Simple Substation Alpha Question...

[therick]

OK, here is my delimma. I am currently converting the Star Wars Trilogy SE WS from VHS to CVD. The subtitles in episodes 4 and 6 (none in Empire thank God) are over the black bars of the letter-boxing. I am currently at work on episode 4. We all know how that captured letterboxing can eat bitrate, so I have decided to use SSA to add my own subtitles (two scenes, Greedo and Jabba). Now I have only been fiddling with it for a few hours but it seems like an amazingly powerful program...there is just one thing that I can't seem to get...how to move the subtitles UP in the video. Example:

http://www.robbins.dns2go.com/ssaprob.jpg

Now, I could always make the borders I add smaller(in AVISynth), say like this:

http://www.robbins.dns2go.com/ssafix.jpg

But I really don't want to do that...I know that SSA can do this, I just can't figure it out! I just want to nestle those subtitles right up under the video so that when I get my HDTV and I am zooming these bad-boys I won't lose the subtitles! Any help would be much appreciated, thanks in advance!

[gabest]

Set the upper margin just below the picture and use top alignment.

[therick]

thanks for the reply gabest...alright, now I feel like an idiot. I am not sure what you mean...is there supposed to be a picture in SSA? I am just looking at a black screen and I can't see where I manipulate the upper and lower margins...the right/left are easy...

[gabest]

Hehe, just edit the ssa file manually in notepad.

It should look like the following:

[Script Info]
...
PlayResY: 288
...

[V4 Styles]
Format: Name, Fontname, Fontsize, PrimaryColour, SecondaryColour, TertiaryColour, BackColour, Bold, Italic, BorderStyle, Outline, Shadow, Alignment, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, AlphaLevel, Encoding
Style: Default,Arial,18,&Hffffff,&H00ffff,&H000000,&H000000,-1,0,1,2,3,2,20,20,20,0,1
...

First find that "Alignment, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV" and the "2,20,20,20" in the style line below, then modify the "Alignment" to 6 (center/top) and the vertical margin (MarginV) to the value which puts the text just below the picture. If "PlayResY" is 288 then it should be around 220-240. For example "2,20,20,20" -> "6,20,20,230".

[therick]

Success! Well, I didn't even think to look at the file in Notepad...seems like that is a lot easier way to do it than actually using the SSA spplication! Well, I should say at least for my simple need. Thanks gabest.

[therick]

ok here is the sample clip - http://www.robbins.dns2go.com/SubtitleTest.zip

comments/suggestions? all are welcome.