Best way to create same subtitles for dvds and for Youtube, android, etc?

[Srivas]

Hi!

I have a project where I render one video file for different purposes, that is for dvd and for Youtube, android based players, ipads etc. So that means rendering a mpeg and a mp4 file.

I want to be able to use a program to make and add the same subtitles for this one video in two formats. Previously I did that by Vegas Pro, hardcoding the subs by Titles & Text effect, but that is actually meant for creating titles and the downside is that I cannot change any general options, every subtitle piece is a separate file. And another downside is that while finding some mistake, I have to re-encode the whole video again and that takes a lot of time. So I would like to keep the subtitles separate and use a proper program to make and add them later.

What would you suggest me to do? What is the latest good subtitle software? Is it possible to have a shadow and outline for softcoded subtitles?

Thanks!

[Baldrick]

You can make ass/ssa subtitles with font settings or image based(sub/idx) subs but they wont work on youtube, android,ipad devices .

So the only method is to hardcode subs if you want them to look exactly the same on everything.

[Srivas]

Thank you for a quick reply Baldrick!
Is it possible to hardcode after rendering without actually re-encoding the video file?

[Baldrick]

Nope.

[Ai Haibara]

You can make ass/ssa subtitles with font settings or image based(sub/idx) subs but they wont work on youtube, android,ipad devices .

So the only method is to hardcode subs if you want them to look exactly the same on everything.

Actually, that's not entirely true. There are players with switchable subtitle support for the Android platform. I haven't tried testing any players on my Android phone, yet (very, very little room left on my SD card ), but I do have MoboPlayer installed, which claims to support ASS/SRT/etc., and the description makes it sound like it'll support them externally as well as muxed into a movie.
Also, you can get versions of VLC (though I think you have to jump through a hoop or two to get it set up), BSPlayer, and probably a handful of mplayer variants for Android, so those probably have switchable subtitle support as well.

There should be something similar for iPhones/iPads, too, but I don't have any to test (save for my sister's, and she doesn't want to test videos/players right about now...).

[Baldrick]

Yes...but the subs will probably not look exact same even if you use customized ass subs.

[Ai Haibara]

I'd assume that would depend upon things like how well the players support ASS, including external fonts, and the resolution/memory the devices support. Still, though, I'd have to test something that really runs through the gauntlet of ASS features to see if it plays anywhere near as well as it would on my desktop computers.

[Srivas]

Ok, looks like I'll better go with hardcoding directly in Vegas. I make videos for different public and most of them will not be able to mess around with players to make the subs work if it takes more than simply pressing play to run the file.

I'll check into Vegas forums to see what can be done to make it work better.

[fvisagie]

Ok, looks like I'll better go with hardcoding

Still, even if you're going to go with hard-coding, ASS/SSA remain a good bet. They allow you to specify individual output display resolution, different styles with different font sizes, even high-accuracy horizontal & vertical font scaling - everything you need to ensure your subtitles come out looking the same on the various target platforms.

Cheers,
Francois