Contrast of subtitles

[Jomapil]

Sometimes we can't read the subtitles because the contrast.

Is it possible with some programs the subtitles appear with a color and their background with another colour?

Good evening.

Cheers.

[AlanHK]

DVDSubEdit can change colours of a subtitle in a VOB set.
Change one then use
Edit/Apply last modifications to all

[manono]

Which will work only if there's an outline color to begin with. Yes, you could change a white sub to yellow or some other annoying color so that it's easier to read. But when I come across those subs with no outline color, I OCR them and create new subs. Without the outline, as soon as the video playing behind the subs is roughly the same color, the words disappear.

[AlanHK]

Which will work only if there's an outline color to begin with. Yes, you could change a white sub to yellow or some other annoying color so that it's easier to read. But when I come across those subs with no outline color, I OCR them and create new subs. Without the outline, as soon as the video playing behind the subs is roughly the same color, the words disappear.

He asked about background, not outline, though outlines of course are good.
You can change the background, which is usually transparent. If you make it, say, 50% transparent grey, you can make the subs much more legible, as the cost of covering a bit of picture, of course. But a lot simpler and faster than OCR and replacing.
Also OCR is far from perfect. If you don't spend hours proofreading it's usually full of typos.

I've even made the sub background black or dark grey, to cover up hard-coded subs in another language.

Also you can use DVDSubEdit to move the subs, if you happen to be watching widescreen on a 4:3 TV, you can move them so they're all within the black letterboxing.

[Jomapil]

But to see those edited texts on a DVDPlayer it's not possible with the movie and its SRT separated. We must add permanent SRT to the movie to see the new subtitles?

Thank you AlanHK and Manono.

Cheers.

[manono]

He asked about background, not outline...

Yes, but I figured that was a mistake and he meant to say outline. After all, why would anyone want to mess with the background when it often takes up a large percentage of the screen if made non-transparent?

Jomapil, if you're asking about adding an outline to a subtitle for playing in a DVD player, you have to demux, OCR the subs, convert to a format your authoring program can use, remux, and then stick it back into the original DVD before burning it to disc. Here's a guide:

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic338721.html

You won't be adding new subtitles to a DVD, but editing the existing ones. Of course, SRT is no good for DVD, but that guide explains how to convert them to DVD subtitles for reauthoring. And if you only want to change the color(s), then AlanHK's suggestion of DVDSubEdit is an excellent one.

If you're talking about a DVD/MPEG-4 player and an AVI (XviD/DivX), then the process is much easier as you can use SRT subs in most such players. But I think you're talking about editing the subs in a DVD.

[AlanHK]

He asked about background, not outline...

Yes, but I figured that was a mistake and he meant to say outline. After all, why would anyone want to mess with the background when it often takes up a large percentage of the screen if made non-transparent?

The ones I make, using Subtitle Creator, or GfD's tools, are just big enough to surround the text.
I suppose other applications might not be so careful.

But if it works it's very fast and simple, so worth a try.

As mentioned, on occasion it is useful to have a solid background.
E.g., I have some Japanese VCDs with Chinese subs burnt in. I extract the video, find some English SRT subs, and author to DVD.
A dark background is necessary to read my subs on top of the Chinese ones.