SubTitles in DVDA?

mjroddy wrote on 7/28/2003, 11:26 AM
I am doing a "slide show" (actually a series of DVE moves) as part of a memorial DVD. Throughout the slideshow are sequences that would be nice to have sparce text; ie, "London, 2001" or "New York, 2002" etc. I know that I could put up text easily enough, but since this is a memorial video, I thought that I might not want to distract from the photos. So THEN I thought that some people may want to know when and where. AND THEN I thought that if I do the dates and locations as sub-titles that could be turned on and off, that might be a good thing.
So that's my question; Since we can DVDA have sub-titles that can be turned on and off from a "Special Options" menu? and is it reliable?
Saddly, we here at Work, don't use Vegas - yet. But I have it at home, so I'll hopefully be able to finish tonight based on what you professionals suggest to me. Thanks very much. -mjr

Comments

RBartlett wrote on 7/28/2003, 11:37 AM
No subtitles yet (DVDA 1.0c).
Is your project anywhere near 50% of the length of a DVD?
If it is less than 50% - you could render a version with extra info.

Pretty hopeless. But cheaper than going elsewhere and better than waiting.
BillyBoy wrote on 7/28/2003, 12:02 PM
While they can't be turned on and off if you want to do the extra work you can accomplish the effect easy enough in Vegas. Just add a overlay track and have the sub titles fade in and out where you think they would be helpful. To avoid driving your end viewers crazy, decide on ONE text font/style/size/color and keep the sub titles in the same place. In other words pick the top or bottom of the screen and don't jump around...I hate that. Also, if you're going through the effort run through the project first and be sure the color you pick for the text and where you place it has enough contrast and doesn't get lost in the video which is even worse and something you see in "professional" video all too often, sub titles you can't always read. I REALLY hate that.
mjroddy wrote on 7/28/2003, 5:26 PM
Thanks for the advice. RBartlett has the only solution that I think will be workable.
BillyBoy, I'm a firm believer in everything you said. Been doing graphics that way (the right way) for years now. Coming from layout, I've learned to always make the graphics readable to ALL viewers, never use more that 3 fonts per project, and don't let those fonts be too crazy (unless there's a reason).
My main question was addressing getting rid of the graphic alltogether for those who don't want to see them and having them available to those who do.
Since the total legnth of the DVD will be less than 40 minutes, I can pretty easily make a second copy of that particular segment that has the subtitles. Then, in a "Special Options" menu, I can let them click on a "Slide Show With SubTitles" icon that will play the seperate segment.
Thanks again for the advice. -mjr
Videojohn wrote on 10/7/2003, 9:15 AM
Hello,

I noticed a problem in making subtitles with Vegas. What happened is that when I had a subtitle (whith writting with black border to be readable on any kinf*d of picture) it increase the brightness of the picture and in that way it also reduce the quality of the picture. So it is a very big problem fof subtitling. Is there any renedies for that? Please help.

Videojohn

DataMeister wrote on 10/7/2003, 11:00 AM
You can try decreasing the color of white to 235,235,235 or less and the color of the black to 16,16,16 or more. If that still doesn't work try a tiny bit of Gausian Blur.

JBJones
TorS wrote on 10/7/2003, 11:41 AM
Also: use shadow instead of a solid stripe. It's simpler, prettier and just as effective.

You might want to call it captions or text infor or something other than subtitles. That makes me think of translated dialogue.
Tor
johnmeyer wrote on 10/7/2003, 4:47 PM
You could go to the www.dvdrhelp.com forums and use some of the shareware and freeware tools there (like IFOEdit) to take a text file and convert it into true subtitles that can be turned on and off with your DVD player, at the user's discretion. To do this, you would first author your DVD using DVD-A, and then merge in the subtitles using one of the tools described on that forum.

Here's a sample post from that forum:

Subtitles

Another place to check is the doom site. Click below to see the various subtitle guides they have:

Subtitle Guides at Doom

You might consider this tool, although I have no experience with it whatsoever:

Subtitle Workshop