Proper subtitles for Avatar BD/DVD!

[omängum fra'uti]

Just a little taste of something I started throwing together last night after picking up Avatar on DVD.  This is just an overlay over the DVD, using standardish subtitle text descriptions.  Various players (Such as VLC, Media Player Classic, CyberLink PowerDVD 10, etc) can read the file and put the subtitles over the DVD without having to do any other modifications.  Presumably the same could be done with the BD, but I don't have a player to test that out on.

Once I have it closer to a state of completion I'll post the subtitle file.  However like any transcription, the accuracy of this will not be great, it will be a best effort, and some lines I still have no guess on.

Edit: DONE!  More or less.  There are a few lines I'm not confident in the transcription, and a few I didn't even try (With (?) in place of words I can't make out something I'm happy with).  Anything that can use SSA/ASS files (Such as PowerDVD 10) should be able to play these while playing the DVD.  Note that this works with NTSC editions of the DVD, I'm not sure if it would work for PAL or not.

Na'vi subtitles for Avatar (NTSC)
Na'vi subtitles for Avatar (PAL)

I've been using Media Player Classic Homecinema for my viewing.  However it has a slight discrepency in calculating the times.  It seems to be basing the movie duration off of a full 24fps, not the actual 23.977fps.  So to compensate I have another copy which has the time codes adjusted.

Na'vi subtitles for Avatar (For 24fps based time codes)

[Tirea Aean]

Tsa'u lu 'epìkx.

[Seze]

Is it possible to remove the English subtitles completely, so that there would only be the Na'vi subtitles left?  The only thing that makes me think this may be possible would be that the original subtitles most likely would change based on movie language, indicating that they are not flattened into the original movie.

[omängum fra'uti]

Nope.  I was disappointed in that, the only way would be to make ugly blocky background that covers up the subtitle.  When you play the movie with non-English subtitles, you just get the other language in a more normal font in additional to the normal subtitles in Papyrus.  At least on the DVD, I haven't tested extensively with the BD.

[eanayo]

Ma omängum fra'uti,

Just out of curiosity: Do you have a disc with multiple audio tracks? I would suspect that multilingual discs might have soft subtitles, probably not at all in Papyrus then. Anyone with an Euro DVD / blu ray to confirm? Hurry up, Royal Mail, will you!

Great project you have there, by the way. I was wondering how long after the release somthing like this would come up

[omängum fra'uti]

Yes, my disc has options for English, Spanish and French in audio and subtitles.  But the subtitles of spoken Na'vi are always in English as they are encoded in the video stream, DVD subtitles.  There are then additional subtitles in the selected language.

[eanayo]

Good, thank you for the confirmation. Nevermind my post then.

[omängum fra'uti]

So I tried subtitles on the BD today, and the good news is on the BD, it appears that they ARE subtitles and can be changed.  So theoretically with the right software, you could get rid of the forced English subtitles and replace them with proper Na'vi!  Or nothing at all.

Speaking of subtitles...  Check the first post.

[eanayo]

Great job!
I took the liberty to convert the timestamps to a 25fps PAL version:
AvatarNaviPAL is based off your 24fps file and should be the most accurate
AvatarNaviPAL2 is based off your NTSC timing, just in case there are some wicked converted DVDs out there.

Feel free to host these files somewhere else and put them in your first post!

[Eyamsiyu]

Just a question: how do I get the script to run?

[pbhead]

so wait... how exactly do i get navi subtitles onto my bluray? i guess i need some sort of bluray burner? 

I should prolly wait till the translations are more complete?

am i even understanding this thread properly?

[Muzer]

The idea is you play the video, along with the subtitles, in your computer with its DVD or Blu-ray drive and a media player that can handle external subtitles.

[Nyx]

Sweet! I'll try this as soon as I get the movie (comeoncomeoncomeon). But honestly, this should've been in there from the start. Along with Na'vi subtitles for the entire movie

[omängum fra'uti]

Just a question: how do I get the script to run?

Here are the instructions for using Media Player Classic Home Cinema to play the DVD...

First, open options (Select View, then Options) select Playback/Output on the left.

Under "DirectShow Video" select one of the options marked with **.  (I use VMR7, not sure they make a huge amount of difference.)  The rest of the options can be left alone.

Under the file menu, select "Open Disc" and select the drive with your Avatar DVD.  Then again under the file menu select "Load Subtitle..." and find the "AvatarNaviMPCHC.ssa" file.  At this point you're golden, and the subtitles should appear below where the English subtitles appear.

so wait... how exactly do i get navi subtitles onto my bluray? i guess i need some sort of bluray burner?  

I should prolly wait till the translations are more complete?

am i even understanding this thread properly?

The idea is to watch it on your computer.  If you want a physical disc, I'm afraid I can't help you much there, I don't have a BD drive to watch Avatar on my computer in that form, let alone modify and re-burn it.  But if you want a physical disk which includes the subtitles, you'll need to rip the movie somehow (Of course ONLY do this for your own personal use on a disc you own) then use some BD authoring program that to generate BD subtitles based on the SSA file.  Theoretically it shouldn't require re-encoding the video.  Then just burn the result back onto a blank and you should be good to go.

For converting the subtitles, it looks like "easySUP" can do the trick nicely, though you'll need to make some modifications to get it to work for 1080p.  However I ran it through a conversion to DVD SUB and it played fine with my DVD.

Great job!
I took the liberty to convert the timestamps to a 25fps PAL version:
AvatarNaviPAL is based off your 24fps file and should be the most accurate
AvatarNaviPAL2 is based off your NTSC timing, just in case there are some wicked converted DVDs out there.

Feel free to host these files somewhere else and put them in your first post!

Tsakemìri seiyi irayo!  Have you tested these?  Though neither are probably ideal.  The 24FPS one is actually a conversion to begin with but will probably be most accurate.  It also applies an offset specifically for the player that needs it.  The NTSC is my original based off the audio file, since that's the edition I have.  However, the disc seems to actually run at 23.977 fps not 23.976...  It makes a difference.

So anyway, if you've tested that conversion and it works, I can add it to my downloads & include the timing adjustments in any future updates I make.

[Eyamsiyu]

Got it working!  Thanks!

Had to use VLC instead of MPCHC, since I'm using a Mac, but nonetheless, it works.  Granted it won't make the special colors and fonts, but it's still displaying the words, and that's enough for me.

Thank you very much, Omängum Fra'uti!

[omängum fra'uti]

For the font you need to have the papyrus font installed.  VLC should show the color and formatting properly, though it draws it wider.  I may do a graphical subtle format to avoid those issues, since I found a program to convert them.  I'll still make the text form available of course.

[Eyamsiyu]

For the font you need to have the papyrus font installed.  VLC should show the color and formatting properly, though it draws it wider.  I may do a graphical subtle format to avoid those issues, since I found a program to convert them.  I'll still make the text form available of course.

I thank you for the direction, but I'll be okay without the color and font changes: as long as I can read what's there, it won't be a problem.

Again, thanks!

[eanayo]

Have you tested these? [...] It also applies an offset specifically for the player that needs it.

I'm afraid I don't have a PAL DVD to test these, and I merely scaled the timestamps by the frame rate ratio. If there's an offset involved, they are probably a bit off. I'll hop over to the German forums to see if I can find a guinea pig.

[Nìnyu Tìrey]

Does this work with Windows media player?

[omängum fra'uti]

Maybe?  You'd need to download some extra software and figure out how to set it up though.  You'd probably be better off just downloading Media Player Classic at that point.