Help with Subtitle Workshop

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  • SolitoN
    Junior Member
    Junior Member
    • Jun 2007
    • 2

    Help with Subtitle Workshop

    What's up

    I'm trying to do a high-quality, translated subtitling on an instructional video. I've taken up the challenge of translating the entire thing into another language, of learning how to subtitle, of seeking out the tools, and of finally creating a working DVD for distribution. Needless to say, I've got a lot of work to do; there are 7 chapters to translate and subtitle, but for the past 3 days, I've been stuck on chapter 1, and the problem is Subtitle Workshop and the synchronization problems it's causing me.

    I'm creating my sub files from scratch; I place my translations in a doc file and transfer these into SW one at a time, using the video preview as a reference -- the video plays, I check when the person is talking, and stick in the words at the right times so that the subtitles are properly paced with the dialogue. As such, I have to repeat some portions of the video over and over to get an idea of how to break down the dialogue into 'subtitle chunks' that fit on the screen, appear at the right time, and blah blah blah...

    Here's the problem: every time I move the slider for the preview video back a little to repeat a segment, the subtitles get unsynchronized. In the preview itself. As such, the only way I can check if a subtitle I've added is being properly displayed, and to make adjustments if necessary, is to START THE WHOLE CHAPTER OVER AGAIN FROM THE BEGINNING. Only then are they synchronized. It's insane. It worked out for the 1st five minutes, but now that I'm about a 1/2 hour into it, it's becoming a problem to have to watch 30 mins of video every time I make a small adjustment. At this rate, I'll be dead before I finish.

    To get around this problem, I decided to use SW' 'external preview' feature, hoping that a different player might not have the same issue. I configured it in the settings, got the command line parameters for VLC (the player I'm using) and fed them into SW...and when I press F8 to open the external viewer, it doesn't work. The player launches, but a browser window opens to allow me to choose the file I want to open, yet doesn't allow .vob files to be selected for some reason, and that's what I'm working with. And I checked -- VLC plays .vob files opened directly.

    So basically, the internal preview feature in SW is screwy, and so is the external preview, and I need either one of these to get down to business. I know I could do the whole thing manually instead of on-the-fly, but I'd rather use SW if it would just work properly...

    Any ideas?
  • anonymez
    Super Moderator
    • Mar 2004
    • 5525

    #2
    Welcome to the forum

    In an attempt to save you a lot of time and stress: does the original DVD have any subtitles at all?
    "What were the things in Gremlins called?" - Karl Pilkington

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    • SolitoN
      Junior Member
      Junior Member
      • Jun 2007
      • 2

      #3
      Thanks.

      No, the original doesn't have any subtitles in any form unfortunately. The good news is that, for reasons I don't understand yet, the internal video preview seems to be working ok now (i.e. the subtitles are no longer skewed when you move the video position slider). I'm working like crazy before it screws up again...Yeah, the unpredictability is a little unnerving...
      Last edited by SolitoN; 26 Jun 2007, 12:28 AM.

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      • valyaya
        Junior Member
        Junior Member
        • Nov 2007
        • 1

        #4
        It happened to me too. I copied the video file onto the hard disk and that solved the problem.

        Comment

        • r0lZ
          Lord of Digital Video
          Lord of Digital Video
          • Mar 2004
          • 1508

          #5
          I had exactly the same problems with the internal and external previews.

          Finally, I used Workshop to place the subpics at an approximately good position, and then I used DVDSubEdit to move them at the right position. However, the preview of DVDSubEdit has no sound, and can display only the I-frames, so the accuracy is about 0.5 second. That's enough for me.
          r0lZ
          PgcEdit homepage (hosted by VideoHelp)
          Unofficial mirror (in Poland)

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