Help needed to remove hard-coded subtitles

[IcePrick]

The movie Symbol has had only one Blu-ray release in Japan. Unfortunately, it has hard-coded subtitles on the non-Japanese speaking dialogue. [Image: eef4c1405709121.jpg]

There is, however, a PAL DVD of this movie which doesn't have hard-coded subs.
[Image: a69d63405709126.jpg]

I would like to use the DVD to patch over the subtitles, keeping most of the BD resolution, but removing the subtitles.
[Image: 99527b405709132.jpg]

Unfortunately, I don't know how to do this with video. Can someone give me some helpful information on how to do this?

[spoRv]

First, you have to align both temporally and spatially; then, you must find the best de-logo filter - there are many, but you must test them, as they are usually used to remove TV stations logo... but AFAIR they were used to remove hardcoded subs, too!

[jerryshadoe]

don't know if this will help, but in cases like this it helps to see if there is an HDTV or web-dl version as it would be better quality than upscaling dvd footage. depending on what method you use to get rid of the subtitles, you will have a crappy to "so-so" result. It can be done, but it would be relatively time-consuming as unlike getting rid of a tv-logo, (which is usually stationary) here the subtitles are constantly changing, therefore your adjustments for the de-logo script or manual patching with alternate footage (i.e. dvd or other) will constantly be changing. how much of the footage (in real-time) is there actually in this movie? is it just a few scenes or is it most of the movie? if it's just a few scenes then invest the time into using google searching for something like "de-logo avisynth" or similar and take the time to learn a little bit about how to do this. I did something similar myself a while back and discovered that you really have to do some homework because one method that might work for me on one type of footage will produce garbage on others. you need to do some tests and determine what works best for your footage. i know it's not the answer you were looking for, but it's an honest answer

[IcePrick]

I've found an avisynth script that seems to do a pretty good job. I need to do further testing, though.

[spoRv]

Found lately a new filter, that could help you: exinpaing - really promising, give it a try!

[IcePrick]

Here's the AviSynth script I've been using:

bg = AviSource("Clip1.avi").ConvertToRGB32()
mk = Imagesource("mask.jpg").ConvertToRGB32()
top = AviSource("Clip2.avi").ConvertToRGB32().Mask(mk)
Layer(bg, top)

It uses a mask layer defined by the JPEG, which allows you to control which part of the top layer is visible. It's a good and simple way of layering the DVD footage over the subtitles.

I was going to post a clip here, but it was blocked on YouTube on copyright grounds.