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Selected subtitle stream automatically follows language stream: How?

Tue, 2007-01-23 15:06 — okeanos

I was recently told that there's a way to author a DVD such that if the viewer uses the remote to surf audio tracks with subtitles OFF, the player will automatically select the matching subtitle track (but still leave subtitles OFF). Thus, if the viewer then starts to surf subtitles using the remote, the first track to turn ON would be the one that matches the currently selected language. This is only about the state where subtitles are OFF.

Among other benefits, this behavior ensures that any forced subtitle events for the selected language will be displayed.

One precondition, as I understand it, is the the TT must be authored so that the audio and subtitle tracks are in the same order (and possibly evenly matched in number - though of this I am not sure). For example, a TT with English, French, German and Spanish audio would need to have English, French, German, and Spanish subs in it and in the same track order as the audio.

I'd be grateful for anyone who can fill this picture in for me - correcting any of my mistakes or omissions. I would be keenly interested in knowing how to pull this trick off using Sonic Creator for initial authoring and then DVDAE to post-edit any required attributes.

Thanks!

Michael Lazar

‹ Director MX 2004 & DVD Video Anyone have a Atto UL3D SCSI they want to get rid of? ›
Sat, 2007-01-27 14:43 — okeanos

Double checked...

I made an identical inquiry about this behavior on the Tully list and got the same response as I got from Trai: it doesn't seem possible. So I'm pretty much of the conclusion that what I was told was incorrect. Too bad, of course. This would have been a cool behavior for DVDs with forced subtitle events.

Michael

Thu, 2007-01-25 04:21 — Trai

I know what you mean

Hi Michael,

Well, I purchased a used Scenarist Professional system over the holidays (turns out Scenarist is useful for fixing several DVD SP bugs, using AfterEdit to combine the results), plus I've looked over the Specification books on this subject, and there's no evidence of such a capability.

Now, as you know due to your work in this area, that you can send navigation to different PGCs with various subtitle stream 'availibility flags' set (Scenarist and DVD SP can do this at the PGC level), but again, that requires some pre-anticipation of what subtitle stream to have ready to appear for the viewer.

Maybe your source could come on here and explain what they were referring to?

Trai

Wed, 2007-01-24 13:13 — okeanos

Hmmm....

Trai -

Thanks for the reply.

This makes it sound like what I was told is simply not possible - i.e. not part of the DVD spec. (I hate being lied to!) I certainly know about programming a DVD so that subs follow audio selection (when subs are otherwise OFF) to get forced events to display. What was described to me was something much more magical from my POV: the player changing OFF streams during playback to match audio selected with the remote. Supposedly this was setup in Scenarist and involved tagging some attributes in the TT PGC exposed there.

Michael

Tue, 2007-01-23 22:57 — Trai

Set Stream based on Language

Hi Michael,

I think all that's possible is to query the player's language setting in the Title PGCs pre command area, move that value to a GPRM, and then use another GPRM to compare their values to set the subtitle stream acorrdingly; with it's display off.

The assumption in this scenario is the user will choose the matching language audio stream before operating the subtitle remote key; or, the proper subtitle will appear for them if the viewer goes for the subtitle remote key first.

I haven't tried this, though, but can't think of any other way to achieve this. Scenarist can multiplex VOBs in such a way that audio and subtitle streams follow angle changes, but that's different.

Look forward to any experimentation you care to engage in and report (you're good at that kind of thing!).

Take care,

Trai

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