Page 1 of 1

Washed-Out DVD's Subtitles

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2020 5:16 am
by Peter99
Hello, after remuxing some DVD's with MakeMKV, I realized it somehow altered the VobSub subtitles' color from the original files. While trying with another similar program, they were just fine. Like this:

http://www.framecompare.com/image-compa ... n/7K6KPNNX

Is there some special parameters or at least a workaround, which brings back the original brightness/color to them?

Thanks.

Re: Washed-Out DVD's Subtitles

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2020 1:47 pm
by Woodstock
Since MakeMKV is copying the subtitle track straight from the VOBSUB to the MKV file, there should not be any change.

Given that it's also an image-type subtitle (not text), the only thing that should affect it is how the player does the overlay. That is a factor of the image transparency, which is contained in the track.

Re: Washed-Out DVD's Subtitles

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2020 6:21 pm
by Peter99
Well, that's really weird since I'm using the very same player with the multiplexed MKVs, the only thing I change is the tool that do the remuxing job. That's why I'm wondering, provided MakeMKV only limits to rip the original vobsub files, why they show up washed-out when playing the resultant files? And why not, when I play the same remuxed files, but which were multiplexed by another tool. :?

If someone could provide some insights about this I would be very grateful.

Thanks.

Re: Washed-Out DVD's Subtitles

Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2020 11:23 am
by Peter99
I have compared the respective "idx" files from both, the MKV as multiplexed by the tool I used back then and MakeMKV; now I think I know why they look different. For some reason, MakeMKV's "idx" file has a different palette's information than the other tool. Besides, it lacks "scale" and "custom colors" parameters; and timestamps are slightly different as well. :?

Normal:
palette: 000000, FEFEFE, 3A3A3A, 7F7F7F, 7F0000, 007F00, 7F7F00, 00007F, 7F007F, FD8100, FE0000, 00FE00, F0F000, 0000FE, F000F0, 00F0F0,
Washed-out:
palette: bebebe, 121212, 565656, c9ef14, bebebe, 171717, 5f5f5f, e7e7e7, 828282, 828282, 828282, 828282, 828282, 828282, 828282, 828282
I don't know why MakeMKV is multiplexing the VobSub subtitles that way, but I used the very same source in both cases.

Re: Washed-Out DVD's Subtitles

Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2020 3:09 pm
by Woodstock
This is a question only the program's author, Mike, can answer.

Re: Washed-Out DVD's Subtitles

Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:41 am
by Peter99
Yes, I thought he was going to do it so, but after browsing the forum for a while I see he is kind of a man of few words.

In case I get to know anything new regarding this issue, I will post it here.

Thanks to you for actually taking the time to answer me anyway. :wink:

Re: Washed-Out DVD's Subtitles

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2020 8:34 pm
by Peter99
I just realized changing the values manually as I thought will not work, even if I manage to alter the "IDX" files, they will not look correctly afterwards.

I will have to remux the non washed-out subtitles manually into each MKV files somehow. :|

Hopefully, someday MakeMKV will be able to do this kind of tedious job correctly.

Re: Washed-Out DVD's Subtitles

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2020 6:23 am
by Chetwood
Peter99 wrote:
Mon Oct 26, 2020 8:34 pm
I just realized changing the values manually as I thought will not work, even if I manage to alter the "IDX" files, they will not look correctly afterwards.
Thats because each subtitle image has its own color and transparency info. This remind me of a bug of the WDTV back in the day where it set the alpha value of one of the colours to transparent or something. Couldn't wrap my head around why it would do that but it got fixed eventually. Instead of editing the subtitle colors with Vobsub Configure how about extracting it first with VSrip and (batch) muxing it into the mkvs until this gets fixed by Mike?