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Subtitles and Headaches!!!
Here is my situation:
I edit a number of product tutorial videos every month that go on our corporate web site. Until recently, this hasn’t been a problem. But now, we are in several international markets and so now we need to subtitle all of these videos so that people in all markets can watch/understand them.
I’m just the video guy. We have other departments that will do all of the translating and stuff. We are trying to come up with the smoothest workflow to get these videos out in the timeliest manner. As it is now, I first edit the video in English without subtitles. At that point, we burn an mp4 with a timecode window and hand it off to the translators.
I have tried the demo versions of a number of subtitling programs, but haven’t been that happy with any of them. One thing we were able to do was create a subtitle text file that would import into DVD studio pro and place the subtitles at the correct places, but unfortunately – our final delivery is web…not DVD. We’d like to be able to have a similar workflow of importing a document (possibly xml) into final cut and have everything line up on the timeline so that we can export separate videos with the proper subtitles for each market. Thanks!
Brian
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7 Replies
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a co-worker may have just found exactly what I’m looking for
to those interested check it out:
https://www.michaelcinquin.com/tools/subtitles/import_subtitle
Brian
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MacCaption will also do this.
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Hi,
look into Annotation Edit here
https://www.zeitanker.com/content/tools/zeitanker_tools/zeitanker_annotation_edit/
It comes complete with Annotation Transcriber that your translators can use. AE will export to all soerts of formats, from Close captioning to .srt and of course DVDSP. We use it all the time and are happy with it.
Of course it will cost you some (250 euros I think) for which you get a great app, quick support (in english) and a much smoother way than the free but slightly clunky ways around xml files.
just my 2 euro cents
Patrice
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Brian,
If you have tried several solutions, you probably have tried Subbits as well.
If not, do so. (Free demo download from my site.)But if you did try it, and did not like it, i’d like to hear why.
(I’m constantly updating it, so input is always appreciated.)Do keep in mind that subtitling has little to do with editing.
It’s an art that involves translating / shortening, as well as timing.
And that’s what Subbits is about.
But it can export to a large amount of different files, including Flash XML and Windows media. (And of course FCP XML)Bouke
https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros -
I did try your program and I really liked it’s interface, but the functionality was a little bit glitchy…I actually e-mailed you and you responded. They key commands would freeze up quite frequently. For example…when using the 4,5,6 keys to go forward/back – sometimes they would freeze up and then rather than acting as a key command, pressing the 4,5,6 key would add a 4,5 or 6 in to the text editor.
Brian
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Brian,
My bad, i forgot…
(I get tons of email a day…)Only way to overcome this problem is to render an ‘easy’ proxy file for Subbits to work with.
(Or have Subbits do it for you, but it cannot convert ProRes…)The only way i could make this work with any file is NOT to put the titles as an overlay, but let them run (in sync of course) below the video.
(Or i should come up with another trick, like using a QT title track that gets refreshed every time you hit ‘play’)
thanks for the feedback though!
Bouke
https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros -
I tried using some of your suggestions, and the program is working MUCH smoother now. We will probably be purchasing it within the next few weeks. WE just need to do a few tests with the translator exporting the xml from a windows machine and making sure everything lines up. thanks.
Brian
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