Pages in topic:   < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38] >
Ask me anything about subtitling
Thread poster: Max Deryagin
Max Deryagin
Max Deryagin  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 12:04
Member (2013)
English to Russian
TOPIC STARTER
- Aug 9, 2018

StoyanovaT wrote:

Hello colleagues,

I have a new enquiry for direct translation from audio.
Maybe it's a silly question but can someone explain what exactly "direct translation" means and what is expected from the translator.
Thank you in advance


It's a reasonable question. "Direct translation" is translation directly from the soundtrack of a video or audio file — that is, without a transcript or a dialogue list.


 
StoyanovaT
StoyanovaT
Bulgaria
Local time: 09:04
Bulgarian to English
+ ...
Thank you! Aug 10, 2018

Max Deryagin wrote:

StoyanovaT wrote:

Hello colleagues,

I have a new enquiry for direct translation from audio.
Maybe it's a silly question but can someone explain what exactly "direct translation" means and what is expected from the translator.
Thank you in advance


It's a reasonable question. "Direct translation" is translation directly from the soundtrack of a video or audio file — that is, without a transcript or a dialogue list.


Thank you for answering, Max.
Now the enquiry makes sense


 
Jyotsna Bhatia
Jyotsna Bhatia
India
Local time: 12:34
Member (2011)
Italian to English
+ ...
Subtitling project doing for first time Aug 21, 2018

This is some of the feedback that we received from the client for a subtitling project for a tv series, how do you think this can be improved?


Spaces after punctuation – There should be a space after a comma, semicolon, question mark, exclamation mark, or full stop. There should be a space before single or double quotation marks at the start of a quotation.
Spaces before punctuation - There should be no space before a comma, semicolon, question mark, exclamation mar
... See more
This is some of the feedback that we received from the client for a subtitling project for a tv series, how do you think this can be improved?


Spaces after punctuation – There should be a space after a comma, semicolon, question mark, exclamation mark, or full stop. There should be a space before single or double quotation marks at the start of a quotation.
Spaces before punctuation - There should be no space before a comma, semicolon, question mark, exclamation mark or full stop.
Dual speaker titles – Each speaker should have only one line, and each line should begin with a hyphen. There should be no space between the hyphen and the start of the first word


It is practically very challenging to manage the format along with the translation, so how can this be negotiated,
Collapse


 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 04:04
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
Challenging??? Aug 21, 2018

Jyotsna Bhatia wrote:

This is some of the feedback that we received from the client for a subtitling project for a tv series, how do you think this can be improved?

Spaces after punctuation – There should be a space after a comma, semicolon, question mark, exclamation mark, or full stop. There should be a space before single or double quotation marks at the start of a quotation.
Spaces before punctuation - There should be no space before a comma, semicolon, question mark, exclamation mark or full stop.
Dual speaker titles – Each speaker should have only one line, and each line should begin with a hyphen. There should be no space between the hyphen and the start of the first word

It is practically very challenging to manage the format along with the translation, so how can this be negotiated,


I wouldn't know how this is handled in Eastern languages not using Latin chars, however you seem to apply all these rules flawlessly to plain text in English, like you've done in your message above. Simply write the subtitles exactly as you usually write text.


 
Max Deryagin
Max Deryagin  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 12:04
Member (2013)
English to Russian
TOPIC STARTER
- Aug 21, 2018

Jyotsna Bhatia wrote:

This is some of the feedback that we received from the client for a subtitling project for a tv series, how do you think this can be improved?


Spaces after punctuation – There should be a space after a comma, semicolon, question mark, exclamation mark, or full stop. There should be a space before single or double quotation marks at the start of a quotation.
Spaces before punctuation - There should be no space before a comma, semicolon, question mark, exclamation mark or full stop.
Dual speaker titles – Each speaker should have only one line, and each line should begin with a hyphen. There should be no space between the hyphen and the start of the first word


It is practically very challenging to manage the format along with the translation, so how can this be negotiated,



Hi Jyotsna,

This format is considered standard, so you need to find a way to manage it. I'm sure it cannot be negotiated.


 
KatV
KatV
Finland
Local time: 09:04
Poor video quality after burning in the subtitles Sep 21, 2018

Hi,

I've always used Handbrake to burn in subtitles to a video, and the quality suffers a bit even if you choose the best quality option in the program. So far, this has been enough, but this time client wants the same video quality as in the original file.
I've tried several other free subtitle burning programs and found that Handbrake has worked the best, so I don't know where to look next.

Does anyone know any free programs that allow you to burn in the subtitl
... See more
Hi,

I've always used Handbrake to burn in subtitles to a video, and the quality suffers a bit even if you choose the best quality option in the program. So far, this has been enough, but this time client wants the same video quality as in the original file.
I've tried several other free subtitle burning programs and found that Handbrake has worked the best, so I don't know where to look next.

Does anyone know any free programs that allow you to burn in the subtitles without losing any picture quality?

Thank you.
Collapse


 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 04:04
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
Set the lever to Park ;-) Sep 22, 2018

KatV wrote:

Poor video quality after burning in the subtitles

Hi,

I've always used Handbrake to burn in subtitles to a video, and the quality suffers a bit even if you choose the best quality option in the program. So far, this has been enough, but this time client wants the same video quality as in the original file.
I've tried several other free subtitle burning programs and found that Handbrake has worked the best, so I don't know where to look next.

Does anyone know any free programs that allow you to burn in the subtitles without losing any picture quality?

Thank you.


I only use the handbrake on manual transmission cars.

I mean, I never used Handbrake software to burn subtitles or anything else.

I build my subtitle files as SSA, convert the video to AVI (you need a good converter!), and burn them using VirtualDub, with the Subtiler plugin, developed by Lee Avery, its author.
http://www.virtualdub.org/

This is the quality I get http://www.lamensdorf.com.br/files/exemplo_leg.jpg . This example is from a DVD (720x480), but I get the same quality on FHD.

I prefer working with AVI files. Some MPGs tend to "slip" audio relative to video


 
Oleksandr Vasyliev
Oleksandr Vasyliev  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 09:04
Member (2017)
English to Russian
+ ...
I believe it's impossible Sep 23, 2018

KatV wrote:
Does anyone know any free programs that allow you to burn in the subtitles without losing any picture quality?

I believe it's impossible. For burning in subtitles you need to reencode the video. This process is always lossy. The only question may be how big this loss of quality would be.


 
Max Deryagin
Max Deryagin  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 12:04
Member (2013)
English to Russian
TOPIC STARTER
- Sep 23, 2018

KatV wrote:

Hi,

I've always used Handbrake to burn in subtitles to a video, and the quality suffers a bit even if you choose the best quality option in the program. So far, this has been enough, but this time client wants the same video quality as in the original file.
I've tried several other free subtitle burning programs and found that Handbrake has worked the best, so I don't know where to look next.

Does anyone know any free programs that allow you to burn in the subtitles without losing any picture quality?

Thank you.



Hi KatV,

Lossless encoding inevitably leads to astronomical file sizes, so it's out of the question. If you need "as good as it gets for free", I suggest either using DaVinci Resolve 15 (format: mp4 > h264, quality: automatic > best) or XviD4PSP 7 (codec: x264, CRF, 16, HQ). My tests indicate that they both work much better than Handbrake — they give better SSIM and PSNR. These programs might be a bit hard to navigate through, so don't hesitate to ask more questions.


 
Sandra Empereur
Sandra Empereur
Belgium
video does not open in SWIFT Sep 24, 2018

Hello

A client sent me videos which I converted (tried everything, .avi, .mpg, .mov...) to be able to subtitle them in Swift, but Swift won't open the clips.
I contacted another subtitler and he could open them without a problem. He also sent me his conversions, but same problem at my end.
I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the time code or .tsd file (Swift doesn't create a .tsd-file for the files - when I try to open them it says duration:unknown and a lot of q
... See more
Hello

A client sent me videos which I converted (tried everything, .avi, .mpg, .mov...) to be able to subtitle them in Swift, but Swift won't open the clips.
I contacted another subtitler and he could open them without a problem. He also sent me his conversions, but same problem at my end.
I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the time code or .tsd file (Swift doesn't create a .tsd-file for the files - when I try to open them it says duration:unknown and a lot of question marks for start time and end time).

Anyone who recognises this and is able to help me out?

Thanks a lot!

Sandra
Collapse


 
Max Deryagin
Max Deryagin  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 12:04
Member (2013)
English to Russian
TOPIC STARTER
- Sep 24, 2018

Sandra Empereur wrote:

Hello

A client sent me videos which I converted (tried everything, .avi, .mpg, .mov...) to be able to subtitle them in Swift, but Swift won't open the clips.
I contacted another subtitler and he could open them without a problem. He also sent me his conversions, but same problem at my end.
I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the time code or .tsd file (Swift doesn't create a .tsd-file for the files - when I try to open them it says duration:unknown and a lot of question marks for start time and end time).

Anyone who recognises this and is able to help me out?

Thanks a lot!

Sandra


Hi Sandra,

Swift is notorious for throwing errors when importing video files, and often it happens for absolutely arbitrary reasons. We actually met a person from Grass Valley at IBC in Amsterdam just a week ago, and he said they no longer develop the tool (it was discontinued in 2015), and all tech support for it will cease in 2019. So, I recommend that you move on to another program, however hard it might be financially.

As far as your specific issue — are you using the same version of Swift as the other subtitler?


 
Luciana Costas
Luciana Costas  Identity Verified
Argentina
Local time: 04:04
English to Spanish
+ ...
Removing subtitles Oct 4, 2018

Sorry if this has been discussed before or it's a very simple question.

How can I remove subtitles from a video? I've been asked to subtitle into Spanish an already subtitled short film (originally in German, subtitles in English) and I actually did it by myself - that is from scratch, I didn't extract the English subtitles in order to translate. Now both subtitles, English and Spanish, can be perfectly seen on screen and they certainly don't overlap, but both are pretty much the sa
... See more
Sorry if this has been discussed before or it's a very simple question.

How can I remove subtitles from a video? I've been asked to subtitle into Spanish an already subtitled short film (originally in German, subtitles in English) and I actually did it by myself - that is from scratch, I didn't extract the English subtitles in order to translate. Now both subtitles, English and Spanish, can be perfectly seen on screen and they certainly don't overlap, but both are pretty much the same size and it's quite annoying to read either of them. I just need to get rid of the English subtitles, I'm not interested in getting the original srt file actually (though I'd like to know too, in case it happens again). Any ideas?
Collapse


 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 04:04
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
Some ideas Oct 4, 2018

Luciana Costas wrote:
How can I remove subtitles from a video? I've been asked to subtitle into Spanish an already subtitled short film (originally in German, subtitles in English) and I actually did it by myself - that is from scratch, I didn't extract the English subtitles in order to translate. Now both subtitles, English and Spanish, can be perfectly seen on screen and they certainly don't overlap, but both are pretty much the same size and it's quite annoying to read either of them. I just need to get rid of the English subtitles, I'm not interested in getting the original srt file actually (though I'd like to know too, in case it happens again). Any ideas?


Like anything in digital video, there are more variables that can be included in a simple question.

The first check is to see if the subtitles are truly burnt on the video. There are some video file formats (mkv among them?) that allow including subtitles as if they were burnt, while they are not. It's tricky, but possible to remove them in this case.

Once I had this problem, they were actually burnt on the frames, and I chose to blur them, but only the area they occupied, and only when they appeared. It was a very tedious and time-consuming job, though the video was short, and the result was not as neat as I expected. It was the kind of blur used by TV stations to cover exposed genitalia and nipples, to get the idea clear. It took a whale of time for Sony Vegas to render that.

The neater solution I had was on an even shorter video, however I had to check whether it would work. In that case, it did. You can see it about halfway down on http://www.lamensdorf.com.br/edicao.html . It was just a snippet from Roberto Benigni's "Life is Beautiful", to be used for training. The film was spoken in Italian, but they only had it subtitled in English, and wanted Portuguese. So the left is a screencap of what I got, and the right is what I delivered.


 
Max Deryagin
Max Deryagin  Identity Verified
Russian Federation
Local time: 12:04
Member (2013)
English to Russian
TOPIC STARTER
- Oct 7, 2018

Luciana Costas wrote:

Sorry if this has been discussed before or it's a very simple question.

How can I remove subtitles from a video? I've been asked to subtitle into Spanish an already subtitled short film (originally in German, subtitles in English) and I actually did it by myself - that is from scratch, I didn't extract the English subtitles in order to translate. Now both subtitles, English and Spanish, can be perfectly seen on screen and they certainly don't overlap, but both are pretty much the same size and it's quite annoying to read either of them. I just need to get rid of the English subtitles, I'm not interested in getting the original srt file actually (though I'd like to know too, in case it happens again). Any ideas?


Hi Luciana,

My apology for not answering earlier — I was at a conference in Berlin and had limited access to the internet.

Regarding your question, you can't really remove burned-in (embedded) subtitles, because they're now part of the image. I think the easiest solution in your case would be to cover them: what you can do is give your Spanish subs an opaque background box and superimpose them on top of the original English ones, something like this:





There are many ways to do this, but if you're not sure how to, you can use Aegisub:

1. Download and install the program.
2. Open your subtitle file and video in it.
3. Go to the Style Editor by clicking the "Edit" button here:





4. Check the "Opaque box" option in the Style Editor, then adjust the size in the "Outline" box.
5. If needed, you can fine-tune the box size of each individual subtitle using the \xbord and \ybord tags (as in the image above).
6. Export your subs in the Advanced SubStation Alpha (ASS) format.
7. Burn them into the video in any tool that supports the format (e.g. XviD4PSP 7, Handbrake, VirtualDub or something else).


 
johndaniels1824
johndaniels1824
Philippines
Starting from Basics Oct 9, 2018

Hi Max!

Sorry to bother you but this post right here: http://translating-genius.blogspot.com/2018/10/5-awesome-ways-to-become-best-subtitle.html caught my attention and interest to become a subtitle translator. I'm just being curious how fun it would be to work as one.

Would like to ask for some references where I could start learning transcribing an
... See more
Hi Max!

Sorry to bother you but this post right here: http://translating-genius.blogspot.com/2018/10/5-awesome-ways-to-become-best-subtitle.html caught my attention and interest to become a subtitle translator. I'm just being curious how fun it would be to work as one.

Would like to ask for some references where I could start learning transcribing and later on translating some of it. Do you have suggestions what languages are most profitable? Thank you so much!
Collapse


 
Pages in topic:   < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38] >


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:


You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Ask me anything about subtitling







CafeTran Espresso
You've never met a CAT tool this clever!

Translate faster & easier, using a sophisticated CAT tool built by a translator / developer. Accept jobs from clients who use Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast & major CAT tools. Download and start using CafeTran Espresso -- for free

Buy now! »
Wordfast Pro
Translation Memory Software for Any Platform

Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users! Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value

Buy now! »