Subtitles appearance on Humax?

[xinl]

G'day,
I am looking for information on the appearance of the subtitles on the Humax PVR. I haven't been able to find any examples on ther inetnet as yet, so I am hoping someone here can help me.

I used to run MediaPortal on a PC connected to the TV, and the subtitles looked great. Transparent background, nice white font, didn't take up a lot of the screen. Moved to a TIVO last year because I wanted something elser to maintain, but the one thing that bugs me are the subtitles. Black ground with bright yellow or green blocky text that blocks half of the bottom of the screen.

Someone please tell me the Humax as the best selling European PVR is better! ;-)

Regards,
Malcolm

[prl]

The colours in subtitles are used to distinguish different speakers. You may not like the colour choices, but there's a reason for doing it that way.

[Dave at IceTV]

I am looking for information on the appearance of the subtitles on the Humax PVR. I haven't been able to find any examples on ther inetnet as yet, so I am hoping someone here can help me.

Hi Malcolm,

The subtitles on the Humax look very nice.

The background is only slightly larger than the text being displayed, and adjusts for wider sentences and 1 or 2 rows of text. The background is a dark grey or transparent black and has approximately 25% transparency. It's transparent enough so as not to be annoying but not really transparent enough to focus on what is behind the subtitles. it does look better than a large solid black box.

The font looks nice enough. It's not that ugly, blocky, teletext type font that you can see on some cheap STBs. There is a Subtitle Font setting in the menu with choices of Automatic or Fixed (I have no idea what the difference is as I could not see any difference). As prl said, each person's speech is shown in a different colour. Thankfully the chosen colours are very pale and not a distraction. i.e. Pale yellow, baby blue and white. None of that bright green, bright yellow or dark blue stuff that you can see in some cheap STBs.

[xinl]

Thanks Dave, That's the information I was after. I don't mind different colours for the different speakers, just the whole appearance and the blocking of the screen.

I also was unable to find examples of the subtitles of other PVRs. How are the Beyonwiz and the Topfields in this regard?

I have a Tivo, but would swap for a comparable PVR if it was simple and nicer subtitles.
Regards,
Malcolm

[Dave at IceTV]

Hi Malcolm,

The Beyonwiz is almost the same as the Humax, except that:
- The font is not as nice as on the Humax. With the Beyonwiz font an O looks like an octagon with a square inside. The edges are sharp and clear, but it's just not a curved style font.
- The yellow and green text colours are darker shades than the Humax. The difference may be because the Humax text is slightly transparent while the Beyonwiz text is solid.
- While the background transparency looks like it is the same percentage as the Humax, the Beyonwiz subtitle background changes depending on what is behind it. it seems to vary from 40% transparency to 10% - though this could be my Sharp LCD TV's auto brightness adjusting itself.

I don't have access to a Topfield until next week. Though from memory the Topfield subtitles are very similar in size and position to the Humax and Beyonwiz.

I'll post some Humax and Beyonwiz screen shots shortly.

[Dave at IceTV]

Click on the thumbnails for larger images

Beyonwiz Subtitles
(higher than normal vertical position is from the broadcaster)


Beyonwiz Subtitles close up


Humax Subtitles


Humax  Subtitles close up

     

[xinl]

Thanks Dave, you are a star!

Humax is definitely better. That makes the decision easier.

However the wife asks about the subtitles being synced with the voice... On the Tivo the subtitles are sometimes slow and way behind spoken word... Do you know if this is a broadcast issue or the PVR?

Cheers,
Malcolm

[Dave at IceTV]

Subtitle sync is normally a broadcaster issue. Though it can also be a firmware issue. When subtitles are way behind the speech it is because the subtitles are being typed live by someone who is listening to the speech. This is often in live news programs and talk shows. You can often tell that they are live because there are typos, and missing sentences when they try to catch up.

On the Humax you can adjust the lip sync (audio to video sync) which is an excellent feature. Especially if have the audio going to an amp, or are using the audio-out from your TV to an amp, and your amp does not include an audio sync adjustment. It could also come in handy when playing networked video files that have poorly synced audio.