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

[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)

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)

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.co...amp;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-softw...ts/convert_x_to_dvd/

30 day trial to give it a go.

[JavaJones]

Not sure this is what you're looking for, but here are some subtitle software editors:
http://en.wikipedia....pport_the_SSA_format

Also, evidently you can use VirtualDub to hardcode subs when converting video, used in combination with VSFilter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSFilter
Note however that the preferred subtitling method is simply to embed your subtitles in text format the video (I think this requires an appropriate video container such as MKV). You can also simply provide the subtitle file(s) with the video, and when named the same/similar to the video, it should be loaded by any good player (e.g. KMPlayer, Splayer).

Knowing the final destination and use of the resulting subs would help.

- Oshyan

[jsolisre]

Hi guys, I've never posted here, but I just felt I HAD to say this: take a look at http://www.urusoft.n...hp?cat=sw&lang=1 (Subtitle Workshop). It's free and accepts anything you throw at it.

[InstantFundas]

To create your own subtitle from scratch as well as converting subtitles from one format to another use Subtitle workshop, as mentioned by @jsolisre.

What is the general process for adding subtitles to videos?

Not to be confused with self promotion, I created some tutorials on the subject.

http://www.instantfu...titles-to-video.html
http://www.instantfu...s-to-divx-movie.html

[ewemoa]

I've recently installed Aegisub (Wikipedia Article), but haven't tried it out much.  May be it's worth a look?

There's some online documentation including among other things:

  An overview
  Attaching subtitles to video

[Curt]

Subtitle Edit 3.2.5 http://www.nikse.dk/
   Posted by nikse.dk 2012-03-18   View comments (6)
Subtitle Edit is now out in version 3.2.5 with some nice fixes.

Requirements .NET 2.0

Change log:

    New: Added new subtitle formats (now +90!)

http://www.nikse.dk/
Also "Subtitle Edit online BETA": http://www.nikse.dk/SubtitleEdit/Online/ !

http://fileforum.bet...le-Edit/1286990901/1

About Subtitle Edit Online

SE Online is written Html 5 - html/css/javascript

Yo!

My name is Nikolaj Lynge Olsson and I was born the 15th February 1973 in Denmark.

I live near Copenhagen with my wife Jeanette, and our daughters Maja and Ida.

I've been working as a software developer since 1994 (DB2/Cobol/Lotus Notes/Delphi/Visual Basic/MS SQL/.NET/MVC/JQuery).

   My interests:

Programming
Having the same hobby as ones work seems weird to some - and maybe it is. But I just can't help it: I just love programming

Fishing
I like fishing a lot, but seems to lack the time. The beautiful lakes with trouts in Sweden or trolling salmon from Simrishamn are good stuff:)

-Nikse

[MilesAhead]

Tool Search

Use the "Select section" drop down. Select "Subtitles." There's tons of mostly free tools.

Forum where you can ask questions which also has stickies with subtitle download sites

For conversion of graphical subs you would use one of the OCR tools.  But I think most of them are designed to work with English text.  There may be some for other languages. But I haven't had a reason to search them out.

The only OCR I tried that I would consider using is the one built into DVDSubEdit. I've had good luck with "edit free" results a high percentage of the time. I can't stand to sit typing in characters. Maybe it works for some people. But it seems that no matter now many times I type in a character it still does not recognize it the next time it's encountered in the sub. If I'm just going to type the stuff in I might as well use a subtitle edit program.

edit:

Also there's a Doom 9 Subtitle Forum where you might pick up a few extra tidbits.