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  1. Member millsy5's Avatar
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    I created an srt file for a video I made. I set the font size to 40px e.g.

    <font size="40px">Subtitle text</font>

    This size is perfect when I play my video with VLC.

    I then used Handbrake to burn in the subtitles to the video. However the full text string e.g."<font size="40px">Subtitle text</font>" is displayed when I play the video with VLC. Also the size is very big.

    I can't see any option for changing the font size with Handbrake. I've never used an alternative tool for burning in subs. Can someone recommend a free alternative that will burn in the subs at a smaller size? Or let me choose the size? I need to share the video so I require the subs burned in.
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  2. aBigMeanie aedipuss's Avatar
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    .srt subs are just text files. it doesn't matter what you put as font size, it's ignored. only the player software can change the size.
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  3. Member millsy5's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by aedipuss View Post
    .srt subs are just text files. it doesn't matter what you put as font size, it's ignored. only the player software can change the size.
    I not sure I agree with you. So please correct me if I have misinterpreted what you said.

    The video I created displayed the subs really large using VLC and Windows Media Player. Both displayed identically. However I have watched movies in the past using VLC where the subs were a much smaller size. How can my video display one size and other videos display a different size if the player software (VLC) is the same and font size is ignored?

    I'm guessing that because I hardcoded the subs using Handbrake, the subs are displayed with VLC (and WPM) the way they were burned in.
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  4. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    SRT files ARE just text files. But if you overlay them and then burn in (aka re-encode) the results, they are no longer text files, nor are they actually even subtitles. Rather, they are just pixels - elements of the video that just happen to have a shape recognized by humans as text. At that point there is nothing you can do to change them, other than blur them into smoothness and/or put a NEW sub overlay on top of it.


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  5. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    To add, normal SRT format doesn't support size/font style/positioning commands. There is, as you seem to be using, a variant of the SRT format that uses HTML commands to add that extra support, BUT it's technically unofficial, and there's no guarantee the software you're using will support the SRT-with-HTML format completely, if at all.

    If you want to add styles, size, font and positioning data in a subtitle file for burning into a video, why not use a subtitle format that better supports it, like SSA/ASS?
    If cameras add ten pounds, why would people want to eat them?
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  6. Use SSA subtitles instead to control font size.
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  7. Member millsy5's Avatar
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    Thanks for the suggestion to use formats. I've only ever used SRT but I will check out the other alternatives.
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  8. Most of the subtitle editors can convert SRT to ASS. You can do so with with ffmpeg too:

    Code:
    ffmpeg -i input.srt -c:s ass output.ass
    I just verified the html font size settings are retained by ffmpeg.
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