How to adjust VobSub subs so they sized for 16x9 burn-in

[FulciLives]

Hello :)

Using AviSynth I want to burn subs into my source.

My source is a D2V project file that is 720x576 16x9 and my subs are VobSub format IDX/SUB files.

The problem that I am having is that when I burn the subs in then they get a squashed look to them since I'm applying 4:3 sized subs on a stretched 16x9 image ... they get short and fat when you view the image in it's proper aspect ratio.

If I resize the 16x9 image to 4:3 first in the AviSynth scrip then apply the subs they look normal but I want to keep the 16x9 image. I don't want a resized 4:3 image as an end result in other words.

So if I am going to burn-in the subs on a 16x9 image then I need to stretch them (make them tall and thin) so they look normal when the 16x9 720x576 image is resized be it on a 16x9 TV or a 4:3 TV

I don't know how to do this. I looked in the IDX file but I don't see anything there that seems to adjust the subs in this way. I just see stuff for adjusting time delays and placement of the subs on the screen. I see noting that will resize the subs.

Is it possible?

The project will be DVD spec MPEG-2 using Avisynth and CCE and eventually TMPGEnc DVD Author so that is why I want to burn the subs into the image since TMPGEnc DVD Author does not support seperate sub files and I don't want IfoEdit or whatever because I want menus. I don't really want to deal with seperate subs since I'll have to use something like Maestro which I have tinkered with but never managed to master (making menus for that program KILLS me).

Any help at all is appreciated :)

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[ukendt]

http://dvd.box.sk/
There is a wonderful guide using Maestro, CCE and subs here
When I encode dvds I always use the option to have selectable subs.
There are many reasons to do this but most important of all, I can move the subs under the picture (completely if 4:3 and partially if 16:9) or I can see the movie without subs at all (which becomes handy if I make family scenes with sound in danish, my native language)

[FulciLives]

Thanks for that. I do have Maestro but hardly ever use it. I'll have to take a look at that link.

Anyways I did figure out how to stretch the subs and by my calculations the difference between 4:3 and 16x9 is approximately 33% so I stretched the subs by 33% making them tall and slender so I could burn-them in on my 16x9 image so they would be the correct height when viewed in the proper aspect ratio.

Worked well :)

I just wish VobSub came with a better manual since I had to play around alot to figure it out.

For some reason stretching the subs also repositions them and it took me a lot of trail and error to get them back down to the bottom center of the screen.

For those that want to do this here is how I did it:

Open up the IDX subtitle file that VobSub makes using NOTEPAD. There is a line that will look like this:

# Image scaling (hor,ver), origin is at the upper-left corner or at the alignment coord (x, y)
scale: 100%, 100%
Change that second line to read: scale: 100%, 133%

Now look for the following line in the IDX file:

# Origin, relative to the upper-left corner, can be overloaded by aligment
org: 0, 0
Change the second line to read: org: 360, 455

Now the first number (360) should center the subtitles (form left to right) whereas the second line controls the up/down placement (how high/low the subs are on the screen). I found that for 16x9 PAL at 720x576 that 455 looked good. Low enough but not so low as to get cut off by TV overscan. I suggest you experiment here with different values until you find one that works well for you.

One last thing I changed:

# Force subtitle placement relative to (org.x, org.y)
align: OFF at LEFT TOP
I changed this to read as: align: ON at LEFT CENTER

I'm not sure what this is doing exactly but that is all the changes I made that worked for me.

Good Luck !!!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman