Subtitles in 2 languages

tonton2

Newbie Joined: Mar 21, 2018 14:26 Messages: 19 Offline

Solved by

Jul 12, 2022 08:50

I wanted to ask your opinion about the subtitling workflow.
I am making a 90 min. documentary in which 2 languages are spoken: English and German.
I have already finished the German subtitles.
There are 360

Now I want to make another version with English subtitles and at the end a version with German and English together.
So a total of 3 versions.

I notice that even 360 subtitles put a lot of strain on the computer.
Can I really enter twice as many manually without problems?

I have considered the following variants for the workflow:
1. make new English subtitles in a separate version - and then import them into the version with the German subtitles.
Does the import really always work without errors?

2. incorporate English subtitles directly into the version with German subtitles.
I would then have a version with both languages
And then at the end: manually delete all German subtitles - and so I would have the version with only English subtitles.

Which variant would be best?
Or are there even better workflows?

Variant 1 sounds best to me, because then the performance of the graphics card/CPU might be less strained?
But the question is whether importing really works reliably?

I would be very grateful for any tips!

PowerDirector Moderator

Senior Contributor Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan Joined: Oct 18, 2016 00:25 Messages: 2104 Offline

Jul 12, 2022 09:08

Quote I wanted to ask your opinion about the subtitling workflow.
I am making a 90 min. documentary in which 2 languages are spoken: English and German.
I have already finished the German subtitles.
There are 360

Now I want to make another version with English subtitles and at the end a version with German and English together.
So a total of 3 versions.

I notice that even 360 subtitles put a lot of strain on the computer.
Can I really enter twice as many manually without problems?

I have considered the following variants for the workflow:
1. make new English subtitles in a separate version - and then import them into the version with the German subtitles.
Does the import really always work without errors?

2. incorporate English subtitles directly into the version with German subtitles.
I would then have a version with both languages
And then at the end: manually delete all German subtitles - and so I would have the version with only English subtitles.

Which variant would be best?
Or are there even better workflows?

Variant 1 sounds best to me, because then the performance of the graphics card/CPU might be less strained?
But the question is whether importing really works reliably?

I would be very grateful for any tips!

Hi,

Not 100% sure I understand your exact requirements! But, as a starter, do you know about producing, exporting/importing and editing .srt files?

Sorry if that's a basic question, but the answer might influence any suggestions that members might make!

Cheers,
PowerDirector Moderator

For customer support related issues, please contact:
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tonton2

Newbie Joined: Mar 21, 2018 14:26 Messages: 19 Offline

Jul 12, 2022 09:53

Quote

Hi,

Not 100% sure I understand your exact requirements! But, as a starter, do you know about producing, exporting/importing and editing .srt files?

Sorry if that's a basic question, but the answer might influence any suggestions that members might make!

Cheers,
PowerDirector Moderator

I exported .srt files before - and in the end there were 2 mistakes in the subtitles:
When you watched the film, sometimes there were suddenly figures before the text.
Must have been a mistake of powerDirector, I assume?

So I don't really trust the .srt import ...

PowerDirector Moderator

Senior Contributor Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan Joined: Oct 18, 2016 00:25 Messages: 2104 Offline

Jul 12, 2022 10:33

Quote

I exported .srt files before - and in the end there were 2 mistakes in the subtitles:
When you watched the film, sometimes there were suddenly figures before the text.
Must have been a mistake of powerDirector, I assume?

So I don't really trust the .srt import ...

More likely a formatting error in the .srt file, but where it came from I couldn't say. SRT files have a fixed structure and are not very forgiving of errors!

It's worth looking up how to edit and manipulate srt files in a plain test editor because it gives considerable flexibility to find and replace and manually edit - which can save substantial time.
There's a good few topics on the forum on srt files, do a search on the previous versions forum for srt and order the results by date.

The ability to edit subtitles in PDR is limited to the main interface but being able to use a plain text editor to edit is much easier and more productive.
So, for instance, if you have your german srt file, make a copy and, if the timings are to remain the same, just replace the german text with the english text - possibly from a straight text file - by copy and past. Obviously if there was thousands to do, you might be able to script an auto replace function on the text srt etc. etc.

Others might have more suggestions.

Cheers
PowerDirector Moderator

For customer support related issues, please contact:
- Customer service: https://membership.cyberlink.com/support/customer-services.do
- Technical support: https://membership.cyberlink.com/support/service/technical-support.do

tonton2

Newbie Joined: Mar 21, 2018 14:26 Messages: 19 Offline

Jul 12, 2022 10:38

Quote

More likely a formatting error in the .srt file, but where it came from I couldn't say. SRT files have a fixed structure and are not very forgiving of errors!

It's worth looking up how to edit and manipulate srt files in a plain test editor because it gives considerable flexibility to find and replace and manually edit - which can save substantial time.
There's a good few topics on the forum on srt files, do a search on the previous versions forum for srt and order the results by date.

The ability to edit subtitles in PDR is limited to the main interface but being able to use a plain text editor to edit is much easier and more productive.
So, for instance, if you have your german srt file, make a copy and, if the timings are to remain the same, just replace the german text with the english text - possibly from a straight text file - by copy and past. Obviously if there was thousands to do, you might be able to script an auto replace function on the text srt etc. etc.

Others might have more suggestions.

Cheers
PowerDirector Moderator

I cannot replace the german subs because I have German speakers and English speakers in the film..
That's why I need different subs in different languages.

tonton2

Newbie Joined: Mar 21, 2018 14:26 Messages: 19 Offline

Jul 12, 2022 10:40

Quote

More likely a formatting error in the .srt file, but where it came from I couldn't say. SRT files have a fixed structure and are not very forgiving of errors!

Cheers
PowerDirector Moderator

PowerDirector created these .srt files - not me.
That's why I assume that powerdirector made the mistakes

Roland vl

Newbie Joined: Nov 23, 2017 03:44 Messages: 39 Offline

Jul 20, 2022 13:21

Quote

PowerDirector created these .srt files - not me.
That's why I assume that powerdirector made the mistakes

It could be. See topic here https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/78615.page

tonton2

Newbie Joined: Mar 21, 2018 14:26 Messages: 19 Offline

Jul 21, 2022 06:19

Quote

It could be. See topic here https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/78615.page

Thanks!
I will write here, if my ideas worked out in the end. 870 subtitles are a lot for one project