idx/sub vs srt

[beenthere]

I hope the subject caught your attention, however I'm not actually opposed to any of these formats, I'm just raising the question whether it would be ok to host both on this site. Here's my list of pros of the idx/sub format:

• original bmp overlays thus no OCR errors whatsoever
• original bmp overlays thus no problems with special/foreign characters
• subtitles appear at original positions (e.g. atop of screen when credits are shown at bottom)
• original subtitle colors (more and more used to assign one color per actor talking)
• original format as intended by the author (characters per line/line breaks)
• increasing support by (cheap) standalone DVD players

I'll let you add the cons, the most important one of course is gonna be the size:

Scrubs S3 en-de srt: 425 KB rared
Scrubs S3 en-de idx/sub: 14.1 MB rared

So what do you think?

[Worst]

Hi,

There was already discussion on this topic...

you're right, but... yeah, files are very big (problems with download/upload and server of course) and I think these subs are illegal too.

+ from my experience. Ordinary user has no idea these subs exists or he doesn't know how to use them (e.g. VobSub). Text subtitles are easier to use and more known.

Wait for the site admin answer, but I think he'll tell you the same

[Holubar]

oh, I hate that format, some players even have big problems with it, I always have to use WMP to watch a movie with such subs.Hate it

[timbouctou]

I agree with Holubar, .srt files are smaller, they are supported by virtually all standalone dvd players and they are far more practical to work with.

[Nikephoros]

Videolan can play .sub/.idx no problem, no need to use vobsub. My set-top Philips DVP-642 DVD/DIVX player can only play .SRT(but not the Greek charset) but more and more newer players are supporting .sub/.idx.

.SRT subtitles from my experience usually have lots of errors grammar errors and typos from OCR'ing. Most common instead of You're you will see Youre or You re.

For some movies it takes quite a while to convert from .sub/,idx into .srt and you really need to proofread to catch the small errors, when you are done. So creating quality .srt files can be quite a pain and involves more user intervention than the actual encoding of an XVID.

[beenthere]

oh, I hate that format, some players even have big problems with it, I always have to use WMP to watch a movie with such subs.Hate it

Well, then you system is misconfigured. I've installed Vobsub and it pops up automatically each time I open an avi in Media Player Classic that has a corresponding idx/sub and it works perfectly. Granted, WMP sucks big time!

There was already discussion on this topic...

Missed it then, though I did some browsing before. Anyway it's just a suggestion on my part to host BOTH formats. Of course that decision is up to the admins.

[oss]

hello,

there are some pros and more cons with this format. You wrote pros, but cons are:

- subtitles are really big (I already have problem with the traffic - it is more than 1TB/month)
- support for this subtitles is not so big (mp3 vs ogg)
- they are completelly illegal

this site was originally developed for not supporting these kinds of subtitles. Also, there are many videos, which simply cannot have these subtitles (CAM,TS,TC,R5,DVDSCR)

[beenthere]

OK, that's settled then, I'm not gonna up any idx/sub.

[oss]

you are always welcome to OCR them and upload

[Mavvy]

My media player also got problems with .SUB

Just did some OCR for some titles.. gonna upload them as SRT soon.