How To Make My Subtitles Look Better?

[EpheMeroN]

I have a Korean movie that contained no English subtitles. I took custom SRT subs and converted them to SUP format using SubtitleCreator. Then I muxed it all together using MuxMan, and finally adjusted the vertical positioning with DVDSubEdit.

After doing all that, the subtitles do not look particularly good. They're big and blocky and with many artifacts. I'll post a screenshot below. Is there anything I can do in my process of adding subtitles to make them appear better?

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5021/screenieu.th.jpg (http://img26.imageshack.us/i/screenieu.jpg/)

[Ghitulescu]

They are quite Ok for a DVD subtitle. What do you expect more?

[EpheMeroN]

Look at the jagged edges around the letters. I've never seen those until I started making my own subtitles. I was wondering if there's a way to smooth the edges or something.

[Ghitulescu]

I've noticed them, but this is normal with most fonts because of the low resolution of the DVD. The only solution is to juggle a bit with the anti-alias options, maybe to change the font. But don't expect miracles.

[dansrfe]

Google txt2sup

[manono]

The only solution is to juggle a bit with the anti-alias options, maybe to change the font.
I agree - antialias and use a different font. And lose the bold. Once resized at playback time those are going to be some really wide subs. Also, most retail DVDs will have the subs entirely inside the active picture, rather than part in the active video and part in the the black bars.

[EpheMeroN]

@manono: I didn't realize the subs were bolded. I just used whatever "default" options for subs that SubtitleCreator uses for making subs to SUP from a text-based format like SRT.

I'm going to re-load the file into SubtitleCreator and tweak the settings a bit and see what happens. As for the placement of the subs, I've noticed (you're right) that most subs are within the picture itself. I question, however, why they do this even with 2.35:1 pictures when most (if not all) of the sub could be placed within the black bar underneath? Is there a method to the madness?

[manono]

Maybe they're not bold, but just a thick/wide font. You mentioned in your first post about them being blocky and I supposed that's what you meant. When watching them in the resized DVD movie they'll be a good deal wider than you're seeing in that 720x480 picture. I don't know if you created a separate set of subs for 16:9 display and for 4:3 display but it seems to me those subs are wrong for 16:9 display.

I find subs that straddle the active video and the black bars to be a bit distracting. If you decide to go with putting them all down in the black (check when you have a 2-row line of dialog), make sure that you don't lose part of them to your TV set's overscan. I like low subs myself, but don't have any overscan at all. One reason for putting them entirely in the active video is that people with projectors often mask or remove the black one way or another, something they can't do with the subs down in the black.

However, I've never been all that impressed with the subs coming out of SubtitleCreator. I use MaestroSBT; others prefer txt2sup.

[Ghitulescu]

Subtitle Creator is generally a good one-in-all solution.
However I have several issues with it (one of them is this one -> http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1449751#post1449751, the other is that sometimes like 1-in-500 it forgets to add the end time). TXT2SUP is a nice application, it has IMHO the best rendering I've seen, but it alllows only 1 font/face/style for all (no italics etc.). I've recently discovered another nice renderer, AviAdd2xsub or something, it creates IDX/SUB that can easily be converted to SUP. Nice rendering but the italics are cropped at the last position, an (d)effect known to all those that ever programmed TTFs in Windows. MaestroSBT still has the (d)effect in the link above. Srt2Sup was used by me some times ago, for whatever reason I don't use it any longer. Mabye I'll try it again.

[manono]

If the Maestro 'defect' is the wobbling up and down you mentioned in that thread, then I'll say of the many hundreds of times I've used MaestroSBT, not once have I ever had that problem.

[Ghitulescu]

If the Maestro 'defect' is the wobbling up and down you mentioned in that thread, then I'll say of the many hundreds of times I've used MaestroSBT, not once have I ever had that problem.

It's one line in 5 or similar, and it appears only on my Pioneers, but not on any other players (JVC, Philips). I have received messages that other people to have had this issue (but with SC). It appears that the Pio are very picky (standard-abiding ;)) as they reportedly have trouble in highlighting the buttons on "stilled" menus.