Sync Subs Without Spoiling the Movie's Ending?

[Dogpoundz]

Hello,

So I use Subtitle Workshop to sync subs that have incorrect timings. However, all the methods of adjusting the timing described in the program's HELP guide involve knowing the time of the last spoken dialogue. So, obviously the ending of the movie will be ruined for you since you have to watch the ending to find out the time of the last spoken dialogue.

I was wondering if there is a way to synchronize the timing of SUBS without using the time of the last spoken dialogue (for example can you use a point like half-way or three-quarters way through the movie).

Maybe there is a way to do it still using Subtitle Workshop, or maybe another program?

Thanks Allot

PS I AM A NEWBIE AND NOWHERE CLOSE TO THE ADVANCED LEVEL OF MOST OF THE PEOPLE WHO RESPOND ON THIS FORUM, SO I'D GREATLY APPRECIATE LISTING THE STEPS INVOLVED (NOT JUST THE NAME OF THE PROGRAM TO USE), THANKS AGAIN

[AlanHK]

So I use Subtitle Workshop to sync subs that have incorrect timings. However, all the methods of adjusting the timing described in the program's HELP guide involve knowing the time of the last spoken dialogue.

No they don't.
That is "2.2.1 Method 1: simple adjust, first and last dialogs"
Read one more paragraph and you'll find "2.2.2 Method 2: synchronize using two points".
That's ANY two points -- not to mention, "2.2.4 Method 4: advanced subtitle adjust", using several points.

However, rarely are the last words of a movie an actual spoiler. Even in a murder mystery, there are usually a few scenes after the reveal.
The actual last words are usually quite unrevealing.

But if I do get "spoiled" by reading a subtitle in advance, I put it aside for a few months till I've forgotten it before I watch it through. Just seeing a scene out of context doesn't stick in the mind really.

[Dogpoundz]

Read one more paragraph and you'll find "2.2.2 Method 2: synchronize using two points".
That's ANY two points -- not to mention, "2.2.4 Method 4: advanced subtitle adjust", using several points.

However, rarely are the last words of a movie an actual spoiler. Even in a murder mystery, there are usually a few scenes after the reveal.
The actual last words are usually quite unrevealing.

But if I do get "spoiled" by reading a subtitle in advance, I put it aside for a few months till I've forgotten it before I watch it through. Just seeing a scene out of context doesn't stick in the mind really.

thanks man, when i first read the 2.2.2, i skimmed through it and misinterpreted when it said the "last sync point" as meaning the last dialogue, but it seems like it can be any point u choose

so i am guessing for this method it is better to pick the second point kinda close to the later parts of the movie??? or does it not matter??


yeah, for me i feel like the movie gets ruined, because first in order to find the very last dialogue you have to skim through a little of the ending, even when u scroll backwards from the end (credits), u usually overshoot the very end and end up seeing (no pun intended) a few scenes of the ending , (unless u scroll extremely slowly, but who has time for that)

and ur right even though its after the climax and even if u only see the very last dialogue, for me the movie gets ruined cuz usually the last dialogue involves the main character(s), and depending on the genre u at least know that they do not die or if a couple is together or if he/she seems happy, etc etc, which is enough to ruin the ending for me (and i no way have the patience u have to put a movie aside for a few months, either i watch it right away or i never really get around to it and end up tossing it)


but anyways thanks for ur help, and i appreciate ur quick response

ps yeah i didnt even bother thoroughly reading the 2.2.3 method which seemed way to complicated (and i thought involved marking every point of the dialogue, including the ending,) seemed to hard just to simply sync subs, but then again i dont know jack

[AlanHK]

thanks man, when i first read the 2.2.2, i skimmed through it and misinterpreted when it said the "last sync point" as meaning the last dialogue, but it seems like it can be any point u choose

so i am guessing for this method it is better to pick the second point kinda close to the later parts of the movie??? or does it not matter??

It'll be more accurate the further separated the two subs are, yes.
But it may be quite good enough.

ps yeah i didnt even bother thoroughly reading the 2.2.3 method which seemed way to complicated (and i thought involved marking every point of the dialogue, including the ending,) seemed to hard just to simply sync subs, but then again i dont know jack

A two point sync will work if the subs you have just need to be shifted by a set time (say having longer opening credits) or are sped up by a constant amount (as NTSC/PAL conversion).

So you start off using a "two point" sync, then make some spot checks in between. If they're off, you can do a multi-point sync.
It's actually pretty easy, there are specific buttons to set the times. Like many things in Subtitle Workshop it's not really obvious without carefully reading the manual, but works very well once you step through the instructions.

[dragonkeeper]

I would recommend using MPC-hc to play the file and use its download subs feature to get the subs, if the subs are incorrect just hit the button again until you find some that are timed correctly.

[Dogpoundz]

It'll be more accurate the further separated the two subs are, yes.
But it may be quite good enough......but works very well once you step through the instructions.

THANKS ALLOT BUDDY, so i think my best bet is to go with method 2.2.2, but it seems worth it trying to learn 2.2.3 since i always like learning different ways, so pretty much in sum, all i have to do is carefully read the directions,

Thanks again for all your help, u've helped me allot on different threads i started as well, thanks again

I would recommend using MPC-hc to play the file and use its download subs feature to get the subs, if the subs are incorrect just hit the button again until you find some that are timed correctly.

thanks for your response, so 95% of the time i am able to find the correct subs on sites like subscene, opensubtitles, allsubs, etc

but there are always the few times where I cannot find the correct subs, mostly becuz the movie is newly released and subs not made yet, but i am 99.99% of the time able to at least find several subs in the particular language of interest but there's always the timing issue

that's when subtitle workshop seems to come in handy, but i never knew MPC had a search subtitle feature, ill def also to do that when i cannot find the correct subs

[AlanHK]

that's when subtitle workshop seems to come in handy, but i never knew MPC had a search subtitle feature, ill def also to do that when i cannot find the correct subs

I've never used an automatic search function for subs.
I'd rather check at http://www.opensubtitles.org/ where I can preview the subs and see comments about them.
Or http://www.addic7ed.com/, espacially for TV shows.

It's much more important that the words are correct, it's trivial to resync.
There are a lot of really awful subs around that look like they've been through Google Translate two times. Or full of basic OCR errors.

[Dogpoundz]

I've never used an automatic search function for subs.
I'd rather check at http://www.opensubtitles.org/ where I can preview the subs and see comments about them.
Or http://www.addic7ed.com/, espacially for TV shows.

It's much more important that the words are correct, it's trivial to resync.
There are a lot of really awful subs around that look like they've been through Google Translate two times. Or full of basic OCR errors.

yeah i never used the auto search either, def agree with u on words being correct, thats a definite, subscene is good too, they have a rating system on it as well, it seems more simple than all the other sub sites, and def allot less ads,

not only they have comments, but ratings, and # hits, they also mark subs with red ink if badly rated, green ink if good ratings, and there;s a neutral color for no ratings,

also, for subs that are not rated on subscene (which is rare) i usually go with the ones that got the most downloads,


opensubtitles is good, it just has so many pop ups, and hopefully u do not click the wrong link, since there are so many ads that are deceiving, (like ads with the name of the movie ur searching with"download") - i obviously know which links to click to get to the sub zip download, but i just dont like the ethics of their ad placements and deception, especially for newcomers, so that is why i first go to subscene, now subscene has ads too, but its lot more clear which link is the ad (the ads are distinctly separated to the right/up top/down below in big boxes like a regular reputable site, and they dont put the name of the movie u are searching in their ads)

never been to addic7ed, ill check it out, thanks

[AlanHK]

[QUOTE=Dogpoundz;2123798]

yeah i never used the auto search either, def agree with u on words being correct, thats a definite, subscene is good too, they have a rating system on it as well, it seems more simple than all the other sub sites, and def allot less ads,

not only they have comments, but ratings, and # hits, they also mark subs with red ink if badly rated, green ink if good ratings, and there;s a neutral color for no ratings,

also, for subs that are not rated on subscene (which is rare) i usually go with the ones that got the most downloads,


opensubtitles is good, it just has so many pop ups, and hopefully u do not click the wrong link, since there are so many ads that are deceiving, (like ads with the name of the movie ur searching with"download") - i obviously know which links to click to get to the sub zip download, but i just dont like the ethics of their ad placements and deception, especially for newcomers, so that is why i first go to subscene, now subscene has ads too, but its lot more clear which link is the ad (the ads are distinctly separated to the right/up top/down below in big boxes like a regular reputable site, and they dont put the name of the movie u are searching in their ads)

never been to addic7ed, ill check it out, thanks

I block popups and most ads, so I never noticed that Opensubtitles has any.
It's pretty clear what link is to the sub and what to a supposed download of the movie, which I have no idea what you'd get.

In general I don't just go for the sub with "the most downloads", that's usually just the first one uploaded and often it's the worst.

Later versions are almost always better.

[Dogpoundz]

I block popups and most ads, so I never noticed that Opensubtitles has any.
It's pretty clear what link is to the sub and what to a supposed download of the movie, which I have no idea what you'd get.

In general I don't just go for the sub with "the most downloads", that's usually just the first one uploaded and often it's the worst.

Later versions are almost always better.

well, u would at least agree that Subscene is allot more clearer with respect to which links are for the subs and which are for the ads? (i obviously know which link to click, but for me it comes down to the ethics of the website owner, especially since he is targeting newbies, and allot of those AD sites have adware/malware etc.)

this is the way i used to look at it:
ok so if i find a sub with exact title, then i download it, and make sure it is good, and if none existed for my exact title, then i would download others, usually starting with the most hits, at this point i just wanted something that timed with the movie, but you are right, now that i know about adjusting the timing with Subtitle Workshop then yeah i guess u are right on and i will look into ratings/later versions as opposed to downloads


HOWEVER, one good thing about subscene is that if the subs are bad (usually from a translator program like u said), the community is good about rating it poorly, so if a sub has been downloaded allot (and has no negative ratings and no comments), then odds are really high that it is good - but like u said it also depends on the timing, if it is the same day or a day or two after the sub was uploaded then ratings might not get posted yet, but usually it doesn't take too much longer after that for negative ratings for bad subs,

haha, i think i may be trying to make u switch to subscene. ha


***on a side not, what program do u use to block ads, i used one for mozilla, but it seemed to slow surfing too much to be worth keeping,***


PS Did you look into that SUB search feature on MPC? seems bizarre, wouldnt that mean that ur movie file name has to be exactly the name of the uploaded sub for it to work