Post by apollux on Mar 30, 2008 12:44:54 GMT -5
INTRO: As a viewer who has been recently hooked by gay story lines from foreign languages TV serials, I think is about time to retribute the community by helping on the subtitling process myself. This post is intended as an starting HOW-TO guide for those interested on helping get broader diffusion for your favorite serials. Keep in mind that I´m no expert on the subject (quite a newbie actually) so this guide should always be considered as work in progress.
If you have any info to contribute or find any inaccuracy, post a replay so it can be integrated into the guide. Hopefully we will together build a valuable reference for all the community members (and if the moderators feel it is good enough for making it a Sticky Post, even better).
By the way, the process of adding fan-generated translations/subtitles to video productions isn't anything new. In fact, japan animation fans from all over the world has been doing it for quite some time now. It is that current technological advances such as YouTube and increased broadband internet access has made it even easier. Since I´m not planning to re-invent the wheel, we will re-use many terminology and workflow tips from the Japanese "FanSubers".
*** Anti-Warez Note: All the software going to be mentioned here can be legally obtained at no cost -for free, or comes already installed on your computer, or can by bough for practically pennies.
OVERVIEW OF THE PROCESS: Adding subtitles to your favorite TV serial is a process of several steps where you can make a contribution. "FanSubers" usually work in teams, because that way you can put your skills at use where they are more productive, and because it is more fun that way.
For getting a video translated and subtitled you need to:
3. Transcribe the dialog on it´s same language (this step is optional, but helps).
5. Translate the transcribed dialog.
6. Time-code the translation so that each line shows and disappear on screen at the right time.
7. Do some typesetting on the already time-coded translation, so that it looks and reads good on your screen.
8. Joint the finished subtitles with the video. (Notice that I used "joint" instead of "incorporate", look further for details").
9. Re-distribute the fruit of your hard work so that it can be enjoyed by the community.
[/ul]
As you can see there is quite a lot going on, that's why is common to work in small teams. Also, newer software is making the overall process easier, to the point that various steps are seamlessly integrated or even fully automated.
1. GETTING A DIGITAL COPY OF THE VIDEO: This is perhaps the more "complicated" step because most of the time you are dealing with copyrigthed material. However, usually the copyright holder turns a blind eye on the subject because the fansuber is actually helping him to get broader distribution, thus reaching a larger audience. Even if the commercials are edited out of the digital copy, the product placement and overlay advertising still remains, plus it increases the producer "cache" and opens up new potential markets for it's product. Some producers go the extra mile by allowing digital copies to be downloaded from the official TV serial web page and/or host on-line forums where subtitled versions are openly discussed.
So, how do you get a digital copy of the broadcast? Ideally you (or a friend/team mate) could have it recorded in high quality straight from the TV signal, or, could download a copy from one of the many video hosting websites (such as Youtube). The first option is always prefered because then you are working with a better source material, and the better the source material the better the end product.
Recording from the TV using a current digital video recorder device is usually a straight forthward process that I won't deal with here. But saving from a video site is more complicated as such sites usually are meant for viewing but not downloading (Google Video is one of the few sites that allow uncomplicated one-click download of it's videos).
For most sites you need a helper program to locate the source of the streaming video. I´v been told that TubeTV (www.chimoosoft.com/products/tubetv/) is a good choice for Mac and I have positive experience with Download Helper (www.downloadhelper.net/) on the PC platform. I also hear good things about Vixy.Net (vixy.net/), especially that it can take care of the trans-coding step automatically.
If you already have an AVI file or any other video format that your sub-titling application can read then you can skip the next step. Otherwise you need to...
2. TRANS-CODING THE VIDEO: A video file is, mostly, a bunch of sequential picture frames that are to be played back at the same time of an audio track. However there are many possible ways to store both the images and the sound inside the video file. Since I don´t plan to get overcomplicated with technical stuff let's just say that a small program called "codec" takes care of all the technical stuff, including adding compression to the file and resizing the image frames so that the video is reduced to a sensible size suitable for Internet transmission.
The important stuff is that if a video is encoded using codec X and transmitted to someone else, that someone else needs to have the same codec X (or another codec smart enought to understand what X did and emulate it). Lucky for us, current operating systems come already bundled with the most used codecs or can look for them automatically on the net.
Another important detail (and the one we really care about) is that some codecs are better suited for videos to be further edited while some codecs are better suited for videos that are to be viewed but not edited any more.... such are the codecs used on the video viewing web sites, Flash Video (.FLV) and Quicktime Movie (.QT, .MOV) been the most populars of this type.
Among the codecs suitable for amateur editing and subtitling the most populars are Audio-Video-Interleaved (.AVI), Motion Picture Expert Group video (.MPEG, .MPG), Divix (.DIVIX, .MP4, .AVI), Matroska Video (.MKV), and Vorbis Ogg (.VOB, .OGG) etc.
*** Boring Tech Note: most of the aforementioned codecs suitable for editing aren't really codecs but video container formats. I´m calling them codecs for the sake of simplicity. If you want to know the little details then here are some recommended readings, otherwise just skip it and keep with the guide.
When presented with multiple choices, my preferred video codecs are Matroska, Ogg, and Avi, on that same order. The real choice depends on witch format your other applications can read.
So now that you have the video a .FLV or some other "non editable" format, you need to decode the video data and re-encode it on a more suitable format, that's why this step is called "trans-coding". I´ll assume your video is a .FLV since that is the more usual case for our particular situation.
For transcoding video the most popular choices are, by far, FFmpeg and Mencoder, but since both are command line driven programs and quite complex to use by themselves, people have developed graphical user interfaces to work with them, among those I´ll mention:
Vixy.net Not a program per-se, but a downloader. Since it can automatically transcode the downloaded video before handling it to you I decided to mention it here as well.
The Good: Totally automatic, couldn't be more simple to use.
The Bad: Since it is totally automatic, you have very little control over the transcoding process. At least it tells you witch codec it uses to do the transcoding.
Official Website: vixy.net/
StateGold's CinemaForge. After Vixy, CinemaForge have the most simple interface. Like Vixi, it can even be used on-line without installing anything on your computer. Can also take a bunch of pictures, a music track and make a multimedia slideshow with them.
The Good: While been reasonably simple, it offers more control choices over the transcoding process, like video resizing and FPS converting. Since it let you choose different video and audio sources for the final video, it could be used to sound doubling as well (but that is out of the scope of this guide).
The Bad: It doesn´t really tells you wich codec it is going to use, so you could end with a proper video that you can't play or edit because you are missing the right codec. I guess it takes some trial and error to find a conversion option that works best for you.
Official Website: www.stagegold.com/cinemaforge/default.aspx
Download Website: www.download.com/CinemaForge/3000-13631_4-10373646.html
eRightSoft's Super Converter. This is my favorite choice at the moment. The interface looks a little bit more technical, but I find it has just about the right choices without overwhelming you.
The Good: Gives you more choices over the transcoding process, and allows for some neat tricks like video frame cropping and padding (so you can have extra blank space on the frame for placing the subtitles instead of placing them over the image frame. Have a HUGE list of possible codecs/formats and it is quite fast also.
The Bad: Documentation is thin and mostly in the pop-pup bubbles that show when you left the mouse over a button. No typical manual to speak of. However, the amount of info in the pop-ups is usually more than enough for our purposes. The download process it atypical to say the least.
Official Website: www.erightsoft.net/SUPER.html
Download Page: www.erightsoft.net/Superdc.html but you need to read these instructions first www.erightsoft.net/dlhelp.html After you read it, it is quite easy.
MediaCoder. Another strong contender. Haven't used it yet, but looks really promising. I like the fact that it can fix corrupted and incomplete downloaded files.
The Good: Looks quite powerful with many features and good documentation. I have to play some more with it. Is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS.
The Bad: None so far, but as I said, I have to play with it.
Official WebSite: mediacoder.sourceforge.net/
As you can see, you have many choices to go by, and if you already have a full featured video editor on your computer, chances are that you can use the same program to transcode the video. All it needs to have is the ability to open your source-material video and do a "Save As" on a format readable by your subtitling application.
*** REALLY IMPORTANT TECH NOTE: Unless you are working with loose-less compression codecs (quite unlikely if you are doing amateur subtitling), every time you transcode or re-enconde a video it looses both image and sound quality. Equally when you downsize and then upsize the video it will loose some quality on the process.
So try to keep the transcoding/enconding passes to the minimum. Even better, if possible, try to do all the video transcoding and conditioning on a single step to minimize the quality lost.
3. TRANSCRIBING THE DIALOG: If you are doing the translation yourself this is a step you can skip, but even then there are advantages to transcribing the dialog. Usually it is easier and faster to translate a written piece than an audio piece.
If you are working on a team and the translation is going to be done by someone else, that person is going to be really thankful to have the dialogs written in advance. And if the actor(s) speak with heavy accents, written transcriptions are almost a must have.
Now that I convinced you to take the extra time to transcribe the dialog, here is an example of how it is best done:
Having the dialogs clearly separated by speakers allows for an easier interpretation by the person doing the translation. Not to mention that some subtitling applications can import that file and automatically assign different text styles, fonts and color to the dialogs of each actor (like having the subtitles of Actor A in bold red, and the subtitles of Actor B in underlined green, for example). Adding comments, and marking then like so by starting the line with # is quite useful as well.
For doing dialog transcription all the software you need is a media player to hear the dialogs and any text editor to write it down. It could be something fancy as a dedicated transcribing application or something quite simple as MS-Notepad, or anything in between. For our purposes the results will be the same as long as the application can save to a so-called plain text file (those ending with .TXT).
4. TRANSLATING THE DIALOG: Since you had the dialog written beforehand, this should be really simple now. Just open a second text file and start unleashing your linguistic savvy.
Remember that the subtitles are going to be read by persons that are not familiar with the original language, so try to keep the use of local/regional slant to a minimum. And if you can't avoid using localized dialog, then add a comment with a note in the translated dialog file (remember, comment lines start with #).
By the way, there are specialized softwares out there to do this step, but right now most subtitling applications (to be used on the next step) can be used to translate text as well. I recommend to keep it simple and do it on your text editor, unless you are familiar with translation software. One of those specialized applications for subtitle translation is Divx Subtitle Tool , byt HJR Soft (www.divax.it/programmi.asp?file=Divx%20Subtitle%20Tool) and you can see a tutorial on how to use it -written on Spanish, at sigt.net/archivo/fansuber-manual-de-traduccion-i.xhtml
5. TIME-CODING THE TRANSLATION: Here is where most of your time and patience are going to be spent! The objective is having each line of text appearing (and disappearing) at the right time so that the viewer can fallow the conversation without been visually confused. It is easier said than done.
There isn't a single right way to do it, it depends mostly on your personal workflow tastes and the applications you have available, and even on a single application two persons could get the work done using totally different techniques... I say it once again, how to do it is more a matter of how you fell comfortable. Still, I' ll mention some common application and the way I would do it on them.
Microsoft Windows Movie Maker: Is not an dedicated subtitling application, but is already installed on most PC computers, so you could as well use it for small subtitling projects.
Workflow: To create subtitles you import and place the source video on the time-frame bar and add overlay text to it by clicking on Tools -> Titles and Credits. Among the many text animation options you choose "Subtitle Under (overlay)" and type away on the text box, then click on OK and drag the effect strip so that the timing is right... and you keep doing it all over for every single line of subtitles !! (quite tiresome if you ask me). Make sure to add the subtitles to the lower time-bar, so that they get overlaid instead of overriding the video. When you are done export the project to a new video file.
The Good: Since it is more a video editor than a subtitle application you can do way more to the video, like cutting out undesired portions or creating fancy intros and transition effects.
The Bad: Tiresome and slow. The process of importing and exporting the video is quite slow as well. You don't have much control over where on the screen the subtitles should appear.
What you get in the end: A new video file with the subtitles hard-coded into it.
Official Website: www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/default.mspx
URUWorks's Subtitle Workshop. This is a dedicated subtitling and typesetting application, with emphasis on the subtitling part. Even been freeware, is the tool of choice for many freelancer subtitlers in the video producing industry, so it gotta be good.
Workflow: Start a new subtitle project (File -> New Subtitle) and save it to your hard disk using either the SubStation Alpha (*.ssa) or the Advanced SubStation Alpha (*.ass) formats. We are making this the first step so that the auto-save wizard won't be bothering us asking to choose a format every other minute. Then open your video file (Movie -> Open). Now you can playback the movie using the built-in media player.
TO DO: Finish the workflow section.
The Good: Easy to use, can read and save to many subtitle formats. Can do some really fancy manipulation to the subtitles timing AFTER you have set each one manually at least one time.
The Bad: Timing is pretty much manual and can't be done in real time. You need to pause and rewind a little for each new subtitle line (but is easy to do with keyboard hotkeys).
What you get in the end: An especially formated text file containing all the subtitles along with timing and formating information. You don't get a new video out of Subtitle Station, but that is easy to get on a later step.
Official Website: www.urusoft.net/products.php?cat=sw&lang=1
AegiSub. One of the newest applications to join the subtitling party and already one of the favorites for Japan animation FanSubers. It is a dedicated subtitling and typesetting application with emphasis on the typesetting part (it can do some really neat typesetting tricks, like having the subtitles change color as the actor speaks in Karaoke style).
It can also interpret a transcribed dialog (like the one exampled above) and apply different typesetting styles to each actor.
Official Website: www.malakith.net/aegiwiki/Main_Page
DivXLand Media Subtitler.
* TO BE CONTINUED *
===================================
Hello!
Already started this guide over JamesSuttonFans , but I guess this forum is just as appropriate for it.
Do the forum moderators agree?
If you have any info to contribute or find any inaccuracy, post a replay so it can be integrated into the guide. Hopefully we will together build a valuable reference for all the community members (and if the moderators feel it is good enough for making it a Sticky Post, even better).
By the way, the process of adding fan-generated translations/subtitles to video productions isn't anything new. In fact, japan animation fans from all over the world has been doing it for quite some time now. It is that current technological advances such as YouTube and increased broadband internet access has made it even easier. Since I´m not planning to re-invent the wheel, we will re-use many terminology and workflow tips from the Japanese "FanSubers".
*** Anti-Warez Note: All the software going to be mentioned here can be legally obtained at no cost -for free, or comes already installed on your computer, or can by bough for practically pennies.
OVERVIEW OF THE PROCESS: Adding subtitles to your favorite TV serial is a process of several steps where you can make a contribution. "FanSubers" usually work in teams, because that way you can put your skills at use where they are more productive, and because it is more fun that way.
For getting a video translated and subtitled you need to:
3. Transcribe the dialog on it´s same language (this step is optional, but helps).
5. Translate the transcribed dialog.
6. Time-code the translation so that each line shows and disappear on screen at the right time.
7. Do some typesetting on the already time-coded translation, so that it looks and reads good on your screen.
8. Joint the finished subtitles with the video. (Notice that I used "joint" instead of "incorporate", look further for details").
9. Re-distribute the fruit of your hard work so that it can be enjoyed by the community.
[/ul]
As you can see there is quite a lot going on, that's why is common to work in small teams. Also, newer software is making the overall process easier, to the point that various steps are seamlessly integrated or even fully automated.
1. GETTING A DIGITAL COPY OF THE VIDEO: This is perhaps the more "complicated" step because most of the time you are dealing with copyrigthed material. However, usually the copyright holder turns a blind eye on the subject because the fansuber is actually helping him to get broader distribution, thus reaching a larger audience. Even if the commercials are edited out of the digital copy, the product placement and overlay advertising still remains, plus it increases the producer "cache" and opens up new potential markets for it's product. Some producers go the extra mile by allowing digital copies to be downloaded from the official TV serial web page and/or host on-line forums where subtitled versions are openly discussed.
So, how do you get a digital copy of the broadcast? Ideally you (or a friend/team mate) could have it recorded in high quality straight from the TV signal, or, could download a copy from one of the many video hosting websites (such as Youtube). The first option is always prefered because then you are working with a better source material, and the better the source material the better the end product.
Recording from the TV using a current digital video recorder device is usually a straight forthward process that I won't deal with here. But saving from a video site is more complicated as such sites usually are meant for viewing but not downloading (Google Video is one of the few sites that allow uncomplicated one-click download of it's videos).
For most sites you need a helper program to locate the source of the streaming video. I´v been told that TubeTV (www.chimoosoft.com/products/tubetv/) is a good choice for Mac and I have positive experience with Download Helper (www.downloadhelper.net/) on the PC platform. I also hear good things about Vixy.Net (vixy.net/), especially that it can take care of the trans-coding step automatically.
If you already have an AVI file or any other video format that your sub-titling application can read then you can skip the next step. Otherwise you need to...
2. TRANS-CODING THE VIDEO: A video file is, mostly, a bunch of sequential picture frames that are to be played back at the same time of an audio track. However there are many possible ways to store both the images and the sound inside the video file. Since I don´t plan to get overcomplicated with technical stuff let's just say that a small program called "codec" takes care of all the technical stuff, including adding compression to the file and resizing the image frames so that the video is reduced to a sensible size suitable for Internet transmission.
The important stuff is that if a video is encoded using codec X and transmitted to someone else, that someone else needs to have the same codec X (or another codec smart enought to understand what X did and emulate it). Lucky for us, current operating systems come already bundled with the most used codecs or can look for them automatically on the net.
Another important detail (and the one we really care about) is that some codecs are better suited for videos to be further edited while some codecs are better suited for videos that are to be viewed but not edited any more.... such are the codecs used on the video viewing web sites, Flash Video (.FLV) and Quicktime Movie (.QT, .MOV) been the most populars of this type.
Among the codecs suitable for amateur editing and subtitling the most populars are Audio-Video-Interleaved (.AVI), Motion Picture Expert Group video (.MPEG, .MPG), Divix (.DIVIX, .MP4, .AVI), Matroska Video (.MKV), and Vorbis Ogg (.VOB, .OGG) etc.
*** Boring Tech Note: most of the aforementioned codecs suitable for editing aren't really codecs but video container formats. I´m calling them codecs for the sake of simplicity. If you want to know the little details then here are some recommended readings, otherwise just skip it and keep with the guide.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codec
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_codecs
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_codec
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_container_formats
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matroska
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogg
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VOB
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Video_Interleave
When presented with multiple choices, my preferred video codecs are Matroska, Ogg, and Avi, on that same order. The real choice depends on witch format your other applications can read.
So now that you have the video a .FLV or some other "non editable" format, you need to decode the video data and re-encode it on a more suitable format, that's why this step is called "trans-coding". I´ll assume your video is a .FLV since that is the more usual case for our particular situation.
For transcoding video the most popular choices are, by far, FFmpeg and Mencoder, but since both are command line driven programs and quite complex to use by themselves, people have developed graphical user interfaces to work with them, among those I´ll mention:
Vixy.net Not a program per-se, but a downloader. Since it can automatically transcode the downloaded video before handling it to you I decided to mention it here as well.
The Good: Totally automatic, couldn't be more simple to use.
The Bad: Since it is totally automatic, you have very little control over the transcoding process. At least it tells you witch codec it uses to do the transcoding.
Official Website: vixy.net/
StateGold's CinemaForge. After Vixy, CinemaForge have the most simple interface. Like Vixi, it can even be used on-line without installing anything on your computer. Can also take a bunch of pictures, a music track and make a multimedia slideshow with them.
The Good: While been reasonably simple, it offers more control choices over the transcoding process, like video resizing and FPS converting. Since it let you choose different video and audio sources for the final video, it could be used to sound doubling as well (but that is out of the scope of this guide).
The Bad: It doesn´t really tells you wich codec it is going to use, so you could end with a proper video that you can't play or edit because you are missing the right codec. I guess it takes some trial and error to find a conversion option that works best for you.
Official Website: www.stagegold.com/cinemaforge/default.aspx
Download Website: www.download.com/CinemaForge/3000-13631_4-10373646.html
eRightSoft's Super Converter. This is my favorite choice at the moment. The interface looks a little bit more technical, but I find it has just about the right choices without overwhelming you.
The Good: Gives you more choices over the transcoding process, and allows for some neat tricks like video frame cropping and padding (so you can have extra blank space on the frame for placing the subtitles instead of placing them over the image frame. Have a HUGE list of possible codecs/formats and it is quite fast also.
The Bad: Documentation is thin and mostly in the pop-pup bubbles that show when you left the mouse over a button. No typical manual to speak of. However, the amount of info in the pop-ups is usually more than enough for our purposes. The download process it atypical to say the least.
Official Website: www.erightsoft.net/SUPER.html
Download Page: www.erightsoft.net/Superdc.html but you need to read these instructions first www.erightsoft.net/dlhelp.html After you read it, it is quite easy.
MediaCoder. Another strong contender. Haven't used it yet, but looks really promising. I like the fact that it can fix corrupted and incomplete downloaded files.
The Good: Looks quite powerful with many features and good documentation. I have to play some more with it. Is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS.
The Bad: None so far, but as I said, I have to play with it.
Official WebSite: mediacoder.sourceforge.net/
As you can see, you have many choices to go by, and if you already have a full featured video editor on your computer, chances are that you can use the same program to transcode the video. All it needs to have is the ability to open your source-material video and do a "Save As" on a format readable by your subtitling application.
*** REALLY IMPORTANT TECH NOTE: Unless you are working with loose-less compression codecs (quite unlikely if you are doing amateur subtitling), every time you transcode or re-enconde a video it looses both image and sound quality. Equally when you downsize and then upsize the video it will loose some quality on the process.
So try to keep the transcoding/enconding passes to the minimum. Even better, if possible, try to do all the video transcoding and conditioning on a single step to minimize the quality lost.
3. TRANSCRIBING THE DIALOG: If you are doing the translation yourself this is a step you can skip, but even then there are advantages to transcribing the dialog. Usually it is easier and faster to translate a written piece than an audio piece.
If you are working on a team and the translation is going to be done by someone else, that person is going to be really thankful to have the dialogs written in advance. And if the actor(s) speak with heavy accents, written transcriptions are almost a must have.
Now that I convinced you to take the extra time to transcribe the dialog, here is an example of how it is best done:
#XYZ Series - Episode 9,999.
#Aired on 99.99.9999
#Transcribed by ....
#Scene 01
Actor A: Hi!
Actor B: Hi back, how are you doing?
Actor A: Not so well, my pet just died.
#Come on!, it is obvious he is not doing fine, can't you see he is burying his pet? Dohh!
Actor B: I´m sorry for your lost.
Actor A: Blah blah blah
Actor B: Blah blah blah
Having the dialogs clearly separated by speakers allows for an easier interpretation by the person doing the translation. Not to mention that some subtitling applications can import that file and automatically assign different text styles, fonts and color to the dialogs of each actor (like having the subtitles of Actor A in bold red, and the subtitles of Actor B in underlined green, for example). Adding comments, and marking then like so by starting the line with # is quite useful as well.
For doing dialog transcription all the software you need is a media player to hear the dialogs and any text editor to write it down. It could be something fancy as a dedicated transcribing application or something quite simple as MS-Notepad, or anything in between. For our purposes the results will be the same as long as the application can save to a so-called plain text file (those ending with .TXT).
4. TRANSLATING THE DIALOG: Since you had the dialog written beforehand, this should be really simple now. Just open a second text file and start unleashing your linguistic savvy.
Remember that the subtitles are going to be read by persons that are not familiar with the original language, so try to keep the use of local/regional slant to a minimum. And if you can't avoid using localized dialog, then add a comment with a note in the translated dialog file (remember, comment lines start with #).
By the way, there are specialized softwares out there to do this step, but right now most subtitling applications (to be used on the next step) can be used to translate text as well. I recommend to keep it simple and do it on your text editor, unless you are familiar with translation software. One of those specialized applications for subtitle translation is Divx Subtitle Tool , byt HJR Soft (www.divax.it/programmi.asp?file=Divx%20Subtitle%20Tool) and you can see a tutorial on how to use it -written on Spanish, at sigt.net/archivo/fansuber-manual-de-traduccion-i.xhtml
5. TIME-CODING THE TRANSLATION: Here is where most of your time and patience are going to be spent! The objective is having each line of text appearing (and disappearing) at the right time so that the viewer can fallow the conversation without been visually confused. It is easier said than done.
There isn't a single right way to do it, it depends mostly on your personal workflow tastes and the applications you have available, and even on a single application two persons could get the work done using totally different techniques... I say it once again, how to do it is more a matter of how you fell comfortable. Still, I' ll mention some common application and the way I would do it on them.
Microsoft Windows Movie Maker: Is not an dedicated subtitling application, but is already installed on most PC computers, so you could as well use it for small subtitling projects.
Workflow: To create subtitles you import and place the source video on the time-frame bar and add overlay text to it by clicking on Tools -> Titles and Credits. Among the many text animation options you choose "Subtitle Under (overlay)" and type away on the text box, then click on OK and drag the effect strip so that the timing is right... and you keep doing it all over for every single line of subtitles !! (quite tiresome if you ask me). Make sure to add the subtitles to the lower time-bar, so that they get overlaid instead of overriding the video. When you are done export the project to a new video file.
The Good: Since it is more a video editor than a subtitle application you can do way more to the video, like cutting out undesired portions or creating fancy intros and transition effects.
The Bad: Tiresome and slow. The process of importing and exporting the video is quite slow as well. You don't have much control over where on the screen the subtitles should appear.
What you get in the end: A new video file with the subtitles hard-coded into it.
Official Website: www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/default.mspx
URUWorks's Subtitle Workshop. This is a dedicated subtitling and typesetting application, with emphasis on the subtitling part. Even been freeware, is the tool of choice for many freelancer subtitlers in the video producing industry, so it gotta be good.
Workflow: Start a new subtitle project (File -> New Subtitle) and save it to your hard disk using either the SubStation Alpha (*.ssa) or the Advanced SubStation Alpha (*.ass) formats. We are making this the first step so that the auto-save wizard won't be bothering us asking to choose a format every other minute. Then open your video file (Movie -> Open). Now you can playback the movie using the built-in media player.
TO DO: Finish the workflow section.
The Good: Easy to use, can read and save to many subtitle formats. Can do some really fancy manipulation to the subtitles timing AFTER you have set each one manually at least one time.
The Bad: Timing is pretty much manual and can't be done in real time. You need to pause and rewind a little for each new subtitle line (but is easy to do with keyboard hotkeys).
What you get in the end: An especially formated text file containing all the subtitles along with timing and formating information. You don't get a new video out of Subtitle Station, but that is easy to get on a later step.
Official Website: www.urusoft.net/products.php?cat=sw&lang=1
AegiSub. One of the newest applications to join the subtitling party and already one of the favorites for Japan animation FanSubers. It is a dedicated subtitling and typesetting application with emphasis on the typesetting part (it can do some really neat typesetting tricks, like having the subtitles change color as the actor speaks in Karaoke style).
It can also interpret a transcribed dialog (like the one exampled above) and apply different typesetting styles to each actor.
Official Website: www.malakith.net/aegiwiki/Main_Page
DivXLand Media Subtitler.
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Hello!
Already started this guide over JamesSuttonFans , but I guess this forum is just as appropriate for it.
Do the forum moderators agree?
