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When Is ANYONE Going To Get It RIGHT!?
I am just about at my wit's end regarding this issue, so I set out to find a forum filled with "really-smart-DVD-technology-enthusiasts" and ended up here. 
My wife and I really enjoy watching films at home, and recently I decided to take the technology leap from the big black stereo cabinet to the ultra cool HTPC - coustom built myself, of course.
On that note, I will now pause and announce to the room, if you are building an HTPC and haven't yet heard of "myHTPC", go find it now!
Ok -"ahemm"- to the point...
I need a software DVD player.
"That's it?!", you ask. No - I need the DVD player to display subtitles CORRECTLY.
"Awww - thats EASY! {insert favorite DVD player here}", you say.
No, no, no, no... That's, "CORRECTLY" - as in properly displayed - rendered in the correct viewing ratio (in this case, 4:3) - independently from the movie - in the case of a widescreen DVD, OUT OF AND BELOW THE PICTURE!!!!
"ooo, k - This guy's an idiot. The DVD itself determines where the subtitles are supposed to be positioned."
-EXACTLY!!!!-
Pease, if you will, take a look at exhibit "A";
This is a photo taken of our hardware DVD player in action. Notice the correct placement of the subtitles beneath the image. Having owned four hardware units to date and seen many others belonging to both friends and family, this photo is an ideal representation of all of them - I have never seen them look any differently than what I have portrayed here.
Now, see exhibit "B";
In this photo, taken while playing the exact same DVD in a software player, please take notice of not only the incorrect placement of the subtitles (inside the picture), but also the distorted APPEARANCE of the subtitles! Although the length of the subtitle image is the same, it has a smaller height than the first. This is, in fact, is exactly what would happen to any image recorded in a 4:3 ratio but incorrectly rendered in 16:9 - like the film itself.
This photo represents EVERY SOFTWARE PLAYER I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO FIND TO DATE!!!
-WinDVD
-PowerDVD
-NvDVD
-CinemaTek
-TheaterTek
-ZoomPlayer (no option to change)
-and two or three other freeware players
"Calm down, dude - how can you be so sure that it's not the hundreds of models of hardware DVD players that have it wrong, and not the software?"
I call to your attention exhibit "C";
This is, once again, the same exact DVD in play by the hardware unit. In this case, however, closed captions are on display being produced by the internal decoder in the television itself. Notice the location of the captions; below the picture. The caption stream is obviously being supplied by the data contained in the DVD video, and since that data is impossible to alter, and since the TV has absolutely no provisions to resize anything, it would be DEAD ON LOGICAL to assume that a 4:3 ratio for captions and/or subtitles combined with a 16:9 ratio for the film is, in fact, what the producers of the DVD INTENDED in the first place! (btw - in researching the matter, I HAVE been able to confirm that subtitle images DO have a parameter indicating the ratio intended for their presentation seperate and apart from the ratio for the film)
"Man - you're getting your panties in a wad all over nothing! Nobody watches anything with subtitles on."
Due to a childhood illness, my wife suffers from severe hearing loss. Although her hearing aid allows her to function quite normally in everyday life, dialogue in film can often be especially difficult for her to understand; therefore, we watch EVERYTHING with subtitles on!
Actually, I've grown quite used to it. In some ways I even prefer it, enabling me to catch a lot of details that I wouldn't otherwise.
Whenever I wish to ignore the subtitles, I just avoid looking in the black bar below the picture...
...or at least I USED TO!!!
So I now call upon thy fellow tech-heads and movie-aficionados - those tried and true with experience and knowledge; is there a DVD player out there that will display subtitles in a widescreen film correctly, combining the images AFTER the film has been resized? Or, at least, a utility or direct show filter that would allow me to do so on my own?
I really need help - the funny-farm is not so far away...
My wife and I really enjoy watching films at home, and recently I decided to take the technology leap from the big black stereo cabinet to the ultra cool HTPC - coustom built myself, of course.
On that note, I will now pause and announce to the room, if you are building an HTPC and haven't yet heard of "myHTPC", go find it now!
Ok -"ahemm"- to the point...
I need a software DVD player.
"That's it?!", you ask. No - I need the DVD player to display subtitles CORRECTLY.
"Awww - thats EASY! {insert favorite DVD player here}", you say.
No, no, no, no... That's, "CORRECTLY" - as in properly displayed - rendered in the correct viewing ratio (in this case, 4:3) - independently from the movie - in the case of a widescreen DVD, OUT OF AND BELOW THE PICTURE!!!!
"ooo, k - This guy's an idiot. The DVD itself determines where the subtitles are supposed to be positioned."
-EXACTLY!!!!-
Pease, if you will, take a look at exhibit "A";
This is a photo taken of our hardware DVD player in action. Notice the correct placement of the subtitles beneath the image. Having owned four hardware units to date and seen many others belonging to both friends and family, this photo is an ideal representation of all of them - I have never seen them look any differently than what I have portrayed here.
Now, see exhibit "B";
In this photo, taken while playing the exact same DVD in a software player, please take notice of not only the incorrect placement of the subtitles (inside the picture), but also the distorted APPEARANCE of the subtitles! Although the length of the subtitle image is the same, it has a smaller height than the first. This is, in fact, is exactly what would happen to any image recorded in a 4:3 ratio but incorrectly rendered in 16:9 - like the film itself.
This photo represents EVERY SOFTWARE PLAYER I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO FIND TO DATE!!!
-WinDVD
-PowerDVD
-NvDVD
-CinemaTek
-TheaterTek
-ZoomPlayer (no option to change)
-and two or three other freeware players
"Calm down, dude - how can you be so sure that it's not the hundreds of models of hardware DVD players that have it wrong, and not the software?"
I call to your attention exhibit "C";
This is, once again, the same exact DVD in play by the hardware unit. In this case, however, closed captions are on display being produced by the internal decoder in the television itself. Notice the location of the captions; below the picture. The caption stream is obviously being supplied by the data contained in the DVD video, and since that data is impossible to alter, and since the TV has absolutely no provisions to resize anything, it would be DEAD ON LOGICAL to assume that a 4:3 ratio for captions and/or subtitles combined with a 16:9 ratio for the film is, in fact, what the producers of the DVD INTENDED in the first place! (btw - in researching the matter, I HAVE been able to confirm that subtitle images DO have a parameter indicating the ratio intended for their presentation seperate and apart from the ratio for the film)
"Man - you're getting your panties in a wad all over nothing! Nobody watches anything with subtitles on."
Due to a childhood illness, my wife suffers from severe hearing loss. Although her hearing aid allows her to function quite normally in everyday life, dialogue in film can often be especially difficult for her to understand; therefore, we watch EVERYTHING with subtitles on!
Actually, I've grown quite used to it. In some ways I even prefer it, enabling me to catch a lot of details that I wouldn't otherwise.
Whenever I wish to ignore the subtitles, I just avoid looking in the black bar below the picture...
...or at least I USED TO!!!
So I now call upon thy fellow tech-heads and movie-aficionados - those tried and true with experience and knowledge; is there a DVD player out there that will display subtitles in a widescreen film correctly, combining the images AFTER the film has been resized? Or, at least, a utility or direct show filter that would allow me to do so on my own?
I really need help - the funny-farm is not so far away...
I will go check them out and post my results later on.
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