Filtering out a certain color in VirtualDub?

[Arlo]

Hi all.

I'm new to video editing, and I need some help. The 1922 silent film version of Robin Hood has recently been released into the public domain. But the only version available for free downloading on-line is low quality and has yellow Spanish subtitles at the bottom of the screen. I'm looking for a way to delete those subtitles. Since the entire film is in black and white, my thinking is that if there's some way to filter out the color yellow and replace it with black, that would work. I've tried using the MSU Logo Remover filter, but that doesn't seem to work for this particular film. I was wondering if anyone knew of a filter that would remove a certain color.

Arlo

[gonwk]

Hi Arlo,

You are in luck ... since the subtitle is at the bottom ... you can just cut-out the bottom portion in V-Dub and then reset your new revised video to the Original size of your video with V-Dub ... just look under Video button and use Null-Reference filter within V-Dub to cut out Subtitles.

G!

[Arlo]

Thanks for your response. Maybe I wasn't clear, though. This is a silent film, and the subtitles are at the bottom quarter of the screen when the English text appears. This portion of the screen is occupied by live action sequences for most of the movie. So if I delete that, I'll lose a good amount of the live action film that I want to keep. To cut off the bottom portion of the screen that has the subtitles, I would have to manually go through the film and look for the parts that have text, which I don't want to do. I've already counted, and there are over 60 of those. That's why I was looking for some filter to just remove any instance of the color yellow.

If I'm not describing this very well, you can see the film here: http://www.archive.org/details/FairbanksRobinHood1922 and watch the first couple of minutes, and you'll see what I'm talking about. The first few scenes here, though, have the subtitles appear over some of the English text. Most of the scenes with text aren't like that, so I'm just trying to delete the subtitles from those scenes.

If there's any way to do this, please let me know, and thanks again for your help.

Arlo

[gonwk]

Hi Arlo,

OK ... I see what you mean ... the Subtitles have been burned into the AVI ... so basically you are SOL'ed ... meaning you can't use VDub or anything else that I know to remove the "Hard Sub".

The only other thing I can think of is to download the OGG version of it ... and I recall someone telling me that with OGG container you can Choose Not to Play Back the Subtitles ... then you can capture or Stream the Movie that way without the Subtitles and save it.

G!

[paglamon]

@ Arlo,

Try AVIDemux and use the "Eraser" filter under "Misc" in Video filters.