Off-sync subs in DVD Lab Pro

[carlmart]

I have been using DLP for a few years now, it's likely I've authored hundreds of DVDs with it. The version I use most is 1.53, as I find the 2.XX versions quite buggy.

Most of the DVDs I author carry subs, usually two or three, so I'm quite familiar with sub handling. Usually adjust sync or whatever problems I might have with Subtitle Workshop, which is a damn good program for that.

But now I'm having an out of sync issue on a DVD I'm authoring which I can't see the reason for, so I don't know what to do about it.

As I can't run mpeg files with Subtitle Workshop, what I did was convert the DVD files onto avi, using AutoGK. This I have been doing for some time now, following from this very same forum, with great success.

I am not converting anything: this was originally an NTSC DVD, US release, and I want to keep it NTSC. What I'm doing is re-authoring it to change the sub characters size and line arrangement, adding more subs.

So I do not understand what is happening for the subs to go off-sync when I author them.

Is there any other authoring program that I can use, that is user friendly, to allow me doing a test?

[manono]

Is there any other authoring program that I can use, that is user friendly, to allow me doing a test?

Lots. DVDAuthorGUI, for example, accepts subs in a variety of formats. However, I use MaestroSBT which accepts subs in SSA format and use it to make SST subs for authoring in Muxman. The reauthored result is stuck back into the original DVD with VobBlanker.

However, you weren't very informative about exactly how the subs are out of synch using DVDLab Pro, although I can guess. Are they off by the same amount all the way through? Probably not, is my guess, and that's easy to fix anyway. They become progressively more of of synch as the movie goes along? And if so, by how much are they off by the movie's end? If they're about 7 seconds off by the end of a two hour movie, then it's drop-frame .vs non-drop-frame timing, or 29.97fps timing .vs 30fps timing. This might point to you setting it up wrong in DVDLab Pro (or maybe Subtitle Workshop), but as I don't use either program myself, I can't be any more specific.

Or, if the problem is as I'm speculating, you can adjust the timings (depending on the subtitle format you're using) before adding them into DVDLab Pro.

[carlmart]

I will have a look at those programs. The first choice looks better than MaestrSBT, as I would need two more steps to make a burnable file.

Anyway, I may have found the reason for the sync problem. The avi file I made was joining two films: a documentary about the film and the film itself in one file. I am making a new avi file and will re-sync the subs to it.

That had never happened before, but that's because I'm not too familiar with this avi conversion.

Pity Subtitle Workshop doesn't accept the DVD file itself: only avi and mkv.

[El Heggunte]

As I can't run mpeg files with Subtitle Workshop,

I have Subtitle Workshop 2.51, and it opens MPG-video fine

[tinker]

Out of sync subtitles are known problem with DVD Lab, specially if you use Subtitle Workshop.
You can create subtitles in Pro EX, which is part of DVD Lab and you will have no problem with sync.