Question: AVI Subtitles

I followed the livada tutorial on how to hardcode subtitles into a movie, but I ended up with an avi file via Subtitle Edit that’s only 1.27 MB—the original movie stays its original size, while this new little 1.27 MB file is all I have left.

The problem is, when I try to run the movie in VLC Media Player, nothing happens—and it won't play on my DVD player either.

I could use some advice here. Thanks.

I'm assuming you're trying to hardcode subtitles using Subtitle Edit, just so you can actually watch a DivX movie on a standard DVD player without any headaches.

Honestly, there’s really no point in burning subtitles into a file if you're just watching it on a PC; players like VLC Media Player handle everything perfectly fine on their own.

If you want to double-check whether Subtitle Edit actually did its job correctly on your computer, just use Windows Media Player. Once the movie starts playing, right-click anywhere on the screen, go to Subtitle Tracks > Subtitle Tracks #1, check the box, and the subs should pop up. 🙂

By the way, how big was the original DivX file before you went through the trouble of processing it with Subtitle Edit?

Joshua Garcia3 said:I’m guessing you were trying to hardcode the subtitles using Subtitle Edit—just to make it easier to watch a DivX movie on a standard home DVD player.

Hardcoding subtitles just to watch a movie on a PC seems pretty pointless, honestly, since players like VLC Media Player handle that perfectly fine on their own.

Well, yeah—because my subtitles aren't showing up. And for the record, I'm not hardcoding the ones I watch in VLC Media Player; I just keep them as separate files.

Joshua Garcia3 said:If you want to check if Subtitle Edit actually did its job on your computer, use Windows Media Player. Once the movie starts, just right-click the screen, go to Subtitle Tracks > Subtitle Tracks #1, select it, and the subs should pop up. 🙂

By the way, how big was the original DivX file before you ran it through Subtitle Edit?

The file is exactly 639 MB, and it stays that exact size after processing. I guess I wasn't clear enough before—the DVD player won't even "see" the movie on the disc at all.

I'll give Windows Media Player a shot and let you know.

Carl Nguyen2 said:Yeah, because it's just not showing the palatals for me.

Look, maybe it’d be easier to just use Subtitle Edit to swap those palatals out for c, z, s, etc., and then save it like that?
There are other ways too—if your media player supports FW upgrades, they might have released an update by now that actually handles our characters.

Carl Nguyen2 said:I followed the Livada guide on how to mux subtitles into a movie, but I ended up with an AVI file via AVIAddXSub that's 1.27 MB (the original movie stays its original size, and this new little file is just 1.27 MB).

So, the file processed in AVIAddXSub is 1.27 MB larger than the original. I guess I get it now. OK.

Carl Nguyen2 said:The movie is exactly 639 MB and stays that size after processing. I didn't specify clearly before—the DVD player won't recognize the movie on the disc at all.

I'll try Windows Media Player and let you know.

The DVD player isn't picking up the movie processed with AVIAddXSub and burned to a DVD. Okay, that makes sense to me now.

Maybe try Windows Media Player. 🙂

Gerald Kelly21 said:Look, maybe it’s just easier for you to go into the subtitle editor and swap out those palatal sounds for c, z, or s—then just save the file that way?

True, but I’d probably rather try something like this first.

Joshua Garcia3 said:So, I just realized why the file processed in Subtitle Edit ended up being 1.27 MB larger than the original—it makes sense now. OK.

I think you’ve missed my point entirely. Here's what's actually happening: I run the movie through Subtitle Edit, and at the end, it spits out this new "avisub.divx" file that's only 1.27 MB—meanwhile, the actual movie remains untouched at its original size (636 MB). According to the tutorial, the final file should be larger than that.

Joshua Garcia3 said:Have you ever actually tried using Windows Media Player? 🙂

I am. After I go to File > Open > film, it won't even launch the thing.

Well, looks like you didn't actually get anywhere with that. Maybe instead of using Subtitle Edit, you should give AVIAddXSub a shot. 🙂

Here’s how it looks after running it through Subtitle Edit:



The bottom two are just the raw AVI and SRT files before anything happened, and that top one is what it looks like once the subtitles are actually burned in.

Honestly, this software is pretty great. Everything seems to be working perfectly so far—though I haven't actually had a chance to test it out on my DVD player yet, which I assume will work just fine.

Everything seems fine, except the subtitles keep drifting to the left until they basically slide right off the screen. Is there any way to fix that, or is it just not something this program handles?

One more thing—I've got this one movie that won't play properly; it stutters every five seconds or so. I'm wondering if that's a result of this processing, or is it more likely that the disc wasn't burned correctly in the first place?

I suppose it’s probably safer to just go at a slower pace; it takes a bit longer, sure, but you dodge those potential errors. There's always a chance someone butchered the file before uploading it to a torrent site.

As for fixing the subtitle position, you really have two ways to handle it. You could try shrinking the font size so everything actually fits on the screen, or you can head into Configuration 1> Subtitle Position> Center AT (CP) and just mess around with the numbers. Add a little, subtract a little—eventually, you'll find your own sweet spot. 🙂

I honestly didn't even notice the tabs. I'll probably have to mess around with them a bit to get the hang of it—but otherwise, everything seems solid.

Thanks for the help.