DVD Subtitles out of the main screen :(

[VideoNoob123]

i have a series and i have black borders around the main screen so i normally choose on the TV, ZOOM so the whole screen is without the black borders. the problem with the dvd series is that when i enable the subtitles then only the first line is on screen, the 2nd one is out of the bottom screen in the bottom black border, only visible when zoomed out again .

bad release? or is it possible to move the subtitles? i dont mean re-encoding etc. this is a normal retail dvd series.

[jman98]

Damn, you are one of those "ask a million question" dudes.

Putting the subtitles where you describe them is actually a good thing or at least myself and many others would think so. No you can't move them unless you re-author the DVD.

Learn to live with letterboxing or pillarboxing. If you're one of THOSE people who feels like it just destroys their very soul to watch them, and you sound like you are, you seriously might as well go away now. You're not going to get along well here with the experienced members who have ZERO sympathy for people who do that and ZERO interest in doing that themselves.

[VideoNoob123]

Damn, you are one of those "ask a million question" dudes.

Putting the subtitles where you describe them is actually a good thing or at least myself and many others would think so. No you can't move them unless you re-author the DVD.

Learn to live with letterboxing or pillarboxing. If you're one of THOSE people who feels like it just destroys their very soul to watch them, and you sound like you are, you seriously might as well go away now. You're not going to get along well here with the experienced members who have ZERO sympathy for people who do that and ZERO interest in doing that themselves.

sry, really didnt try to upset you .
i couldnt find a topic or on google a right answer about this. it would have been just better to have the optional subtitles on the main series screen instead a line in the black border.
thanks a lot, again sorry!

[usually_quiet]

You would be better off if you learned to appreciate movies when they are formatted so they can be viewed in their original aspect ratio, but if you are dead set against watching them that way, DVDSubEdit will let you change the vertical position of the subs. However you will have to rip the DVD, modify the subs and re-burn to DVD. Plus, there is no way to change anything else about the appearance of the subtitles (other than the color) without completely re-doing the subs and re-authoring the DVD

[jman98]

sry, really didnt try to upset you .
i couldnt find a topic or on google a right answer about this. it would have been just better to have the optional subtitles on the main series screen instead a line in the black border.
thanks a lot, again sorry!

Well, that's your opinion and you're certainly entitled to it. Whether most people would agree with you or me is another question I can't answer, but there are huge advantages to put the subs exactly where you complain about. Sometimes when the subs just happen to be in an area that has a lot of white in it, it can be almost impossible to read them. I just ran into that recently with a South Korean film. Several times I had to freeze frame the screen and walk to the TV to see what the heck the subtitles said in a white background. Very annoying. But if you weren't so anti-pillarboxing and anti-letterboxing and could just learn to live the borders and see the video as the director wanted you to see it, this wouldn't be an issue for you.

[Skiller]

Well, maybe the DVD in question is a 4:3 Letterbox one. That would result in windowboxing on a 16:9 TV (black bars at all four sides).
In that case I don't see any reason not to use the TV's zoom function (zoom, not stretch) to enlarge the video. This would not at all change the view the director wanted you to see the movie.

The subtitles just happen to be placed without this in mind so they get cut off in the process. Rip the DVD and shift the subtitles upwards using DVDSubEdit as suggested then burn to a blank media.

[VideoNoob123]

wow, i watched another episode on a 4:3 old crt tv and the subtitles were on screen filled, not moved to the bottom! this is exactly how i wanted it on my lcd widescreen tv, but how does it come? so there must be some option to fit those subtitles on the main screen only too i think? otherwise how would it have been possible on the old 4:3 screen? the 2nd line of the subtitles should have been cut!

[Skiller]

If it's a 16:9 anamorphic DVD (we still don't know ) there are quite possibly two (or even three) subtitle streams mapped to the selected subtitle track (so you can't "see" this, it's happening behind the curtains). This is because the subtitles are always just overlaid on top of the video. Unlike the video content they are never scaled (letterboxed or Pan & Scan) along with it, so ideally each allowed display mode (Wide, Letterbox and Pan & Scan) has it's own subtitle stream formatted for it.

This can explain why the subtitles appear in different positions, albeit I do not understand why they would be placed so that for the wide display mode the bottom line is in the letterbox bar (assuming a 2.40:1 video) while for 4:3 display modes it is in the picture. That doesn't really make sense (I mean, why would you not use the letterbox bars for every display mode to put the subtitles there?). Maybe your players aren't configured properly.


Honestly, you should check out that DVD with DVDSubEdit and I can explain to you exactly what's happening and why.