Ask me anything about subtitling

FXF wrote:
Sorry Max another question springs to mind...In those times that you quoted (between 1 hour and 30 minutes according to the quality of the transcript) are you including the time for checking and corrections? I'm going to be adding French subs (which I have not seen) on to 10 hours of English speaking video and I'm also worried that because French is a much more "wordy" language than English, I'm going to be confronted with subs which are way too long and will have to be re-translated.
Thanks again for your help!

Catalina Espinoza wrote:

Hi, Max!

I wonder if you can help me with the following:

I have a client with a very peculiar subtitling software. I prefer to use Subtitle Edit to work for them and they are OK with it, BUT they are asking me to deliver the file in .stl (ANSI) format.

Have you ever use this kind of format to deliver a file of subtitles using Subtitle Edit? Does it work properly?

I know the software can do that at FILE > SAVE AS > EBU STL and then, adjust the settings to the client's specs.

My question is: Do the software works? Is the software efficient delivering that kind of files?

I don't want to send the file and then the PM tells me: "It does not work" or "It does not open."

Thank you so much in advance.👍

Max Deryagin wrote:



Hi Catalina,

Ah, don't worry about this. By "ANSI" they most likely mean code page 437, which is a default setting in Subtitle Edit's EBU STL export. Just make sure the other settings are in order

Tatiana Derbin wrote:

Hello, Max

I got a .vtt file for translation. It contained alignment cues for every caption, such as align:middle line:90%.
How do I work on the file in Subtitle Edit without erasing the alignment cues?
As I edit timing and save the file as WEBvtt, the resulting file loses all the alignment cues.

Thank you.

Max Deryagin wrote:

Hello fellow ProZians,

In this topic I (and hopefully my colleagues that frequent this subforum) will try to answer all your questions about subtitling that you always wanted to ask but thought it didn't warrant a whole new topic.

Ask away!

Olavo Nogueira wrote:



Hello Max!

Can you recommend a good subtitling course?

Thank You.

Max Deryagin wrote:
Hi Tatiana,

I'm afraid Subtitle Edit doesn't preserve WebVTT's alignment cues, though some other tools do (e.g. EZTitles and SubtitleNext). What you can do is contact Subtitle Edit's creator or open an issue.

ITsubber wrote:

Dear Max,

sorry to bother you, I've registered specifically to ask you a question. I've spent hours and hours on Google searching for the answer, but to no avail.

I've done a couple of subtitling works for a home video publisher. I've used Aegisub for that, then passed the .ASS file to a technician who renderized it for DVD/Blu-ray authoring.

When I got the finished Blu-ray and watched my work, however, I've found that the end times of many subtitles had a 1-2 frames delay, meaning that all my work to match the shot changes had been in vain. In my last check before delivering the .ASS file everything was correct.

Do you have any hint on why does that happen? How can I prevent this?

Thank you so much for your time!

Catalina Espinoza wrote:

Hello again, Max,

I have this new client and he is asking me to do Pop-On Captions.

My other clients have their own platform for subtitling. For other things, I use Subtitle Edit.

I wonder if you know any free software to do Pop-On Captions?

If not, could you please tell me which pro software do you consider is best for this task, regarding the fact that I don´t have much time to familiarize myself with it?

Thank you.

Max Deryagin wrote:



Hi Catalina,

If you're not an experienced captioner, using free software will surely get you in trouble. Captioning and subtitling aren't the same thing; there are some key differences that you need to know and take into account as you work. If you don't have that knowledge, a professional tool will always let you know if something isn't quite right in your file, to help you keep to the client's specs.

As far as professional tools, I'd say CaptionMaker/MacCaption is the industry leader right now (and has been for some years), but it's way too expensive at $1,720 per license. I think the best approach for you would be to get a subscription plan for a captioning tool like EZTitles, OOONA, SubtitleNext or the like.

Max Deryagin wrote:



Hi ITsubber,

There can be different reasons for this, from an error on the technician's side to some video codec issue, drop-frame vs. non drop-frame error, software incompatibility, Aegisub's centisecond timecode format pushing out-times to adjacent frames, etc. Aegisub is not fit for professional work, unfortunately, so my best advice would be to switch to Subtitle Edit or a pro tool.