[Andreas Kiel]

Shane,

Boris never worked good with XML as they put their own encoded stuff in there which requires an external app ‘Boris’ plus FCP to communicate and sort out things when the files are ‘reconnected’
So if you plan to exchange by XML be VERY careful with Boris, better don’t use it.

My 2 cents

Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Andreas Kiel]

Hi Peter,

With TitleExchange open the XML thru the menu Tools->FCP Generator Analysis -> Load FCP Generator XML….
The generator will show up. Then click the matching fields and save the settings to the database. Quit and relaunch TEP. From then TEP will know about your new version DH_Subtitle.

Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Andreas Kiel]

Thanks David,

Maybe my post was misleading. I just saw that what I wrote on some other lists and thought it’s worth to mention. Haven’t tried it here.

Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Andreas Kiel]

… and it is for Intel only obviously. I’ve heard about people killing their installations on non Intel machines.

Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Andreas Kiel]

Hi Neil,

Great to see you here on the board.

Will you be on IBC this year – and we eventually have dinner or a beer?

Regards
Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Andreas Kiel]

Hi Joe,

The reason you can’t try XML is that TEP obviously was installed at your machine some time ago (longer than 30 days) and so TEP will always falls back to STL as output format.
I’ve uploaded a new version which ignores the old installation date(s), so download again and give it a try. If there are still problems, let me know.

Regards
Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Andreas Kiel]

Bouke is right.

Subbits is a real great tool to set up subtitles and it comes with a lot of options to make subtitles better quality.

TitleExchange is a more ‘in-between’ app it will allow to move subtitles around between several apps (including Subbits) or do batch changes of subtitles for a FCP project more or less regardless which generator you used.

And that’s the reason why I always say Boris is a NO GO for subtitles – it’s a closed system. If you need text changes there is NO way to do this with Boris in an automatic way. Also if you got your subtitles from another company or co-worker you will get a hard time to get them into Boris. Same thing if you want to get them out – maybe for second language – no way.
And that – I think – is bad especially for documentaries. So I disagree with the method Arnie and Shane mentioned to do anything with Boris when it comes to subtitles (if there only a few it’s okay). In Shane’s case it’s maybe an option because they want to use different font sizes within same title (where I think it’s not a good idea to do that for translation subtitles). The better alternative is to use Motion. You can create your own templates and go from there. Motion templates will allow to get all text out or in any way.
In any case the right settings will give good quality subtitles. The limitation of burned in subtitles is limited by out format/codec and not really by the generator.

So the way to go with FCP
First go and make a good plan. Think about ‘more then one language’ issues also upfront
Maybe you (or somebody else) use Subbits or BelleNuit to time and create your subtitles outside FCP. This has the option that you always do have some kind of backup of your subtitles.
You may also time your subtitles within FCP which can be more tedious. But you can do it or even just create empty subtitles a those places subtitles should start and use those empty ones as placeholder with either TitleExchange or Subbits to create a basic start timing you can give out to anybody for translation.
You even can just set markers and use them with TitleExchange.
It depends on your workflow – which needs to be planned carefully.

Generators to be used:
(to confirm Bouke – normally subtitles need a fixed anchor on the bottom of the screen)
use Bouke’s free subtitle generator
use my free subtitle generator (Textup 2 – no wrap)
use my commercial subtitle generator (Textup Pro – wrap and more features)
use the commercial subtitle generator from DH
use a Motion Template, which never does have the option to anchor text at bottom, but you can create several – 1-line, 2-line etc.
Important thing is that any of these subtitle generators are ‘open’ so even without any additional software you can make easily changes within an XML exported from FCP with a text editor. Boris and some FX based generators won’t allow that.*

Hope that helps
Andreas

*) I got a ‘last minute customer’ last night who was due on delivery with about 2000 subtitles to be changed within a timeline. Good luck for him that he didn’t use Boris. With TitleExchange it was done within a few minutes and he met the deadline – probably still with not enough sleep.

Few days ago another customer from a social .org:
>I’m trying to get our educational video translated into Italian for a presentation in Italy tomorrow >night, and this will really help.
—
>Great – worked like a charm. Thanks again!
>We were able to screen material in Italy with your help.

This doesn’t mean that you have to buy TitleExchange, Subbits or any other app and it doesn’t mean that Boris is bad. It does mean that you have to plan your stuff.

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Andreas Kiel]

Jackie,

You first have to attach timecodes to the titles (in/out, in/duration or something like that) in a way that it can be read by subtitle processors. This can be done with Numbers, FileMaker Pro or Excel. If you got them all formatted you can use my TitleExchange to bring them in into FCP or Premiere.
FCP does have more options because of it’s open XML connectivity and so you can use more or less any ‘open’ text generator within FCP to get your titles in – you even can build your own template with Motion.

SubBits is a bit different from TitleExchange as it would allow to spot titles and to render them – which you can’t do with TitleExchange, but SubBits is more limited when it comes to choose a FCP generator, though it comes with a nice one.
Depending upon your needs you can use both programs as TitleExchange can import and export the the SubBits format and you got the best of both worlds.

Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Andreas Kiel]

There are 2 XML workflow solutions out there for that purpose.
One of them is done by me – I do not remember the other company (shame on me).

You can try my solution: https://www.spherico.com/filmtools/removeFilter/removeFilter.zip
It’s free.

Regards
Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Andreas Kiel]

Hi Martin,

I don’t know how to help.
Seems to be either a wrong setting/setup within FCP or maybe a ‘structure’ error with the copied clips.
Maybe it’s even a simple issue because the files in the card folders do not have read permissions. So you may check that and set the rights.

One other thing I can offer is to send me the clip XML folders. Maybe with this new cam Panasonic did make some slight changes with the P2 XMLs which are not recognized by FCP.

You also – if you’re interested – can join our beta team for a new P2 metadata editor. Just send me an email (kiel at spherico dot com).

Hopefully any of the P2 gurus like Jeremy, Noah or Shane will chime in and help.

Regards
Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools