HomePage 2 of 2: Using AVIADDXSubs and Subtitle Configuration
Step 2: Using AVIADDXSubs and Subtitle Configuration
Place the original AVI file in the same folder as the SRT subtitle files. Make sure both start with the same characters, but with the subtitles prefixed with the language, for example "Movie.avi" and "Movie-English.srt", "Movie-French.srt".
Click on the "Create XSUB or Idx/Sub" tab. In the "File Name(s)" section, load in your original AVI file. For the "Output Folder", select a different folder to create your (subtitled) output file.
Now click on the "Configuration 1" tab. Notice that there are 8 "SUB" tabs. Click on "SUB 1" to configure our first subtitle stream.
Let's go through the options. First of all, select "XSUB" at the top to create this kind of subtitle file. For the "Rearrange Subtitle Text", I like to use the "When very long" option to ensure AVIAddXSubs doesn't cut off lines of subtitles in the wrong places.
Skip over to the right to "Subtitle Bitmap. You can select PAL or NTSC to match your video. If you don't know or if the resolution is not 720x***, then use "custom" to enter in the actual resolution of the video file (you can find out this information in Windows by right click on the file, selecting "Properties", go into "Summary" and the "Width" and "Height" should be listed at the top). Just below are the options "Full Screen" and "Overscan". With "Full Screen", I usually have this off, but you may have to experiment to see if this helps solve the problem where the vertical position of the subtitles keep on jumping up and down (more on experimentation later). With "Overscan", this goes back to pre-HDMI days when televisions would cut off the edge of the picture, have this enabled just to be sure that your subtitles are not cut off (but this means less area to display the subtitles, which may have to be overlayed over more of the actual movie picture).
Let's move down. The "Character Set" option should usually be set to "DEFAULT", unless your subtitle file contains non English type characters. Note that AVIAddXSubs currently does not support files encoded using UNICODE or UTF8, only ANSI. For the language code, select the language of the subtitle. This isn't strictly necessary, but it's nice to be able to change subtitles on the PS3 and be able to see which language you're changing to. The Font size/color/outline/align options are fairly obvious, although you may still need some recommendations. The settings shown in the screenshot below works well for me, but you can experiment to get the best result for your display (more on experimentation later). There's a "Preview" button down below where you can see what the subtitles would look like (but the best test is still actually doing a live test on the PS3).
Move to the right again to the "Subtitle Position" option. This is again one of the experimental settings, as these determine the position of your subtitles. For VP (Vertical Position), 0 means the subtitle is right at the top of the screen, and as the VP value gets larger, the subtitles move downwards more. The settings I've shown in the screenshot below is recommended for your typical PAL/NTSC (720x***) video file. Notice how some DVDs have the subtitles sometimes appear high and low, depending on what else is on screen? You can simulate this in AVIAddXSub by having two different subtitle files, one with only the time code and lines of the subtitles that appear "high", and one in the normal position - then, you can load the two subtitle files using two "SUB" tabs ("SUB 1", "SUB 2" ...), and change the VP value of the tab containing the "high" subtitles. Easy!
And we're onto the last of the options on this screen. The "SRT extension" is a very important option. It tells AVIAddXSubs which subtitle file it should load. Let's take this following example of a movie with 2 different subtitle files, one for each different language:
- Movie.avi
- Movie-English.srt
- Movie-French.srt
Then for the "SRT extension" for the first, English, subtitle, you would type "-English" into the box (note the "-" is present). Then to add the second French subtitle, go to "SUB 2" and type "-French" as the extension. This is how you can load in up to 8 different subtitles file into the same AVI file. If your subtitle file is the same name as the AVI file (just different file extension, .avi and .srt), then leave the "SRT extension" option blank. You can also load the same subtitle file multiple times into the same AVI file by making sure the "SRT extension" option the same for the different "SUB" tabs. Now why would you want to do this? You need this if you want to experiment with the various subtitle options listed above without having to create an AVI file for each type of subtitles. So by having the same "SRT extension" in multiple "SUB" tabs, you can change the font type, size, outline, position ... to you liking, and then find that one that's best for you. And now the last few options at the bottom. The default is "Add Subtitles", which is what we're doing, adding subtitles to an AVI file. You can also select "No Subtitles" to remove any loaded in subtitles. "Add Test Subtitles" creates subtitles that's used for testing. Another way to get AVIAddXSub to ignore a "SUB" tab, without using the "No Subtitles" option, is to set the "SRT extension" to "-1", "-2", "-3" ... to match the tab number.
Now go back to the "Create XSUB or Idx/Sub" tab and press the "Start" button to start the subtitle addition process. It shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes per subtitle stream. When it's done, AVIAddXSubs will tell you so and that's all there is to it!
What you need to do next is to play the file on your PS3, but I assume you already know how to do this. If not, you can use a software like TVersity to stream the file from your computer to your PS3 (instructions for doing this are here. Depending on your PS3 settings, the first subtitle stream should load upon play, but if not, press the "Subtitle" key on your PS3 BD remote, or use your controller to select and enable subtitles just like how you would do with a normal DVD.
And we're done 
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