642: divx + subtitles + widescreen tv - HELP

[DrJOnes666]

Hi guys,

Been trying to play some DIVX movies presented in widescreen on my WideScreen TV. I have a problem with the subtitles though. If the subtitles contains two lines, the second line dissapears at the bottom of the screen. The reason for the is because the widescreen is presented in 4:3 format with black bars at the top and bottom of the image. With a widescreen tv, to fill the screen, we need to use the tv zoom. Unfortunately, the side effect with subtitles is that we miss the second line of text when there is one.

Isnt't there a way to tell the player to play DIVX widescreen files as if they were anamorphic videos (so we wouldn't have to zoom in, and thus wouldn't loose any subtitle text).

Or isnt' there a way to tell the player to play the subtitles higher in the image?

Just so you know, yes of course my player is set to 16:9.

I've searched an saw that others experience the same problem, but I have yet to find a solution other than to re-encode the DIVX 2 DVD...


I hope there is a solution for that.

DrJOnes666

[ejp]

i have the same problem. don't see a way to fix it. it'd be nice if they could though.

[DrJOnes666]

I had an idea today. I figured: what if I could change the aspect ratio of the divx file so it would play in 4:3 format? I thought that if I can achieve that, then the film will play in anamorphic widescreen on the widescreen tv (the logic being, it will fit the whole 16:9 image in a 4:3 ratio full screen; the widescreen tv then stretched that image full widescreen. ). i figured that if I can food the clip to play 4:3, then the subtitles will appear in the image.

So I started doing some tests with MPEG4modifier. There is a tool in there that can change the aspect ratio of the clip. I played with the PAR (pixel aspect ratio) and also with the DAR (display aspect ratio), changing them to NTSC 4:3, then PAL 4:3, etc.

So far, I discovered that playing with DAR will make the avi file unplayable in the 642.
I also discovered that whatever ratio I choose in the PAR, the clip still plays in a 4:3 ratio with black bars at the top and bottom, creating a matted widescreen version of the film and not the wanted "anamorphic" result.

So, I was not too successful with my tests. Regardless, I thought I would share my thought process on this one. Who knows, maybe it will spark some ideas out there and one of you guys will fiigure out a way to actually achieve what I was trying to do...


DrJOnes666

[thedivxkid]

Try muxing the subtitles into the file with fuse and then playback on the 642

you can find it on the labs

thekid...

let me know if it works

[DrJOnes666]

Man, that FUSE thing look scomplicated to operate. It seems to need .bmp subs to work. I don't know any subtitles that are in .bmp format; all the subs I have are .srt .

If you find uot how to do it, let us know...

[thedivxkid]

You are in luck Dr. Jones

http://labs.divx.com/archives/fuse.html

basic command line looks like this:

Fuse.exe -v VideoInput.avi -s SubtitleEnglish.srt -s SubtitleFrench.srt -o OutputFile.divx

you can put up 8 subtitle tracks within the file

thekid...

[DrJOnes666]

Well, it seems this didn't work... unfortunatly.

When I type in the command, it starts to process the file, then after abuot 30 seconds, I get the following error message:
Track is not DX50 VBV Test Skipped
0 incorrect 8cc: [xvidXVID]

[thedivxkid]

yeah, thats a bug in this version

we will have an updated version very soon.

i'll reply here when its up or stay tuned to the labs for updates

thekid...

[DrJOnes666]

THANKS!!! I look forward to test that new version.
Please bring it up asap! LOL!

Thanks for sharing this info. I look forward to your post on the update.

Cheers!

DrJOnes666

[thedivxkid]

ok sorry for the delay

a new version is available

you can check it out at the labs

thekid...

[DrJOnes666]

Thanks for the update.

I tried it.

Fuse seems to work fine. It did re-write the avi under a new file name with a .divx extension. When I play it on my computer, it launches the DIVX PLAYER and the subtitles appear (although the font size is ridiculously too large, filling up almost half the screen).

When I rename the file to .avi and try it in Windows media Player, no subs show up. Which leads me to think they wont show up in the Philips 642 player.

Will they show up in the player?

DrJOnes666

[thedivxkid]

yes they will show up in a DivX Certified hardware player

and they will show up in windows media player if you download hte directshow decoder filters on labs as well

also make sure you have the latest version of the DivX player. That should fix the oversized subs problem

thekid...

[DrJOnes666]

thanks.
I tried in Philips 642, and the subtitles show up fine.
Unfortunately, this does not solve the p[roblem I encoutnered before. The subs still show up too low, when I fill in the screen...
Too bad... but thanks for the help!

[thedivxkid]

what do you mean too low when they fill the screen?

I haven't seen this problem on the 642

thekid...

[DrJOnes666]

The problem I have is as follow:

The DIVX encoded film is 16:9 ratio. I have a 16:9 widescreen tv. When I play back the DIVX file with the 642 on my widescreen TV, it plays is in 4:3 format with black bars at the top and bottom. In order for it to fit my full widescreen screen, I need to "zoom in". By doing so, I miss the second line of subtitles because it is printed over the bottom black bar, which I don't see when I fill my widescreen tv screen.

If there was a way to play the DIVX in "anamorphic widescreen" instead of playing it in "Matted widescreen", then the subtitles would most probably be printed over the image, and then I would be able to fill the complete widescreen tv and see the divx subtitles.

OR, if theer was a way to tell the 642 to print the subtitles a bit higher, than that would work too...

[thedivxkid]

i also have a 16:9 TV and don't have this problem at all with my 642

do you have the 642 set to output to a 16:9 display?

thekid...

[DrJOnes666]

yes, it is setup to output to 16:9 tv.

So, are you saying that when you play a 16:9 DIVX file, it plays like it was an anamorphic widescreen video? And when you have 2 lines of subtitles, they are vieable on the image and not on a matted black bar?

[thedivxkid]

correct

i'll double check to be sure, but i know i have not had any problems such as you describe

thekid...

[DrJOnes666]

That is very odd...

I don't know what to make of this then...

[Paulinho_Cezar]

Dears, I´m Paulo From Brasil and I have the same problem too. The only thing I did was reencode the movie with subs with VirtualDub. But Is a pain the neck to do all movies. I´m desesperate to solve this problem. All sub with the second line over the black bar.

Paulo

[Keithfiann]

Actually, I have heard so many times of this problem, and I never heard that there is a way to solve it. I just buy another better one like RJ-800

[teddy_b]

2 thedivxkid

I just tried DivX Fuse with 2 movies - both DX50 - one with MP3 CBR, another one with AC3 sound. The latest Fuse (Feb.18th) works fine - writes new file which plays ok in DivX player, as well as in WMP. But when I play these files on my Philips dvp642, I experience audio sync problems. They start playing fine, but eventually the audio gets distorted - every 5-10 secs player skips 1-2 secs of audio. Restarting the movie fixes the distortion, but after using "goto" function (positioning to the certain time in the movie) the audio goes out of sync. The usual trick with going to System menu and then back to the playback doesn't help.

The same movies play absolutely fine without XSUB subtitles streams muxed in - no problems with audio whatsoever - positioning/goto works, and there's no skipping... I also have another movie with xsub-subtitles muxed in by the prev version of Fuse (from January) - and it also doesn't cause any audio issues on dvp642. Unfortunately, the old version doesn't work with the other 2 movies (probably the bug you mentioned before in this thread)...

I wonder if this is a problem with the Fuse (maybe just the latest version), and hence will be fixed (soon?), or it's something with the Philips player, and we have to wait for a firmware update... Does anyone else experience the same problems?

[teddy_b]

also make sure you have the latest version of the DivX player. That should fix the oversized subs problem.

Do you mean that the latest DivX player just displays the subtitles smaller, or after installing it the Fuse actually writes xsubs-streams differently, so it should be smaller when playing on a standalone player as well?