I've just finished a subtitle project, all that's left now is to re-encode the avi with subs. I'm using VirtualDub and the TextSub filter (the one that came with Aegisub, not the default one). The original avi was encoded with Divx 5. I'm using Divx 6.8 (with the bitrate set to be a bit higher than the original) to re-encode it. I've tried ffdshow and Xvid, but the compression artifacts are horrible. When I re-encode it, there is a very slight loss in quality, which is really only noticeable in the large single-color fields of the backround of the video. I know it's impossible to completely eliminate degradation due to the source not being lossy, but I just wanted to ask what would be the best settings to use. Also, if it will make any difference if I re-encode it directly or uncompress it first and then re-encode it (yes, the file will be huge, but I have enough free space for it). As I said, the loss in quality is very slight, and I would be more than happy to release it as it is, but if there is anyway way to further minimize the quality loss... Thanks in advance to anyone who responds.
Are you going to play the AVI in a Divx player? Doesn't your player support external subtitles(most do nowadays)? This way you would not have reencode and to embed them.
As with other fansubs, I intend for it be as widely-compatible as possible. AVI files with hardsubs are more likely to be playable on a (forgive me for using the term) non-techie's comp than an MKV. In addition, when I tried making it an MKV, VLC media player doubles the size of the subs and cut out parts of the letters (worked fine in Media Player Classic with ffdshow).
You do not have to mux the subtitles and the video in a MKV container. If you want, you can mux them in a divx container with Sub2Divx. The size will not be much bigger. So you are worried about playing the subtitles on a PC...Here is how I see it: If you download VobSub, have the subtitles and the movie named the same( e.g movie.avi and movie.srt) and placed in the same folder, and you will have the subs displayed on any player...VLC, MPC, WMP, Nero ShowTime...) Most of them don't even need VobSub( VLC, NeroST). So all you have to do, name the video and the subs the same, and the subs will display on any player. The once that don't, VobSub will do it automatically. It can't be easier than that. Or mux them in with Sub2Divx, and probably no need for VobSub to be installed(it is a nice tool that comes with it's own subtitle muxer)
Thank you for the information, I'll consider those alternatives, though I would still like to see what kind of results I can get with hardsubbing it. If anyone can answer my original question....
I use virtualdub to hard encode subtitles. Load your avi, set video to full processing mode. Go to filters & use the subtitler filter. Compress it using the same compression as the original; i.e if it's divx, use divx. Use the properties of the avi file to find out all this information. Set audio to direct stream copy, unless the audio is of vbr, then use full processing mode. You'll also need srt-saa converter, so that the srt subtitle text file is of the right format. Good luck.
Indeed. Basically, I just want to find out the best settings to use with DivX to get the best quality (or, more specifically, the least quality degradation). Also, if it makes any difference if I save it as an uncompressed AVI first, and then compress that file, as opposed to using the original (compressed) file as the source.
I don't know if anyone does that, or it will make any difference. Is not like you can improve the quality of the source video, before compressing with the subtitles, by saving as raw avi first.
I know I can't improve the quality, but it is, at least theoretically, possible that a compressor could return slightly different results in those two cases. From your response, I take it that that is negligible. Very well then, in that case, the only question remaining is one of settings. Should I just set the projected file size (and, thus, bitrate ) to be a bit higher than that of the original? Or is there some other configuration that would give me less quality degradation. Once that is answered, this thread can die. And thank you for the attention you have given this thread cyprusrom, you're title is well-earned. /salute
When you re-encod with DivX ,you are going to loose quality no matter what. To minimize that loss, encode to a bitrate as high as possible( depends how high your player supports). However, the higher the bitrate, the higher the output file size.
