[MPlayer-users] Mencoder and transparent subtitles, again

[The Wanderer]

Eddie wrote:

> On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 16:58:50 -0700 (PDT), Loren Merritt wrote:
> 
>> On Sun, 18 Apr 2004, Eddie  wrote:
>> 
>>> I am having a big problem encoding subtitles when I use mencoder
>>> to encode DVDs to Divx. I made a script that I can bulk encode
>>> vob files, 100 eps at a time, using the 3 pass encoding. It video
>>> quality is great, but the subtitles are transparent.  Yes I copy
>>> off the IFO file from the DVD and it helps, but still
>>> transparent.

>> That's a limitation of MPlayer's OSD: It can only display
>> transparent white text with black borders.
>> 
>> The best quality would be to OCR the subtitles into SRT or the like
>> (and maybe mux into OGM or Matroska). It doesn't take long, but you
>> can't really automate it. I haven't seen a decent non-interactive
>> OCR program.

> That is a bummer. I looked into OCR and that is the best way, but
> from what I have read, it's not 100% and I don't have the time it
> takes to proof read. Right now I load up my computer with 5-6 DVDs
> and 100+ eps in vob format, hit my scripts and come back in a few
> days to a drive full of avi files.

Tell me about it. I haven't AFAIR even found a Linux OCR program which
can tell that a tiny circle (a period) is different from a large circle
(the lowercase letter o), even *with* training (the interaction referred
to above). Admittedly the shapes are, aside from size, identical - but
size should not be completely ignored!

> On the topic of OGMs. I have some OGMs that a friend gave me. They
> have optional subtitles and 2 audio tracks. I don't see a lot about
> encoding OGMs in mencoder? Can I do the same mecoder?

No. MEncoder currently supports output to AVI format and, with more
recent and IIRC less known-to-be-reliable code, MPEG format. Beyond
that, you would need to use a program such as ogmmerge.

-- 
       The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

A government exists to serve its citizens, not to control them.