Subs: Extra lines in DVDA 4

MPM wrote on 1/10/2007, 9:51 AM

Hi
Importing text sub files is there a way or relatively simple work-a-round to eliminate the extra line feed or return between each line?

DVDA does a decent enough job of word wrapping text when you type in the events directly, but that's IMHO the least efficient way to do it -- there are loads of CC & Sub programs out there written just for entering text & they do a better job of it [no offense implied :-) ] But when you import the sub file DVDA sticks an empty line after every hard line break for example in the DVD Studio Pro text format.

So far the only way I've found is to create graphics (rather than text subs), then create a dummy DVD layout in Muxman, using that to replace the video created in DVDA's layout with VOBBlanker, which is a really a long, IMHO unneeded process.

Thanks
mike

Comments

Steve Mann wrote on 1/11/2007, 10:17 AM

I haven't tried this but In some applications, CTRL-Enter is "new line" or CR only. You could also use the keypad entry of alt+013 to insert CR only.

Steve M.

MPM wrote on 1/13/2007, 4:34 PM

Thanks much Steve, but actually what I'm after is no line feeds in this case [I probably didn't word it correctly -- sorry].

DVDA is great making timing adjustments, but for working with the subs themselves there are many better programs. Problem is that the sub formats DVDA accepts use a hard line feed (or return) to split the text into 2 or 3 lines already. When you import the subs unfortunately DVDA seems to insist on adding an additional return of it's own. The result is instead of two lines of text, you get the 1st line. a 2nd blank line, & then 3rd the 2nd line of text -- if you have 3 lines of text the video frame is pretty much obscured because the imported sub takes up 5 lines!

Thanks
mike

DrLumen wrote on 1/13/2007, 6:32 PM

I think what Steve is referring to is there are different methods of carriage returns depending on the type of system, ie windows, linux, dvd embedded os.

Some text carriage returns are actually carriage return (CR) and line feed (LF) pairs at the end of each text line. Some system only use a CR. Try what he said as it appears your DVD player/DVDA is interpreting CR/LF pairs as a CR (end of your line) and then LF (blank line) whereas you actually only want a CR.

edit...

I just tried the things Steve suggested in Notepad and they didn't make any difference as a CR/LF pair were still saved with the file. Check around in the settings of whatever your using for a word processor and see if there are any CR/LF options. If you look at the file with a hex editor you will see 0D 0A (13/10 CR/LF) between the lines of text. You only want the 0D or the ascii code 13 like Steve stated.

MPM wrote on 1/14/2007, 4:28 PM

Thanks DrLumen

I think I've figured out a bit more about what definitely appears to be a bug in DVDA - one that's apparently been around a while.... I'm a bit embarrassed because I should have spotted this before -- it seems to cure my problem. I'm posting what I found in case it helps someone else out in the future.

The DVD studio Pro text sub format DVDA imports uses the same markup as new paragraph in HTML to mark a line break [it'll cause a new paragraph if I type it here]. No character I could find works as a substitute, removing it removes the desired line break, adding a line feed or return in its place won't display any text after the return.

Importing subs in the DVD Studio Pro format creates a large sub frame, large enough to include 5 lines of text, with 3 actually text, 2 blank in between. When you export these same subs into the DVDA .sub format, you get a text file showing a new line wherever the line break notation appears in the DVD Studio Pro file. Rendering the project subs will appear as displayed in DVDA using Powed DVD 6 or any of 3 stand alone players I tried. Now the interesting/stupid part I should have spotted before I spent really untold hours...

Save the project, close & reopen DVDA, open the same project, and the subs are corrected!!! The sub frames are only as big as needed for each, individual event, the extra blank lines disappear, and exported into DVDA .sub format, you get the special return character [OD in hex editor as you mentioned],

To me it makes perfect sense to add the subs last because timing has to be checked & corrected, and until the end of the project I'm not certain the video's going to stay as it is. I add the subs, check their timing, and make DVD, which in retrospect was what caused this bug to appear. [I consider it a bug until there's mention somewhere in the help files or docs to reload the project in DVDA]

Thanks everyone for all your help -- If DrLumen hadn't gotten me started checking hex values I might never have noticed.

mike