Feauture requests for subtitles

freezer wrote on 10/13/2008, 9:05 AM
I have authored a lot of commercial and complex DVDs with DVDA and so far I am very happy with the software but as always there is roof for improvments:

1) It would be great if DVDA supports more subtitle text formats, like from Bell Nuit or Subtitle Workshop. I had a lot of difficulties with import/export.

2) It is a must that DVDA can also work with pre-rendered subtitles (4-bit image files with timecode control file) from other tools like MaestroSBT.

3) DVDA needs the possibility to define the outline thickness - the current setting of 1 pixel is substandard and too thin. Anti-aliasing with one color is not possible.

4) Fontrendering of subtitles is substandard quality wise, which makes subtitles look irregular (e.g. take a "m" where the 3 vertical lines are rendered differently although they should be of the same thickness).

It would be great if any DVDA developer could give some feedback here.

Comments

bStro wrote on 10/13/2008, 10:08 AM
It would be great if any DVDA developer could give some feedback here.

Don't count on it. This is primarily a peer support forum -- meaning, a place for users to interact with each other. Sony monitors it and occasionally may post something in response to threads about bugs, but I suspect you will never see them discuss whether or not a particular feature will or won't be added to future versions.

In fact, to be sure they even read your suggestions, you should send it to them directly using the product suggestion page.

Rob
Sherif wrote on 10/14/2008, 1:48 PM
Agree with your improvements. I did send an email to the one bstro points out suggesting:

a) real time error messages for subtitle errors - at the moment it only tells you the errors when you some to render - imagine the nightmare when I had hundreds errors pop up at render because I had too much text - had to go back and correct

b) On my last project I had to go with a black background because DVDA kept onl telling me it didnt like the text on transparent background!!

I get the feeling that people use other subtitle editors because DVDA is very basic functionality - they need to really improve it so that people can use it for subtitles easily
freezer wrote on 10/15/2008, 1:53 AM
Thanks for the link. I have already sent Sony several improvement suggestions. I hope they listen.