Subtitle Positioning, Quality and Cropping

realghostvids · 18th December 2013, 05:18

I'm not really sure if this is the right place to be posting this but I guess it can get moved or locked if need be.

Anyway, I'm looking for tips on how to improve the quality of embedded subtitles in my DVD rips. Cropping the picture affects the position, size and quality of the embedded subtitles and I'd like to know if there's a way around it.

I've got some examples so you can see what I'm talking about.

Here's Inglourious Basterds with no cropping:

Ideally I'd want to crop the black bars out, but if I do that...

The subtitles get pushed up, squashed and blurred slightly. This effect intensifies with more extreme cropping:

Now if I burn the subtitles in none of this matters. I can do all the cropping I like and they'll stay in their original position:

But that's not an ideal solution as most films don't require burned-in subtitles. Of course Inglourious Basterds is one of those films that does require burned in subs, but I'm just using it as an example.

I'm using MPC-BE with XySubFilter to display the subtitles with these settings (I'm pretty sure these are defaults):

I have messed around with the various options but only the Override Placement setting seems to do anything; and that just moves the subtitles, it doesn't unsquash them.

Is there some obvious setting I am missing to make this work? I feel like this would have been covered somewhere before but I didn't have much luck searching.

EDIT: Totally missed the Subtitle subforum. If this could be moved there I'd appreciate it.

turbojet · 18th December 2013, 06:16

This has been a long standing bug in MPC and vsfilter. The only free player I know of that displays subtitles correctly in this situation is potplayer.

Chetwood · 18th December 2013, 06:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by realghostvids

But that's not an ideal solution as most films don't require burned-in subtitles.

Actually none do if you use proper containers like MKV.

realghostvids · 18th December 2013, 06:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by turbojet

This has been a long standing bug in MPC and vsfilter. The only free player I know of that displays subtitles correctly in this situation is potplayer.

Well, that's kind of a bummer. Thanks for the info.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chetwood

Actually none does if you use proper containers like MKV.

What do you mean by this? I'm already using MKV.

kypec · 18th December 2013, 08:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by realghostvids

What do you mean by this? I'm already using MKV.

He probably meant to use MKV features for subtitles flagged like forced...

18th December 2013, 05:18	#1 \| Link
realghostvids Registered User Join Date: May 2013 Posts: 14	Subtitle Positioning, Quality and Cropping I'm not really sure if this is the right place to be posting this but I guess it can get moved or locked if need be. Anyway, I'm looking for tips on how to improve the quality of embedded subtitles in my DVD rips. Cropping the picture affects the position, size and quality of the embedded subtitles and I'd like to know if there's a way around it. I've got some examples so you can see what I'm talking about. Here's Inglourious Basterds with no cropping: Ideally I'd want to crop the black bars out, but if I do that... The subtitles get pushed up, squashed and blurred slightly. This effect intensifies with more extreme cropping: Now if I burn the subtitles in none of this matters. I can do all the cropping I like and they'll stay in their original position: But that's not an ideal solution as most films don't require burned-in subtitles. Of course Inglourious Basterds is one of those films that does require burned in subs, but I'm just using it as an example. I'm using MPC-BE with XySubFilter to display the subtitles with these settings (I'm pretty sure these are defaults): I have messed around with the various options but only the Override Placement setting seems to do anything; and that just moves the subtitles, it doesn't unsquash them. Is there some obvious setting I am missing to make this work? I feel like this would have been covered somewhere before but I didn't have much luck searching. EDIT: Totally missed the Subtitle subforum. If this could be moved there I'd appreciate it. Last edited by realghostvids; 18th December 2013 at 05:46.

18th December 2013, 06:16	#2 \| Link
turbojet Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 1,840	This has been a long standing bug in MPC and vsfilter. The only free player I know of that displays subtitles correctly in this situation is potplayer. __________________ PC: FX-8320 GTS250 HTPC: G1610 GTX650 PotPlayer/MPC-BE LAVFilters MadVR-Bicubic75AR/Lanczos4AR/Lanczos4AR LumaSharpen -Strength0.9-Pattern3-Clamp0.1-OffsetBias2.0