help making a running time video overlay

[zeek543]

I'm trying to find a way to put an overlay of a running time into a video of a race. The clock needs to start at zero and have the format of Min:Sec:MiliSec (01:23:15 for example). The race is in dvavi format, and once the time is overlayed starting at the begining of the race and ending at the end of the race, the video will be encoded to DVD with TMPGenc and menus with DVDLab pro.
What is the best way to do this? how do I make a transparent running clock video? how do I overlay it ontop of a another video? is there anyway to make a DVD with the video and then an option to overlay the clock on the video from the dvd menu? any thoughts and help on this would be fantastic. Thanks.

[AlanHK]

One simple way would be to do it as a subtitle.

Eg, an SRT file like this:

1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,999
00:00.000

2
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:01,999
00:01.000

3
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:02,999
00:02.000

Gives a count in 1 second intervals, displaying:
00:00.000
00:01.000
00:02.000

You could make this every 1/10 second or whatever you like. Use Excel or the like to generate the file with a simple formula. The position, font etc are set by your authoring app. It can be turned on or off with the usual subtitle display button on the remote.

[zeek543]

ah, never thought of that. could you expand your explanation, maybe point me to a guide. How do I make the subtitle begin counting at a certain frame and end at a certain frame, also how does the formula work in the subtle or do i actually somehow make a subtitle that goes "00:00:01" -->"00:00:02" etc every frame? basically, how do i make a subtitle into a timer counting up?
And, having never worke with subtitles before, don't some TVs or dvd players display subtitles a little slower and all somewhat differently from each other?
Any more input on this method or even some other method would be great. thanks for the idea and any more help you can give.

[AlanHK]

ah, never thought of that. could you expand your explanation, maybe point me to a guide. How do I make the subtitle begin counting at a certain frame and end at a certain frame, also how does the formula work in the subtle or do i actually somehow make a subtitle that goes "00:00:01" -->"00:00:02" etc every frame? basically, how do i make a subtitle into a timer counting up?
And, having never worke with subtitles before, don't some TVs or dvd players display subtitles a little slower and all somewhat differently from each other?
Any more input on this method or even some other method would be great. thanks for the idea and any more help you can give.

There are different formats used for subtitles, the example I used is the "SubRip" one, which is pretty common and supported by most authoring apps.

The SRT format uses a time code.
Line1: Sequence (1,2,3...)
Line 2: start and end time of the subtitle: hours:minuteseconds,millisecs [note the comma, not period). Note that they should not overlap, which is why I made my examples end at .999 secs.
Line 3: text to be displayed.

This is actually embedded in the same file as the video so it will remain perfectly in sync if it is when you author it.

Other formats use a frame code, but you obviously should use time.

You can use "Subtitle Workshop" to edit subtitle files, and convert to other formats. But as I said, you'll want to use a spreadsheet to generate your file, typing it in by hand would be rather tedious....

In Excel, for instance, make 5 columns and generate the rest by a simple increment formula:
Col1: (= Line 1) 1, 2,
Col2: = Start time
Col 3: --> symbol
Col 4: End time
Col 5: (=Line 3) Text (time) to be displayed

Then copy all this as text, paste into a text editor. You'll get TABs between the cols.
1: Search&Replace each line break with 2 line breaks
2: S&R TAB-->TAB with SPACE-->SPACE
3: S&R TAB with a line break

Save as a text file named "clock.srt" and load into your authoring app.

Your authoring app should let you set the font and colour of the subtitle. The authoring app actually uses the text to generate a series of images which are included in the VOB file with the video and audio.

There's a lot of info on this site and a subforum on Subtitles.

[zeek543]

Awesome Help. Gave that method a try in excel then copied into word and edited. Save as .srt file. Opened it in that program and it worked perfectedly. The subtitles worked perfectly in Media Player Classic. Great results there. Have yet to try it on a burned DVD yet.

However, when compiled with DVDLab pro, and then played in Windows Media Player 9, playing the movie with subtitles caused a black bar to expand the pic by 30% down below the actual picture. The subtitle was at the bottom of the acutal movie, but just with the extra black bar below the picture. Any one know why that would happen? Does it have to do with WMP or the way in which i compiled the Subtitles in dvdlab pro?

Thanks for the great advice, AlanHK. its turned out great so far.

[AlanHK]

when compiled with DVDLab pro, and then played in Windows Media Player 9, playing the movie with subtitles caused a black bar to expand the pic by 30% down below the actual picture. The subtitle was at the bottom of the acutal movie, but just with the extra black bar below the picture. Any one know why that would happen? Does it have to do with WMP or the way in which i compiled the Subtitles in dvdlab pro?

Thanks for the great advice, AlanHK. its turned out great so far.

Good.
I don't use those apps, so I think you might start a new thread in the Subtitle subforum on the display peculiarities.

As for the time format, you could go to shorter intervals, but I think 0.2 sec would be about the practical minimum, considering the display is probably at 30 fps.