How to create a 'highlighted' subtitle to cover over hardcoded subs

[cinesimon]

Hi guys - I'm sure this can be done using Subtitle Edit, but I've tried to figure it out - to no avail.
If I knew the terminology, I've no doubt that I'd be able to find the assistance easily.

SO - I have an old Russian film that has hard-coded chinese subtitles, and of course this makes the English subtitles very hard to read.
What I want to do is to mount the subtitles onto a dark background, this background should be able to cover most of the Chinese subs - or at last they will be when it matters - when English subs are up. So not a permanent black band, obviously - just when the subs are up.

What's the terminology of this style of subtitle? And how do I achieve it?

Thanks very much in advance,
Simon.

[manono]

I'm not entirely sure if this is what you're after, but if the picture below is what you have in mind then it can easily be done with SSA or ASS subs. Change the bolded number to '3' to create a black box around the dialog:

[V4 Styles]
Format: Name, Fontname, Fontsize, PrimaryColour, SecondaryColour, TertiaryColour, BackColour, Bold,
Italic, BorderStyle, Outline, Shadow, Alignment, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, AlphaLevel, Encoding
Style: Style1,Tahoma,60,12632256,8421504,0,-2147483640,0,0,3,2,0,2,10,10,60,0,0

[videobruger]

The same in Subtitle Edit - Opaque box.

[cinesimon]

Thanks guys - that's exactly what I want.
I can't find anything in Subtitle Edit to create an Opaque Box - maybe I need to convert to ASS or SSA and get Sub Station Alpha.

... Oh actually I think there may be another version of Subtitle Edit that has an Opaque Box function - anyway I should be fine from here - thanks again!
If anyone does know how to create an Opaque Box with an .srt in Subtitle Edit, please post if it's not too much hassle.

S

[videobruger]

Opaque Box with an .srt in Subtitle Edit

Not possible. You can only have Opaque box with .srt if you hardcoder them. But the format is easedily changed in SE under format in top of the window and below is shown how to get to the picture in post#3

[manono]

I can't find anything in Subtitle Edit to create an Opaque Box - maybe I need to convert to ASS or SSA and get Sub Station Alpha.

Although I do use SubStation Alpha myself, it's not necessary. SRT is no good because it doesn't allow for styles (except with a separate styles file) and SSA or ASS are the two that allow for styles. I don't use Subtitle Edit but it apparently allows for the creation of ASS files. There shouldn't be any reason you'd have to use SRT subs to cover up those nasty Chinese subs.

I showed how you could create the black box around the subs by editing them in Notepad, and videobruger demonstrated how to do it from within Subtitle Edit.

[cinesimon]

Yep that's awesome. I had thought that my old WD media player wouldn't accept ASS subs, even within an MKV container - but it will, so yay.
Thanks so very much - I downloaded the latest Subtitle Edit, and discovered a whole new world of subtitle variables - my older version didn't have the Advanced Sub Station styles option at all - now I do! And it worked perfectly. And my media player played them

Thanks again!
S