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Subtitle confusion! (1 Viewer)

carl_b_byrne

Agent
Joined
Nov 27, 2002
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28
Can someone tell me the difference b/w player generated and movie generated subtitles. Ive seen talk of it on the forum, but I am a little confused as to which is which!

Thanks a bunch
 

Allan Jayne

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 1, 1998
Messages
2,405
Movie generated -- The subtitles are put there during movie production, are part of the video pixels, always occupy the same place on the screen, and may be in the letterbox bar with the movie being non-16:9 enhanced to make room for the subtitles outside the picture.

Player generated -- The subtites are coded separately from the video pixels, processed by the player, may be in a choice of languages, and usually the player gives you a choice of where the subtitles appear on the screen.

CC Closed Captioning -- Is embedded somewhere in scan lines 481-525 (for NTSC) of analog video. Laserdisk players and VCR's don't do any processing of them and the TV with the CC feature processes them and lets you turn them on or off. These scan lines are not included on DVD and broadcast DTV raw data so an alternative player generated encoding is used.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm
 

Mike Williams

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 3, 2003
Messages
1,019
Not to mention, player generated subtitles look like total crap. Notice the subtitles in Star Wars: Episode 2 . . . HIDEOUS!
 

Michael Reuben

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 12, 1998
Messages
21,763
Real Name
Michael Reuben

Yes. And the easiest way to prove it is by turning them off. If the subtitles have been burned into the movie, there's no way to turn them off.

M.
 

Sean Conklin

Screenwriter
Joined
Oct 30, 2000
Messages
1,720
The player generated sub-titles seem to butcher up the original dialogue too. Lots of missing dialogue and substitution words. At least on "Real Genius", as I found out the other day.
 

Allan Jayne

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 1, 1998
Messages
2,405
I think it is common for subtitles to be shorter than the actual dialog, in order to fit in the space allotted and remain there for a reasonable length of time for readability. This requires rewording.
 

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