Subtitle tab

Click on "Subtitle streams" tab to access all subtitles features. ConvertX tries to detect additional streams for a video file (like subtitles) automatically. This only works for subtitles that are named accordingly to the video files they belong to (“My Movie CD1.avi”, “My Movie CD1.srt”) and if they are located in the same folder/location.
However, audio and/or subtitle streams can be added to a titleset manually.



To manually add a subtitle file, simply click on the icon and load the file from the browsing windows that opens. If your subtitles file has the exact same name as the video (apart from the extension), and is stored at the same place as the video (same folder), then it will be loaded automatically by the software.
If you want to remove a subtitle stream, simply click on the icon
To select a file to be played in the preview, simply click on it, it will be highlighted in blue.
If you click on the ... icon on the right, you access the subtitle options. The window that appears enables standard editing of SRT files only and ASS/SSA files with one style only (other subtitle formats + ASS/SSA files with more than one style already have their styles pre-defined and cannot be edited): font, color and size. Any changes made here will be applied on the preview after you click on OK.


For ConvertXtoDVD only:
DVD standard and the use of soft subtitles (ones that can be turned on or off) have limitations and embedding the subtitles into the video removes these limitations and give a more professional/beautiful result. Blu-ray subtitles do not have these limitations so you can leave them as "soft subtitles". So if you want to get the cleanest, smoothest looking subtitles (or get their true color for ASS/SSA subtitles) check the option to embed the subtitles into the video. For more information read this post.

If you always want to apply the same settings to your subtitles, you can set subtitle settings once and for all at General Settings -> Subtitle tab -> Subtitle text style rendering.



Font: The selected Font is the one what will be used through the whole displayed text. Arial, because this allows to display text lengths of 55 characters per line. A normal created srt subtitle file has 50 characters per line defined.

Color: Change the color you want the subtitles to display in.

Size: Changing the font / size will result in a different amount of characters what will fit in one line. The amount of characters what will fit in one line is also affected by values set at section Margin.

Margin: increasing the number moves your subtitles vertically higher on the screen and decreasing lowers them.

Code Page: see below for explanation

Multi-line subtitle test zone. Type your text here.: allows you to type a sample text which will not display on the converted file, but allows you to test out your subtitle settings: color, font, etc.


The Sample text zone is an area where you can type in any text and apply any subtitle option to preview it (incase the real subtitles don't play immediately and you don't want to "waste" time "looking" for them in the video. This option is only availble before the preview is actually launched, and only with .Srt subtitle files.

For more options, click on Show advanced.




More editing options are available in this window:

Margin: Defines the margin space (vertical positioning) on the screen (0 being the bottom edge of screen and 535 being the top of the screen)

Code Page: Also if your subtitles are in Greek or Thai or in some other character formatting that does not use ANSI-latin 1, make sure to change the code page so that your subtitles are displayed correctly on the converted result.

Offset: If your subs are not synchronized with the video or audio you can add a delay (either forward or backward). MS stands for milliseconds. The offset feature is available for all subtitles styles.

Menu text: the text that will be shown in the "settings" menu of the disc to identify the subtitle stream.

Language identifier: is a tag the stream will be associated with. The language identifier will be a language abbreviation such as EN, FR, ES . . . . It does not appear in a menu or on the disc but identifies the stream to a DVD/Blu-ray player - this language identifier can be seen when you press the subtitle button to activate of deactivate subtitle on a remote control and it will display the tag of the current stream being displayed. ConvertX tries to automatically detect the language of the file but if no information is found ? "Unspecified" will be displayed. If the detection is not accurate, you can change it. If it is not detected you will see "? Unspecified". Changing the Language identifier will also update the language in the menu text above. You can however customize the Menu text - edit it after having select the correct language identifier. Don't know what language is the right one? Play the video in the preview window read the subtitles and then select the corresponding language to what you just saw.

Click on Set as default for playback if you have more than one subtitle stream and wish this stream to be played by default when the disc is inserted into a player and played.

Embed this subtitle into video: will "stick"/hard code the subtitles directly into the video. They will not be "removable" and they will not appear in the subtitle menu. Of course this is done on the converted result not your original video file.


More...
This button opens up the Subtitle Style Editor, proposing advanced subtitle editing possibilities.



Style Name
You can customize your subtitles just for this video (in that case apply your changes then click OK at the bottom).
In the style editor, under style name, you will find all the pre-set settings for your subs, either the default one from the software or any styles you may have added yourself. To create a new style or change the default style so that your conversion will always use these subtitle settings, you need to open the subtitles style editor from "settings" and "subtitles" and follow these instructions.

We've just seen how to edit Font, Size, here you also have the possibility to show your subtitles in Bold, Italic, Underlined or Strikeout. Note that your selection will apply to the whole subtitle file, and not just on certain lines of your choice.

In this section you can also change the Code Page. For more information on what Code page is please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page. The default code page (ANSI Latin 1) is the character set for Western European spoken languages. If you are not sure what Code Page to use please consult this page which identifies different code pages.
Use 'Load front from file" to load an external font.

Colors -" Contrasts"
Define the color of the text, outline (emphasis 1), shadow (emphasis 2) and the background for your subtitles. In the boxes beneath each of these you can modify the transparency of the color applied (0-100: 0 = transparent, 100 = opaque).

Text Rendering

Character spacing: define character and line spacing, and maximum number of characters to be displayed per line.

Word wrapping: defines if and how text should be wrapped: Evenly distributed text, Top line wider, End of line, No word wrapping, or Bottom line wider.

Text Align: choose the position of the subtitle in the screen: bottom, top, right hand corner, etc, acording to the symbols.

Margin: Define left, right, and top/bottom margin on screen (0 being the edge of screen and 535 being the top of the screen)

Outline and shadow: the Outline size defines the thickness of the outline desired.
The Shadow offset lets you define the space between the characters (black) and the shadow (blue), use up / down arrows to change value. Watch text on screen what happens.


Opaque box: Check Opaque box and a box (somewhat transparent) will be placed around your text. Some prefer this for better readability.

Text Angle: this new option enables you to tilt the subtitles at any angle.

Click on OK to save your preferences.

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