DVD-Lab Pro with .sst or.son: How do I do it?

[ericf]

I've created a couple of files using MaestroSBT. One in .sst format and another in .son format.
The reason I use these formats is because I want to have positioned subtitles and colliding timings. Just as in the original SSA/ASS files.

(If there's any other method of compiling a DVD using the positioning available in SSA/ASS, can anyone tell me what these methods are and what programs I need to use in order to compile a DVD with new subtitles?)

When I import these in DVD-Lab Pro I only get a list of images and no subtitles.
Do I need to do something special when using these BMP format subtitles in DVD-Lab Pro?

It's supposed to support both formats but when trying to make a project no subtitles appear. And the subtitle stream only seems to contain BMPs without dialog text. Only the BMP name appears when trying to find the subs in DVDSubEdit.
Thanks for any help you might give.
ericf

[Baldrick]

How did you import it?

1. Open the Movie window for the movie you want to add the subtitles to.

2. Click the Sub 1 button.

The Subtitle dialog box displays.

3. Click Import.

The Load Subtitle File dialog box displays.

4. Select the subtitle file you want to import and then click Open.

The Load Subtitle File dialog box closes and DLP loads the file you selected. You can import the following subtitle formats: *.sub,*.srt,*.ssa,*.son, and *.sst.

NOTE: When you import a subtitle file into DLP, DLP ignores any formatting tags in the subtitle file, such as italics, bold, and color tags.

5. Set the font properties in the Global Font and Style section in the lower left of the dialog box.

Personally, I like Yellow, Outline+Shadow, Tahoma, 23 points, Regular. I find it very legible.

6. You can set italics for individual lines of dialog by clicking the _ button in the Prop column next to the line you want to format and selecting the format you want.

7. Scroll through the subtitles and check for any timing conflicts. They are indicated by red highlights in the Start Time or End Time columns.

8. When you are satisfied, click Generate Subtitle Stream.

The Generate Subtitle Stream dialog box displays.

9. Navigate to a directory where you want to save the generated subtitle stream, enter a filename for it, and then click Save.

DLP generates the subtitle stream for your movie.

or search in http://www.mmbforums.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=15132&highlight=

[machf]

When I import these in DVD-Lab Pro I only get a list of images and no subtitles.
Do I need to do something special when using these BMP format subtitles in DVD-Lab Pro?

It's supposed to support both formats but when trying to make a project no subtitles appear. And the subtitle stream only seems to contain BMPs without dialog text. Only the BMP name appears when trying to find the subs in DVDSubEdit.
Thanks for any help you might give.
ericf

Of course you'll get a list of .BMP files and no text, when you use MaestroSBT to generate a .sst or .son file, what you're doing is turning the text subtitles from the .ssa file into a set of pictures (containing the subtitles as rendered images) and an info file contaiing the timing information for every picture. Nothing wrong with that, DVD subtitles ARE stored as pictures in the first place...

Have you tried unchecking the box labeled "1:1 zoom"? When you have 'picture' (instead of 'text') subtitles, if you have that zoom enabled, it will zoom on the middle of the picture, while the subtitles are most likely at the bottom, so you won't see them. Turning the zoom off will display the whole picture, though shrunk to fit in the small preview window, which may be difficult for you to read...

Oh, and I hope you didn't check the "No bitmaps" box in MaestroSBT's bottom right corner, otherwise your .son or .sst file will ahvve timing info but no associated images to display...

[ericf]

Thanks for the replies.
The reason for my problems with sst in DVD-Lab Pro was that I didn't know that I had to save the files as BMP (RGB).
I found that out surfing the net and checking about MaestroSBT.
The default format is tif and that format is not read by DVD-Lab Pro. You only get a subtitle with the name of the file and nothing more.

With BMP (RGB) the text appears correctly.
Of course, top subs will still have to be put in manually since the settings in the original file doesn't work in DVD-Lab Pro unless there are two subs displayed at once...

Also, MaestroSBT does make some bad subtitles (duration sometimes shrinks so that subtitles don't appear during the film) and so, manual adjustment of the sst file is needed in those instances.

Thank you.

ericf

[machf]

Right, they changed the default from BMP to TIFF in the last version of MaestroSBT... don't know why, as most programs won't recognize TIFF but expect instead BMP.

But there shouldn't be problems with top titles... they are 720x478/574 images, all the same. Hmmm...

[majin_buu]

With BMP (RGB) the text appears correctly.
Of course, top subs will still have to be put in manually since the settings in the original file doesn't work in DVD-Lab Pro unless there are two subs displayed at once...

Also, MaestroSBT does make some bad subtitles (duration sometimes shrinks so that subtitles don't appear during the film) and so, manual adjustment of the sst file is needed in those instances.

It looks like this is a sub-optimal solution to the problem of importing subtitles with special formatting into DVD-Lab.

Does anyone have a better way?

[animalia]

How did you import it?

1. Open the Movie window for the movie you want to add the subtitles to.

2. Click the Sub 1 button.

The Subtitle dialog box displays.

3. Click Import.

The Load Subtitle File dialog box displays.

4. Select the subtitle file you want to import and then click Open.

The Load Subtitle File dialog box closes and DLP loads the file you selected. You can import the following subtitle formats: *.sub,*.srt,*.ssa,*.son, and *.sst.

NOTE: When you import a subtitle file into DLP, DLP ignores any formatting tags in the subtitle file, such as italics, bold, and color tags.

5. Set the font properties in the Global Font and Style section in the lower left of the dialog box.

Personally, I like Yellow, Outline+Shadow, Tahoma, 23 points, Regular. I find it very legible.

6. You can set italics for individual lines of dialog by clicking the _ button in the Prop column next to the line you want to format and selecting the format you want.

7. Scroll through the subtitles and check for any timing conflicts. They are indicated by red highlights in the Start Time or End Time columns.

8. When you are satisfied, click Generate Subtitle Stream.

The Generate Subtitle Stream dialog box displays.

9. Navigate to a directory where you want to save the generated subtitle stream, enter a filename for it, and then click Save.

DLP generates the subtitle stream for your movie.

or search in http://www.mmbforums.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=15132&highlight=

nothing happens when i click save