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Subtitle Font Type and Size

Would you believe it?
  (+27, -1)(+27, -1)(+27, -1)
(+27, -1)
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against]

This idea came from when I was watching anime on the internet and I couldn’t read the subtitles because the font was too small. It could also apply to DVDs. The idea is, you can change the size AND font of the subtitles being presented before you. It would greatly benefit anyone who likes to watch movies in their original spoken form. Font sizes would range from (Word processor terms) 16-72. This may also help those who are partially blind. Having the extra option of changing the font type would give the viewer a personal touch. Very often, companies who manufacture DVDs insert awful fonts and this may sometimes spoil the viewer’s experience. One major hiccup however is, DVD remotes do not have a button that will allow you to change the font type or size. This may be tackled with the inclusion of an extra menu.
Thomasunde, Feb 20 2008

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       Yay! Not a bad idea at all. This idea's ratio of buns to fish is now infinite.
MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 20 2008
  

       I had to think about it! HAHA! It 's something that annoys me. Especially when the subs. are yellow. It looks really cheap.
Thomasunde, Feb 20 2008
  

       Nice one. It's almost so obvious it must be baked. That there is the hallmark of a great idea. [+]
theleopard, Feb 20 2008
  

       well there you go thomo...
po, Feb 20 2008
  

       Yes! maybe I won't always have to go get my HMICD's just to relax with a movie.   

       I think the idea would be even better applied to "closed caption" applications. The incoming signal is only the text; the character set used on-screen is generated and gen-locked to the image by the CC processor. It fails to take into account the screen size, or image quality of the display. Truly needs to settable.   

       For the subtitling, I think it would be cool to have different people talk in different fonts.
lurch, Feb 20 2008
  

       Those that don’t hear well or have the sound turned off could also use information about inflection. The level of intensity could be reflected in the color. Red for anger, pink for embarrassed and so forth. This could work for DVD subtitles but the Closed Caption signal would need a change in protocol. Since it is too late and (thus impractical) for HDTV and HD-DVDs, I give my color idea a [-].   

       Stick with non dynamic Font Type and Size idea [+].
CwP, Feb 21 2008
  

       Best subtitles ever have to be the ones for the Russian vampire movies Nightwatch and Daywatch: the director didn't want the subtitles to be the usual half-assed translation job, so he made sure they were accurate, and also added some special effects, like the subtitles shaking when someone slams a door, the word 'blood' turning red and dissolving, etc. - very creative. Not sure if they're on the DVD releases though.
imaginality, Feb 21 2008
  

       Good idea (+). Bakeable if you can get the text as a digital feed and have the TV do the conversion. Even easier if you play the DVDs on a Xbox.
MisterQED, Feb 21 2008
  

       Maybe each character could have their own font. Then when someone is talking off screen you would know who it was.
bungston, Feb 21 2008
  

       Well I'm glad all you guys think my idea is good. I may do another in the next couple of days.
Thomasunde, Feb 21 2008
  

       + very good-(large bun coming your way.)
xandram, Feb 21 2008
  

       A long separate screen mounted below the tv might be a good idea, to stop the image from being obscured by the massive letters.   

       Ooh ooh! Font size triggered by conmparitive volume! So when people shout IT LOOKS LIKE THEY'RE SHOUTING IN THE TEXT!
theleopard, Feb 21 2008
  

       I like it, but i am also a little concerned about creeping featurism. I once posted an idea about DVD players having the capacity to display text files and do HTML stuff, but i wouldn't want it to be able to do nearly everything because it would become a clunky, difficult to use machine which was always malfunctioning.
nineteenthly, Feb 21 2008
  

       //a little concerned about creeping featurism// on the HalfBakery!?!!
hippo, Feb 21 2008
  

       "Creeping featurism" sounds like a cousin to the "screaming meemies."
elhigh, Feb 21 2008
  

       Or summertime movies with spiders. <spider: [scratch tap tap scratch scratch]>
lurch, Feb 21 2008
  

       Have the text in a format where it can be grabbed and rassled would also allow it to be put thru a computer translator. Not perfect, but for languages like Basque unlikely to get subtitles it would be better than nothing.
bungston, Feb 21 2008
  

       Good idea; yet you can't do it on current DVD since it uses bitmap, not text. You can blow up the subtitle layer but that won't guarantee the whole screen get displayed
MakeWorldBetter, Feb 21 2008
  

       //Maybe each character could have their own font.// "You cannotta be serious!" cried Palatino italically. "You'll have to ask my lawyers about that", replied Arial, boldly. "You're crazy as a dingbat!", shouted Palatino.   

       "You can go to Helvetica!" screamed Arial, "That wasn't justified. And you can drop that phoney accent - I know you're nothing but a part-Times Roman."
MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 21 2008
  

       My television set has options to adjust the font size for close-captioning. Placement is sometimes a bit dodgy, though, since the set has to guess why the text was placed where it was (e.g. was it supposed to be centered, or was it placed some particular distance from the edge of the screen to avoid obscuring something, or what)   

       This idea should be simple to implement on DVDs though, since subtitle tracks there are basically just bitmaps. Most DVDs actually already have two versions of the subtitles--one for 16:9 sets and one for 4:3 sets. Allowing the user to specify large or small subtitles (the latter being useful because they would obscure less of the screen) should not be difficult.   

       BTW, I wonder whether it would be practical to author a DVD in such a way that two "angles" showed identical video except that one would be centered vertically and the other would be shifted up toward an edge (to allow room for subtitles to fit completely underneath). I know that it's possible for angles to share some but not all of the video stream data. I don't know whether it would be possible to have each angle include some header information for each much of graphics data and then have the data itself shared between angles.
supercat, Feb 22 2008
  

       I can't believe you slated me on my new idea. :(
Thomasunde, Oct 07 2008
  

       And sadly, you're only as good as you last idea...
Jinbish, Oct 07 2008
  

       Keep em coming - if you don't go down in flames a few times, it's a sign you're not really trying :) Sadly, it seems /Cowlets/ has been redacted, otherwise I could show you the pasting I got when I was new here.   

       This is a good'un.   

       It should be simple enough to include the subtitles as a timed data stream, or even a single text or XML file elsewhere on the disk, with time cues for each caption.   

       // because it would become a clunky, difficult to use machine which was always malfunctioning. //   

       You mean a PC?
BunsenHoneydew, Oct 07 2008
  


 

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