The VideoLAN Forums

Hi all,
I tried to play a movie using VLC on Windows. It was 16:9 with subtitles. On most players (or using subtitle filters like ffdshow, vobsub or divxg400) I can add black borders to extend the movie to 4:3 aspect ratio. Then the subtitles can be placed in these borders. Is it possible to do this in VLC? Thank You, JeCh

It is not, however it is on the todo list

Is there any progress in implementing this feature? It is the only reason why I don't use VLC as my primary player. Thank you.

yes, VLC doesn't control the black borders, the graphic driver does. But as thedj said, that is in our todo list (and should be fixed in the next version if everything goes according to plans)

Please, do implement this!!!
It's so nice to have the subtitles below in 16:9 movies....

I have a suggestion.
I have this movie with embedded subtitles BELOW the actual video, in an added black border added in by the ripper.

SO, it occured to me that it would b very nice for those of us in this conditions to be able to first crop the embeded subtitles in the extra black border, and then add black borders in vlc, to be able to put text subtitles (*srt) below the movie. What do you think? is this feasible?

This feature will be very great !

Hello,
is there anything new in implementing this feature? I hoped we would see it in 0.8.5. If somebody will be working on it, please also have a look at this thread and implement this feature also for DVDs.

Letterboxing is a very important feature for a lot of people and I think it shouldn't be so difficult to implement it. It is common in most players, subtitle filters (VSFilter, DivXG400, FFDShow) and image processing programs (AviSynth, VirtualDub, Avidemux). So may be the code can be taken from these projects.

Patches are welcome (especially if it's not hard ... you should be able to submit such a patch)

I'm sorry if I sounded demanding, I didn't want to. But it is almost 2 years since this thread has been started so I was just wondering if there is anything new. And also I wanted to let you know, that there are more people who would be grateful for this feature.

Unfortunately I'm not good enough in coding, else I would suply this patch. But from an algorithmical point of view, I don't see where is the problem with this filter if there are filters like Crop. It seems to me it shouldn't be a problem to add a filter which would just calculate height of black borders (width*4/3-height)/2 and add them to a picture. But may be there are some internal problems that complicate this and I don't see them.

I was so hoping for this addition to be part of the 0.8.5 release!!! Please, please, please add the ability to position the subtitles below the picture. I use VLC for everything except foreign films. I watch so many foreign films, but I always have to use Media Player Classic because it does allow me to place the subtitles where they can be read clearly!!!

I guess that it must be a dificult task to do that, but this topic was started in 2004, so I ask:

Are we there yet??? Are we there yet??? Are we there yet???

Thank you to all contributors who support this great player.

No. h

I already lost my hope it will ever happen.

Practically no chances for VLC 1.1. First, the new video output architecture has to be completed. Then people can consider what new features to implement on top of it for VLC 1.2. But at the current speed, it would be out 2011 at the earliest.

"But at the current speed, it would be out 2011 at the earliest."
As of April 2011 ... not even close to any news ??? So is there any possibility to get better than old Media Player Classic ? I prefer MP Classic only because of this one tiny option (and ability to custom determine position and font - size - of the subtitles, to be able to read them).
Thank You for efforts

This work is under-going now, indeed.

From 2004 and still nothing?

come on, do launch it in next version please.

Did you do anything about it? No. Why do you think anyone else would or should have? Nobody is paid to work on VLC.