Choose position of subtitles

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db1964
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:05 am

Choose position of subtitles

Post by db1964 »

Please detail your question or problem in as much detail as possible:

In movies that have a black bar across the bottom is it possible to retain that bar and force all subtitles ( forced or otherwise ) to be placed there instead of overlapping the picture ?. If so is there any guidance on how to do that ?

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Windows 10 x64 , Handbrake 1.0.7

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Woodstock
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Posts: 4614
Joined: Tue Aug 27, 2013 6:39 am

Re: Choose position of subtitles

Post by Woodstock »

You can disable auto cropping, and set the crop values to all zeros. That will retain the letterbox.

HOWEVER, that does not mean the subtitles will appear in that area. That depends upon where the authors of the (graphic) subtitles drew them.
db1964
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:05 am

Re: Choose position of subtitles

Post by db1964 »

If the only reason you have subtitles is because you have selected 'burn in' - does that not mean handbrake is applying the subtitles rather than them being included , so to speak, as part of the video feed. Does that not put it in Handbrakes hands then as to where they appear on screen ?
Woodstock
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Re: Choose position of subtitles

Post by Woodstock »

The way subtitles are rendered depends upon the source. For "pass through", handbrake doesn't do much with the subtitles, other than copy them into the outbound stream, if the container supports the subtitle type.

Burning in (whether by choice or if the output file doesn't support the type) changes things.

VOBSUB and PGS subtitles are graphic images to be overlaid on the video frame. They are transparent except for the text. If the subtitle image is not the same size as the video image, the subtitle is scaled to fit.

If it is a text-based subtitle, there are rules (and sometimes mark-up language) that say where it gets rendered, as well as what fonts and colors are used. When burning in, this rendering becomes the "transparent image" to be added to the video.

handbrake essentially combines the two images. Then the combined image is compressed.

There is nothing within handbrake's system to change where the subtitle appears. That comes down to whoever created the subtitles.
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