Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: NEC2000 Subtitles

This is topic NEC2000 Subtitles in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Marcial Feliciano Ramos (Member # 1989) on 06-25-2016, 09:41 PM:

Is there a way to enable or disable subtitles on a NEC 2000? If so, how? Via DCC or TI program?

Thanks

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 06-26-2016, 06:55 AM:

You shouldn't need to enable them. If the subtitles are on the movie, they should be showing up. That is strictly between your server and the ICP board to get them working. Subtitles can be VERY finicky. Almost every ICP software version seems to fuss with them somewhat.

If you are not on the latest NEC software, I would start there (4.217 or 4.218 are fine) and likewise on your server software.

I don't believe the DCC gives one the option to turn subtitles on/off...only their status at the bottom of the DCC screen...the "Subtitle" word will turn RED when the ICP sees that subtitles are available. From the ICP/Enigma program (TIs) you can indeed disable subtitles. You can also try to enable them, if they are there as well as point the ICP to a different directory.

Posted by Marcial Feliciano Ramos (Member # 1989) on 06-26-2016, 12:01 PM:

Thats the point. Some in the installation enable the subtitles in the NEC and now we are having issues between them. All my NEC's have them disable except that one. Thanks!

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 06-26-2016, 04:50 PM:

Which server type do you use? You can enable/disable projector subtitles on a Doremi, and I guess it is more likely your folks did it this way...

What is the problem you are having? ClosedCaptions on screen?

- Carsten

Posted by Marcial Feliciano Ramos (Member # 1989) on 06-26-2016, 08:02 PM:

GDC. Sometimes they appear sometimes dont. The only thing different in this NEC are tat the subtitles are enable. Inthe other ones we dont have any problems.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 06-27-2016, 10:57 AM:

You mean you disable subtitles on your projectors to use the GDCs server based subtitles to make subtitling more reliable for you?

- Carsten

Posted by Marcial Feliciano Ramos (Member # 1989) on 06-28-2016, 02:06 PM:

Yes. Is there a better way?

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 06-28-2016, 05:57 PM:

I have no experience with GDCx (they are non-existent in germany), but I would say there should be a way to deal with this from the GDC side of things?

E.g. on Doremis there is a config switch to disable projector subtitles. If the server offers server-side subtitles, it should also offer to disable projector subtitles.

- Carsten

Posted by Leslie Hartmier (Member # 7053) on 07-05-2016, 04:02 PM:

Yes, in the configuration pages of the GDC content server, there is the option of using the content server itself to output the subtitles.

However, GDC themselves do not recommend using it, except in exceptional situations. They said that it adds considerable load to the content server, and that the projectors are better suited for doing the subtitles.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 07-05-2016, 04:15 PM:

In my opinion that should mean that the GDC in this case would automatically disable projector subtitles?

- Carsten

Posted by Ioannis Syrogiannis (Member # 3235) on 07-08-2016, 09:35 AM:

First of all, I'd try to disable via the TI ICP settings.
If that won't work, I 'd try the following:

Since I don't know anything about the server type, I 'd check from the other side of it.
Once, some ten months ago, I had an issue with the subs of a NEC projector, paired with a dolby DSS200 server.
Mysteriously, the problem went away when I changed the network settings. To be precise, I changed the (default in a lot of systems we use) subnet mask from 255.255.0.0 to 255.255.255.0*.

Would you consider to test a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0 or 255.0.0.0 in the projector's settings, to see what will come of it?
You are "disabling" through fault, but if (and only if) everything else fails, it could be your solution.

*Yes, it is not the default 255.255.255.128 of dolby servers, but this is besides the issue here.

Posted by Ian Freer (Member # 1940) on 07-10-2016, 02:35 AM:

Which NEC and GDC version's are you on?

With an NEC/GDC installation there are typically two options for subtitles, CineCanvas (projector rendered) or Subtitle Overlay (server rendered)

Under normal circumstances the only thing you need to do is choose which method the server will do and that's it.

Log into the Configuration page, on the first tab (called 'General') there is a check-box for 'Subtitle Overlay'. If it is checked, the server will render the titles, if it is unchecked, the server will send the titles to the projector for CineCanvas to handle.

That's it, it's an either/or option. You cannot select 'none'.

I don't have any call to use the TI ICP software regularly so I didn't realise that could be used to disable the CineCanvas side of things in the projector. If the GDC's 'Subtitle Overlay' is unchecked and you have no titles then checking the TI ICP would be the next step

But as Steve hinted at, subtitles have been problematic for some time. It's a lot better than it used to be, but in the past I have come across many instances with NEC/GDC setups where, with movie A, CineCanvas worked and Subtitle Overlay didn't, but then movie B, was exactly the opposite.

Subtitle Overlay has had quite a few updates over the last couple of years too. It used to work really well when I first used it, but it seemed to suffer a bit when they moved to the second gen IMB (SX-20000AR model). But they've got it back to being pretty reliable again I think...