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[tij]

So … I am revisiting old topic of MC ability to render SSA subtitles (specifically V4 SSA … and V4+ ASS … subsequent versions are just numerous and non standardized)

Attached are test video, rendering summary under MC 24.0.41, rendering summary of MPC-HC 1.7.13 (seems to have decent SSA renderer … so a good "benchmark" for the test)

This initial test is simple test of [STYLE] heading with no time-overlapping text.

Here are things I noticed:

1. MC always outline text black
2. MC adds substantial margins for text positioned on left, right, and bottom
3. MC seems to ignore [Margin] specified in [STYLE]
4. MC seems only applying text font, color, and size formatting … all other text formatting is ignored (bold, italic, strikethrough, underline, outline color)
5. MC seems to ignore special effect on text (alpha value, shadows, outline color, scaleX, scaleY, text rotating angle)

Is improving SSA subtitle compatibility is something developers have time to spare? I am willing to be a tester (easy to be critic than creator … I know)


 

[tij]

Please disregard my previous test v01b … I intended it to be simple test of basic compliance with Style tag … and it was not:

1. video was 1920x1080 … subtitle was 1280x720 … so renderer have to scale subtitles to match video (feature I was going to test later … but not at this stage)

2. screenshot were taken in 2160p … so there was additional upscaling

3. I did not specify what MC was using (RO standard or RO hq … it was hq)

4. Subtitles appear sequentially with no overlap … pictures I posted were screen shot of each subtitle combine with Photoshop (and I adjusted background color in PS to make it look pretty … which I should not have)

So here is modified test v01c (use it with video I attached with first post … ofcourse rename video to match subtitle name) … only change to subtitle is setting PlayResX: 1920 and PlayResY: 1080 to match that of the video. Test were run at 1080p

MPC-HC is standard installation with no tweaking to any settings. For MC I included both RO standard and RO HQ result (also screenshot of Ctr+J for RO HQ).

This time I did not adjust anything in Photoshop ... before commenting on subtitles ... notice that for RO standard and stock MPC-HC backround changes (i dont really notice it while video playing) ... i believe it is Windows doing dynamic brightness/contrass ... how to turn that off is another subject ... but notice that RO HQ does not have this crap, and brightness/contrass remains same.

Now to subtitles:

1c. MC outline text black (regardless if it is specified in subtitle or not)
2c. MC add black shadow (regardless if it is specified in subtitle or not)
3c. MC adds margins for text positioned on left, right, and bottom
4c. MC RO Standard also adds margins for text positioned on top
5c. MC seems to ignore [Margin] specified in [STYLE]
6c. MC seems only applying text font, color, and size formatting … all other text formatting is ignored (bold, italic, strikethrough, underline)
7c. MC seems to ignore special effect on text (alpha value, shadows, outline color, scaleX, scaleY, text rotating angle, spacing)
8c. MC sizing of font "Sitka Text" seems too large

[RD James]

Thanks for developing these tests. Media Center's rendering of these subtitles is very limited right now, and I hope that they can be improved.

[tij]

Thanks for developing these tests. Media Center's rendering of these subtitles is very limited right now, and I hope that they can be improved.

Thanks for throwing in support

SSA/ASS are quite complex compared to other subtitles. I use specs given in mkv site to set up tests (https://www.matroska.org/technical/specs/subtitles/ssa.html)

I have more test that try out other features of SSA/ASS. But I am afraid if I post them all, it will be too much. So at the moment just putting basic [Style] test. Once this (hopefully) get fix ... then put another test. So things get fixed step by step.

Unless ppl think it is better idea if I just dump all test/findings (which can be really daunting to look at)

PS. I tried alternatives to SSA/ASS ... but it seems Anime community is really just sticking with these ... and they bloody use most of features, which makes converting SSA to SRT a daunting task (as some Anime have over 500 episodes ... and trying to fix conversion is overwhelming ... not to mention will reveal some spoilers lol)