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Activity › Forums › Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy › Best Subtitle Programs

  • Neil Sadwelkar

    August 28, 2009 at 3:18 pm

    Simply make your subtitles within FCP. Then export the sequence as XML. And get Title Exchange Pro from https://www.spherico.com/filmtools/TitleExchange/index.html

    With that you can import XML and export STL which you can import into DVD Studio Pro. Within DVD Studio Pro you can still edit, shift, trim your subtitles.

    ———————————–
    Neil Sadwelkar
    neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
    twitter: fcpguru
    FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
    Mumbai India

  • Shelby Langley

    August 28, 2009 at 3:55 pm

    Thanks Neil!
    My fear is getting cheap looking text that you sometimes get out of FCP (more like youtube quality than Criterion quality). I assume your suggestion will give me strong text (subtitles), like Criterion DVDs. Am I right?

  • Nick Meyers

    August 29, 2009 at 6:14 am

    although serious gfx people have complained to me about the kerning in FCP.
    is say the main thing here could be your choice of font.

    i agree with Neil,
    FCP is the simplest way to ad your subtitles.

    i will add that there are a few special subtitle generators for FCP.
    Text Up Pro from spherico film tools (who make Title Exchange Pro) is the most versatile, IMO.

    here is a long-winded post i wrote a while back.
    if you are up for it, it describes the subtitle workflow we used on a feature with some foreign language in it.

    _________________

    we had a large (not monster) amount of subtitling to do on our last film.
    i reckon we developed a really good system, so i’ll pass on what i know.

    for starters there are a few apps that you can use for the “spotting”.
    Bel Nuit is one, Subbits is another.
    there are also some transcription apps that you can also use for this.
    HOWEVER…
    i found all of them a bit harder to use that i wanted.
    yes, it’s just a learning curve, but call me lazy, and call me cheap, i wanted to use the app i already had and knew, so we stuck with FCP.

    —————————————————————————————————-

    TOOLS
    to make it work in FCP, we relied a lot on QuicKeys, a macro app.
    this will repeat a programmed series of keystrokes, mouse clicks and menu commands.
    there are others out there, most of them cheaper.
    as i really only use the tip of the iceberg of what QK can do, i could probably get by with one of the others,
    but i have QK, so that’s that!

    TEXT UP PRO
    this is Andreas’s subtitling generator for FCP.
    it’s extremely versatile, with
    – bottom justification (also top & middle) which is essential for coping with one and two line subs
    – auto wrapping, which is a huge timesaver.
    – also has your choice of outline, or box bg.
    there are other subtitle generators for FCP, but i think Andreas’s is the most versatile.

    TITLE EXCHANGE PRO
    you may not need this just for MAKING your subtitles, but it sure can come in handy AFTER you’ve made them.
    you can use TEP to re-format subtitles en-masse, so if you decide you really do want white instead of yellow, TEP can do that for you.

    and just so you know, TEP can be used to help you make your subtitles.
    it works like this:
    add a marker where you want a subtitle, add the subtitle text to the marker text.
    export an XML of your timeline and run it through TEP, and you get a new XML back.
    open that in FCP and you get a timeline full of your subtitles.
    copy & paste into your original timeline.
    TEP will do an auto-format for the timing based on the number of characters.

    the downside is you don’t really “see” your subtitles as you’re working on them.
    we had a translator working with my assistant, and it was a lot easier if they could both see what they were doing on the spot, so that’s why we opted for the do-it-in FCP method.

    —————————————————————————————————-

    PROCESS.
    start by making a generic subtitle using Text Up Pro. (we made one that was 3 second long.)
    we put that in the timeline we were working on, before any talking, and COPIED IT.

    the process was then spotting the start of the line with an in point,
    and hitting a macro trigger.
    this would go to the in point, paste the generator, open it in the viewer, and progress to the text entry field.
    so one keystroke, and you’re ready to enter text. cool.

    the next step was defining an outpoint for the subtitle.
    probably with an out point on the timeline (cant remember exactly!)
    then another QK macro extended / trimmed the subtitle to that point.

    so that’s pretty much it for making the subtitles,
    but we did a couple of thing AFTER that which i think are essential if you are subtitling RUSHES.
    both were again QuicKeys macros.

    macro1. would add a marker to the rushes clip where the subtitle started, add the subtitle text to the marker text, and extend the marker for the duration of the subtitle.

    this is GREAT!
    it means if you ever lose your text overlay, you can re-create it.
    this means you are free to edit in a fast and intuitive way without having to be copy/pasting blocks of V1 and V2.

    an important step is to delete all your original versions of these clips from the browser,
    copy the ones in the timeline,
    and paste them back into the browser.
    so now the marked clips are you master clips.
    you can match-frame from the timeline, and your viewer clip also has all the markers.
    again, great for editing.

    similarly, if your rushes are multicam, you need to do all this work before you make your multiclips, as multiclips wont remember any changes made to them, like adding markers.
    i’m pretty sure we had a macro that copied all the markers (and text) from the A-cam clip to the B-cam clip

    macro2 would copy the subtitle text into the text generator name.
    (i copied this from Andreas’s TEP which has the subtitle text in the generator name)

    this meant if i was looking for a certain phrase or term from the scene, i could do a timeline search for it.
    so no scrabbling through a transcript (which we didn’t have anyway!)

    furthermore our generic subtitle was labelled STL_, so the subtitle text was added after that.
    this meant i could do a timeline search for ALL the subtitles if i wanted to, or a search for each subsequent subtitle.

    —————————————————————————————————-

    so that’s our process.
    making the subtitles seemed pretty fast, once the translator had figured out what the person was saying.
    auto-duration is probably a bit of a timesaver, but not much, IMO

    the real breakthrough for me was adding the markers to the rushes clips, and making them master clips.
    i mentioned this to Andreas a while back, and i hope he can incorporate something like that into his next version of TEP.
    he gets upset thinking about me sitting there watching my macros unfurl, when i could achieve the same ends with some XML know-how!

    TEP does quite a few things, too, mainly around the re-formatting of text info.
    it can take your final subtitles and turn them into an STL list for DVD Studio pro, for instance, so you have a subtitle track on your DVD.
    and if you want to use one of the other subtitle apps, TEP can take the info from that and make FCP subtitles, too.

    hope that helps,
    nick

  • Bouke Vahl

    August 29, 2009 at 11:44 am

    First, i’m biased as hell as i’ve written a subtitle tool:
    https://www.videotoolshed.com/?page=products&pID=12

    I totally disagree that FCP is suitable for subtitle creation.
    It takes way too long, and you have no options to move text from one title to another fast. Also, text tools like search/replace etc. are missing.

    Now for quality of the final product:
    Burning in the subtitles (render them in) will give you the best quality. If that is not possible:

    As for quality, that highly depends on how you work.
    If you have room to spare on your DVD, you can put the show on twice, once with burned in titles, once without.

    If not, and you want to use DVD titles.
    DO NOT use text based STL into DVD SP. It sucks big time, as you have very limited control over the final look.
    Also keep in mind that you have only 4 colors to play with. One is for transparancy, leaves you with white for the text, black for the shadow/outline and ONE color for anti-aliasing between black and white.
    What i do is render the titles using my render engine (comes with Subbits), then feed those images to Photoshop where i use the Chris Linke plugin to make DVD subtitles.
    This works very well, but is a bit more work. If you have a lot to do it will defintily pay off in the end.

    If you want to see some samples, let me know.

    Bouke

    https://www.videotoolshed.com/
    smart tools for video pro’s

  • Neil Sadwelkar

    August 29, 2009 at 12:22 pm

    Bouke and Andreas have rather good tools for subtitling. And these have less limitations than FCPs title tool.

    But my suggestion of making subtitles in FCP was based on the premise that the editor has to make them. So what better way than to make them in a software you’re familiar with. Also, in a long feature situation where edits are fluid, if you make the subtitles during the edit process, they are fluid as well and keep updating with the edit.

    Subtitling outside FCP is valuable to outsource the job, but it necessarily requires that you export the final edit and take it to a different subtitling software. If there are edit changes, you have to necessarily do the export process again.

    I agree that STL subtitles in DVD Studio Pro suck. But I’ve observed that this is DVD player dependent too. Some of the newer DVD players rander subtitles quite well.

    The suggestion of burning in subtitles and then making two tracks in DVDSP one with and one without subtitles is also great. But it has two problems. What if one has more than one languages. And what if one has a long film.

    I’m from that part of the wold where movies run up to 3 hrs long, and have subtitles in at least 6 languages. So, for us, text subtitles is the only way to go.

    ———————————–
    Neil Sadwelkar
    neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
    twitter: fcpguru
    FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
    Mumbai India

  • Shelby Langley

    August 29, 2009 at 2:17 pm

    Thanks Neil, Nick, and Bouke! I now have great information to make my decision on what approach to take. I can’t thank you guys enough. Shelby

  • John Burgan

    August 30, 2009 at 8:50 am

    You should definitely check out Belle Nuit https://www.belle-nuit.com/subtitler/index.html

    Although the learning curve is a little steep to begin with, it is really very efficient when it comes to spotting. I’ve subtitled several feature-length docs using it and strongly recommend it.

  • Nick Meyers

    August 30, 2009 at 11:17 am

    to be clear, my process is primarily for subtitling RUSHES in FCP.

    there is also InqScribe transcription software you might want to have a look at:
    <https://www.inqscribe.com/>

    cheers,
    nick

  • Matthew Staib

    May 7, 2010 at 7:45 pm

    OR just use this free tool i found online. Thanks to genius Mr.Michael Cinquin. Donate if you find it useful.

    https://www.michaelcinquin.com/tools/subtitles/srt_vers_dvdsp

  • Fredy Schwerdtner

    September 8, 2011 at 1:07 pm

    Is there a downloadable version ?

    iMac 2.7 GHz Intel 4 Core i5
    16 GB memory

    MacBook Pro 17″
    2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
    6GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

    OWC RAID 5 with 3TB
    (2) External HD LaCieMac (400/800 FW and USB)with 500GB -(2) USB External HD Western Digital (in cases) with 750GB
    OS X 10.6.5
    Final Cut Studio “3”

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