Chinese Subtitle (Making DVD)

[Drudkh]

I have a XviD (avi) movie and subtitles (srt), english and chinese. The chinese was in GB2312 encoding. When I play the avi movie with vobsub, the chinese subtitle appear gibblish like ÎÒ¿ìÅÀµ½Ê÷¶¥ÁË. So I changed the encoding to Unicode and it appear correct like . Since viewing on my PC is fine, I'm making it into DVD so I can play it on my DVD player. I tried this method here -> https://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/220351.php so I could choose between english and chinese subtitles. The problem is the software could not recognise/open the Unicode subtitle, so I tried the GB2312 encoded sub, it accepted but it appear ÎÒ¿ìÅÀµ½Ê÷¶¥ÁË again on the DVD player. I tried UTF8, still failed so what shall I do?

[Drudkh]

bump. anyone?

[p_l]

Have you tried Chinese Simplified (GB18030) or Chinese Simplified (HZ)?

[Sakuya]

I have the same problem. Or rather, I'm trying to make selectable subtitles on DVD and the subtitle is in simplified Chinese GB. But in the program, it asks me to select a "Character Set" and it does not list GB in there. It lists ISO-8859-1 to ISO-8859-15, CP-something, but no GB.

[borax]

As I think this topic is of general interest, I post my answer (to a PM) here again:

Some things to check:
Is the SRT file unicode, UTF8/16, or something like 'pure' ascii?
If you open the SRT file in a simple texteditor (notepad), are the subs correct or wrong?
If you open the SRT file in a 'better' texteditor (MS word, open office...), can you show them correctly there using a 'suitable' truetype font?
=> If yes, you have at least found a truetype font which you can use as Font Face in GfD. For the Character Set 'GB' is not a sufficient specification (it only stands for 'National Standard'). According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBK GBK is the CP936 Character Set. You can try to edit the Spu1Sub1.xml to set this Character Set, but I don't know if it's supported by spumux.
The other try would be to use a SRT converter (srt2sup or similar) and use the resulting sup file (and a suitable palette).

[Sakuya]

Is the SRT file unicode, UTF8/16, or something like 'pure' ascii?
If you open the SRT file in a simple texteditor (notepad), are the subs correct or wrong?

In Notepad, the subs would be all gibberish. If I opened a Chinese processor and set it to GB, then it would show up correctly.

If you open the SRT file in a 'better' texteditor (MS word, open office...), can you show them correctly there using a 'suitable' truetype font?

When opening in Word, it prompted me whether I want to use Plain Text encoding or Other Encoding. The encoding menu automatically highlights "Chinese Simplified (GB2312)". Then it will display fine even without my Chinese processor. And yes, it uses a specific font called "SimSun".

Since GB is such a hassle, I found a Big5 version of the subs. I noticed that DVDAuthorGUI has a Big5 character set and it works. Thanks for the help! How would I edit an XML file anyway?

[kschang]

If you want to turn it into video DVD, then it's a matter of RENDERING the Chinese subtitles into SUP... And that would depend on the software... The main question is whether the convert understands Unicode.

[borax]

How would I edit an XML file anyway?

Enable 'Edit author.xml file before DVD creation process' in the settings, after CreateDVD the xml editor comes up. There just load the correspondent xml file (the author.xml is already loaded), make your adjustments, and click 'Save and go'.
It would be nice if you could test if CP936 and/or GB2312 would work if these are edited into the xml. Then I would include it in the next version (as well as BIG5).

[Sakuya]

Enable 'Edit author.xml file before DVD creation process' in the settings, after CreateDVD the xml editor comes up. There just load the correspondent xml file (the author.xml is already loaded), make your adjustments, and click 'Save and go'.

Okay, I'm going to try that out with a Big5 subtitle I have. But in Gfd, it cannot find any of the Chinese fonts. I noticed in my Fonts folder the Chinese fonts all have a file type of TTC, not TTF. Either way, I set the closest one and started the XML editor. There I couldn't see anything about character sets or subtitles, only the subtitle/audio language tags.

Do you think you can provide maybe a step-by-step please? Thanks.

[borax]

TTC is a collection of TrueType fonts. In GfD I have listed only TTF fonts. If spumux can use TTC as well I will include them, no problem.

There I couldn't see anything about character sets or subtitles, only the subtitle/audio language tags.

These settings (characterset, font...) are not in the author.xml file, but in the spumux.xml file(s)

Do you think you can provide maybe a step-by-step please?

I will try:

1. Enable 'Edit author.xml file before DVD creation process' in the settings
2. Design your project
3. Click 'Create DVD'
4. The 'Edit author.xml' window will come up...
5. Click on the first icon in the button bar (the 'open file' icon) or select File - Open from the menu
6. Load the file 'Spu1Sub1.xml' (if it concerns the first subtitles for the first film, otherwise 'Spu1Sub2.xml' for the second subtitles for the first film or 'Spu2Sub1.xml' for the first subtitles for the second film...)
7. Edit the characterset, fontsize, font... to the settings you like
8. Click on 'Save + Go'

[Sakuya]

That was simple, thanks. Let's see if it works now. I just put in "BIG5" for character set and "MSGOTHIC.TTC" for font. It would still work like that in caps right? All the font files in my Fonts folder is in caps.

[borax]

It should (independent of caps - on windows systems files are not distinguished if the filename is in caps or small letters).

[Sakuya]

Yes it worked! Thanks. But one problem, I'm not sure why and this happened in both DVDAuthorGUI and Gfd so it might be an internal program's fault.

The Chinese subtitles, some characters were replaced with a _ on the TV screen. But on the computer, the SRT file looked fine. Why did this happen?

[borax]

Without the files, I can only guess...
As TTC is a collection of fonts, maybe not all chars in the collection can be used by spumux. Another problem might be the encoding. BIG5 is a two byte character code. I don't know if it is UTF8, UTF16 or unicode. AFAIK spumux/dvdauthor only support UTF8.
As I mentioned earlier in this thread, it might be possible to use a srt to sup application (srt2sup, SubtitleCreator...) and use the resulting sup file.

[bauerdr]

I had the same problems as the previous posters when dealing with Chinese subtitles in GfD. I had actually given up and was hard-subbing on the movies.

I am happy to tell you that both of your suggestions worked! I found it easier to load the subtitle file (only tried a GB2312 encoded srt file) first, and then edit author.xml file to specify the character set and font before DVD creation process.

As TTC is a collection of fonts, maybe not all chars in the collection can be used by spumux. Another problem might be the encoding. BIG5 is a two byte character code. I don't know if it is UTF8, UTF16 or unicode. AFAIK spumux/dvdauthor only support UTF8.

TwinBridge offers two TTF Unicode Chinese fonts for free download: TSC FMing S TT - Traditional and TSC JSong S TT - Simplified

It would be nice if you could test if CP936 and/or GB2312 would work if these are edited into the xml. Then I would include it in the next version (as well as BIG5).

Please do consider including Chinese subtitle (both traditional and simplified) support in the next version of GfD. Once again, thanks for the tips!

[Sakuya]

I am happy to tell you that both of your suggestions worked! I found it easier to load the subtitle file (only tried a GB2312 encoded srt file) first, and then edit author.xml file to specify the character set and font before DVD creation process.

Did you have the problem where some characters were replaced with an underscore when viewed on the DVD player?

[bauerdr]

The characters were displayed correctly. I didn't see any missing or truncated character. May be because I was using the TwinBridge TTF fonts instead of TTC fonts? I haven't tried TTC fonts yet because of what Borax said:

As TTC is a collection of fonts, maybe not all chars in the collection can be used by spumux. Another problem might be the encoding. BIG5 is a two byte character code. I don't know if it is UTF8, UTF16 or unicode. AFAIK spumux/dvdauthor only support UTF8.

[Sakuya]

Okay then, I will try your TSC font.

[borax]

@Sakuya
Does it work now?

@bauerdr

Please do consider including Chinese subtitle (both traditional and simplified) support in the next version of GfD. Once again, thanks for the tips!

I will for sure! What exactly do we need? The TTF fonts should already be available in GfD as all '*.ttf' files in the fonts directory are listed. If TTC fonts cause problems, I believe it's better to ignore them...
The 'Character set' selection will be extended to include:
GB2312
BIG5
CP936

BTW: Have you ever tried a srt to sup converter (txt2sup, srt2sup, SubtitleCreator)?
According to the profile of SubtitleCreator the codepage CP936 is supported:

        <CodePageDefinition>
            <CodePageNumber>936</CodePageNumber>
            <CodePageName>Simplified Chinese GBK</CodePageName>

As the new version of GfD will support muxman also (and muxman can use sup subtitles only), it would be nice to know if Chinese subtitle could be created with SubtitleCreator.

Other Question: Would someone of you write some lines as little guide for 'Chinese subtitles' ?
I would like to include them in the helpfiles.

[Sakuya]

I have not had the chance to try out the TwinBridge TTF fonts. But I will post here the results when I do. Thanks!

[borax]

Just out of curiosity I have looked for chinese fonts myself. Here are some:
http://www.travelphrases.info/gallery/Fonts_ChineseSimplified.html

I've tried a chinese subtitle file with the mssong.ttf font and for me it seems to be ok, no missing chars (but as I don't understand any chinese, that's just a very raw 'check').

[bauerdr]

If TTC fonts cause problems, I believe it's better to ignore them...
The 'Character set' selection will be extended to include:
GB2312
BIG5
CP936

As I mentioned earlier, I haven't tried any TTC fonts yet, but I agree that TTC fonts should be omitted to avoid any problem.

BTW: Have you ever tried a srt to sup converter (txt2sup, srt2sup, SubtitleCreator)?
According to the profile of SubtitleCreator the codepage CP936 is supported:

I've tried using srt2sup and didn't like it. The sup file that I tested was converted from a srt file using SubtitleCreator, which was fairly easy to use.

Other Question: Would someone of you write some lines as little guide for 'Chinese subtitles' ?
I would like to include them in the helpfiles.

I will be honored to help write a few lines in the help files - just let me know.

[borax]

The new GfD development version supports the mentioned character sets (GB2312, BIG5, CP936). You may also set up defaults for the subtitle formatting in the default settings, tab Intern. I would appreciate if someone runs a test with chinese subtitles.

[tweakie]

Great thread here. I have a related question.

I was wondering if it's possible to view an .avi movie with Chinese subtitles on a divx player? I'd like to keep the video in the original .avi format without converting it to dvd format.

Is there a way to hard-code the Chinese subtitle onto the .avi file? I don't need to switch between subtitles.

[kschang]

The question is... does the DivX player support Chinese display of the fonts?

[tweakie]

The question is... does the DivX player support Chinese display of the fonts?

No, I've tried using the Chinese .srt file with .avi and it displays random characters.

I'm currently attempting to convert the .srt into .idx + .sub. The font colour is really ugly does anyone know how to change it to white?

If this doesn't pan out, I will need to learn how to hard-code the subtitle.

[tweakie]

My Sanyo divx player failed to recognize the .idx subtitle.

I can't believe I just spent the whole day working on this.

[borax]

Is there a way to hard-code the Chinese subtitle onto the .avi file?

Yes, that's always possible. But it requires reencoding (with some quality loss).