Request for per-title vertical alignment settings

Suggestions
1

As you know, Infuse’ subtitle settings are applied globally. This introduces a few problems. When I want subtitles to be just above the bottom of the video(not the screen), I have to adjust the vertical alignment every time since the aspect ratios vary from title to title. It’s frustrating when I browse through different titles briefly - which I do - where each time I have to either wait for a subtitle to show up or skip forward until one does, then I can adjust the alignment if it’s not right. It really takes the seamlessness out of the experience. The vertical alignment also affects PGS subtitles too. Another minor problem is that a background set to 75% opacity looks much more opaque in SDR than in HDR, so I have to set it to 50% in SDR every time.

Here are a few things I’m suggesting in order of most to least urgent:

  • A setting to make subtitle settings apply per title
  • Display the adjustments in real time as I make changes
  • Make the font sizes scale properly across devices. I had to set the font size on my iPhone, iPad, MacBook and Apple TV to different presets and they still don’t match properly.
  • The text seems to be aligned to the exact vertical center of the background, which is actually incorrect, and it looks very wrong. It’s supposed to be lower. Please fix it.
  • What’s up with the bordered preset? The outline is so thin I can barely see anything in bright or complex scenes. Please fix that.
  • Either give us good presets or give us granular control. This is a problem at least with the font size, background opacity level and vertical alignment. You can never get a consistent experience as things are now.
  • Maybe, just maybe, do whatever Apple’s doing with their subtitles. They seem to know what they’re doing. Positioning, font, size, opacity, brightness, that kinda stuff.

I originally planned to address only the vertical alignment problem, since I’ll take whatever I can get, but there’re so many things wrong that I just had to address them all. I’d appreciate it if any part of this post got any attention at all.

2 Likes
2

Here’s the frustrating scenario I run into on my iPad:

1. I play a file with SRT subtitles. They are in the black bars by default.

2. I go into settings and adjust the global vertical alignment to move them up into the video frame.

3. Later, I play a file with ASS subtitles. The ASS subtitles, which should be positioned correctly by their own code, are now also shifted by that global setting, completely breaking their layout.

4. I’m forced to go back into settings and reset the vertical alignment to default.

It’s an infuriating and clumsy design.

I believe we need a different kind of option, similar to what mpv player offers: a setting like sub-use-margins=no. This would be a simple toggle to force all subtitles (including ASS, SRT, etc.) to render inside the video frame instead of in the black margins.

Or unify vertical alignment by subtitle type —At the very least, ASS and SRT subtitles shouldn’t share the same vertical alignment setting.

3

Don’t forget that you need to click the like button on the first post in this thread to show your support for this suggestion! :wink: