[TOOL] Convert .srt to 3D Half-SBS/TAB compatible .ass [UPDATED 30/09/2012]

[lcunha]

srt23Dass

This tool will convert a standard .srt subtitle file into a 3D Half-SBS or Half-TAB compatible .ass subtitle file. This is only useful for .mkv or .mk3d movie files.

For the converted subtitles to work, the player must understand and obey POS tags in the .ass file and use internal fonts in .mkv files. This is the case with the Popcorn Hour 200 and 300 series of players. Most PC software players will also work, but many hardware players and most TVs won’t. Although many players claim to support the .ass subtitle format, they will not understand most of the special tags that are part of the format. If that is your case, then you’re out of luck….

Just for reference, this is what you should see on your TV, depending on the movie type and TV mode:

INSTALLATION:
This tool is for Windows only. It will work on XP/Vista/7/8, 32 or 64 bits. Just unzip SRT23DASS.EXE and place it anywhere on your computer.

USAGE:
You can use this tool in several ways.
1) Double click the executable and choose a subtitle to convert.
2) Drag and drop a .srt file onto the executable.
3) Use something like FileTypesMan (http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/file_types_manager.html) and associate .srt files with SRT23DASS.EXE. Then you can right click on a .srt file and convert it directly. If you don’t understand what this means, forget it, just use options 1) or 2).

CONVERTING:
Once you’ve chosen the .srt to convert you’ll be presented with several options. What follows is a brief explanation on each one.


3D format can be Half Side-By-Side (SBS) or Half Top-And-Bottom (TAB) sometimes also known as Half Top/Under (TU). There’s also a 2D option, which can be useful if you wish to use the extra control options this tool allows in regular 2D movies, instead of using the internal font/settings of the PCH.

The movie aspect ratio template will fill the remaining options with pre-defined values. The program will try to determine the aspect ratio automatically (using mediainfo.dll) but this will fail on TAB movies as well as those encoded with black bars. Independently of the template chosen, you can fill the remaining options manually. The user template allows the creation of a fourth template with any options you want. You can also change and save the default options of any other template, as well as returning them to default values.

The font you choose will be very important to the final look of the subtitles. Remember that a Half-SBS movie will stretch a font horizontally and a Half-TAB movie will stretch it vertically. SRT23DASS comes with three internal fonts, for SBS, TAB and 2D, which will work fine in most cases, just choose the default font to use them. If you choose any other font you’ll need to get it, usually from the Windows/Fonts folder, to remux it with the movie (see REMUXING), if you choose the default internal font, it will be created together with the subtitle file, ready to be remuxed.

The font size is a matter of personal taste. 60 is usually a good value.

The font color is also a matter of personal taste, white is the most usual value, but yellow can have a better visibility in 3D.

The font outline is the black border around the font. A thick border will help visibility in some 3D movies. 6 is usually a good value.

The subtitle alignment is whether a one line subtitle will be top or bottom aligned. Also a matter of personal preference.

The bottom margin is the distance between the bottom of the screen and the last line of a subtitle.

3D depth is the position of the subtitle on the 3D plane. A value of zero means “on plane”, a negative number will place the subs “inside” the image and a positive number will place them “outside” the image. On plane is usually the best option, but some movies with many “outside” scenes, will benefit from a positive number like 5 or 10. This assumes that left image is left eye for SBS and that top image is right eye for TAB; if that is not the case, you'll need to use negative numbers for "outside" and probably invert the 3D image on your TV.

Once you have set all your options, just press “convert” and a new .ass file (and a .ttf file if you’ve chosen the default font) will be created in the same folder as the original .srt file.

If you have problems with character encoding, particularly on accented or non-latin characters, try converting the original .srt to ASCII and/or UNICODE, you may have to try and find out which is the best option for your language. There are several tools on the net for this, I use the UltraEdit editor (http://www.ultraedit.com/).

Also note, that the only .srt tags converted to their .ass equivalent will be italic, bold, underline, font color and respective closing tags.

REMUXING:
Once you have your new .ass and .ttf files, you’ll need to remux them in a new .mkv (or .mk3d) movie file. mkvmerge GUI is recommended and you can get it, as part of the MKVToolNix, here: http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/.

Since the PCH, no matter what the settings are, will always use the first track of each kind as default, it is recommended that you set the new .ass as the first (or only) subtitle track. The .ttf font file should be added as an attachment.

In short, you need to mux a video track (from the original .mkv), an audio track (from the original .mkv), a subtitle track (the new .ass) and then add a .ttf font as an attachment. The resulting .mkv, or .mk3d if you set the proper stereoscopy option in the video track, will play just fine in a Popcorn Hour connected to a 3D TV set (it is usually best to manually set the TV to 3D, see below).

AUTO 3D MODE:
If your movie filename is something like "anyname.3DSBS.mkv", "anyname.3DTAB.mkv" or "anyname.mk3d" the Popcorn Hour will try to switch your TV to 3D mode automatically. This is usually NOT a good idea, and it can cause all sort of problems with subtitles (it will work just fine without them).
Avoid this automatic switch using a simpler filename like "anyname.mkv" and then set your TV manually to 3D mode as needed.

HISTORY:
1.00 - Initial release.
1.10 - Support for UTF-8 and ASCII.
1.20 - 3D depth made 0 (on plane) by default.
2.00 - Auto detection of file format with much better support for Unicode.
2.10 - Improved auto detection of file format. Much faster operation.
2.20 - Besides traditional drag and drop method, user can now select a file to convert.
2.30 - Copies the default font file to the destination folder (if it exists in the same folder as the .exe and doesn't exist in the destination folder).
3.00 - Support for Half-TAB.
3.01 - Small cosmetic changes.
3.02 - Bug correction: alignment.
3.03 - Bug correction: font name.
3.10 - Support simple conversion to .ass, keeping 2D format.
4.00 – Completely new version with a GUI.
4.01 - Cosmetic changes. Added support button.
4.02 - Cosmetic changes.
4.03 - Bug correction: 3D depth in SBS.
4.10 - User template plus option to save and restore templates.
4.11 - Support for underline and font color tags. Cosmetic changes.

DOWNLOAD:
HERE

[spelosi]

(12-18-2010 01:33 AM)lcunha Wrote:  I've written a small tool, for personal use, that some people here might find useful, so I've decided to share it.

It will convert a standard .srt file into a 3D Half-SBS compatible .ass. It was tested with a C-200, I have no idea if it works with other players.

Usage is simple, just drag and drop a .srt file (must be in UTF-8 format) into the executable, answer a few questions and a new .ass will be created.

You'll have to merge the .ass into the .mkv file together with a font file as an attachment since the C-200 doesn't respect the font scale in the .ass style. Choose a thin font since it will be expanded to twice the horizontal size, don't even consider using the default Arial font. I've included the font I use in case someone likes it.

UPDATE: I've uploaded a new version that should handle ASCII and UTF-8 .srt files.

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?ideachbioiprltp

Thanks for making this tool.

I'm trying to use it with my a-100 and it displays the subtitles the same as it would a regular srt sitting in the directory.

Has anyone used this with the a-100?

Here is how I did it.

converted srt to ass with this tool.

linux: mkvmerge -o newfilename.mkv "original.mkv" "subtitle.ass" --attach-file Font.tff

Thanks.

Steve

[chris57]

The 100 series does not support 3D only the 200 series.

[manecas]

Hi.
Is there any Windows tools that we can use to merge the files?
Good work!

[chris57]

Use MKVToolnix's MKVMerge v.4.6.0 if its an MKV:
http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtool...-setup.exe

[andreofgyn]

(12-25-2010 06:56 AM)spelosi Wrote:  I'm trying to use it with my a-100 and it displays the subtitles the same as it would a regular srt sitting in the directory.

Has anyone used this with the a-100?

Here is how I did it.

converted srt to ass with this tool.

linux: mkvmerge -o newfilename.mkv "original.mkv" "subtitle.ass" --attach-file Font.tff

Thanks.

Steve

The correct usage is:

mkvmerge -o "newfile.mkv" "originalfile.mkv" "subtitle.ass" "--attachment-mime-type" "application/x-truetype-font" "--attachment-name" "CBMDRT.ttf" "--attach-file" "CBMDRT.ttf"

[Gislinge]

Thanks ! :-)

I now get subs working vith my c-200, but it is displayed in the middle og the screen. How do i get the subs displayed in the bottom
og the screen ?

[jpnn80]

(12-18-2010 01:33 AM)lcunha Wrote:  I've written a small tool, for personal use, that some people here might find useful, so I've decided to share it.

It will convert a standard .srt file into a 3D Half-SBS compatible .ass. It was tested with a C-200, I have no idea if it works with other players.

Usage is simple, just drag and drop a .srt file (must be in UTF-8 format) into the executable, answer a few questions and a new .ass will be created.

You'll have to merge the .ass into the .mkv file together with a font file as an attachment since the C-200 doesn't respect the font scale in the .ass style. Choose a thin font since it will be expanded to twice the horizontal size, don't even consider using the default Arial font. I've included the font I use in case someone likes it.

UPDATE: I've uploaded a new version that should handle ASCII and UTF-8 .srt files.

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?ideachbioiprltp

Thanks a lot for your tool which allows me at last to display subs on a PC with the software stereoscopic player and Nvidia 3D Vision system!

But I have a small problem as after I choose any of the 3 ratio templates, the subs still appear squeezed on my 3d monitor, then could you add an option for 4:3 ratio and custom ratio ?

Then I have a small feature request: to save some time especially if we use your tool for a lot of movies, could you please display the options menu in a drop list, so that we just have to click on the option we want instead of typing it ?

At last I suppose we can add and choose to use any other font from the moment we type its right name ?

---

Ok never mind, it seems like a better tool already exists there !

[billyturf]

Can someone post all the available options for this tool?

TIA.

[babylon5]

Thanks! This works perfectly

[fokke100]

Oke use the tool srt23sass

get a srt file in this program
i choose a for the first action
and template 1 for the second option

wait 2 seconds and your ass file is ready

put this file in mkvmerge gui v4.5
set the charset to roman8

then merge the files

great tool

you get a yellow sub

i am only looking to make this sub smaller

anyone a sugestion?

[Makaja]

(05-13-2011 06:35 PM)fokke100 Wrote:  i am only looking to make this sub smaller

Open the *.ass file, and edit the line
"Style: 3D,Cube Modern Rounded Thin,60,"

and change into:
Style: 3D,Cube Modern Rounded Thin,40,

Main difference: 60 to 40.

[kuif]

(06-01-2011 09:04 PM)Makaja Wrote:  

(05-13-2011 06:35 PM)fokke100 Wrote:  i am only looking to make this sub smaller

Open the *.ass file, and edit the line
"Style: 3D,Cube Modern Rounded Thin,60,"

and change into:
Style: 3D,Cube Modern Rounded Thin,40,

Main difference: 60 to 40.

well, i've tried this, but the subs are still very large? how should i merge them within mkvmerge to get smaller subs in the 3d half sbs mkv file? Hmm, in 3d mode they are very big, in side by side mode the subs are the right size... maybe i have to convert the srt first to a sub and they a merge.... i will continue testing..

oops... i didn't add the ttf file with the merging...merging right now with the ttf file attached...

Yes, you've to attach the ttf font file while merging, else the font is very big (as mentioned in the first post!!!)

[m184]

can i use that method with my popcorn a110 ??

[lost0633]

* First of all, the movie image to fit we use 3D Subtitler program .Sub subtitle file extension is

* Now .sub subtitle file using MKVTOOLNİX and attach the subtitle in the film and has solved the problem.

im sorry for the spelling errors im not know english well