(permanent) subtitles not always well readible

[coolejo]

I have been using dvd2svcd for about 9 months now and it's great!
A wonderful piece of programming, my compliments!

I have constantly upgraded to newer versions, each of which represented a significant improvement over the older one: better stability, faster, etc.

I have one problem though (with build 1.0.8 and 1.0.9), which I didn't have in older versions (e.g. with build 1.0.3). It concerns the quality of (permanent) subtitles. Occasionally the subtitles
seem to be unsharp or merging with the movie background, especially when the movie background around the subtitles is white or clear. I use standard colors, so white font on a dark grey (?) outline color (in fact these are the default values).

The problem seems to be that the ripped bmp files are different for both builds (although the dvd2svcd subtitles file.ini are identical):

[SUBTITLES0]
ListID=32
EntryID=0
StreamID=0
OutputID=1
Language=Français
LangCode=fr
PicNo=13
Mode=4:3
Selected=1
Palette0=0
Output0=0
Blend0=0
Palette1=16777215
Output1=16777215
Blend1=15
Palette2=-1
Output2=1973790
Blend2=15
Palette3=16711680
Output3=8421504
Blend3=15

When selecting different colors in the subtitle palette for colors 1 to 4, the subtitles look different but not always better. The only good result I get is when I choose for example a blue outline, as suggested by the program, but I don't like that.

As a workaround, I first rip the subtitles with build 1.0.3 in order to replace the subtitles made by build 1.0.8 before encoding with build 1.0.8. The result is perfect again, but this of course is a very clumsy solution.

Is there something I do wrong? How does dvd2svcd rip these bmp files anyway? Where can I find information about the coloring of subtitles?

I find the way dvd2svcd deals with the color selection a bit confusing. There are at least three places where I can change at least to sets of four colors, the meaning of which is not very clear to me.

Then in preview mode, when selection the color palette, I get an empty dialog. Could this be a bug?

And finally, a suggesion concerning the subtitle position. When selecting the Y position by value (<> -1), one line subtitles start at the same vertical position as two (and maybe three) line subtitles. This is different from the default (-1) behaviour, where they start one line below two line subtitles. Maybe there could be an option to take into account the different height of subtitles.

coolejo

[dvd2svcd]

The problem seems to be that the ripped bmp files are different for both builds (although the dvd2svcd subtitles file.ini are identical)How are they different? Can you mail me the same subtitle from the two versions, that would make it easier for me to understand what you mean.


Then in preview mode, when selection the color palette, I get an empty dialog. Could this be a bug?Yes, that is a bug.



In general it seems that there are some subtitle issues to be solved in the next build.

[coolejo]

I attached 4 files to illustrate my problem: two subtitle bitmaps and two snapshots of the final movie. The files with the string "bad" in the name were generated by 1.0.8b1 the ones with "good" in the name by 1.0.3bx.

When analysing the snapshots you can see that the outline is missing in some parts of the image. The contrast between subtitle and background is low which means it is nog very well readible. The outlines generates by 1.0.bx are perfect.

When analysing the bitmaps we see (after zooming in) that they are slightly different, in the "good" ones there is a little bit more white, take for instance the first letter "v". I think however that it is in the first place the outline which is different.

Unfortunately, since I don't know enough about the way the outline is produced, I cannot make a conclusion. I hope you can shed some light on this matter.

coolejo

[avdmb]

Occasionally the subtitles seem to be unsharp or merging with the movie background, especially when the movie background around the subtitles is white or clear. Just to say that I face the same problem with build 1.0.8 and 1.0.9 (never tried 1.0.3).

[da franksta]

same here

[dvd2svcd]

Should be fixed in the next version.

[da franksta]

t.i.a. :)

[dvd2svcd]

Try the version attached in this thread:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24701

[avdmb]

Thanks DVD2SVCD for the lightspeed solving of these problems. Will test tonight.

[coolejo]

Idem

coolejo

[dvd2svcd]

Idem?!?

[dvd2svcd]

Ahhh, as in ditto.

[coolejo]

Thank you dvd2svcd

Well, first about this "idem" thing. It's not only used in Romanic language countries. I'm dutch, and it's use is very common in Dutch("idem" or "idem dito").

I've done some preliminary experiments with the downloaded build 2 pre 2.

First I used default color settings (which I normally do in "real life" as well): black background, blend 0; white font, blend 15; outline colored outline, blend 15; and finally grey antialiasing, blend 15. The results with these settings are excellent!

Then I varied some om the values and I noticed the following:
1) The background color setting is not reflected in preview mode: it's always black. The final result is OK, though.
2) The settings for antialiasing seem to have no effect whatsoever.
By the way, what is it supposed to do anwyway?
3) After changing the background color blend value from 15 to 0 without closing the program, and reencoding afterwards the background was no longer tranparent.

I don't think any of this is very important. But I think for consistency reasons, other options should work as expected (or not be available at all).

And then, finally, what do you think of my suggestion (in my first post) concerning the correction for single/double line subtitles when using Y <> -1? I use a non standard Y value for putting the subtitles as low as possible on the movy when encoding 16:9 films for wide screen tv's. Generally, if I don't correct the Y value, the subtitles end up somehow half on and half under the screen.

coolejo

[avdmb]

I made a trial with forced very low bitrate (Avg 600, min 300). Result perfect : sharp white subtiles on black background.

Funny is that while running DVD2SVCD, when subtitles are previewed, background is always blue (while black in the final result) ... but I don't care as the result is OK.