Keep Position Of 1St Line After Adding 2Nd Line

[balthasar]

Sometimes I want to create this effect:

 

1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,000
- This line is the first part of a conversation <br />

 

2
00:00:01,001 --> 00:00:02,000
- This line is the first part of a conversation <br />

- And this is the second part

 

in order to show the second part underneath the already present first part, without moving the first part.

 

Somehow I can't get this to work when I upload files to addic7ed.com. I use Subtitle Edit to create the files.

I know it can work because I downloaded subtitles that do this both on my PC and TV.

 

Can anyone help with this?

 

[Alice]

I know it can work because I downloaded subtitles that do this both on my PC and TV.

Can you provide us an example of a working subtitle?

[balthasar]

Can you provide us an example of a working subtitle?

I could not find the examples I mentioned in my first post, but I was able to create an example.

I used a line break + ASCII character 160 (nonbreaking space or nbs for short)

 

In VLC, the lines move a tiny bit, on my TV they stay right in place.

 

Subtitle Edit seems to consider the nbs characters as whitespace characters, and it simply removes all of them. I could not find an option to disable this behaviour. I had to use notepad++ to add the nbs characters.Test.srt

[Alice]

I could not find the examples I mentioned in my first post...

That's unfortunate. Your recreation does not help at all: Neither WMP nor MPC recognise the non-breaking space as anything else but.

Non-breaking spaces are utilised mainly in digital typesetting and word processing, but not as  common characters in subtitling, where general conventions dictate limited amounts of characters-per-line and lines-per-sequence.
Unless we can analise one of these working subtitles that you mentioned, there's not much else we can do.

[balthasar]

That's unfortunate. Your recreation does not help at all: Neither WMP nor MPC recognise the non-breaking space as anything else but.

Non-breaking spaces are utilised mainly in digital typesetting and word processing, but not as  common characters in subtitling, where general conventions dictate limited amounts of characters-per-line and lines-per-sequence.
Unless we can analise one of these working subtitles that you mentioned, there's not much else we can do.

Sorry for the trouble, the files are gone, and I can't remember where I got them from, so that's the end of that part.

 

For your interest, I did find a way to get it working for current versions WMP, MPC and VLC. I put examples you can test in the attachment.

 

I'll probably never use it though, since it doesn't seem to be commonly supported. ( I think they are just little bugs in the players)

Test04.srt

[Alice]

Uhm... now I'm not sure about what your original dilemma was:

I though you were seeking a solution for a problem you were having when playing your subs.

Now I understand you were addressing the broader question about addic7ed's subtitles, and that is a whole different story.
Indeed addic7ed.com does not allow alignment tags in their subs.  The reason being, there's no universal support for them.
That is also the reason they limit the use of colour and font size tags.
But your test isn't working for me. I'm using version 2.0.6... am I missing something?

[balthasar]

Uhm... now I'm not sure about what your original dilemma was:

I though you were seeking a solution for a problem you were having when playing your subs.

Now I understand you were addressing the broader question about addic7ed's subtitles, and that is a whole different story.
Indeed addic7ed.com does not allow alignment tags in their subs.  The reason being, there's no universal support for them.
That is also the reason they limit the use of colour and font size tags.

Thank you Alice for your concern.

I consider my question answered and for my part the issue is closed.

 

Thanks!

[balthasar]

Uhm... now I'm not sure about what your original dilemma was:

I though you were seeking a solution for a problem you were having when playing your subs.

Now I understand you were addressing the broader question about addic7ed's subtitles, and that is a whole different story.
Indeed addic7ed.com does not allow alignment tags in their subs.  The reason being, there's no universal support for them.
That is also the reason they limit the use of colour and font size tags.
But it seems your last example works with all players... am I missing something?

I missed your last sentence, sorry.

 

You are not missing anything, I just found a freaky way to get the result I wanted. But I don't think the tags were meant for this.

 

My purpose was indeed to use this (or something that does the same) in subtitles I post on addic7ed. In the mean time I found no reference anywhere that this supported, so it may work now, but not in the future. So posted subtitles may become invalid.

 

For me, that settles it for now.

(It was fun playing with this, though)

[balthasar]

Uhm... now I'm not sure about what your original dilemma was:

I though you were seeking a solution for a problem you were having when playing your subs.

Now I understand you were addressing the broader question about addic7ed's subtitles, and that is a whole different story.
Indeed addic7ed.com does not allow alignment tags in their subs.  The reason being, there's no universal support for them.
That is also the reason they limit the use of colour and font size tags.
But your test isn't working for me. I'm using version 2.0.6... am I missing something?

VLC 2.0.3 if you mean VLC. I'll check it out

[balthasar]

VLC 2.0.3 if you mean VLC. I'll check it out

Ok, I installed VLC 2.0.6, I downloaded the test file from this site and I took a random mp4 and renamed it the same as the test file.

It showed me exactly the same result (it worked.)

 

In both VLC 2.0.3 and 2.0.6 I can see a tiny, tiny shift in the subtitle, perhaps you mean this?

[Alice]

It showed me exactly the same result (it worked.)

 

In both VLC 2.0.3 and 2.0.6 I can see a tiny, tiny shift in the subtitle, perhaps you mean this?

Sorry. My mistake: I was  playing your tests that I uploaded and then downloaded on addic7ed: The alignment tags are shown in plain sight and none of the variants work.
It looks that VLC has the most issues, albeit being the player of choice for many.
But in the end, is not a limitation that the players may have, but rather a policy of restriction at addic7ed.

After all, addic7ed needs to keep unsupported tags in check in order to ensure that most, if not all, its users can smoothly display the subtitles it offers, regardless of the medium users choose.

Nevertheless, now I'm curious whether we can find a universal solution... You will be responsible for some sleepless nights to come.

Cheers.