1. Getting started: Viewing subpictures
This is very easy. You can either drag/drop vob files, or use the File menu.
DVDSubEdit will start scanning the file(s) for subpicture packs in the background. As more subpicture units (SPUs) are found, the display is updated but you can start looking at the subpics before the scanning is entirely done.
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Full title set: To look at the
subpictures for an entire video title set, select all the VOBs of the title
domain (for example vts_01_1.vob vts_01_2.vob vts_01_3.vob) and drag/drop them
on the DVDSubEdit window.
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Alternately you can use “Open full domain” in the File menu to open all the files belonging to the same domain as the selected file. For example, selecting vts_01_2.vob will open the entire first video titleset. |
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Single or multiple vobs: You can look at
selected vob files if you prefer (for example, dragging/dropping vts_01_2.vob)
but it’s possible that the first subpicture unit will not be detected properly
(because part of it is located in the previous vob file). You can also use “Open
file” in the File menu and select one or multiple vob files. Note that all the vob files
have to belong to the same titleset (VTS) and to the same domain (i.e., menu
domain or title domain).
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Menus: You can also look
at menus by dragging/dropping or opening a menu vob file, for example
vts_01_0.vob or video_ts.vob. This will show you button highlights etc. However, because most
button highlights are transparent by default (until a button is selected or
activated), you probably will only see the background video and the button
rectangles. To see the highlights, you can click the “Ignore Transparencies”
check box in the Subpic Color/Transparency area.
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Fast Reload of last vob(s): You can also select
“Fast reload last vob(s)” or use the Ctrl-O shortcut to reload the last vob (or
set of vobs) you loaded. DVDSubEdit keeps a temporary file that includes all
the information about spus for the last loaded files, so when this option is
used the vob files do not need to be scanned and the operation is very quick.
By default, DVDSubEdit shows you all the subpicture units
that it finds. But you can filter them by stream ID (i.e., by language) or by the video cell (i.e.,
“chapter”) they belong to. To do that, use the stream and VCID drop down selectors.
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In this example, only the subpictures of stream 0x20 (which corresponds to the english subtitles according to the IFO files, for the widescreen or letterboxed display modes) are displayed, and only those that belong to the video cell 1/1 (i.e., with the VID 1 and CELLID 1). |
By clicking “Only show modified subpics” you can only show those subpictures that you have modified one way or another. If you haven’t modified any, no subpicture will be displayed. “Only show forced subpics” is useful to see which subpictures have a forced-start command. The other options are explained further down in this manual.
Once you have selected which subpictures to look at, you can use the slider to quickly move through them or the arrow buttons to go from one to the next or previous one.
You can also quickly go to a specific subpicture using the “Goto subpic” field.
If you’ve selected a specific stream, then entering 22 in that field would take you to subpicture 22 in that stream. If you’ve selected All Streams, then entering 22 in that field would take you to the 22nd subpicture regardless of stream.
Normally the background video is displayed along with the subtitles but you can disable that by unchecking “Show video frame”. This can be useful if the subpicture is difficult to see against a “busy” background. The “No zoom window” dropdown allows you to view an enlarged version of the subpicture, and will pop a small window which displays the subpicture bitmap with a 1:1 (no scaling) or a 1:2 (twice as big) ratio. The subpicture background is cropped to only show the “interesting” part of the bitmap:
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If you’re opening a menu vob and buttons are present, DVDSubEdit will display button rectangles as in this example. However, you probably won’t see any button highlight unless the “Ignore transparency” check box is selected, because most button highlights are transparent by default, until a button is selected/activated. |
Movies that are coded with a 16:9 aspect ratio can be played in three different ways: original 16:9 (for displays that support this aspect ratio), letterboxed and Pan&Scan (for 4:3 displays). Some DVDs have separate subtitle streams for each of these display modes. This info is stored in the IFO files, and DVDSubEdit shows the target display mode(s) for each subpicture stream in the stream selector (WS for widescreen, LB for letterbox and PS for Pan&Scan). Note that it is common to have only 1 subtitle stream for all aspect ratios. DVDSubEdit allows you to visualize the background video in the way it will be shown on your display, for all three display modes.
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You select a specific display mode by using the drop down selector. This will display the video as it will appear on the actual device, according to the selected mode. |
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The subpicture is also shown as it will be on your display. This can be quite useful to check that subpictures do line up with the background video, particularly for menus. Menus that are encoded in 16:9 almost always have two highlight streams, one for 16:9 displays, and one for Pan&Scan (menus are almost never shown in letterboxed format!). DVDSubEdit lets you check that the stream intended for 16:9 does indeed line up with the video in that mode, and likewise for the PS stream.
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In the preference panel, you can check the option “Adapt display mode to subpic stream”, which makes DVDSubEdit switch display mode when you change the selected subpicture stream if the current display mode is not compatible with the stream’s display mode(s). |
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Subpicture information is mainly displayed in the left part of the display:
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· In this example, we’re looking at subpicture pack (spu) number 3, which is the first subpic in the 0x22 stream. · The stream ID is 0x20 (hexadecimal for stream 32). · LBA (logical block address) tells you where the first sector of the first subpicture pack is for this spu. · V/CID indicates which vob cell this spu belongs to, in this case vobid 1 and cellid 1. · PTS indicates the presentation time in system clock units (90kHz clock). · The duration shows that the second set of commands (DCSQT) which holds the Stop command is delayed by 3.52 seconds. · The TimeCode indicates the start and end times (hh:mm:ss:1/1000s) of the subpicture. · The DCSQTs are the sets of commands for the spu. The first one has no delay, and comprises 6 commands: Set Color, Set Contrast, Set Display Area, Set Field Index, Start and End of commands. |
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In addition, the selection drop down list indicates the language of the subtitles (English in this example). Note that the language is defined in the IFO files, and it can change from PGC to PGC. For example, the stream ID 0x20 might be declared as an English subtitle in one PGC, then as another language in another PGC. Finally, the target display mode(s) is displayed (Widescreen and Letterboxed in this case). |
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Subtitles colors are defined by the color lookup table (CLUT) used in the PGC in which the cell containing the subpicture pack is referenced. DVDSubEdit shows the 4 colors assigned to each pixel types (‘b’ for background, ‘p’ for pattern, ‘e1’ for emphasis 1, and ‘e2’ for emphasis 2). |
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The CLUT is normally read from the IFO file, and specifically from the first PGC that references the VCID cell the subpicture belongs to. Of course, this can change from cell to cell, so it’s possible to see the CLUT change when you move the subpicture selection slider. SUP files don’t include any CLUT info, so if you load a SUP file, you have to also load the corresponding IFO to be able to visualize the real colors.
· Selecting “Use IFO CLUT” makes DVDSubEdit use the colors found in the CLUT of the PGC that references the cell the subpicture belongs to. This option is only available if DVDSubEdit found an IFO associated with the VOB files you loaded, or if you loaded an IFO along with a SUP file.
· Checking “Use Automatic CLUT” makes DVDSubEdit use different colors for “text”, background, outline and antialias pixels. Text pixels are the pixels used for the body of the subtitle characters, outline and antialias pixels are used around the text pixels to avoid aliasing problems that could result for the low resolution used in subpictures. The various types of pixels are identified from the subpicture itself, and might change from DVD to DVD (some DVDs use the ‘p’ pixel type for the body of the characters, while others might use the ‘e1’ type). This option is very useful when you don’t have the IFO that corresponds to the VOB files, or when you’re loading a .sup file. You can click on the tiles to change the default colors.
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You can temporarily visualize individual pixels by pressing the corresponding pixel button. For example, pressing the “e1” button will only show the e1 pixels, with a fully opaque transparency, hiding all the other pixels. This is very useful to visualize which individual pixel types are used, or to visualize the size of the subpicture background. The normal display resumes as soon as you release the button. |
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If your subpicture data has multiple sets of commands (DCSQTs), you can select which one to visualize (and later modify) using the DSCQT drop-down selector. This will update the supicture display to reflect the commands and parameters used in the DCSQT. |
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Multiple sets of commands are sometimes used to create fade-in and fade-out effects (although that’s fairly rare, but DVDSubEdit can add fade-in effects). For example, a fade-out is created by having each DCSQT contain a set transparency command with a gradually less opaque value. To remove such a fade-out, you would select “All DCSQTs” (last item in the drop-down selector) then move the transparency slider to full opaque. When you select “All DCSQTs”, the transparency slider and the color tiles show the values corresponding to the first DCSQT until you move the slider (or change the colors) at which point all DCSQTs take on the same values. An easier way would be do click the “Del. Fade” button which is explained later.
NOTE: DVDSubEdit currently only uses the first DCSQT to position the
subpicture. In other words, if one of the subsequent DCSQT has commands to move
the subpicture, these commands will not be reflected in the subpicture display.
Similarly, if you move the subpicture, only the first DCSQT parameters will be
modified.
Modifying an individual subpicture:
When you move a slider to modify your subtitles, only the
subpicture currently displayed is modified. All other ones are left alone. Typically,
when you’re satisfied with your modifications, you can apply them to the rest
of the subtitles by clicking the “Apply
to all selected” button 
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Modifying a group of subpictures:
When you click “Apply to all selected”, all the currently
selected subtitles are modified in the same way the currently visible one was
modified.
For example, if you have selected stream 0x20, belonging to VCID 1/3, only these subpictures
will be modified. This makes it easy to modify only a given language (by selecting the appropriate
stream) or a given chapter (by
selecting the appropriate VCID). For example, to change the start command of all English subtitles, you
would select the stream corresponding to the English
language, then change the start command of one of the subtitles, then click the
“Apply to all selected” button.
A small pop-up dialog then appears where you can select which of the
modifications you have made to the current subpicture you would like to apply
to the rest of them.
For example, if you’ve modified the start command and you’ve moved the
subtitle, you can decide to only apply the change to the start command by only
clicking that box.
Copying changes to another subpicture:
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You can also modify the current subpicture then apply the same modifications to another subpicture by selecting “Apply last modifs” in the Edit menu (or using the Ctrl-V shortcut). Using the left and right keyboard arrows and the Ctrl-V shortcut is a good way to quickly modify a group of subtitles. |
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Undoing changes:
You can select “Reload this spu from file” in the Edit menu (or use the Ctrl-Z shortcut) to reload the currently viewed subpicture from the file, or “Reload all spus from file” to undo all your changes. At this point, DVDSubEdit does not have multiple undos.
Saving your changes:
Once you’re satisfied with your modifications, you can select “Save all modifs” (or use the Ctrl-S shortcut) in the File menu to save all your changes back into the vob files. Note that there is no undo in that case! Once the changes are saved to the vob files, there is no way to go back to the originals, unless you have kept a copy of the files in another directory. If you opened a .sup file, the changes are saved back into the original .sup file.
If you modified any of the Color Lookup Tables (CLUTs), the IFO files will also be saved.
Changing the transparency of your subtitles can easily be done using the transparency slider. You must first choose which of the 4 pixel types you want this to be applied to.
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Choosing ‘b’, ‘p’, ‘e1’ or ‘e2’ will select the background, pattern, emphasis 1 or 2 pixels for modification. The slider will then only change the transparency of the selected pixels. You can choose “All pixels” to modify the transparency of all but the “true background” pixels. The pixels used for the background are left alone so the background video can still be seen by transparency. |
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To ignore all transparency values, you can check the “Ignore transparency” option:
This is useful to reveal subpictures that are initially transparent, such as button highlights in menus. DVDSubEdit tries to be smart about identifying truly background pixels: Assuming that the ‘b’ pixels are indeed used for the background is a bad idea as this is certainly not mandatory and in many cases, they’re not. DVDSubEdit assumes that the top left pixel in the subpicture is of the type used for the background.
Once you’ve changed the transparency of your selected pixel(s), you can apply the same modifications to all the selected subpictures using the Ctrl-A (Apply to all) shortcut.
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To hide subpictures you can click the “Hide subpic” button, which simply sets all transparencies to 0. You can also use the Ctrl-H shortcut to do that. |
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Simply click on one of the tiles to select which color of the current CLUT will be used for a given pixel type. To adjust the “e1” pixel type, click on the e1 tile. |
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A dialog will pop up, allowing you to choose the color among the 16 offered by the CLUT. For your convenience, the dialog indicates which LU (if looking at a menu vob) and which PGC the CLUT is defined in. NOTE: If you want to apply the color changes to the rest of the selected subpictures, you can apply the changes you made to all the pixels in one shot using Ctrl-A. |
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If you want to change the color coded in the CLUT itself, you can Shift-Click any of the 16 tiles in the “Pick color” dialog, and a color selection dialog will pop-up, allowing you to change the color stored in the color-lookup table in the IFO file for that specific tile. This does not modify the IFO file until you save all your changes. This is available only if an IFO file was loaded with your subpictures: if you open a .sup file and you don’t open an IFO file to provide a CLUT, this option will not be available.
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A drop-down list is available to select the subpicture start command. Subtitles normally use a “Normal Start” command, in which case the subtitles are only displayed if the corresponding subtitle stream is selected and the subtitles are turned on in the player. |
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A “Forced Start” command can be used
instead, in which case the subtitles are displayed even if the subtitles are
turned off in the player. During playback forced subtitles are only shown if
the stream is selected. In
other words, if no stream is selected, the forced subtitles
will not be shown. If the stream is selected but turned off,
then only forced subtitles will be shown in that stream. If the stream is selected and turned on,
all subtitles will be shown. Forced subtitles are often used when a
character is speaking in a tongue that is foreign to the main language used in
the movie, for example aliens in a sci-fi movie.
Note that DVDSubEdit can’t be used to select a given stream in the DVD, or to turn
subtitles on or off. This is done via PGC commands, and can be easily
accomplished with PGCEdit.
Menu highlights always use a forced start command. Note that you can choose to only show subtitles having a start command using the check box in the subpic selection area.
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Use the slider or the entry box to move the subpicture by the desired number of pixels. |
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DVDSubEdit limits the amount you can move subpictures so none of the “useful”pixels will disappear from the video frame. Once again, this applies to all but non “truly background” pixels (i.e. pixels that DVDSubEdit has determined are used as background). If you’re using borders (see below) DVDSubEdit makes sure none of the useful pixels disappear from inside the selected borders.
You can also use the mouse: Click on the subpicture in the video display and move it to the desired location… If you press Alt or Ctrl while dragging the subpicture, you can constrain vertical or horizontal motions.