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  #1  
03-30-2011, 01:10 AM
jairovital jairovital is offline
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Hi

1- I know your wise knowledge here at this forum.
2- At your profile, you suggest to PM you to get your advice.
3- I have a simple question and probably you know the answer.

The sum of the above results in:

4- I have a video where I'm trying to remove hardsubs
5- I know how to mask them using DeLogo VDub filter
6- The field to enter the frame numbers to apply filter is too small
7- How to enter a large number of frame numbers to use that filter?

or

8- There are something I'm missing regards the use of the filter?
9- There are better filters to remove hardsubs? (don't say MSU Subtitle Remover)

I've already use RegionRemove and WipeOut filters, but I reach the same dilema: how to apply the filters to a huge number of frame ranges? RegionRemove allows that, in a ListBox field, but that ListBox only accepts 1024kb of data...

My goal is just to blur the subtitles. Very simple. I thought to use an Avisynth script using Crop(aux1,100,450,-100,88).BilinearResize(30,6).BilinearResize(520,88 ) thingie, but it looks bad. If there is a smarter script to blur like RegionRemove, would be great. I know to handle huge amount of frame numbers writing a delphi/pascal tool.

I saw your comment about DeLogo at
http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/2...go-vdub-filter

I never addressed you a PM before. Congrats for your good job at this forum.

Jairo


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  #2  
03-30-2011, 02:29 PM
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lordsmurf lordsmurf is online now
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First off, thanks for your kind words.

I don't mind spending a small portion of my day helping others, between my paid professional video/photo projects. There's inevitably downtime while waiting on computers to process the digital media -- even when using multi-core powerful systems.

As far as subtitle removal goes...

There's really no way to remove subtitles. The hobby community continuously tries insist video can be "delogo'd" or otherwise edited with some magic filter to remove or hide unwanted parts of the picture. However, professionals know better. All of these amateur methods do little more than further ruin the image quality. Instead of unwanted words or non-distracting logos on screen, you end up with these giant color-shifting blobs. The only option available for "delogoing" a video is to seek an acquire the pre-subtitled source.

Outside of that, given the amount of damage done to video in the attempts to remove on-screen subtitles or logo "bugs" is to simply crop the video. If the bottom half of the screen is full of unwanted text, and you insist the text cannot be on screen, simply crop off the bottom half of the image.

In the professional community, there are only a few choices:
  • Find better source
  • Forensic/restoration methods, which involve hand-painting each frame, one by one.
  • Cropping the image.
  • Using ugly blobs/blurs for small excerpt segments. For example, undercover news videos, which shows people that need to be hidden for whatever legal reason. You see this on lowbrow shows like Cheaters.
Something like ListBox appears to use the "small segment" ideology, which isn't a bad thing.

The methods you've tried so far will always, as quoted from your own words, leave you with video that has so-called "removed" the logos/text from the video, "but it looks bad". Or as I like to say: awful, unviewable crap. Butchered videos.

The best solution is to just leave it alone, if you don't have
  • The time/ability to hand-paint each frame,
  • The funds to pay for a restoration expert,
  • Or are otherwise unable to locate better quality sources.
It's not the answer anybody ever wants to hear, but it's the honest one.

I think it would be great if such a filter existed, but the complexity required would be near-AI caliber (artificial intelligence), so I don't foresee anything like this happening within our lifetime. The most advanced hardware from companies like Snell & Willcox, or restoration software like Ikena from MotionDSP, struggles with standard film/video noise patterns. Subtitles would be a great deal more difficult, as it would literally have to draw new imagery to replace the removed text. That just doesn't exist yet, from an automated platform. That still takes people with lots of time.

Sorry I don't have better news for you.

If you have any more questions for me, reply here for this topic. Or start a new post in the forum for a new topic.
Glad to assist.

Thanks.

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  #3  
03-30-2011, 02:53 PM
jairovital jairovital is offline
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Hi

I'd like to say thank you.

Even so not to helping me much that I'd like, it was swell.

Last year, I tried to search solution to that case, but I've got not too many audiences...

http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/3...hard-subtitles

Keep trying...
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  #4  
03-30-2011, 03:05 PM
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lordsmurf lordsmurf is online now
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Yeah, as shown by the example images in that thread, all you can really do is make a blurry mess at the bottom of the screen. There's really no alternative, using the "filter it out" methods.

You'd be better off just cropping that portion of the image, and adding "black bars" to fill out the screen. Given that your example looks like a 4x3 video, you can often get away with cropping it down to a fake 16x9 video instead. Not that I would suggest doing that often, but it's one option that is commonly used in other areas. For example, to "remove" irreparable tracking noise on VHS tapes, where it is relegated to the top and/or bottom of the screen only.

Luckily, however, the specific film in your example -- Electra (1962) -- is available on commercially released DVD, with choice of language and subtitles. These do not appear to be hardcoded subs on the retail product. I would simply buy that, and your problem is solved. You'll have your choice of subs and dubs. You can buy it at Amazon for less than $25: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B00005UJY8. That's a bargain, compared to the time investment of hand painting frames for true removal.

If for some reason you need another dub added, it would be easier to splice the retail video with your non-retail audio. I've done that many times, with great success. It also takes some patience, but the final product looks better. At worst, some of the speed and edits don't match, but that's all correctable.

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  #5  
03-30-2011, 04:52 PM
jairovital jairovital is offline
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Lordsmurf,

once again, thank you for your advices. Yes, you're right saying to buy a retail DVD. I did that, at that time. And yes, that was Electra (1962). How could you find out?

But, it's common to me to get an old movie or an opera with japanese hardsubs with no retail DVD available. For me, a blur rectangle would be enough, because I put new softsubs above it. Please, excuse me if I say so, it may hurt your ears: a blur rectangle? The people who ask me to do the job are happy with those rectangles. So, if you know an Avisynth function or a small script to better blur an area, please let me know.

I also apreciated the suggestion to make a fake 16:9 aspect.

See ya
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  #6  
01-02-2017, 08:06 AM
Himburu Himburu is offline
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Hey I know all say hardcoded subtitles can't be removed but I need to remove it somehow ASAP so I searched all the web and found this SITE will this work, it must work
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