Editting subtitles on a DVD

[lejes]

Hi all!

I just got an international DVD movie in the mail today (yay)

But I found that there are a lot of grammar/spelling/accuracy mistakes in the subs.

So I was wondering... If I copy the entire DVD to my hard drive, what's the quickest way that I can directly edit the subs (i.e. correct the spellings/grammars and also make it so they synch better to the movie --their timing is a bit off).
I would then make a (lesser quality) version on a DVD-R that I can watch myself with the corrected subs.

Also, is there a way I can change the font and/or size of the subs? The current font is very ugly, and its over-bolded so its a bit hard to read sometimes.

Any help to either/both of these questions is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Vejita-sama]

It can be done, but I wouldn't call it easy. First if you don't like th font you're really in troble because each subtitle is actually a saved image file (ie. not text). As the subs are saved as imges and not text there's no way to extract a text file from them, or just 'choose' a different font.

What you'll have to do is generate a new series of subtitles. That most likely means transcribing (as in by hand) all the subs, sorry. You can fix all the typos/spelling in your new text file.

Then there's the matter of timing. IF the original timing was ok, you could just use the original subtitle timecodes for you new script. HOWEVER, since you say the timing is poort you'll also have to adjust that.

What I would recommend is transribing the subtitles to a new text file (one soft return between each line to be displayed on the screen). Load the text in SubStation Alpha (do a google search for the url to d/load). Then use the original timepoints from the subrip to start with.

You can then adjust the subtitle sync in SubStation Alpha (either by hand or wave timing [see the SSA manual]).

Then use MaestroSBT to generate a series of BMP images from the subtitle text. You can load these new subs in DVD Maestro (http://www.doom9.org). And re-author the DVD.

Other side of DVD's I've done a lot of subtitling of anime videos (fansubs = fan subtitle, we take an original japanese LD, genlock it on the PC, add subtitles, and record to (S)VHS). It's a time consuming and fairly painful process I wish you luck...

[gonzalimator]

Whoah whoah whoah!

What you'll have to do is generate a new series of subtitles. That most likely means transcribing (as in by hand) all the subs, sorry. You can fix all the typos/spelling in your new text file.

You CAN make a text file from the subs on the DVD. Use Subrip (get it at Doom9) and rip the subs from the DVD using the OCR (optical character recognition) method. After you teach the program to read characters it doesn't recognize (just a few minutes) it will make a text file of the subs with the time code, position and colours of the subs. Save it as the Subrip format (.srt) and then open the .srt file in Wordpad. Make your grammar and spelling corrections and save the file. If you need to make timing adjustments (like bumping all subs to display a half second sooner) Subrip can do that too!! It can even stretch or shrink the overall time evenly if needed. It also allows you too set a new font.

Once the .srt file is edited, you can open it in MaestroSBT and generate NEW bitmaps from the text (.srt) file.

here's a guide for OCR method:
http://www.doom9.org/subtitle_guide.htm

here's Subrip:
http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/Subtitles/SubRip_1.17.exe

[lejes]

Thanks for the replies!

I'll try out the suggestions soon! This sounds kinda fun. 8)

I guess it's not too important that I change the font of the subs. It's bearable after a while. If anyone does actually know an easier way to change the font, let me know though.

The synch of the subs and movie isn't actually off by a delay exactly, it's just that they're poorly timed. Sometimes a very short sentence will stay on the screen for too long and the LONG sentence that follows it only gets less than a second of reading time (impossible to understand sometimes).

thanks again.

[gonzalimator]

If you use Subrip's file format (.srt) to save the original subtitle information (this allows you to reopen it in Subrip. If you save to another format directly after the rip you won't be able to open it afterwards), you can save it again into other text-style file formats. There's a few formats and they're all listed when you save/convert. When you do so, you can change the font, colour and size of the subs of the whole file at once.

When you edit the file's contents for grammar or spelling, you can also change the time codes to lengthen or shorten their display time. It's all in the text file expressed as something like this: 00:10:56:324,00:10:59:421 (hours:minuteseconds:milliseconds). The first timecode is when the sub comes on and the second one for when it goes off. It's really easy! I'm just glad that the subs can be made into text for editing. I changed some bad spelling and grammar from an Anime movie that I backed up. There's another one that I'd like to do and it full of badly timed subs as well. Very short sentences are on too long and others that are two lines and edge to edge flick on and off in an instant!

Oh yeah, there is also an operation in Subrip that will change all the timecodes to have a minimum display time. Maybe you could use that if you don't have time to study the film and figure out which subs are too brief. I've never used it though.

[lejes]

Thanks for the info.
Yeah, I knew it was something like this... I'm gonna go through the movie bit by bit to figure out what to do.

Just one more question. Is there a way I can control where on the screen the subs appear (along the top of the screen is sometimes better than the bottom)? Also, is there a way I can have certain words in a sub different colours than the other words in the sub?

thanks.

[gonzalimator]

Well it looks like MaestroSBT only accepts Sub Station Alpha files so after you work with the Subrip file (.srt), convert it to .ssa and open in MaestroSBT. Maestro allows you to change the position of the subs. You can actually drag them around into position in a preview window. You can change the font and size and colour of the subs as well.

If you want to change the of a specific word in a subtitle, maybe just render your subs first. Maestro will create a file that contains the position and time code and bitmap filename for all the subs. Choose the format that's compatible with your DVD authoring program. A series of Bitmaps, which are the actual subs are created as well. My guess is that you can change the colour of a word in your favourite paint program (like Photoshop). Just open the BMP that you want and paint away. Make sure that you use colours that are 4-bit. (I know that Phillips style subs need 8-bit, read that in Subrip's ui) That's all that I can think of that might get the results you're looking for. Have fun!

[lejes]

Thanks for all your help Gonza.

[lejes]

Actually... I'm wondering...

Maybe there's an easier way to indicate that certain parts of the text in the subs should be a different colour. When writing/modifying the text file of subtitles, you can change what parts are bolded or italicized, so why not colour as well?

Anyone know how to do this?

[ekco]

What about the quality later on when u put in the new subs in the dvd movie????