Windows media player to display frame information?

[yetanotherlogin]

Hello

I need a light, simple media player for Windows that can display frame infos when playing a video (AVI) so that I can edit its corresponding subtitle file in a second application.

VirtualDub can do this, but it's a bit heavy and when I opened the file, it displayed the familiar "AVI: Variable bitrate (VBR) audio detected. VBR audio in AVI is non-standard and you may encounter sync errors up to 9226ms when attempting to extract WAV files or playing in some players."

I tried Media Player Classic HC 1.6.3.5818 (2320902) and VLC 2.0.2, but they don't appear to allow this, or if they do, it's well hidden.

Does someone know of such an application, preferably free?

Thank you.

[jagabo]

Why don't you use Subtitle Workshop. It will play the video, display the subtitles, and let you edit the subtitles, all in one app.

I don't know what you mean by "heavy" but just ignore the audio error in VirtualDub. It usually works fine (be sure you have a recent version).

And MPCHC might have some of what you want. View -> Information, View -> Statistics, View -> Status. Oh, time is only to the second though.

PotPlayer can show a lot of information while it plays. Including frame number and time (again, only in seconds).

If you use ffdshow as your decoder you can get all kinds of information in any player that uses DirectShow decoders. WMP using ffdshow:

[yetanotherlogin]

Thanks for the infos. I (re)tried MPCHC and PotPlayer, but they don't show the real-time, precise frame number.

I couldn't use Subtitle Workshop because I'm having issues with it (for some reason, I see two sets of subtitles on top of the other but can't show you in a screenshot because the second set isn't included in the screenshot; Also, I found no tutorial so don't know how to use the different features to manage subtitles.)

I guess Subtitle Workshop should be the easiest solution to what I need to do. I'll look further to figure out what to do with the options in the Edit and Movie menus.

Thank you.

[AlanHK]

I couldn't use Subtitle Workshop because I'm having issues with it (for some reason, I see two sets of subtitles on top of the other

That happens when Windows automatically loads the subtitles when Subtitle Workshop uses Windows codecs to display the video.
Subtitle Workshop displays the subs by itself, regardless.

The automatic playing comes when you have the subtitle file with the same name as the video, e.g.:
The_Video.avi and The_Video.srt.

Simple fix is to rename the sub, eg to "The_Video_.srt". Then you open the sub in Subtitle Workshop and select the video from the "Movie" menu, you will only see the subs made by SW.

You can rename the sub back when you're done editing.

Also, I found no tutorial so don't know how to use the different features to manage subtitles.

Subtitle Workshop includes a comprehensive manual. Click the "Help" button.

[yetanotherlogin]

Thanks Alan, that solved that issue.

I'll go through the help manual and see if I can understand how to remove unneeded subtitles, and have SW renember the following subtitles automagically.

[AlanHK]

Thanks Alan, that solved that issue.

I'll go through the help manual and see if I can understand how to remove unneeded subtitles, and have SW renember the following subtitles automagically.

Easy. Put cursor on the sub, press "DEL" key.

SW looks after the numbering.

I often edit subs in a text editor and delete subs, leaving gaps in the numbering. SW will renumber them all correctly as you load it, so just open and save.

[jagabo]

It looks like you'll be using Subtitle Workshop. But PotPlayer shows the frame number. Options -> OSD : Show Info.

[yetanotherlogin]

I just tried selecting two unneeded lines, Edit > Remove Selected: SW didn't renumber the rest of the subtitles till the end

[El Heggunte]

What version of Subtitle Workshop you're using?

Last stable release is 2.51 --- anything newer is risky.

[jagabo]

Subtitle Workshop renumbers the line right away when I delete a line.

[pandy]

ffdshow can provide such information with ANY player

[yetanotherlogin]

I'm using 2.51 with all settings to default.

Here's a screenshot of what happens when I delete a couple of subtitles:

[jagabo]

It's showing that the titles are renumbered. After deleting 177 and 178 line 179 becomes 177.

[yetanotherlogin]

So we misunderstood each other: I was referering to the start/end frame numbers, which aren't updated.

How can I tell SW to renumber the rest of the start/end frame numbers?

[AlanHK]

So we misunderstood each other: I was referering to the start/end frame numbers, which aren't updated.

How can I tell SW to renumber the rest of the start/end frame numbers?

"Number" refers to the sequence number of the subtitle: 1,2,3, 4,...

The frame numbers are a way of measuring the times, depending on the frame rates. Though SRT subs you should use time (h:m:s) rather than frames -- use the "Mode" selector on the left.


So what you actually want to do is change the times of those subtitles?

Which subs? Why? They will get out of sync if you do that.

Last stable release is 2.51 --- anything newer is risky. :confused:

2.52 is very stable and has a lot of bug fixes on 2.51.
The version 4 series is another story.

[yetanotherlogin]

I need to remove blocks of subtitles because the video has a few parts missing. Does it mean SW cannot change the times after I remove a block of lines?

The author's site and VideoHelp only offer 2.51. Where could I find 2.52?

http://www.urusoft.net/downloads.php?lang=1
https://www.videohelp.com/tools/Subtitle-Workshop

-------
Edit: Found it here:

"Subtitle Workshop 2.52 RC home"
http://sw.binhoster.com/

[jagabo]

I need to remove blocks of subtitles because the video has a few parts missing. Does it mean SW cannot change the times after I remove a block of lines?

It's not supposed to change the times of the rest of the subtitles when you delete subs. If you erase the text on page 101 of a book the text on page 102 is still on page 102.

If the subs you have are for a different cut of the movie and you need to remove subs and shift the starting time of the remaining subs. Think about it: there's no way for the program to know how much of your movie is missing. A single 3 second sub could be the only sub in a missing 10 minute segment of the movie.

The problem isn't the version you're using. It's in your misunderstanding of how the program works.

[AlanHK]

I need to remove blocks of subtitles because the video has a few parts missing. Does it mean SW cannot change the times after I remove a block of lines?

It can't do that, because it can't know exactly how much to adjust the times.

"Removing a block of lines" doesn't specify exactly how many milliseconds you need to adjust. Maybe to within a few seconds, which isn't close enough.

How many missing parts are there?

Anyway, so, now we know what you are REALLY want to do is resync the sub.

This isn't very hard, actually, but you have to pay attention.
First, as I said, change to TIME mode.

Scroll down the subs and play them until you find the break, where it's out of sync.
That defines "part 1", now all in sync.

Delete the subs that are in the missing part.
When you find the sub that is the first in the next part, that defines the beginning of part 2, out of sync.

say this is sub # 100

Write sub 100's beginning time.

Now play the movie until it is at the exact time you hear the beginning of this sub.

Write down the time shown on the right, under the film, and subtract it from the first time you wrote before. That is the shift.

Select from Sub #100 to the end of the film.

Edit/Timings/Set delay
Choose "For selected subtitles"
put in the shift time.
-- if part of the film was cut, this will be a negative time "delay".

Now check the sync, if it's okay from sub #100 on, save the file. Now scroll down from there until it goes out of sync (say at sub 200) and repeat the process.
At each step select the subs from the break on and adjust until you reach the end and it's all in sync.

[yetanotherlogin]

Thanks much Alan. After deleting a couple of lines and selecting + shifting the rest of the subtitles, I'm about half-way through the movie and it's working fine. There might some other section that's missing in the movie or the audio/video will get out of sync at some point, so I'll just adjust again.

Another thing, though: When choosing "Save As", I'm shown a bunch of different formats (from Adobe Encore DVD to ZeroG). Which should I use?

The original .sub file looks like this:

{1}{1}29.970
{1242}{1356}Blah

Thank you.

[jagabo]

A lot of subtitle formats use .SUB as the extension. The type you showed appears to be MicroDVD. I usually use SubRip format (.SRT) as it has wide support in standalone media players.

[yetanotherlogin]

Thanks for the tip. I'll save the modified subs as SubRip, then.

One thing that would help: While playing the video, can Subtitle Workshop highlight the current subtitle being displayed and scroll down automatically? That would make it easier to know where I am in the subs.

[jagabo]

Third button from the left, "toggle scroll list".

[yetanotherlogin]

Cool

I'm done! There were a couple of sentences missing from the original subs.

Next, finding how to burn the subs into the AVI, preferably soft-coded so that English-speaking people can turn them off. I'll play with VirtualDub or AviDemux and see how it goes.

Thanks everyone for your help.

[jagabo]

Many players can't handle subs muxed into an AVI. It's better leave them as separate files.

[yetanotherlogin]

What if I upload the file to YouTube?

Viewers are typically non-computer savvy, so embedding the subs into the file would be much easier.

[Ai Haibara]

Many players can't handle subs muxed into an AVI. It's better leave them as separate files.

I can't recall ever having a problem with it - muxed .ass or .srt on a computer, and muxed .srt on my DVD players. But, yeah, to be safe, better to leave it outside the AVI container.

[jagabo]

For Youtube I believe you either have to hard code the subs (in which case they can't be turned off) or upload a separate "closed caption" file.

http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-captions-feature-for-videos.html

I think SRT is the format they want.

[yetanotherlogin]

Thanks for the infos. Uploaded the video after adding the subs in VirtualDub. I don't know if they're hard- or soft-coded, but the video plays fine.

Thanks again.

[jagabo]

If you used VirtualDub the subtitles are hard coded (burned into the picture) so they can not be switched off and on. Soft subs would appear as a separate stream that the user could elect to display or not. VirtualDub cannot mux soft subs into an AVI file.

[yetanotherlogin]

Good to know, thanks.