Mencoder: Subtitling in Mencoder

[rds_correia]

Hi,
I've seen a post from VMesquita talking about the possibility to have subtitling through MEncoder.
I'm not quite sure because I haven't ran tests on any other sources but I suspect this is only possible
on VOB sources which is actually the ones I'm currently testing.
Here's how:

Quote:

Originally Posted by vmesquita

In case anyone needs subs (like me), use this:
sid=0
And replace 0 with the subtitle track number.
Added -1:-1:1 to expand, otherwise subtitles keep overlapping.

Now I have a funny feeling that each subtitle is staying on screen longer than it should. In fact it seems that
once the sub get's printed on screen it will only disappear once a new sub has to be printed.
Does anyone else sense this issue?
Since I haven't come up with a workaround for this issue I tried to use a VobSub rip I made from the
movie I'm testing.
The arguments to be used would be -vobsub to tell MEnconder where to find both my *.idx and *.sub and
-vobsubid to tell MEncoder which language to use.
The problem is that when I load these arguments in my *.ini file MEncoder complains about:

Warning unknown option vobsub at line 6
Warning unknown option vobsubid at line 7

Here is my *.ini file:

of=rawvideo=1
ovc=lavc=1
nosound=1
noskip=1
sws=2
vobsub=d:\bttf\subs\
vobsubid=2
vf=yuvcsp,crop=712:552,scale=688:400,expand=704:576
lavcopts=vcodec=mpeg2video:vmax_b_frames=2:vrc_buf_size=1835:
aspect=4/3:vqblur=0:vbitrate=3000:vrc_maxrate=9800:vrc_eq=tex:
vqmin=1:mbqmin=1:lmin=2.49:intra_matrix=8,9,12,22,26,27,29,34,9,10,
14,26,27,29,34,37,12,14,18,27,29,34,37,38,22,26,27,31,36,37,38,40,26,
27,29,36,39,38,40,48,27,29,34,37,38,40,48,58,29,34,37,38,40,48,58,69,
34,37,38,40,48,58,69,79:inter_matrix=16,18,20,22,24,26,28,30,18,20,22,
24,26,28,30,32,20,22,24,26,28,30,32,34,22,24,26,30,32,32,34,36,24,26,
28,32,34,34,36,38,26,28,30,32,34,36,38,40,28,30,32,34,36,38,42,42,30,
32,34,36,38,40,42,44

What could I possibly be doing wrong or missing here?
TIA
Cheers

[vmesquita]

@rds_correia
Yes, there is this annoying bug. And I have no idea how to fix it. The subtitle only go away when a new one appears, and if it doesn't, the subtitle go on forever. It also happens with srt based subs. But the problem only happens with subs in cropped area. If they are in movie area, they work fine
I'll check the mailing list to se if there's any talk about this, such a big bug wouldn't go unnoticed...

[rds_correia]

Hi V,
But does that mean you haven't tried with VobSub sources yet?
If so please give it a try because I can't seem to "make" MEncoder use the already mentioned
arguments for that.
BTW more than staying on screen forever there is sometimes the illusion that a very tiny bits of other sentences remain on screen after it has been overwritten by another sentence.
Have you noticed that too, or is it me getting to much suspicious about MEncoder's osd/sub capabilities
Cheers

[vmesquita]

I was searching the mailing list and found this:
http://www1.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/m...ch/043383.html

I am at work right now, can you test?

[rds_correia]

Thanks V.
Testing it now.
Will post results in a couple of minutes.
Man you're still working and here in Portugal is already 01:00am.
Weird stuff.
As I've said so many times, why aren't we all in the same timezone...
That way we would always be available to help each others.
I'm sending a letter to our Prime Minister letting him know my opinion on this subject.
Cheers

[vmesquita]

It's 9:00 pm here.
I just found this, looks like ivtc is a better option for IVTCing 3:2 content... I've been using detc but I got synch issues last time:

http://www1.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/m...er/020684.html

Edit: not sure if the ivtc filter that mencoder has now is the same one he's talking about.
Edit2: Nice document on mencoder IVTC: http://fatooh.org/files/telecine.txt
Edit3: Latest draft.

[rds_correia]

Hi V,
Don't know anything about interlaced sources, at all.
Complete noob in that department because here we only have PAL sources which should always be
progressive, right?
The "expand=xxxxx,scale" thing works, but it's a terrible workaround.
Two encodes done in the exact same way, one with 2 scales and another one with just one scale.
The one with 2 scales can do 5fps.
The one with 1 scale can do 8~9fps.
It's almost 50% of speed we're loosing...
Plus the picture with 2 scales doesn't seem to be too stable.
Sometimes I see some glitches...
Hope they fix this soon.
OT: Can you at least give us a step by step compiling mencoder guide and leave the cygwin packages for later
C ya tomorrow.
Cheers

[vmesquita]

There are interlaced PAL DVDs, like musicals for instance (I've never seen, jus tread about it). Looks like the workaround really kiils speed.. Maybe you could position subs in mvoie area. Have you tried:

scale:352:576 (i.e., specify the target resolution in the end of the filter chain).

About compiling, you just have to:
1) unpack the package: put in your home in cygwin and run
tar -xzvf mplayer-cvs.tgz
2) go to the created folder:
cd mplayer-cvs
3) run configure:
./configure
(here you can add --disable-runtime-cpudetection if you want)
4) Compile:
make
5) Grab you fresh mencoder.exe compile from your mplayer-cvs folder.

Of course, it gets much more complicated if some cygwin package is missing/outdated.

[Koekies]

I wanted to encode with subtitles and since you lose speed when adding scale.
I found this in the manual I'm going to test it when my encoding with scale has finished :P

-overlapsub 
 Allows the next subtitle to be displayed while the current one is still visible (default is to enable the support only for specific formats).

-Koekies

[incredible]

Ive not tried the implementation of subtitles into the encoding as till now I do mux them separately using the DVD Authoring Appl. (As I do use mencoder for kDVD only).

BUT the speed consumption of "scale" is IMHO solved as scale now doesnt force colorspace conversions to rgb anymore.

Quote:

... Allows the next subtitle to be displayed while the current one is still visible ....

As you can read in these lines of the manual that this is the case RDS wants to AVOID! Means he even doesnt want the last subtitle to be displayed till the next one appears.
But as we know .... we shouldnt trust only mencoder manuals and so we do only trust on our own testings, so it will be interesting how your test will result (but anyhow, IMHO that line above is very clear) .

Greets
Inc.

[Koekies]

The point was scale makes them go away and according to the manual -overlapsub is enabled by default so adding -overlapsub=0 could do the trick