Subtitle default behavior question...

[MITSUI_1]

I buy muchos DVDs but I have kids who ruin them. DVD2SVCD has been my savior. Its much nicer to have 35 cent CDR ruined than the original disc.

I generally use 352x480 format, with 128 kps sound and 5 pass CCE. This generally results in a video my picky kids cannot tell is not the "real" thing (that's the true test folks).

Anyay, I just started ripping subtitles too since a friend of ours is hearing impaird.

My Apex 1500 only plays CVD subititles.

Problem: When I have DVD2SVCD do the subtititles, they default to "on" and I have to turn them off when I play the disc. This is, of course, the opposite behavior to what I would expect. I want the subtititles to be OFF except when I tell them to go on.

Its only a mild annoyance ('cept when the remote is lost ;o), but still, if there is a way to have the subs be "off" unless specifically switched on, I'd love to know how.

Regards,

Mits

[dvd2svcd]

The only way I know of is by setting "Subtitle Stream No." to 2 (instead of 1) in the subtitle preview window (the "Subtitle Color and Selection" window that pops up when you start the conversion).

[sandchar99]

Setting the subtitle as stream number 2 doesn't even help.

When using CVD subs, my player, a General Electric 5803 (Shinco clone), will always play a subtitle stream at the startup of every SVCD disc, whether it is stream 1 or 2, until I turn it off.

It is a function of one's player.

I have learned just to live with it-- it is just a mild annoyance. Otherwise, it is a great low-cost player.

[MITSUI_1]

Hmm...

Sounds like it might be my player.

Question for DVD2SVCD:

Would it be possible to encode the same subtitles to two subtitle streams, one and two, except have stream one use an all black pallatte (or replace the bmps with just "empty" space) so that players like these would play the "invisable" sub stream by default, but the user could then select the second, visable, sub stream?

Did that make any sense?

[dvd2svcd]

Yes that is possible already today, just change the output palette to all black in the subtitle preview window (but only do this for Stream No 1).

Sandchar66: Well, the thing about putting the stream on no 2 works for me, otherwise I wouldn't have suggested it.

[Pko]

Originally posted by MITSUI_1
I buy muchos DVDs but I have kids who ruin them. DVD2SVCD has

"muchos" DVDs? we lousy spaniards, aren't we? ;-)

Problem: When I have DVD2SVCD do the subtititles, they default to "on" and I have to turn them off when I play the disc. This is, of course, the opposite behavior to what I would expect. I want the subtititles to be OFF except when I tell them to go on.

Submux has an option, I think not very well known, to specify the transparency of each color. That is expressed in each line of the .sub file by adding 4 numbers; "0" means that the color is transparent, "255" means is opaque, and numbers in between give different levels (in fact there are only 16 different levels, so 0, 1, 2, ..., 14, 15 are all the same, and so any number 16 to 31, and so on).

If you do not put any number (as I think SubRip and DVD2SVCD do), the default is 0 255 255 255 (first color, usually background, transparent and the rest opaque). If you add to the end of each line "0 0 0 0" all colors will be opaque and there will be no visible effects.

Is not a very good solution, as the stream will increase in size since the BMPs (converted to MPEG stills) are muxed and take some space... A better solution is to add just ONE subtitle... Simply, select for the first stream a subtitle you will not use, and after D2S rips the subtitles and while it is doing other things (compressing audio and video etc.) simply edit the .sub file of the first stream (the one you do not need) and delete all the lines but the first one, and add "0 0 0 0" at the end. So, you will have a first subtitle stream of just one transparent subtitle.

To get a more "elegant" effect, you can leave that one subtitle non-transparent but change the BMP to a text that says perhaps "SUBTITLES OFF" or "Press 'Subtitles' to select language" so you will know there are subtitles although they are not selected. Of course, you will need to edit the timing, size and position of that BMP from the settings of the .sub file, but it is not difficult with a little experimentation.

BTW, I know of more people with that problem (not me:) , my Cyberhome does not play the subs by default if the first stream is empty, so I usually leave the first empty and put the subs in the next stream), prehaps that could be added as an option in a future D2S version...

[MITSUI_1]

Pko...

WOW.. that was a nice, comprehensive post.

I am in awe of the elegance of your suggestion.

That would be cool --i.e., an option to have DVD2SVCD put a "mock" subtitle in the first stream with a bmp note saying that there ARE "english, spanish" etc subtitles available by use of the subtitles button.

Hell, that would be a valuable option for all discs, even those where the players don't suffer from the same error as mine.

[Pko]

I'm glad you like the idea...

By the way, I'm just bought a second DVD player and it only supports CVD subs... But it allow me to discover that multiplexing both CVD and SVCD subtitles works (althoug the subs were much less quality than the ones show by the Cyberhome player, and the original BMPs were the same...)

[MITSUI_1]

PKO,

If you get a chance I would love to hear how you MUX in both types of subtitles. In particular, I need to understand when and how in the DVD2SVCD process you can do it, and where to "recover" (I am completely ignorant on creating the disc images and am comfortable leaving that d2s.