Muxman and .SST files

[Ghitulescu]

Is there any special requirement or maybe setting that would allow Muxman to accept all .SST files?

Problem: I am continuously searching for a good subtitler (see my problem here -> http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=153385) and I'm currently testing a lot of software.

I downloaded and tested Limony Pro that claims it can output .SST files. On my internet PC I don't have Scenarist installed but Muxman says it obeys ad literam the .SST specs. So I used it instead (free version, 0.16.6). While other .SST files are muxed ok, those from Limony do not load. Not even after I have replaced the whole header with a working one, renamed the bitmaps in various forms, change settings and so on. There is an issue though, Limony complains that those maximal 1440 RLE-bits are overflowed, but this is the case for 3 out of 1000 bitmaps, and they're not the first bitmaps. I even deleted the offending bitmaps, still in vain.

Any ideas?

[manono]

I use MaestroSBT to make SST files from SSA subtitles for use in Muxman. I have no idea the particulars of yours, but for PAL they should be 720x574, 4-bit color Windows BMPs. MaestroSBT gives them back to me named as Movie_0001.bmp. A sample (NTSC) SST text file starts off as:
st_format 2
Display_Start non_forced
TV_Type NTSC
Tape_Type DROP
Base_Time 00:00:00:00
Pixel_Area (0 477)
Directory E:\Ek Thi Ladki\Maestro\
Subtitle Ek Thi Ladki
Display_Area (0 2 719 479)
Contrast (15 15 15 0)

#
# Palette entries:
#
# 01 : RGB(180,180,180)
# 02 : RGB( 90, 90, 90)
# 03 : RGB( 0, 0, 0)
#

PA (0 0 255 - - - )
E1 (255 0 0 - - - )
E2 (0 0 0 - - - )
BG (255 255 255 - - - )


SP_NUMBER START END FILE_NAME
Color (3 2 1 1)
0001 00:02:27:12 00:02:29:05 EkThiLadki_0001.bmp
.
.
.

Does the Muxman log (in the root of the C Drive) give any clue as to why they were rejected? I've never heard of Limony so I don't know what its problem is.

[Ghitulescu]

The header looks similar to both (the working one and the not working one).
From your example I assume that both the order of lines and the "padding spaces" are not essential. Your order is different (except for st_format 2 which should be the first line) and it's not aesthetically aligned. That's too bad that the subtitles are on a portable HDD which is now at the video PC (I have access to it only during the weekends) so I cannot put a sample right now. Maybe the capital letters are also not important.
What I remember is that the bitmaps are BMP 4bits but I am not sure whether they are RLE compressed or not. Is it absolute essential that a BMP to be 4b and RLE? Or should it be in another format as well? I'm talking here about Muxman, I know Scenarist accepts eg TGA instead of BMP. It accepts even JPGs.

[manono]

Those are subs with 3 colors, including an anti-aliasing color. They're a black outline, light grey main color, and a dark grey antialiasing color.

I don't know what RLE means, and checking in MaestroSBT shows nothing about that that I can find. Yes, as far as I know the images must be BMPs. I remember once I accidently made them in TIFF format and they were rejected. Also, before I learned how to do it properly I was making them 8-bit (which was fine for SON subtitles for a different purpose) and then not understanding why they were being rejected so, yes, they have to be 4-Bit.

Also, my NTSC BMPs are all 169 KB. Doing some calculating tells me yours should be roughly 203 KB. If you've been using 8-bit color they'll be much larger in size and will be rejected.

[Ghitulescu]

I'll check the sizes too.

RLE - run-length encoding, a simplistic compression algorithm (instead of 200 of 0xFE it puts a marker, the repetitions count and the value (0xFE)). -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run-length_encoding

[Midzuki]

RLE - run-length encoding, a simplistic compression algorithm (instead of 200 of 0xFE it puts a marker, the repetitions count and the value (0xFE)). -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run-length_encoding

That's it. Speaking of other DVD-authoring programs, DVD-lab PRO requires the .sst bitmaps to be RLE-compressed, and not-cropped.

[Ghitulescu]

I think I discovered the error,
despite setting the same values in various dialog boxes, option boxes and so on, Limony insists in rendering the bitmaps in 640x480. I've tested the trial version and if the retail one acts the same I won't definitively buy it.



So far I can tell, only 2 programs managed to produce subtitles that worked on all DVD players I have: txt2sup and aviaddxsub. On the second position came MaestroSBT, whose subtitles were ok most of the time (say 60-80%). Txt2sub has a big disadvantage, it ignores the tags (no italic, no bold). Aviaddxsub has a small imperfection at "created" Italics (for fonts like Arial, whose Regular is used also for creating Italics and Bold) - the last letter is cropped (the Italics need a bit more space to be rendered than Regular).