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  1. Hi,

    I want to use Hindi Subtitles in English movies so that my family members can watch & understand Hollywood Movies. For this, I've made the following unsuccessful attempts, I need guidance on anyway I can make this work:

    Process:
    • Copy-Paste subtitles file into Google Translate and translate English Subtitles into Hindi.
    • Copy the output into MS-Word
    • Convert the font to Arial-UNICODE (the only font which allows Google Translated fonts in MS-Office docs)
    • Save the file with .SRT extension
    Problem:
    • The text shows up as Question Marks (???) in the video player. It can't be a problem with displaying Arial Unicode fonts as if I save an English file with Arial Unicode fonts, it displays subtitles correctly in the video file.
    Attempts:
    I tried the following things to solve this problem:
    • Tried using VLC Player, M Player and Windows Media Player (WMP)
    • Saved the file in UTF-8 and Big Hindi UTF-16 formats (supported by VLC). Then changed the default font in VLC to UTF-8 and Big Hindi UTF-16 respectively.
    • Installed FFDShow Plugins and tried tweaking its available options in VLC and WMP.
    It still doesn't work, and all I can see are question marks. Any suggestions on what I can do next???
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  2. Member DB83's Avatar
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    Did you translate the whole file or just the text part (the 3rd etc line of each sequence). The translator may be trying to translate the rest of the file (the first two lines of each sequence) and that will throw out the display.
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  3. Tried translating and copying only the text part, it still shows up at Question Marks.

    I translated and copied only the first text and the rest were still in original English (but had changed the entire file to Arial Unicode font). The first text showed up as question marks, while the English text showed up properly.
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    Can't say if it works, but subtitle workshop has a feature that says "translate".
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  5. Member DB83's Avatar
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    I just tried the 'copy/paste' method and while Google shows true graphics, the text version shows garbage


    I suspect that the problem is that the characters are not 'Roman' - the basis of most Western languages.

    Now you could try the Romanisation method with Google which then gives a literal version of the translation (as it would be spoken) but your relatives may not be able to read that as effectively it is Anglicised.

    My only other suggestion is that you change your language under Windows to see if that makes any difference.
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    Originally Posted by cool_bythepool View Post
    • The text shows up as Question Marks (???) in the video player. It can't be a problem with displaying Arial Unicode fonts as if I save an English file with Arial Unicode fonts, it displays subtitles correctly in the video file.

    Unicode fonts are very poorly supported. That is the reality of the situation. To get it to work you'll probably have to save in a Hindi font.

    I hope you understand that software translation is imperfect and there will be mistakes, maybe big ones, in any output you produce this way. I speak from experience here as someone who actually can speak more than English and has used software translation programs and looked at their output.
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    If this is DVD video, you could try making subtitles in .sup format, but they don't appear to be supported as free-standing files by the players you want to use.

    If you converted the movies into some other format, VobSub format is another option to try. Though I haven't ever used these myself, I think most players can play them, if you use the VSFilter/DirectVobSub plugin.

    You'd convert the .srt files to .sup or VobSub format. Use Subtitle Creator for this, but it's not an automated process. You'd need to specify the font(s) to use for every line, correct any errors in the .srt files and convert them to .sups. If you need it, Subtitle Creator also has an DVD authoring wizard to help you with that part of the process of adding .sup subtitles to a DVD.

    DVDSubEdit and PgcEdit are other tools that may be useful for correcting other issues with subtitles in .sup format, like any special characters missing from the font, and text color.
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    This will work for Hindi subtitles, and it works fine because I have used it (for Persian film - Offside), as my wife is good in Hindi. Also, as you will be translating from Google Translation it will be a poor but understandable translation.

    I used it with MKv files so I cant guarantee with others. But in principle it should all work, once subtitles file is ready.

    You need MKVmergeGUI for MKV files.

    -First download the subtitle file you want.
    -Break it up into pieces of not more than 500 subtitle commands.
    -Paste each piece in the Google Translation and ask it to translate it into any language (including Hindi and in Devnagri Script).
    -Copy the text and paste it in a Notepad (Word/Wordpad are bad ideas because a lot of other things are built into those, notepad is the best).
    -Repeat the procedure for all the pieces.
    -Arrange them in proper and unbreakable chain in notepad.
    -Check for any errors, Google translation is notorious for errors.
    -Go to Edit and as it to replace -> with -->, this is because Google Translation takes one dash out which messes the file.
    -Save it in notepad as All Files, .srt and in Unicode. Your Subtitle file is now ready.
    -Open MKVMergeGui, in the input section go to add and add the MKV file you need to add subtitles, then add the subtitle file and click Start Muxing. In 2-3 minutes your new video with perfect Hindi subtitles is ready.

    Hope this helps.... Ali
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    Ah ... more fun with subtitles ... eh

    Forget subtitle workshop ... visualsubsync can work ... but easier method

    Go here > http://www.abhivyakti-hindi.org/abhi/hindi_shusha_fonts_dl_help.htm

    1: Grab and copy the three hindi fonts to windows/fonts dir.
    2: Open the subtitle (in srt format) which contains the relevant subtitle timings in notepad.
    3: Open another notepad document and change font to Shusha.
    4: Translate from the first and paste the translation into the second (include timings).
    5: Save the second notepad document as hindi.srt.
    6: Reauthor dvd using hindi.srt.

    Tada
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    Originally Posted by alimustafakhan View Post
    This will work for Hindi subtitles, and it works fine because I have used it (for Persian film - Offside), as my wife is good in Hindi. Also, as you will be translating from Google Translation it will be a poor but understandable translation.

    I used it with MKv files so I cant guarantee with others. But in principle it should all work, once subtitles file is ready.

    You need MKVmergeGUI for MKV files.

    -First download the subtitle file you want.
    -Break it up into pieces of not more than 500 subtitle commands.
    -Paste each piece in the Google Translation and ask it to translate it into any language (including Hindi and in Devnagri Script).
    -Copy the text and paste it in a Notepad (Word/Wordpad are bad ideas because a lot of other things are built into those, notepad is the best).
    -Repeat the procedure for all the pieces.
    -Arrange them in proper and unbreakable chain in notepad.
    -Check for any errors, Google translation is notorious for errors.
    -Go to Edit and as it to replace -> with -->, this is because Google Translation takes one dash out which messes the file.
    -Save it in notepad as All Files, .srt and in Unicode. Your Subtitle file is now ready.
    -Open MKVMergeGui, in the input section go to add and add the MKV file you need to add subtitles, then add the subtitle file and click Start Muxing. In 2-3 minutes your new video with perfect Hindi subtitles is ready.

    Hope this helps.... Ali
    Also instead of English subtitles translate Spanish subtitles, because Spanish grammer are not very different from Urdu/Hindi Grammer rules. Hence things make much more sense....
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    Hi alimustafakhan,

    I tried your solution but it not worked for me. I create .mkv file but it showing me square brackets nothing to shows up.

    and Bjs I dont get you, this is just font how you associated ant font to .srt file?

    Cheers!!!
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    Originally Posted by truewhite View Post
    Hi alimustafakhan,

    I tried your solution but it not worked for me. I create .mkv file but it showing me square brackets nothing to shows up.

    and Bjs I dont get you, this is just font how you associated ant font to .srt file?

    Cheers!!!

    There might be a problem in saving the subtitle file, it should be saved in notepad, in the devnagri font, in unicode, as all files with extension .srt.

    Then you need to open mkvmergegui and open your video file in it, then press add button mkvmergegui and add your subtitle file you just created. Press Start Muxing. When muxed you should see the subtitle file in the splitter (on taskbar).

    If still doesn't work paste a sample of your subtitle file.
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