Syncing Subtitles with Subtitle Edit
by dny238
Summary
There
are two major styles of sync that will be covered in this guide. First,
we'll cover how to sync a file produced by the capture of a Closed Captioned
broadcast (CC Sync). These files inherently have some offset consistency.
However, they typically need to have the captions from commercials removed.
The
second style of sync covered by this guide is a more difficult process
of syncing a file which has very little internal consistency, meaning
every line needs to be corrected individually (Random Sync). There are
several other situations you may encounter, including files which have
a frame rate issues and appear to drift consistently, but this guide
won't cover those issues yet.
There
is also an activity of 'Correcting' the subtitle. This process looks
to corrected a variety of issues with the text: Spelling, Capitalization,
Punctuational, Formatting, etc. This guide won't fully cover the process
of correction either.
Prerequisites
- Get a copy of Subtitle
Edit (SE) from http://nikse.dk
- Get a subtitle you
wish to sync
- Get a video you
wish to sync against
- Rename the subtitle
to match the name of the video, only the extension should be different.
(Video.avi, Video.srt) This will help SE find the proper video automatically.
- Save the subtitle
in the same directory as the video and open it with SE.
CC Sync
- Before you correct
start to correct the sync, it's best to run the 'Fix common errors...'
tool. In addition to a number of style improvements, this will correct
any overlapping problems in the subtitle and make sure none of the lines
are too quick. These overlaps can be very confusing when you're getting
started.
- Now you are ready
to start the sync. Double click the first line of the file. This will
open the 'Create/Adjust lines' view.
- Highlight and Read
the first line of the subtitle
- Hit the 'Play/Pause'
button to start the video preview.
- Once you hear the
the first line, hit '< 3 Seconds' to give yourself a chance get it
right.
- Hit 'Play/Pause'
right as the line starts
- Hit '< ½ Seconds'
to position the video 'head' right before your line.
- Make sure you've
properly highlighted the appropriate line in the list on the right.
- Hit 'Set Start and
offset the rest'. This button with move the start time of the highlighted
line to match the position of the video play head. The remaining lines
in the file are adjusted by whatever amount the highlighted line was
adjusted by. The net result is that if you timed it right, you've now
synced this file up to the first commercial.
- Hit 'Play/Pause'
or double click the line in the list to start the video playing from
the position. If the offset appears to be corrected let the video roll.
- After reviewing
a few lines, if there aren't any issues hit the '> 1 minute' to advance
your position in the file and preview a few lines. If there are consistent
offset issues, back up until you don't have the problem any more and
offset the lines as necessary by repeating steps 3-10.
- Eventually you'll
encounter the commercial break in the subtitle file, the lines of dialog
in the preview won't match the video at all. Back the video up until
you find where the first line of dialog starts again (after where the
commercials were removed).
- Highlight the first
line of the commercials, scroll down until you read that first line
of dialog you heard in step 10. Shift click to highlight the entire
commercial block and hit delete to remove them.
- Repeats steps 2-7
to get the subtitle back in sync from here on down.
- This process of
sync and review until the entire file is corrected
- Give yourself credit
by inserting two new subtitle lines, one towards the start and one at
the end. We recommend something like synced by dny238 / www.addic7ed.com
- Close the 'Create
/ Adjust lines' dialog.
- Rerun the 'Fix
common errors...' to reconcile any overlaps you may have created lining
things up.
- Save the file.
- You are done! Upload
the video to the site and move on to the next sync.
- If you have a few
extra minutes considering doing some quick corrections. Typically a
proper corrector will follow you, but depending on your work load there
are a few quick things you can do to make your product cleaner.
- Start by using
'Change case', this will attempt to fix capitalization issues in the
file. This is quick.
- Next run a spell
check, a more time consuming process. In addition to typos and glitches,
it's common to fine more names during spell check which were missed.
Correct them on the line supplied and add them to the names file to
save yourself time in the future.
Random Sync
This process is inherently
slower than CC Sync because every line is potentially wrong. Hopefully,
we can at least get close to realtime sync using the process described
below. The concept here is that most dialog follows immediately after
the line before it, so all you need to do is tell the program when each
line ends and it'll automatically set the start time on the subsequent
line. Said again more simply, you watch the video, at the end of each
line hit control-e. The program will set the end of that line, and move
itself to the next line. Repeat.
- Double click the
first line of dialog to open the 'Create/adjust lines'.
- Highlight the first
line in the subtitle.
- Hit 'Play/Pause'
to start the video
- Once you hear the
line start, pause the video, back it up and hit 'Set start and offset
the rest' as described above, or use 'Set start time' or Cntl-S to set
the start position. This button doesn't adjust the end time, so
use it cautiously, you're committing to adjusting the lines end time
manually too.
- Back the video up
3 seconds to give yourself time to review your work and get ready.
- After the video
plays the dialog on your line, hit 'Set end time' or preferably Cntl-E
right as the dialog on the current line ends. This sets the end time
of the current line. It then advances the selection to the next line
and sets it's start position.
- If the dialog follows
immediately, you're all set. If not hit, Cntl-S repeatedly until right
before the dialog starts again. This takes some practice and you can
pause if necessary, adjust the play head and hit the button at exactly
the right position, then continue.
- Let the video play
and hit Cntl-E at the end of the next line. Repeat for each line of
the file.
- Most of the time
you can sync a file at near real-time.