Programs for subtitling

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2003-11-27 02:05am

Does anyone know any good freeware programs for subtitling video files? If so, what are their limitations?

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-11-28 04:10am

Do you want to embed the subtitles in the video image stream itself? Because most players will load from a subtitle file and display it overlaid on the image without altering it.

I know that BSPlayer and WMP load the subs without problems.

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2003-11-28 04:15am

Slartibartfast wrote:Do you want to embed the subtitles in the video image stream itself? Because most players will load from a subtitle file and display it overlaid on the image without altering it.

I know that BSPlayer and WMP load the subs without problems.

Hmmm... either or works.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-11-28 04:22am

I normally download subtitle files from http://dvd.box.sk. There are several formats, but they're usually just text files with a time tag before each text phrase. Just save it with the same name of your "avi" or whatever video file and play it with Media Player or BSPlayer or some other subtitle-capable player, and it will automatically display the subtitles at the appropriate times.

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2003-11-28 08:02am

Slartibartfast wrote:I normally download subtitle files from http://dvd.box.sk. There are several formats, but they're usually just text files with a time tag before each text phrase. Just save it with the same name of your "avi" or whatever video file and play it with Media Player or BSPlayer or some other subtitle-capable player, and it will automatically display the subtitles at the appropriate times.

That sounds fairly simple. In case that doesn't work, are there any programs specifically made for subtitling around?

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-11-28 02:57pm

There are, but I'm not sure where to get them. Also, there are various methods to embed a subtitle track into an AVI, though you usually have to distribute some sort of "codec" to allow the viewer to see it.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-11-29 02:16am

Eleas wrote:
Slartibartfast wrote:I normally download subtitle files from http://dvd.box.sk. There are several formats, but they're usually just text files with a time tag before each text phrase. Just save it with the same name of your "avi" or whatever video file and play it with Media Player or BSPlayer or some other subtitle-capable player, and it will automatically display the subtitles at the appropriate times.
That sounds fairly simple. In case that doesn't work, are there any programs specifically made for subtitling around?

I assure you that it does work. I have over 20 full-length movies in CD (formatted in DivX or XviD, etc) and I've recorded them with their respectives subtitles, all I have to do is click on a movie and the player automatically recognizes it.

The only reason it wouldn't work is that somebody's trying to watch it with a very old version of Media Player or some obscure non-compatible player, but even so, I've added BSPlayer's installer to each CD where there was still enough space.

Only way I know of embedding the subtitle into the movie is in Post, literally adding the pixels of the subs into the pixels of the movie image, effectively re-processing it. You'll lose a lot of quality that way tho.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-11-29 02:28am

I remembered that there's a site full of video tools and reviews and crap, you can find some subtitle tools (and other stuff) here.