OT: Subtitling

[irfan]

Hi:

What do you recommend as a solution for subtitling a lot of video.

Basically, we are getting video in a English / Arabic / Urdu and we have to add Norwegian (sp?) subtitles on it from a word document. The input and delivery mechanism is DV tapes.

This is for about 5 hours of video per week. What do you recommend. Timesaving is key. Solution does not have to be specific to T2 (hence the "OT" in the subject line).

We could get the client to give us the text in an alternate form in the future if needed (for example with timecode info as part of the metadata for a specific file format type).

More than anything, I need to pointer to get me started on researching a solution.

Please don't post about ways of doing it with ToasterCG ;) I find that funny posts often totally derail the original poster's real concerns.

Thanks very much in advance,

Irfan "no enemy of funnies" Ahmad

[irfan]

Hi:

Can anyone suggest where I would look for info on this? Another forum or discussion group?

Thanks again,

Irfan

[johnq]

Try an Advanced search at www.google.com. I just tried this (searched on <<creating video subtitles>> ) and I came up with many, many hits. For example, here is a link to a shareware program for creating subtitles. I have never used it, so I don't know about the details, i.e., does it work with .rtv etc.
http://www.softpile.com/Multimedia/Video/Review_13772_index.html

John

[Jim Capillo]

At one point, I think there was a fairly comprehensive thread going on this - did you do a search here? Also, try the old Newtek board. Search under "Closed Captioning".

[Paul Lara]

Originally posted by Jim Capillo
Search under "Closed Captioning".

Subtitling and closed captioning are two different beasts, Jim.

[Jim Capillo]

Originally posted by Paul Lara
Subtitling and closed captioning are two different beasts, Jim.

Yup, know that..... but as I recall (and most times the gray matter doesn't :D ), both techniques were discussed at length under that heading ;) :p

[irfan]

Originally posted by Jim Capillo
Yup, know that..... but as I recall (and most times the gray matter doesn't :D ), both techniques were discussed at length under that heading ;) :p

Yeah, I checked on the old board and didn't find anything relevant (using keywords suggested by you and "subtitle"). We're trying John's suggestion right now.

Irfan

[mgrusin]

Long ago we (Otaku for those who know ;)) used an Amiga program called "Jacosub" which worked very well. Sadly I don't think it jumped ship to the PC world. I've heard of a Windows subtitler called "Sub Station Alpha" but have never tried it.

The problem with these programs is that they generate their subtitles as a normal graphics screen, and require some sort of video overlay capability in additional hardware ("genlock") to get the subtitles onto moving video. This was very easy to do on the Amiga, using the old Toaster or any other genlock hardware. I suspect it's more difficult to do in the Windows world, and AFAIK the Video Toaster NT+ doesn't have a "quit to genlock" mode like the old Amiga Toaster.

A few ideas:

(A) If you can get the subtitling program to generate an .AVI, you can use the Toaster to key it onto your video using ToasterEdit.

(B) If you run your subtitler on another computer, and can get video out from that computer, you can use the Toaster to key the subtitles over your video using the Switcher.

(C) Someone could write a ToasterScript to read a common subtitling script format, and generate titles on the fly using ToasterCG...

Let us know what you end up doing. Good luck! -MG

[EanJay]

Sounds like another good reason to keep the 'Ol' Amiga' ship-shape as a source for CG and subtitles etc!

EanJay

[Gordon]

I would seriously check out the scripts available at www.youngmonkey.ca.

Aura could be a very good tool for the job provided that the workflow could be automated/streamlined a bit. If Dhomas doesn't already have a subtitle script then I bet he would be willing to help, (for a small price of course).

[Jim Capillo]

Ran across this place...... http://www.cpcweb.com/Homepage/index.htm

[Gordon]

Hi Jim;
I took a look at that link and although I like the spreadsheet mode and the built in customized for subtitling word processor, the package does cost twice as much as the Video Toaster. I would expect that if you are doing this day in and out then the package may be worth it. However, I wouldn't be surprised if Aura couldn't do just as good a job given a customized script from Dhomas.

Another option to consider, is to use Dragon Naturally Speaking and either dictate or gave it a wav file that contains the dialogue and it will transcribe the sound into text. Then you can copy and paste from the word processor into Aura.