hi gang!!

heres a question that 'bound to set the cat amongst the pigeons' but please hear my case inthis instance.

I am visually impaired (not since birth , mind you-but from what my partner used to term 'advanced middle-age, in fact I used to be a professional cinema projectionist and would always pride myslef on my 'sharp ' focus) and even though i will never compare the 'silver screen ' to the current home dvd thheatre experience (which is a 'boon' for people usch as I who are no longer as 'mobile' as we once were!!) I am finding a problem for me.

Now I am what I would cal a 'purist' when it coomes to veiwing and will ALWAYs watch a film in the original language that the maker made it in. BUT...i find my self increasingly using the 'alternative ' tracks of audio to English when veiwing. Why? you ask? Because even though I fele that this is 'sacrilige' (as a purist), the literal truth is that on my home theatre set up the subtitles are literally TOO SMALL for me to read. I have tried it all...sittinig closer to the screen to no avail ,using the dvd player remotes 'zoom' function (it does not increase the size of the type).

I had an idea that much LARGER SUBTITLES , perhaps (in my case they would have to take up the bottom 1/3RD of the screen-minus the letterbox 'mask') could be an option. These new LARGETITLES could possibly 'scroll' lft to rght in time with the dialogue. This is an option that could be 'turned on and off' similar to the directors 'commentary' that are common. now i kno that the purists out among you will ask
"What about how much visual information is lost by the subtitles covering it up"?
and i agree it is a good point. But those out there blest with 20:20 vision can switch the largetitles OFF.
BUT...think of people such as myself who don't reall ywant to watch a 'dubbed 'version of a film but are physically inabled to read the subtitles as they are too small.

does anyone out there in "mobius-land" know of any players or software that would "help a poor (nearly )blind man out", here?
JP

I agree with the idea of providing an alternative subtitle track with larger print. Just as importantly, though, I think serious efforts need to be made to encourage DVD producers to subtitle EVERYTHING, including commentary tracks and all bonus materials. Columbia Tristar in the UK have already made significant strides towards this, and they put the likes of Anchor Bay to shame. Given how many deaf and hard of hearing people there are, I think that failing to include subtitles, whether for the film itself or for the extras, is inexcusable.

Scrolling wouldn't work with the way subtitles are currently generated, I don't think.

Rather than being caption-like simple text, DVD subtitles are words or sentences stored as graphic images in bitmap form.

The subtitles contain a file that tells the DVD player when to display a certain line, for how long, and where on the screen to position the subtitles.
The DVD player than overlays them on-screen as dictated by the information stored on the disk.