philips dvp-642 subtitles

[detroit0]

In Philips documentation it says this player supports .sub subtitle files. However, what I think they mean by that is if you were to take a xxxx.srt file and rename it to xxxx.sub, it would play. In other words, the subtitles that it supports are text based. REAL .sub files are binary files comprised of image overlays extracted from the dvd.... from my experience, these are NOT supported.

I really like this player, but the fact that it doesn't support .sub just kills the deal for me because i need these to work.

if someone HAS been able to get these .sub files to work, do tell.

[Zhnujm]

There are also text based .sub formats, only these are supported.

[lordyu]

The picture-based format is usually referred to as .idx/.sub to distinguish from the text-based format .sub. I would love to have this model support .idx/.sub too but I haven't heard anyone reports that it does. I don't know if it could be done with a firmware upgrade in the future or it is simply never gonna be possible due to chipset (ESS Vibratto II) limitation.

If you really need .idx/.sub support you might wanna consider other players. I have heard of 3 players that could do. According to http://www.divxtest.com/resultats.php3 the two Pioneer players DV-470 and DV-575A do support it with the new firmware update (but I haven't heard anyone confirms that it really works yet). According to http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=79054
our members here have tested that Philips DVP720SA also supports it. I've asked for a short test movie with working subtitles files there but haven't got a reply yet. I would like to test with Philips DVP762 which seems to use the same chipset (Mediatek MT1389EE) as DVP720SA and the two Pioneer but with a lot cheaper price.

[cma]

I have the Pioneer DV-470 and I can confirm that .idx/.sub subtitles work (also there's no need for an .ifo file). Only the colors in .idx need to be changed from RGB to YUV, like in 720SA.

[lordyu]

Originally posted by cma
I have the Pioneer DV-470 and I can confirm that .idx/.sub subtitles work (also there's no need for an .ifo file). Only the colors in .idx need to be changed from RGB to YUV, like in 720SA.
Nice, cma. Thanks for confirmation.

Is it easy to operate the subtitles while watching with DV-470? I heard that there could be up to 10 text-based sub files in the same folder as the movie file and the player would recognize them all automatically so that you would just have to press the SUB button on your remote to switch between them without having to select a sub file first before you select a movie file and play like in Philips players, is that correct?

Now with .idx/.sub, is it possible to have only one set of .idx/.sub that contains several languages of subtitles and switch between them using the SUB button?

Last question, what if you have both picture-based .idx/.sub and mutiple text-based .srt/.sub files in the same folder for one movie? Does using the SUB button switch among all of them or just among either the picture-based subtitles OR the text-based subtitles?

Cheers.

[detroit0]

hmm.. the Pioneer DV-470 seems to be a UK model or something... sounds like a great player... I hope the Philips people can fix this.

[cma]

Originally posted by lordyu
Is it easy to operate the subtitles while watching with DV-470? I heard that there could be up to 10 text-based sub files in the same folder as the movie file and the player would recognize them all automatically so that you would just have to press the SUB button on your remote to switch between them without having to select a sub file first before you select a movie file and play like in Philips players, is that correct?
Yes, that's exactly how it works. If the files are named like this: movie.avi, movie.fin.sub, movie.eng.sub, it'll also show "Finnish", "English" while changing.

Now with .idx/.sub, is it possible to have only one set of .idx/.sub that contains several languages of subtitles and switch between them using the SUB button?
Yeah, tried one with 10 subs... seems to work.

if you have both picture-based .idx/.sub and mutiple text-based .srt/.sub files in the same folder for one movie? Does using the SUB button switch among all of them or just among either the picture-based subtitles OR the text-based subtitles?
Tried it with one 10 subs .idx/.sub and text-based .srt and .sub. All 12 subtitles are shown.

It does seem to display .idx/sub and .srt subs a little too early, which is a bit annoying... Text-based .sub subs are shown on time though.

[Video Master]

All i have to confirm is does Philips DVP-642K
have support for AVI with .SRT or .Sub files

i am confused reading this article.

can i have multiple .srt and .sub files.

eg.

Test.avi
Test_en.srt
Test_du.srt
Test_fn.srt
Test_en.sub
Test_du.sub
Test_fn.sub

and is it possible to Play the Test.avi with any of the
following Subtitle files. is it possible

[detroit0]

I know this is really confusing for people. see there are two types of .sub files.... there are text based ones and then there are binary type .sub files that are basically images extracted from the DVD.

unfortunately, the philips player only supports the text based files.
I say 'unfortunately' because creating the text based subs is a cumbersome process that essentially involves converting the binary images to text via OCR. The .sub/.idx files do not require this type of conversion, and can be pulled right out of the dvd stream... for this reason, these are becoming very popular and programs like autogk support them.

[Video Master]

Part 1
~~~~~~
i know about the text based .sub and .srt files

and also the binary .idx/.sub files but what i have are mostly
text based .sub and .srt which i have got from my friends so no
problem for me all i wanted to confirm was that does it have support for the text based .sub and .srt
---------------------

Part 2
~~~~~~

Well now that you have asked about the binary version of .sub/.idx files which are directly ripped from the dvd i am also curious that
will philips DVP-642k come with a firmware upgrade that will support
this type of files is there any way to contact tham and tell them to include this important feature in there firmware upgrades.
---------------------

Well do confirm me on Part 1.

i know that .sub/.idx support is not there in Philips DVP642K
but i wud like to see this to be supported bu it as its easy to extract the .idx/.sub files from the DVD

[lordyu]

@cma Thanks. That sounds great. Maybe I should also consider Pioneer as well. DV-470 vs DVP762. DV-575A vs DVP720SA.

@Video Master You can have as many subtitles files as you want because for DVP63x/64x you have to manually tell the player first what subtitles file it is going to play and you have to do that everytime you change the movie or the subtitles file. Here is the most basic way to do:
1. browse to the sub file you want using up/down arrow button on the remote
2. at the sub file you want, press the SUB button you will see a msg on screen says something like "DivX Sub Selected"
3. browse to the movie file .avi and press PLAY button the movie will play with subtitles

If you want to change to another sub file, you have to do 1-3 all over again. You can't just press SUB again and again to switch between all your sub files like in Pioneer. Also in Pioneer you don't have to select the first sub file to play because all the sub files are automatically recognized at the time the disc is being loaded.

With above procedure you get subtitles in white color text with no outline which can be difficult to read when the movie pictures are also in white. There are other ways to have subtitles displayed on gray bar which can be easier to read.

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDnameid=4182&Search=Search&#comments

Read comments by tomthumb from Netherlands reported December 03, 2004.

I've tested .srt subtitles with my DVP630 (European model of DVP642) with firmware 0531 and can confirm that it works.

You can try contacting Philips they have a contact form on their website or you could try asking Mtz if he's interested in making custom firmware for DVP63x/64x. ;) But so far I've only seen firmware for Mediatek-based players and not ESS-based like DVP63x/64x. I don't know if it would be possible at all to make DVP63x/64x to support .idx/.sub maybe someone could give some insight.

[Video Master]

Thanks lordyu