Video Recording/Playback/Editing/Converting/etc.

So far this latest adventure is exceptionally promising.

Ulead DVD workshop 2.

It is simple and does everything.

First the subs have to be in the Ulead format.

Load the original subtitle file into subtitle workshop. It allows you to simply save it in dozens of formats including Ulead subtitle txt.

In ulead you have to select DVD mode and load directly from a DVD image file (video_ts). Then in the Edit screen you can select the subtitle file and do all kinds of manipulating INCLUDING font color, size, position.
Finally on the finish screen you simply burn to disc and you have a new video_ts folder with the merged and perfect subtitled project. And the final burn only takes a few minutes.

Will comment further after I finish a complete episode and see it on TV.

:victory: :victory: :victory: :victory: :victory: :victory: :victory:

ralphm1999 wrote:So far this latest adventure is exceptionally promising.

Ulead DVD workshop 2.

It is simple and does everything.

Ralph's still looking for that DVD silver bullet... :)

bmwracer wrote:
Ralph's still looking for that DVD silver bullet... :)

I think this is a gold bullet. This must have been written by senior programmers (like myself :twisted: )

Good luck with that Ralph :)

The gold bullet is not so golden anymore. Ulead crates soft subs.
That is OK though. I don't care what kind they are... it just does not allow me to use TMpgenc to author as the soft subs get lost... So I have to author it in Ulead. Another author routine to figure out and get used to.
:banghead:
I'm still delighted at how brilliant the subs are. and it does not care if the time stamp ending on one line is the same as the time stamp start of the next line. It just gives a warning by highlightint the line of text and accepts it perfectly in time with the dialogue. :bow:

ralphm1999 wrote:The gold bullet is not so golden anymore. Ulead crates soft subs.

No surprise. Hardsubbing the video would degrade the video, ne? :)

That is OK though. I don't care what kind they are... it just does not allow me to use TMpgenc to author as the soft subs get lost... So I have to author it in Ulead. Another author routine to figure out and get used to.
:banghead:
I'm still delighted at how brilliant the subs are. and it does not care if the time stamp ending on one line is the same as the time stamp start of the next line. It just gives a warning by highlightint the line of text and accepts it perfectly in time with the dialogue. :bow:

You should try DVD Lab Pro.

bmwracer wrote:
You should try DVD Lab Pro.

It's in my chute of software to try. :dancing:

Ralphm1999 Seems like your problem is almost solved, ne? Glad to hear that. Ganbatte!

Saito_Hajime wrote:Ralphm1999 Seems like your problem is almost solved, ne? Glad to hear that. Ganbatte!

Yes. This seems too good to be true..... Just a few pitfalls,

It does not wrap long lines so the ends get lost... this means I have to rewrite the long lines into two or more separate time stamps. But there are so few long lines that that is not a big deal...

Second if I have to stop in the middle, I can save everything except the font settings... so when I come back to it I have to reset the font attributes. Again not a show stopper as it only takes a few seconds to set the attributes... everything is on one screen during the 'edit' phase.

ralphm1999 wrote:

It does not wrap long lines so the ends get lost... this means I have to rewrite the long lines into two or more separate time stamps. But there are so few long lines that that is not a big deal...

You mean the last letters of a word on the edge of a line is missing? I'm not familiar with the tool that you used, but I think it could be an overscan issue, what do you think bmwracer?

Saito_Hajime wrote:You mean the last letters of a word on the edge of a line is missing? I'm not familiar with the tool that you used, but I think it could be an overscan issue, what do you think bmwracer?

If Ralphie's losing entire lines, it's more than overscan, I'm afraid.

Yet another reason why all-in-one packages don't fit the bill completely... Just like those fax/copier/printer/scanners: they can do everything, but not particularly well. :shakehead:

bmwracer wrote:
If Ralphie's losing entire lines, it's more than overscan, I'm afraid.

Yet another reason why all-in-one packages don't fit the bill completely... Just like those fax/copier/printer/scanners: they can do everything, but not particularly well. :shakehead:

No. The lines are there. If the line is longer than the screen width, the end letters are gone instead of wrapping to the next screen line.

I'd just live with the softsubs and make sure that the default is "on."

I did that with your copy of Nyokei Kazoku (Matrilineal Family) and it worked out just fine. :victory:

Want a copy? :)

bmwracer wrote:I'd just live with the softsubs and make sure that the default is "on."

I did that with your copy of Nyokei Kazoku (Matrilineal Family) and it worked out just fine. :victory:

Want a copy? :)

No thanks. It will be a long time before I get time to watch it again. I'm used to the Chinese menu now and would not know how to use an English menu. :nut:

bmwracer wrote:I'd just live with the softsubs and make sure that the default is "on."

I still have not found a way to set the default to on in the Ulead stuff. So for now I have to use my remote to turn the subs on.

Another monumental step forward. No more lost words if the line is too long.

Just found out that Ulead responds to a vertical slash which splits the line at that point and starts the text after the slash under the first line. I have no idea what character that is. It's not on the KB. I thought it might be a " | " above the "\" but it isn't. So it must be in some alternate KB symbol set that I have no idea which one.

But in Subtitle workshop, there is an option "smart line adjust" which automatically puts the slash in all lines over a certain length. Even creates 3 line entries if necessary. :woot: :woot: :woot:

ralphm1999 wrote:I still have not found a way to set the default to on in the Ulead stuff. So for now I have to use my remote to turn the subs on.

You can use DVDSubEdit to set the subtitles to be "on" as the default: select "Force Subtitles" on the lower right hand of the DVDSubEdit screen. :)

bmwracer wrote:
I can't understand why srt2sup would do that... Though, I haven't used the software that often to see that problem.

And I can't say I saw the problem when I tried it on that MPEG2 clip you sent me... :headscratch:

Probably because you're not as familiar with the subs as I am now that I've worked them so often I have almost the whole script memorized...

Final assessment of Ulead DVD workshop.

Pretty good overall.

To make it work the way I want my final product to appear it must have:

Titles, chapters, good quality, good synchronization, good menu.

All available with some caveats. It does not lend itself to cutting out commercials unless I have not foound it yet. So I first have to use TMPGenc author to cut out all the garbage from the episode. I've now discovered that TMPGenc author introduces some flukes at the point where commercial frames have been cut out. This causes Ulead DVD
to lose control of the timing vis a vi with the subs.
At the time you have finished all sub synching and you go to the finish routine, Ulead actually goes thru a cycle where it demuxes and remuxes the original VOB to mpeg and back to VOB with subs in place.

I found that this routine is very sophisticated and clears up all of problems caused by TMPGenc author. So for the ultimate perfect synchronizatin and working menus, I make a dummy pass, that is I take the TMPGenc output thru the finish cycle of Ulead. This repairs all TMPGenc faults and creates a seamless vob output. I take that Ulead output as input back to Ulead and get the perfect sub synchronization, menus with titles and chapters that perfectionists like myself would be proud of.
:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

I forgot to mention this:

If you have an avi or mpg that has audio in Dolby Digital (AC3), you won't be able to encode it using TMPGEnc: you won't get any audio after the job is done...

You have to demux the audio out of the avi/mpg source first, then encode the video only. After you're done, you can then mux the audio back in.

What do you use to demux b-san?