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URGENT – subtitles get chopped off when viewed on TV
Hi! I am new to Encore DVD and am learing to use it because I got hired to add subtitles to an existing video. I found this site and am hoping to get help for my problem!
Here is the issue:
I added subtitles to the 50 minute video and when I checked the project, it said I had “overflowing subtitles”. When I viewed it on the TV, the subtitled got chopped off on the sides at at the bottom.Then somebody told me to click on the “show safe area” button. I did, and spent 5 hours editing all the subtitle clips to fit within the white boxes. (side note: it no longer allows me to add new subtitles to the project, how come?)
However, it still said I had “overflowing subtitles” and when I viewed it on the TV, the subtitles seem to have stretched out and get chopped off again.When I preview the project it looks fine, and the subtitles also show up complete when I play the dvd on a computer. But WHY is this happening?
I need to turn in this project on Monday, and would GREATLY appreciate help ASAP. Please go easy on me, I am not familiar with the technical terms, so step-by-step instructions would be best 🙂
I will be around for a few hours, you can reach me here, my email cr***************@***oo.com or msn cr**********@*****il.com
THANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE!
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2 Replies
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I don’t have an Encore machine in front of me, so I am going on memory. The first thing I would check is what font you are using. It’s been a while since I did much sub-title work, but I ran into some issues using fonts other than the default, which I believe is Myriad Pro. Check that first. I have a couple of other work arounds I had to do on on one particularly difficult project that I can suggest, but you’ll have to give me a little time to get access to an Encore machine, so I can remember the procedures.
Hope this helps, I’ll give you more things to try shortly.
Heath
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Sorry it took so long to respond again, I had to install Encore on my notebook so I could figure out the workaround procedure since I don’t have access to my primary machine.
Newer versions of Encore won’t usually allow for overlapping of subtitles, which seems to be your problem. One way of fixing this, is to export your subtitle track as a text script. This simply creates a text file with the in and out points (timecodes), and the text for each subtitle. You can review this to see if you have any overlap. I like to keep at least a few frames between each subtitle, 5-10 frames. It is possible that if it is having to encode your footage, and it converts from non-drop to drop frame, that it will cause overlaps in timecode. Putting a little space between the subtitles should protect you, though. You can make changes in timecodes here if necessary. If you do, when you save, make sure you encode the .txt file to unicode or UTF-8 for compatibility. I would use Notepad, instead of Word, since it is a little easier to make sure you are saving as a .txt file with the proper encoding.
Once you have made the changes, save the project under a different name, delete the old subtitle track, create a new subtitle track and import the modified text script into the new subtitle track. Make sure when importing the text script, that you use the default font. You may have to resize your bounding box, but first try an export to see if you have gotten rid of your overlap error before spending more time fixing the subtitles. If this works,then try changing the bounding box on a few subtitles, and test export to see if that works now. You may have been inheriting problems from earlier weird settings, which this will hopefully have corrected. If all is well, fix the bounding box for the remaining titles and export.
Hopefully this will solve all of your problems.
Let us know what, if any of this helped, and in which way, so there is a procedure others can follow if they encounter the same issues.
Heath
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