Better subtitling positioning on Video and TV (Live and Recorded).

[GuruSR]

Most Videos today (BluRay) are of the "Scope" variant (some are "Flat", but that isn't much help either). Film formats still don't match TV formats (anywhere near), so when you're watching that latest Disney Sci-Fi soap opera (Star Wars), you wind up watching the movie in the middle of your TV with black bars at the top and the bottom and with the Subtitling on, it's right over that soap opera's imagery while the empty black bars at the top and bottom are unused.

Would it be too hard to offer "smart" subtitling, where it would (excluding positioned subtitles) place the subtitle vertically aligned to top or bottom based on size, much like TVs with subtitling do (our Gym has exercise machines that have small TVs and their subtitling display puts the text at the top or bottom based on some kind of reasoning), most of the time subtitling on NPVR is just below center in all things Video and TV).

GuruSR.

[sub]

What type of video and subtitles are you talking about? NextPVR only plays an active role in the subtitles for a subset of broadcast TV, like Teletext and DVB Subtitles, and SRT subtitles. Anything else is just taken care of by 3rd party decoders you've got installed on your machine.

[GuruSR]

Well, any and all of them actually. I tried looking at some of the decoders I could from within NPVR and none of the ones I saw showed anything about subtitling. If it's in the file itself, no clue. I tried a DVD and it too was over the show more than it should be. (Kung Fu Hustle, subtitles are never identical to the vocals, intentionally.)

I found no subtitle configuration at all, in the Misc settings or the Decoders, though the BluRay plugin (which I hear doesn't work anymore, not tried it, been too busy) along with the DVD section don't give any configuration for the decoders there. But none of the ones I looked at, have anything to say about subtitles. I've seen GraphEdit output of some VOBs and have seen the audio and subtitle hooks, so no idea who's doing the work.

Media Player Classic has a Subtitle Override for placement along with all sorts of font/size and color choices, which was why I asked.

GuruSR.

[sub]

FYI, the Decoders in the Settings->Decoders screen are only relevant for Live TV, and the playback of recordings. Anything else, including playback of BluRay disks etc, just lets Windows decide what decoders to use. I have no control over any subtitles being showed by whatever these decoders are on your machine.

[gEd]

Perhaps you have VSfilter installed ?

[GuruSR]

I noticed that the decoders in other areas (DVD, etc) have no settings options and none of the settings for the TV and recordings have any settings for subtitling, IIRC the subtitles on TV are in with the audio, could be wrong how it's done on recording, but this is digital, not sure where it's stored. Was painful watching Star Trek Discovery's first episode with Subtitles turned on, they overwrote each other, was unreadable, then again, so was that show...

GuruSR.

[GuruSR]

No, Media Player Classic doesn't come with VSFilter, it's built in apparently, it's the one included in SAF, didn't see VSFilter in it, but again, may not be 100% sure, though if that is the case, perhaps using VSFilter with NPVR would be easier, but it is an old library.

GuruSR.

[sub]

none of the settings for the TV and recordings have any settings for subtitling

Most of the TV subtitling systems, like the DVB Subtitles and Teletext subtitling, and even North American style Closed Captions have location built into their subtitle data, and they position to avoid placement over anything critical.

Was painful watching Star Trek Discovery's first episode with Subtitles turned on, they overwrote each other, was unreadable, then again, so was that show...

Was this a live tv, recording, or Blu-ray, or some other video file? As mentioned, your mileage will vary depending on the type of captions we're talking about, and what is showing the captions. In the case of captions types controlled by NextPVR, there is minor settings that can be controlled, like subtitle delays, fonts etc.

The type of video you're talking about, with black bars top and bottom is actually very rare in broadcast TV, since most films broadcast on TV are reformatted for 16:9. Most of the video that includes these black bars would be from DVDs, BluRays, or files ripped from those types of discs, and NextPVR doesn't play a role in display of these types of closed captions.