Subtitle overlapping toggle (different approach)

[obszczymucha]

Hi

I'd like to add 'subtitle overlapping toggle' feature again. This feature would be enabled by default, and will keep the current behaviour of the filter, which is displaying subtitles on top of eachother when timings between subtitles are too short or overlap.

When feature is disabled (new behaviour), all subtitles will be displayed in one line.

I've taken all your comments into consideration and approached the feature differently.
My previous attempt on doing this was to correct subtitle timings, which required restarting of the filter if the user wanted to change the option. This time I'm just preventing subtitles from being displayed in more than one line.

Comparing to the previous approach:

• the feature no longer requires filter restarting
• works for both external and embedded subtitles
• interface should not break existing players (methods added as last)
• the code is (imo) less invasive

Please decide whether the project would benefit from this change. I personally found the lack of such feature in VSFilter and I've also seen people asking for such option in the web.

Regards.

[Underground78]

When feature is disabled (new behaviour), all subtitles will be displayed in one line.

I don't really get it, maybe a screenshot would help?

[obszczymucha]

The first subtitle:
http://imageshack.us/a/img72/7429/1stsubtitle.jpg

The second subtitle:
http://imageshack.us/a/img502/2455/2ndsubtitlewithoutoverl.jpg

Now these two above is a normal behaviour of subtitles we can see in the TV or cinema, but VSFilter / MPC HC does it differently. I believe it's done for people who read slower so they dont miss any of the subtitles that come too fast.

The two cases below demonstrate current VSFilter behaviour with subtitles overlapping, the goal is to let the user choose if they want to disable it or not:

Here's the second subtitle overlapped:
http://imageshack.us/a/img39/399/2ndsubtitleoverlapped.jpg

And an extreme case of 5 subtitles overlapped (which would normally be displayed one after another in the same line when my feature was introduced and disabled):
http://imageshack.us/a/img198/7208/extremecase.jpg

The toggle would simply allow users to choose the behaviour. I find it hard to watch a movie when subtitles take incredibly huge amount of the screen.

Hope this visualizes the issue :)

[Underground78]

Yeah but I'm kinda lost, http://imageshack.us/a/img39/399/2ndsubtitleoverlapped.jpg is current behavior and http://imageshack.us/a/img502/2455/2ndsubtitlewithoutoverl.jpg is with your new option?

[obszczymucha]

No, sorry the other way around. I'll edit the post.

[obszczymucha]

http://imageshack.us/a/img502/2455/2ndsubtitlewithoutoverl.jpg is what I'm trying to achieve and http://imageshack.us/a/img39/399/2ndsubtitleoverlapped.jpg is what I'm trying to get rid of.

[Underground78]

So I got it right it seems? ^^'

[obszczymucha]

Yeah :D

[blaenk]

EDIT: Heh, disregard the following. I misunderstood completely.

I think I understand what he means. I've only just recently noticed subtitles like this in a documentary I saw on Netflix. If you have Netflix and would like to see it in action, the documentary is The Dark Ages.

Basically, the subtitles are added line by line to the bottom of a subtitle 'queue' with the oldest line at the top and the newest at the bottom. So say you want to give it a maximum of 5 lines (which might be too much, and like @obszczymucha says, ruin the experience because the subtitles would get in the way of the movie). Each time a new subtitle line is meant to go on display, it is pushed to the bottom (i.e. displayed at the bottom of these 5 lines) and the top/oldest subtitle line is removed.

Basically it's like a queue of a certain maximum length and you push the subtitle lines at the bottom. Like if you would overlay a viewing rectangle/crop on top of the iconic Star Wars scrolling text in the intro, except the subtitles aren't animated in a scrolling fashion.

I'm indifferent to this feature. If it's not difficult to implement, I imagine it would be a nice option to have.

I just figured I'd help in clarifying it since I've seen this before.

[vBm]

@obszczymucha
I just seen this for the first time and it ruined the experience of watching the show for me.
@Underground78
Would be nice to have on master.

[Underground78]

@vBm: I don't get why the subtitles file is like that to begin with. Anyway the patch isn't particularly big so I guess we could include it. I won't be around before Monday but I will have a closer look next week.

[vBm]

In my case problem is end time being the same for at least 3 lines at the time. Issue here is indeed translator's mistake for not syncing the file properly but still. If it can be fixed if those idiots do it again it's worth having something like that inside.

[obszczymucha]

Doh, my git does not use my account. Weird. I've moved that out.