Subtitles Correction

[Sakuya]

Oh no! I extracted an SRT file from an OGM file. I opened it using Subtitle Tool and I noticed they put < i> and </ i> around the subtitles they want italicized. Little did I know when I saved it as an SSA file and frameserved to convert in TMPGEnc, the italic tags still show! Argh! Why does it still show? Is there a way to remove it? And I thought this was going to be my best VCD made by me yet. Waah!

[Tommyknocker]

Well, since copying does not degrade text, why not just load the SSA file into Sub Station Alpha. Remove the text you do not want, and save it?

[Sakuya]

Because I already converted and I don't want to convert again, I converted 2 times already.

[Tommyknocker]

Let us see: You want to remove or correct subtitles permanently installed in an MPEG file. The MPEG file was made from an AVI file with .ssa files. You do not want to edit the .ssa file and re-encode using frameserving to MPEG because you do not want to go through all that trouble again.

If this is true, I hope you do find a better answer than mine. As far as I know, you cannot correct the subtitles once they have become part of an mpeg file.

[Sakuya]

Well...ok...I guess I can give up 11 hours to convert again. Because, when I tested my VCD, the subtitles seems to go below the screen. How can I make the subtitles go more up? Or make it smaller? The size I'm encoding to is 352x240. I have made subtitled video at that size before and it didn't go below the screen. So how do I make it go upper? Just a reminder, I'm using SRT files. I use the program Subtitle Tool to edit.

[Tommyknocker]

I do not use it, as I am a Sub Station Alpgha fan. Look for a lower or bottom margin settin to move the subtitle upwards.

[Sakuya]

Um...I'm not too familiar with SSA, I don't understand it. Is there another editor that can change the subtitle color and make it smaller and move it up?

[mats.hogberg]

SSA scripts ar fairly easy (and flexible). As they are plain text, you can easily edit them using Notepad or other text editor.

ScriptType: v4.00
Collisions: Normal
PlayResY: 240
PlayDepth: 0
Timer: 100.0000

[V4 Styles]
Format: Name, Fontname, Fontsize, PrimaryColour, SecondaryColour, TertiaryColour, BackColour, Bold, Italic, BorderStyle, Outline, Shadow, Alignment, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, AlphaLevel, Encoding
;Style: Foo,MS Gothic,72,65535,65280,65535,0,0,-1,1,2,4,2,30,30,30,0,128
Style: MainB,Arial,14,65535,65280,65535,0,0,-1,1,2,4,1,16,16,16,0,0

PlayResY determines "screen height", so if you lower this value, your subs will be displayed higher up in the picture.
Different styles (font, style and color) are defined according to the explanation. Most notable are Font name, size and different colors. Colors are in the RGB format much like in HTML, but expresed in decimal.
I suggest you experiment with these figures (using VirtualDub and Avery Lees Subtitler filter) until you get it like you want it, then frame serve and encode.

/Mats

[Sakuya]

I found a somewhat better one! It converts SRT to SSA and at the same time, you can edit the font, size, boldness, shadows, color, and distance to the border.

My problem is the font is too close to the bottom of the video. Here, what the subtitle has is the size is 26. Should I lower it to 22? Or maybe 20? Now for the distance to the borders for bottom, it was set at 10 pixels. Should I encrease to 15 or even 20? I don't know, what would you suggest?

[mats.hogberg]

Well, it's all up to you! Font sizes between 20 and 26 usually works fine, and the distance from the bottom edge may vary with the TV it's gonna be watched on, as different TVs have different amount of overscan. 10 to 20 pixels sounds reasonable.

/Mats