No subtitles after using spumux

[Greycat]

I'm trying to mux subtitle stream(s) in a MPEG file to
author a DVD with selectable subtitles, but...

1) If I have MPEG files that were encoded and multiplexed by TMPGEnc,
after using spumux to mux the subtitle stream I can select it with no problem with PowerDVD;

2) If I have MPEG files encoded by TMPGEnc (elementary
streams) and multiplexed by mplex (from DVDAuthor package), after using spumux PowerDVD can't find any subtitle stream to select.

The problem here is that I MUST use the second method because
DVDAuthor (the only decent DVD authoring software
I have) does not accept MPEGs muxed by TMPGEnc, but only by mplex.

(Since both spumux and mplex are versions that come
with DVDAuthor, I don't understand why this "incompatibility issue"
between those programs. Or is there some trick or setting to
make them work together?

[borax]

It has something to do with the reencoded file. GUI for dvdauthor and dvdauthorgui use the combination of mplex and spumux without problems. Can you zip the log output from mplex and spumux and post it here?

[Greycat]

I forgot to say: the subtitles I'm trying to mux
with spumux and failing are text-based subtitles,
not static pictures like button highlights (these
ones I can mux with no problem with spumux)

Borax,
I do not use any GUI cited to work with DVDAuthor: they have some
limitations to make more personalized menus (specially to make
better highlights than simple rectangles, cool switchable menus, etc ) so I use instead XML control files and DOS batch files
to run spumux, mplex and DVDAuthor in DOS mode.

Maybe the line parameters I use with mplex are
wrong or missing for muxing text-based subtitle with spumux?
This is how I call mplex in a batch file:

mplex.exe -f 8 -o "clip.mpg" "clip.m2v" "clip.ac3"

The parameters above create correct MPEGs to burn
and playback, the only problem is that if I mux text-based
subtitles in them with spumux the subtitles don't appear
for any player.

[borax]

Your commandline is correct. But without a log from spumux I can't help you, as I have no idea what's going wrong...

I do not use any GUI cited to work with DVDAuthor: they have some
limitations to make more personalized menus (specially to make
better highlights than simple rectangles, cool switchable menus, etc

Have you had a closer look into my GUI? It supports 'cool switchable menus' as well as buttons with any shape (I use transparent GIF pictures for that purpose).
But even if you don't want to use it, it may be worth a try to test your streams. One advantage is that you would have an 'easy to read' log file (which you could also post here).
Another try would be to load your mpeg file into vobedit after 'spumuxing' the subs. There you can have a look if any subs are in the stream (even if these should be somehow incorrect). Spumux is not a very 'good' muxer... I'm currently working together with someone (C. Patel, you may know him from the dvdauthor users list) to create a new sub muxer for dvdauthor.
Therefore my last idea would be to convert your text-based subtitles in a binary sup file (there are a lot of programs for this task), and use another muxer (ifoedit or muxman) to create the vob files. Then copy the vob files together and use it directly in your author.xml.

[liquid217]

1) If I have MPEG files that were encoded and multiplexed by TMPGEnc,
after using spumux to mux the subtitle stream I can select it with no problem with PowerDVD;

2) If I have MPEG files encoded by TMPGEnc (elementary
streams) and multiplexed by mplex (from DVDAuthor package), after using spumux PowerDVD can't find any subtitle stream to select.

I am assuming you are actually opening the ifo in powerdvd, instead of playing just the vob inside powerdvd. Powerdvd needs to read the ifo, so that it knows what streams are available in the vob.

[borax]

Ok, that would be a logical assumption. I don't know PowerDVD very well (in VLC you can view the subtitles even in mpeg files)

[Greycat]

am assuming you are actually opening the ifo in powerdvd, instead of playing just the vob inside powerdvd. Powerdvd needs to read the ifo, so that it knows what streams are available in the vob.

Strange. I swear I was able to select and see subtitles in PowerDVD just opening the MPEG file directly with it... now I can't do that anymore...

Anyway, I made another test with another file (a 25-min MPEG-2 with same resolution as before - 352x480) using tmpgenc, mplex, spumux (and authoring with dvdauthor) and then PowerDVD can finally select the subs! The only problem is that the subs were almost completely hidden below the bottom border of the image and I had to increase the "bottom-margin" in the spumux XML file to 130 -- my experience with subtitle filters in Virtualdub showed me that 40 should be sufficient... )

Now I'm going to make a test with a 120-min MPEG to see if nothing more goes wrong... (my latest test with files that long gave me a strange "access denied" when using spumux to mux the subs. Let's see what will happen now...

Thanks, guys! (for the time being)