Subtitles remain on when jumping to chapter in Track

Question

Level 2

383 points

Subtitles remain on when jumping to chapter in Track

Hi you all!

I have a pre-script on a Track that looks like:

if GPRM1=0 SetSystemStream1(Off)
if GPRM1=1 SetSystemStream1(On)

Works fine, as long as you play the Track from the beginning. But if I enable the subtitles, and then jump to a chapter, the subtitles are not enabled (since you skip the pre-script, I think).

How can I get around this?

Thanks in advance!

G4 Dual, FCP5, DVDSP4, BitVice, Soundtrack Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.9), 2 GB RAM, SuperDrive

Posted on May 16, 2007 3:59 AM

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Answer 1

Hal MacLean

Level 6

14,833 points

May 16, 2007 2:37 PM in response to Niklas Wikman

HI Niklas,

Whenever you fast forward or jump forward in a track with subtitles they tend to disappear. If you continue to play the track they should appear eventually (most likely at the next marker point).

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Answer 2

Niklas Wikman Author

Level 2

383 points

May 21, 2007 2:41 AM in response to Hal MacLean

Yes, I know. But the subtitles does not appear at all, when I use the Chapter Jump function, if I have not played the Track from the beginning (and thus activated the pre-script).

I have an idea to simply make four short scripts, like

if GPRM0=1 set systemstream1On
if GPRM0=0 set system stream1On
Jump chapter1

etc.

Then it should work, at least from the menu.
If you then use the remote next/previous button, you should still get the titles.

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Answer 3

Niklas Wikman Author

Level 2

383 points

Jun 1, 2007 2:19 AM in response to Niklas Wikman

Still trying to fix the subtitle issue.

I switch subitles on or off by setting GPRM1 to 1 or 0.

Here's my pre-script for my Tracks:

Set System Stream St(Subtitle stream 1) (On) if (GPRM 1=1)
Set System Stream St(Subtitle stream 1) (Off) if GPRM 1=1)

This works just fine if I play the Track from the start.

But, I want to be able to jump to chapter in the Track and get the subtitles on or off, without having to play the Track from the beginning.

Here's my try:

Script example 1
Set System Stream St(Subtitle stream 1) (On) if (GPRM 1=1)
Set System Stream St(Subtitle stream 1) (Off) if GPRM 1=0)
Jump Track1:Chapter 1

Script example 2
Set System Stream St(Subtitle stream 1) (On) if (GPRM 1=1)
Set System Stream St(Subtitle stream 1) (Off) if GPRM 1=0)
Jump Track1:Chapter 2

This looks like absolutely correct to me, (using my pre-script and adding the Jump) but it still doesn't work. I still have to execute my pre-script for the Track. If that's done I can jump to any chapter with subtitles on or off.

Any ideas???

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Answer 4

Jun 1, 2007 3:39 AM in response to Niklas Wikman

Not entirely sure I am clear what you are tyring to achieve or where the problem is...

What you are saying is if you press Play Movie button and the Subs have been set on then it plays with Subs On and if it's set to Off then it plays without. However if you Go to Chapter Selection Menu then they are not set - is that what you mean?

Maybe it's becasue you are using PreScripts. Perhaps you could set it so that the Play Button Jumps to a Script rtaher than having a prescript that may or may not execute. And when you go from your Scene Select button have that jump to a script which then goes to the Scene Access screen.

AS I am not entirely sure what you trying to achieve then this may or may not help

Steve

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Answer 5

Niklas Wikman Author

Level 2

383 points

Jun 1, 2007 5:09 AM in response to Steve Kirkham

Sorry if I have not been clear - yes, the problem is that if I first select to enable the text and then go to one of my Chapter menu buttons, the text does NOT appear. But, if I enable the subtitles, and then start play the Track from beginning (I have a "Play movie button too, of course) then I can use my Chapter buttons with (or without) text.

My chapter buttons are on the same screen as my Play movie button (to keep it simple) but that wound of course not be a problem when scripting the function.

I'll try to set the scripting (subtitles on/off) in my Play Movie button instead of using the pre-script for the Track.

Now I got it to work (without the pre-script) and also with my Chapter Jumps. Turned out I forgot to re-link my buttons to my new scripts, rather than jumping to the Chapters directly on the Track... doh!
(so I guess my pre-script could remain, but hey - you can do one thing in many ways here... :-))

With that sorted out (thanks for your help!) I have a follow-up:

If I select any of the chapters and press Menu, I'd like to return to the last button selected on my main menu.

How's that done? Now I have set the properties for the Track to be the Play movie button, which works fine, but not exactly as I want it to.

And - to make things even more complicated - I have a dual setup of menus: One Swedish and One English (although the English menu does not have the subtitle selection, since the titles are burned-in in the english Track).

So I need not only to keep track of last button selected, but also on which menu that last button was selected.

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Answer 6

Jun 1, 2007 4:51 AM in response to Niklas Wikman

That's why you don't need a pre-script I think. I think the scripts you have are corrrect but if you have a script and a pre script running then I suspect things are getting confused.

Set your scripts so that your buttons jump to the scripts and execute the commands and then within the script tell it where to jump to.

As you've done here:

Chapter 1 Button jumps to this

Script example 1
Set System Stream St(Subtitle stream 1) (On) if (GPRM 1=1)
Set System Stream St(Subtitle stream 1) (Off) if GPRM 1=0)
Jump Track1:Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Button jumps to this

Script example 2
Set System Stream St(Subtitle stream 1) (On) if (GPRM 1=1)
Set System Stream St(Subtitle stream 1) (Off) if GPRM 1=0)
Jump Track1:Chapter 2

Which basically should work I believe but only if you don't have the prescript me thinks...

So from your Play button you would have this jump to:

Set System Stream St(Subtitle stream 1) (On) if (GPRM 1=1)
Set System Stream St(Subtitle stream 1) (Off) if GPRM 1=0)
Jump Track1

No prescript required...

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Answer 7

Niklas Wikman Author

Level 2

383 points

Jun 1, 2007 5:50 AM in response to Niklas Wikman

I think I got it figured out:

In my language select menu I set GPRM 2 to 1 (Swedish) or 2 (English)

My menu jump script looks like this:

Goto 3 if GPRM 2=1
Goto 7 if GPRM 2=2
mov GPRM0, SPRM8
div GPRM0, 1024
Jump Main menu swe [GPRM0]
Jump Main menu swe: Play swe movie // fail-safe
mov GPRM0, SPRM8
div GPRM0, 1024
Jump Main menu eng [GPRM0]
Jump Main menu eng: Play eng movie // fail-safe

Not tried on disc yet, but this works fine in the Simulator.

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Answer 8

Jun 1, 2007 6:12 AM in response to Niklas Wikman

To be honest I am always amazed at how complicated some DVDs make it when choosing to watch a movie...

If we have a movie with say a Japanese soundtrack and English Subs we have a button that says Play Movie with Subs and one with Play Movie without Subs and have scripts or whatever to set the appropriate Subtitles etc. on or off...

Same with a 5.1 and Stereo - we have buttons that say Play Movie with 5.1 Sound or Play Movie with Stereo Sound...

Kinda simple.

I do often wonder if Joe Public always knows what to do when faced with all these On and Off choices etc... I'm sure a lot of them play the movie then make their choices whilst it's playing with the remote (except those infuriating DVDs which lock out being able to switch between soundtrcaks and subs...

Just a thought...

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Answer 9

Niklas Wikman Author

Level 2

383 points

Jun 1, 2007 6:48 AM in response to Steve Kirkham

I can only answer for myself, but after trying to use the remote to set subtitles and/or audio - and finding out that most DVD:s have not even bother to set the language for titles and/or audio (!!!!) I've given up and are actually using the menus instead...

Most DVDs do have a language menu, that sets both subs and audio. Other have a menu for subs (since there are only English audio for example).

So, not sure what J. Random User do, but you do have a point here...

For me it's much quicker using the remote (since I know how it works) but I'm not sure J. Random has learned where to find the buttons...

(My LG DVD-HDD recorder has the subtitle button hidden under a lid - go figure!!)

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Answer 10

Jun 1, 2007 7:16 AM in response to Niklas Wikman

I always think it's about trying to make the user experience easier. I think the use of sub menus for SetUp etc is just an assumed given so everybody does instead of "thinking outside the box" as they say...

As you say the problem can often be that things like Language isn't set etc (and come on admit it how many times have you forgotten to set that in DVD-SP!!!) that's also the problem where people use things like scripts to see what language the DVD player is set to in order to choose different sets of menus etc. I'd bet in the majority of cases the DVD is set to the same settings as when it left the factory and was opened up and plugged in.

Because often we understand the ins and outs of DVDs we forget that the end user isn't always as genned up as us...

So my motto is Keep it Simple... (or was it I'm Just Simple!!!)

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Answer 11

Niklas Wikman Author

Level 2

383 points

Jun 4, 2007 12:39 AM in response to Steve Kirkham

I have never relied on the language setting on the DVD, nor have I set the language in DVDSP. You can never ever assume that the user has set up the DVD correctly (and, not many DVD players support any other language than English, French, German, etc). For me, who works with Swedish projects, the language is not even an option.

The language functcion in DVDSP is a charm to use, simply change your button names and/or graphics and you're off with a multi-language project. But again, it relies on the user to set up the DVD correctly.

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