sure is easy, but I tried once and only managed to change one, despite my having chosen the "edit all" option.

As for the colours, they are almost perfects. I would say the first ones with the blue blackground had exactly the same colours as the DVB subtitles. After my removing the blackground I think they changed a little, but the white ones were still white.

[manusse]

Hi,

I see your problem concerning the horizontal position. But I think there must be a problem in your conversion process. I tried to translate by hand the first subtitles that seem to be too much on the right side and it worked. You can try it:


00:02:20:140 --> 00:02:22,190 <w 0,474,720,1 ci=0,1,2,3,1 t=0,15,15,15 /w>
<p>Oscar_st00007p1.bmp</p>

You can compare and find your bug.

Cheers
Manusse

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