Philips dvp642 question

[DereX888]

This does bring up something though ... what subtitles does the Philips DVP-642 support?

Only SRT as far as I know.

junkmalle, my friend... pls. RTFM, coz youre mistaken *again* :O

I've used Subtitle Workshop before but the subs I mentioned are burned into the image.

This does bring up something though ... what subtitles does the Philips DVP-642 support?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

I don't understand.
If the subtitles are part of image ('burn-in', 'hardcoded' etc etc) then how on earth were you going to edit them?!
As to your question: RTFM!
It lists at least 3 different formats AFAIR (but the player does way more, and I wrote about it long time ago on this forum...)

[FulciLives]

The subtitles are burned into the image ... but very low and often very close to the sides.

So if I watched these AVI files on my Philips DVP-642 the subtitles would be ... at least in part ... masked by the OVERSCAN of the TV.

So I have to re-encode the AVI files and use FitCD to determine the correct "shrinkage" of the image to "fit" on the screen.

For instance these AVI files are 640x480 so I am converting them to MPEG-2 DVD spec and making the image 656x448 and then adding 16 black on the top/bottom and 32 black on the either side to bring it back up to 720x480 NTSC MPEG-2 DVD spec. The standard way would have been to resize the 640x480 to 720x480 or 704x480 (with 8 black on either side).

The way I am doing it ... more of the image is on the screen and I can see the subtitles. I could re-encode to AVI in the same fashion (the nubmers would be different due to square pixels vs non-square pixels) but since I am going to re-encode I've decided to just go with DVD Video using MPEG-2.

I don't recall saying the word "edit" the subtitles. Maybe I did I have to re-read my posts LOL

However I have used Subtitle Workshop before ... for instance the Japanese DVD of KILL BILL VOL. 1 is a longer "cut" of the movie than the USA DVD but the Japanese DVD has English subtitles either ON or OFF 100% of the time so I had to rip the subtitles and use Subtitle Worshop to DELETE the subtitles that aren't needed (when people speak English) and keep the English subtitles for when Japanese is spoken. That was a real pain-in-the-ass time consuming thing to do!

Recently I tried to use Subtitle Worshop to fix the timing on some subtitles that were "off" where the AVI came from one place and the subtitles came from anoher but that was such as ordeal that I gave up and will just wait for a more ummm official English subbed version to come out. Not that one needs subtitles when watching a giant green lizard thing breath fire and knock down buildings LOL

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[junkmalle]

When I first got a DVP642 it didn't support any subtitles with AVI files. A few firmware updates later it supported SRT only. SRT, SUB and SMI subtiles appear to be supported now. I no longer have the player so I can't verify that list.

[DereX888]

youre right about .SMI, this ability was added with first firmware update IIRC. But it had the ability to read basically any subtitle formats as last as they were in {frame}{frame} text or {time}{time} text format, and saved with .SUB extension. So basically it was able to read any 'text' external subtitles, what has changed with firmware upgrade was additinal ability to recognise couple more extensions (.SRT and .SMI) and their text structures.
Thats the ability of player's chipset, therefore it can't be otherwise.

I still have 2 of them, and the manual of the oldest one (probably from very first batch introduced to US market) is very short and have no mention of subtitles at all. But it did play back subtitles since its first firmware (version 400-something IIRC).

[Hexfusion]

Ummm Hi! This seems like a good place to ask questions about this player... I heard there is some sort of "reset" button on the player. MY unit went through some static shock and I was told I can reset the unit by leaving the unit unplug for 30 hours and press a combination of buttons on the panel... but I'm not sure what that combo is?? :S I hope someone can help me! Thanks!!!

[embreeb]

Philips told me to reset the player to "factory settings", you unplug it for at least 15 minutes, then as you are plugging it back in, hold the power button down for about 5 seconds (I think). You might want to call/chat with them to confirm this. Good luck.

P.S. Has anyone had a problem with the player shutting off if it just sitting for a while? I was watching a TV show I burned as an AVI, and I stopped playing it, but when I came back a few minutes later, the player had shut itself off. The Smart Power feature is currently off (Philips told me to check for that). Any ideas?

[Hexfusion]

Philips told me to reset the player to "factory settings", you unplug it for at least 15 minutes, then as you are plugging it back in, hold the power button down for about 5 seconds (I think). You might want to call/chat with them to confirm this. Good luck.

P.S. Has anyone had a problem with the player shutting off if it just sitting for a while? I was watching a TV show I burned as an AVI, and I stopped playing it, but when I came back a few minutes later, the player had shut itself off. The Smart Power feature is currently off (Philips told me to check for that). Any ideas?

Aww! Thanks for the help but I tried that already and it didn't work. I did called them but the 90 day warranty is over and they want to charge me $15 for their help... :S soooooo I had to decline. LOL. hahhaa Thanks again!!!