1.39 and mutiple subtitles

[timothee]

Hi guys,

Has any of you managed to include more than one subtitle language in a smi file, that worked fine on the A2?

I was experimenting with that yesterday. I have a Japanese anime with english subtitle. Works a treat. I tried adding in french subtitles myself (the smi file format is simple to manage). The 2 subtitles streams are recognized in the firmware 1.39 and I can select english or french. BUT when french is selected, nothing shows up and if I select english, both the english and french subtitles are shown at the same time :woh:.

I'm attaching my smi file for reference. If somebody has managed to have something like that working, please let me know.

On top of that the special french characters with accents don't show well. I've already seen bug reports for that so I'm sure that is being worked on.

Tim.

[variozin]

I cant even get a SMI file for my movies like "final fantasy" and "Kungfu Hustle" from the internet. So I am still unable to see those movies on A2 with subtitles:(

[timothee]

Personnaly, I'm not worried about internet subtitles yet. So far I'm ripping my own DVDs only so the subtitle streams are always available for me to convert to smi files.

Multiple subtitles are supposed to work fine in firmware 1.39 so my priority is to get that up and running in my A2.

[mallrat68]

I cant even get a SMI file for my movies like "final fantasy" and "Kungfu Hustle" from the internet. So I am still unable to see those movies on A2 with subtitles:(


these subs are widely available in .srt and .sub format, just use an srt to .smi convertor....

http://www.divx-digest.com/software/srt2smi.html

[timothee]

Finally, I have multiple subtitle tracks working in the A2!

It took a couple of emails with Cowon support at iaudio.com but it's done. My take on it, Sami support in the A2 is not fully mature yet.

To build my multi-language smi file, I followed the specs here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnacc/html/atg_samiarticle.asp

The specs show clearly that can have mutliple subtitles tracks by setting css language classes first and then adding multiple <p> tags referencing the language classes within the <sync> tags. Here is the example straight from the MS page:

<Sync Start=2500>
<P Class=ENCC>If English (ENCC) is selected this line is displayed,
<P Class=FRCC> but this line is not displayed.

JetAudio supports this very well.

That, however, does NOT work in the A2. The A2 requires that the subtitles tracks be set sequencially whole per language, in the smi file to work, like so:

<Sync Start=2500>
<P Class=ENCC>first English subtitle
...
<Sync Start=50000>
<P Class=ENCC>last English subtitle

<Sync Start=2500>
<P Class=FRCC>first French subtitle
...
<Sync Start=50000>
<P Class=FRCC>last French subtitle


This is terrible to edit by hand and it's also a waste of file size as the <sync> tags are duplicated for every language.

I've tried mixing them, so that the subtitles from all language could still be viewed in order, like so:

<Sync Start=2500>
<P Class=ENCC>first English subtitle
<Sync Start=2500>
<P Class=FRCC>first French subtitle
...
<Sync Start=50000>
<P Class=ENCC>last English subtitle
<Sync Start=50000>
<P Class=FRCC>last French subtitle


But that does not work either.

Cowon support originally told me my smi file was damaged. Then after I pointed them out to the MS specs page and requested for a sample smi file that works, they modified my original file. I am attaching it to this post.

BTW, FYI: I took the opportunity to report the following subtitle related issues:
many character sets are not supported (french accent, etc.)
double size subtitle do not look good, on the A2 screen And on TV output (letter outlines are merged and disappear, making readability difficult)

Replies are as follow

This problem has already been reported to our research team. When they figure out the problem, it will be upgraded by next firmware.
The subtitle problem has been reported to our research team. When they figure out the problem, it also will be updated by firmware.


Sounds good, I hope they "figure things out" fast :winker:

Meanwhile I'll press them a little more on the sami format issue. Actually, I must admit that it's ok by me that the A2 suport subtitles the way it does as long as it works, but there should be some documentation or technotes somewhere to get the details.

[eric3a]

Good work!
I have been wondering about this myself, unsure if my smi files were "wrong" or the A2 had a poblem.
Nice to know what the score is.
Eric

[roger767]

I converted a .srt file to a smi file with the converter Posted above, but when I play the movie in A2 it doesnt show. Somebody know what the problem is AND does somebody know how you can edit the smi files itself. srt files you can edit it easily with Notepad...

[timothee]

I don't know what is the problem you are facing unfortunately. Did you name your smi file with the same name as the movie itself? Can you post your smi file for us to look at?

As for editing smi files, notepad will do the trick too. smi files are just text files based on HTML/XML, check the specs for details.

[roger767]

I figured it out somehow, i have to Check the Korean Box and the output SMI works, very weird, but it works.