Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion

Software for adding subtitles to an AVI, FLV or DVD movies?

(1/3) > >>

tranglos:
It's a bit ironic that I should even ask, since my first freelance work was translating movies for video. I did it for years, but that was in early 90s, the times of VHS and Betamax tapes, when you were lucky to have an e-mail account on a VMS VAX university server. Anyway...

What is the general process for adding subtitles to videos? Is there any (free) software to aid in the task? There are two scenarios I'd be dealing with:

a) if the subtitles are already available in enother language, I can translate by typing over the .srt file. That way I don't have to deal with the timecodes. But what about .sub files, which are binary? Is there some software I could use to "decompile" these files, then compile the translated version back into .sub?

b) if no subtitles are available at all. This means creating the subtitle file from scratch, including the timecodes. Is there a way to avoid manually typing them in?

I've googled, but there's enough information to break a horse's back. Where do I begin? Any reliable tutorials, for example?

KynloStephen66515:
b) if no subtitles are available at all. This means creating the subtitle file from scratch, including the timecodes. Is there a way to avoid manually typing them in?
-tranglos (February 02, 2010, 02:42 PM)
--- End quote ---

Most mainstream movies have the script copied onto websites by obsessive fans, maybe do a google search for the scripts, some are available here: Movie Scripts

This would mean you don't have to sit with the movie playing to type the script yourself, just simple copy and paste would suffice.

Now obviously this wouldnt contain time codes, but the text alone.

tranglos:
Most mainstream movies have the script copied onto websites by obsessive fans, maybe do a google search for the scripts, some are available here: Movie Scripts
This would mean you don't have to sit with the movie playing to type the script yourself, just simple copy and paste would suffice.
-Stephen66515 (February 02, 2010, 02:53 PM)
--- End quote ---

Thanks for the link. I would be working with a bunch of documentary movies, so not quite mainstream :) but for most I should be able to find existing subtitles in other languages to type over.

For translating "by ear", yeah, a script would be useful, although in my experience scripts provided by producers tend to differ substantially from what's actually spoken in the movie. Unless of course the script has been typed up by a fan, then it's likely to be perfect :)

In that case it would be nice to use a video player that can be controlled by system-wide hotkeys, i.e. directly from the editor. It should be easy to find one, even winamp can do that in a pinch.

KynloStephen66515:
Im pretty sure there is software along the same lines as Karaoke Synchronization Software, where you basically have the entire script/list of words you need in a section running under the video and you use your spacebar to sync the words to the screen, you can also do it line by line rather than word by word, for when you can't be bothered showing which word is being sung at any particular moment.  Unsure wether you can save the files as AVI as I always save these as CD+G but I shouldn't see why it wouldnt work

cmpm:
DVDFlick for free, not sure about using existing srt or scripts.
( http://www.google.com/search?q=documentary+scripts&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a )

http://www.dvdflick.net/index.php
http://www.dvdflick.net/features.php

ConvertXtoDVD $50, claims most of your requirements.

http://www.vso-software.fr/products/convert_x_to_dvd/

30 day trial to give it a go.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page