Subtitles in the margin

[EmptyMy]

This may be stupid, I don't know. I'm trying to add subtitles to a VCD. The movie is in some sort of widescreen format, which means there are black margins at the top and bottom. Me and my 4:3 TV are used to this, so that's no problem. It's just that when I add the the subtitle it'll, according to the preview, end up above the margin... where all the action takes place. It looks stupid, and it gets sorta crowded. I'd like the subtitles to stay in the bottom margin. This, of course, will cause trouble if I ever will stretch the picture to fill the screen. These VCD subs aren't very flexible, you know.
So, is there a way of getting them down there? I'm using virtual dub with that plugin. And "SRT to SSA" to convert and design the subs.

[EmptyMy]

On second thought... this topic would perhaps do better in the edit forum... could some moderator please move it?

[EmptyMy]

No?

[Craig Tucker]

Those black bars are what your tv displays to keep the aspect ratio correct for a wide screen video. They are not part of the video itself, i.e. they dont exist on the video so you cant put subtitles on something that does'nt exist.

The only way you could do it would be to actually add black bars to the video itself, making it a 4:3 display and adding your subs to the bottom black bar.

Craig

[EmptyMy]

OK. That was what I suspected. I was just thinking if there is a way to burn the subtitle info on the VCD, so my standalone DVD player could place them out when playing. Isn't that possible? Prolly not.

[Craig Tucker]

No they have to be in the video area, check my last post I just edited it.

Craig

[EmptyMy]

Oh, and by the way. If they aren't part of the video, why do they appear when I preview the mpeg in tmpgenc?

[EmptyMy]

Thanks!
So, any idea of how to do that? Can I use some sort of filter, or what?

[Craig Tucker]

The same reason they appear on your TV, tmpgenc preview area is 4:3

Craig

[Craig Tucker]

I've never done it, so i'm not sure but you could give virtualdub a try it has lots of filters, and you can resize your video etc.

Craig

[EmptyMy]

Well, I'll give it a try. Thanks. This i probobly not too smart a thing to do... I mean, what íf I tried watching this one on a 16:9 TV. Ah well... that's not my problem.