A plea to the industry: need a solution to CIH subtitle problem

[syncguy]

Subtitle positioning on CIH (continuous image height) displays is becoming a burning issue. The industry hasn't given a solution for this major problem. Hence this post. (I have posted this in another forum as well.)

Subtitles on black bars is a go/no-go situation for CIH displays. Basically subtitles cannot be read on a CIH display if the subtitles are on the bars. The blu-ray specification has the capability to move the subtitles but they did not make it mandatory - so we don't get it. It is a stuff up.

Sub titles should be moveable so that people can place it on black bars or on the movie. It should be fully user controllable to a certain extent so that it could be placed on the black bars or on the picture. Not anything fancy such as multicoloured font-selectable subtitles. A simple nudge/up down function is required. IMO, this is a stumbling block for the technology evolution as well.

There are two methods to move subtitles. The first one is to use BD software and encode the functionality on to the disk. In this case subtitles will be stored as text rather than an image. Usually this is not done and cannot be expected from foreign studios (after all it is not mandatory! – thanks to the specs).

The second method is to reposition the subtitle raster-image by the player firmware. In this case, the subtitles are stored as a series of raster images. Therefore, the player has to recompose these images (on the fly) to adjust the subtitle position. I don't think this is a big deal since the s/w players like TheaterTek and cheap Samsung ezyzoom players could do this for DVDs.

It is ridicules to place half of the titles on the picture and the other half on the black bars. The titles should be moveable based on the user preference.

Another possible solution is to encode two subtitle streams on to the disk: one on the picture and the other on the bars. This can be easily achieved during the authoring phase. It is just a matter of clicking a button. I really don't understand why people are so short sighted.

CIH may not be the mainstream today. But it could be the mainstream tomorrow. Both front and rear projectors could accommodate optical stretch if there is a demand for that. Also, plasma and LCD displays can be made to accommodate the wide scope aspect.

4x3 is history. Future is 1.78:1 and 2.35:1. I see this as a technology evolution path towards larger scope TV sets. So, no more black bars for the scope movies. The consumer would have a choice whether to choose a scope screen or a 16x9 screen based on the personal preference. The disk authors and studios are irresponsible by hard coding subtitles in a particular position on the screen. It can be easily made moveable using one of the three methods given in this post.

Sony could take the leadership and easily develop a firmware upgrade for the PS3 to move the subtitle raster image (just nudge up/down) so that other manufactures could follow. Looks like that they are just ignoring this issue.

This is a burning problem for myself and many others. This in fact a go/no-go feature rather than a good-to-have function for CIH displays. Currently there are discussions on almost all major forums on this issue.

Perhaps there is a possibility to gather momentum and request manufactures and studios to provide a viable solution for this big issue.