Show 16:9 screen at top of 4:3 DVD with subtitles below

[goanna300]

I have a subtitling job client whose projection system is 4:3. Their new DVD shows every 20 minutes on 2 simultaneous screens in a "V" formation.

I want to use a wide letterbox portion (below the widescreen part) for subtitles - by shifting the vision to the top and producing a standard 4:3 DVD with a big black space at the bottom for subtitles.

I am currently trying to re-sample their VOB files without much success. In this I will eventually succeed - but cannot help suspect there might be a more clever way to do this!

(Incidentally, if anyone can think of an uncomplicated way to show different subtitles on each of the 2 screens, I'd love to hear your ideas!)

Steve

[guns1inger]

Assuming PAL, simply because of your location, resize the the 16:9 image to 720 x 462. You then have to pad out the frame with black to get back to 576, so you have 104 lines to re-allocate in any way you like. Put 40 on top and 62 on the bottom to make room for the subs. Re-encode as 4:3. Rip the video as once large VOB with VD Decrypter, use VOBtoMPG to extract the video and audio streams, then use avisynth to resize your frame and add borders. Load this script into your encoder and re-encode as 4:3.

I would test the script in virtualdub, to make sure you have the top/bottom allocation of borders correct.

[Alex_ander]

The right resize setting for PAL letterboxing would be 720x(432+144) because displayed aspect ratio is 768x576 (4:3), not 720x576 as info is just stored for DVD PAL image. At playback line length is always modified (either for 4:3 or for 16:9) and the number of active lines is always 576 for PAL TV/DVD standard.
If you decide to divide the 144-pix borders in 2 parts, each value should be multiple of 16, otherwise (due to MPEG block size of 16pix) some artifacts may be expected on border edges after encoding.

[manono]

And if the positioning of the subs isn't to your liking when all done, raise/lower them using DVDSubEdit.

(Incidentally, if anyone can think of an uncomplicated way to show different subtitles on each of the 2 screens, I'd love to hear your ideas!)

The answer to this one is so obvious that I can't help thinking I'm missing something. Author with 2 different sets of subs, play to the 2 screens through 2 different DVD players, showing one set of subs on one screen and the other set on the other screen. But then I didn't quite understand the meaning of this, either:

Their new DVD shows every 20 minutes on 2 simultaneous screens in a "V" formation.

[goanna300]

I find your post a little hard to understand:
Are you suggesting I should leave the DVD as an anamorphic 16:9 and change the proportion of the respective letterbox portions, top and bottom?

Steve

The right resize setting for PAL letterboxing would be 720x(432+144) because displayed aspect ratio is 768x576 (4:3), not 720x576 as info is just stored for DVD PAL image. At playback line length is always modified (either for 4:3 or for 16:9) and the number of active lines is always 576 for PAL TV/DVD standard.
If you decide to divide the 144-pix borders in 2 parts, each value should be multiple of 16, otherwise (due to MPEG block size of 16pix) some artifacts may be expected on border edges after encoding.

[goanna300]

Well, there are two screens set up in a "V" formation to suit a wide cinema with little depth. They see the same video on either of 2 screens.

Naturally, the word "simultaneous" is the key. I don't know of a way to synchronise two dvd players. I do know how to create 2 simultaneous video streams from a computer, but the client isn't ready for that step yet.

Steve

The answer to this one is so obvious that I can't help thinking I'm missing something. Author with 2 different sets of subs, play to the 2 screens through 2 different DVD players, showing one set of subs on one screen and the other set on the other screen. But then I didn't quite understand the meaning of this, either:

Their new DVD shows every 20 minutes on 2 simultaneous screens in a "V" formation.

[Alex_ander]

I find your post a little hard to understand:
Are you suggesting I should leave the DVD as an anamorphic 16:9 and change the proportion of the respective letterbox portions, top and bottom?

Steve

No, I meant the folowing:
if your source is anamorphic 16:9 (has no borders and encoded completely to 720x576) and you want make it letterboxed and make borders for subtitles below image, then to keep the AR of 16:9 you have to decode MPEG and resize before re-encoding, e.g. in Avisynth:

1.Resize to 720x432
2.Add horisontal borders totally of 144pix in height (for letterboxing at PAL size 720x576)
3.Encode to PAL 4:3 without additional resizing
4.Author adding subtitles

If you use another tools (e.g. internal resizing filters of your encoder), the steps will differ but the values should be in the end as given. For correct 16:9 displayed AR the image part inside MPEG should be 720x432+borders, then it will be shown as 768x432 (16:9) at playback.

[guns1inger]

Apologies for using the wrong numbers. Somehow when I added 72 + 72 I got 104. Damn I hate Fridays.

[tonyp12]

So you have two screens, but one DVD player?

You want the DVD player to output two different subtitles
to each of the 2 screens?

Pretty sure that is impossible.

Two Closed Capturing streams that are
displayed by the TV could work.

But I don't think DVD support it and maybe the projector
or what display system you use does not support CC?

Get a small PC with video card that support dual screen
Even cheap card can do that.
But one output probably will be HD15 or DVI
so does your display system support that?

[Cornucopia]

Sorry, PAL doesn't support NTSC closed captions.

Scott