Extract DV Date/Time from NTSC DV file and make Subtitles

[leon_g]

Hi,
Does anyone know how to extract DV Date/Time from NTSC DV Avi file and to make Subtitles from that in any format?
Unfortunately DV Sub Maker doesn't support NTSC and DV Time Stamp adds date/time stamp to the AVI file itself.
Thanks,

[Tommyknocker]

I would make my own date/time subtitles with this guide. Then I could use whatever font or color I wanted (he said, blowing his own horn).

[leon_g]

That is not exectly what I meant. It doesn't use an embedded date time that you have in DV video and works only for sequential times.
If you have a lot of clips it become to be coplicated.

[Tommyknocker]

May I ask how many clips you are going to use, and how long the entire video will be?

I know the date/time stamp is easy to produce, but to produce as a subtitle I am not sure if it is possible.

[leon_g]

I usually deal with one 1Hr tape that consists a lot of separate scenes that I shoot over the time.
Definitely should be the way to automate the process.
2 programs that I mentioned above do the job but each one has some annoying limitations.

[Tommyknocker]

You're right. I stand corrected. Since DV Sub Maker only supports PAL, why not convert the NTSC to a PAL video for the sole prupose of getting the subtitle.

Once you get the subtitle, add it to the original NTSC video. It may take a little time, but you will have exactly what you need.

[leon_g]

I thought about it, but I am not sure how to convert NTSC DV to PAL DV without loosing the date/time information? And after I get a subtitles a sync might be a problem.

[Tommyknocker]

Try a simple test. Use a program like Ulead Video Studio 7 (trial ware). Load the short test NTSC DV, save it as a PAL DV. Run the PAL DV through DV Sub Maker, and report your findings.

[leon_g]

Thanks, I will.

[Safesurfer]

There's another program that will work on NTSC or PAL, called DV_Datecode. You can get it at http://www.skydiver.de/stef/datecode_en.htm - scroll down to the bottom of the screen for the download link. It ouputs both a .SSA and a .Sub file.

I use Subtitle Workshop to convert to a SRT file, and then Srt2Sup to convert to the format needed by Ifoedit. There are a couple of guides (to the left) that show you how to create subtitles with Ifoedit. It's a bit convoluted, but it works.

[Sugar]

Don't even think about converting from NTSC to PAL.
Not only is the process complicated but you will loose in quality. Trust me, I spent hunderd of hours on this to convert my DV PAL video into NTSC for DVD output.

I do not know how to get to want you want other than by doing it manually, i.e. noting the relevant date and time information and creating a substitle in you video editing software.

[Tommyknocker]

If we were talking about converting video from NTSC to PAL, I would have to agree with you. But since we were talking about date/time codes, I see know risk of losing quality, since days, hours, minutes, and seconds mean the same thing in Europe, the Americas, and so on.

[Sugar]

Tommyknocker says:

If we were talking about converting video from NTSC to PAL, I would have to agree with you. But since we were talking about date/time codes, I see know risk of losing quality, since days, hours, minutes, and seconds mean the same thing in Europe, the Americas, and so on.

Actually, while hours, minutes and seconds use the same 60 base, the date do not have the same format. Here we use mm/dd/yy while in Europe the format is dd/mm/yy

How do you suggest converting from NTSC to PAL without making it a painful process? I guess I am puzzled how the date/time code will not be affected somehow.

[leon_g]

Thanks, Safesurfer.
That is exectly what I was looking for.

[F50]

There's another program that will work on NTSC or PAL, called DV_Datecode. You can get it at http://www.skydiver.de/stef/datecode_en.htm - scroll down to the bottom of the screen for the download link. It ouputs both a .SSA and a .Sub file.

I use Subtitle Workshop to convert to a SRT file, and then Srt2Sup to convert to the format needed by Ifoedit. There are a couple of guides (to the left) that show you how to create subtitles with Ifoedit. It's a bit convoluted, but it works.

Is there a howto guide for this process? I got to opening up an .srt file on Srt2Sup, but its taking over an hour to open subtitles 20 min video clip. So i stopped it.