Ask me anything about subtitling

lanahahn wrote:

Dear Mark,
When you have a chance can you explain below sentence for me please?
And what is 'fps" stand for?
I am subtitling beginner so many terms that I do not even know the meaning.
Thank you so much in advance for your help!

"Minimum duration: 5/6 (five-sixths) of a second per subtitle event (e.g. 20 frames for 24fps)
Maximum duration: 7 seconds per subtitle event"

[Edited at 2018-01-31 18:07 GMT]

Tuulia Tipa wrote:

I did already start a new topic, but I could just as well ask here too... I've been doing subtitling for several years, using the companies' proprietary software. Now, I have some new clients who would like me to purchase my own professional software. I can't afford anything as expensive as EZTitles or Titlevision. Are there other ones that are (almost) as good? What would you recommend? What are the pros and cons?

Tuulia Tipa wrote:

Thanks a lot Max.

I've tried Subtitle Edit and Aegisub, and both seem somewhat clumsy. I can't say much about Aegisub, but the problems I had with Subtitle Edit were
- I couldn't accurately position the subtitles (top of screen, bottom middle etc.)
- When checking the subtitles, they didn't automatically show up red when the reading speed was exceeded, but only when I clicked on them
- No shot changes shown
- Adjusting time-codes seemed clumsy, I couldn't set the time-out code manually

I use Windows and would like to stay under €500. I would mostly do subtitling on timed-coded templates, sometimes also proofreading/QC.

Tuulia Tipa wrote:
I've tried Subtitle Edit and Aegisub, and both seem somewhat clumsy. I can't say much about Aegisub, but the problems I had with Subtitle Edit were
- I couldn't accurately position the subtitles (top of screen, bottom middle etc.)
- When checking the subtitles, they didn't automatically show up red when the reading speed was exceeded, but only when I clicked on them
- No shot changes shown
- Adjusting time-codes seemed clumsy, I couldn't set the time-out code manually

Max Deryagin wrote:
I'm afraid your budget is unrealistic — there's simply no pro software under €500 that supports Windows and is worth considering. To give you a quick rundown on your ideas:

1. Titlebee saves your work to the cloud without giving you access to it (this will almost always break the NDA);
2. Wincaps Q4 is £1500;
3. FinalSub is Mac-only;
4. Poliscript Create is outdated; it doesn't support many features taken for granted nowadays.

Any other half-decent tool I know of is way above €500. If you used Mac, you could go with Annotation Edit for half the budget, but with Windows you'll have to bite the bullet — either make do with a free tool or invest into a more expensive solution like EZTitles or SubtitleNext. Or you can use a subscription-based online tool like OOONA ($60/month for the PRO version), but those end up costing more in the long run.

Max Deryagin wrote:

I'm afraid your budget is unrealistic — there's simply no pro software under €500 that supports Windows and is worth considering. To give you a quick rundown on your ideas:

1. Titlebee saves your work to the cloud without giving you access to it (this will almost always break the NDA);
2. Wincaps Q4 is £1500;
3. FinalSub is Mac-only;
4. Poliscript Create is outdated; it doesn't support many features taken for granted nowadays.

Any other half-decent tool I know of is way above €500. If you used Mac, you could go with Annotation Edit for half the budget, but with Windows you'll have to bite the bullet — either make do with a free tool or invest into a more expensive solution like EZTitles or SubtitleNext. Or you can use a subscription-based online tool like OOONA ($60/month for the PRO version), but those end up costing more in the long run.

Tuulia Tipa wrote:

Thanks a lot for your time and insight. However, I see that on the Wincaps page it reads that a one-month subscription is only €28.55, which is a lot better than the $60/month for OOONA, or €80/month for EZTitles. Am I missing something, is this somehow not the "full" Wincaps version? Do you know?

Tuulia Tipa wrote:

Thanks a lot for your time and insight. However, I see that on the Wincaps page it reads that a one-month subscription is only €28.55, which is a lot better than the $60/month for OOONA, or €80/month for EZTitles. Am I missing something, is this somehow not the "full" Wincaps version? Do you know?

Max Deryagin wrote:

EZTiltes doesn't have that, though — they only offer installment plans for buying the full license over 1, 2 or 3 years.

Tuulia Tipa wrote:



There are both installment plans and rental plans:

http://www.eztitles.com/index.php?page=rent

Tuulia Tipa wrote:

OK, I think I've found the catch. After downloading the trial version of Wincaps and failing to open any media, I read the small print:

"Wincaps Q4 also requires an external standalone professional quality (minimum 256
MB) graphics card for video playback..."

Which translator has an external standalone graphics card installed in their computer? Apart from gamers, that it? Or when they say "external standalone", are they simply referring to standard graphics cards that all new laptops have? I am just lost with the tech and terminology, as my computer has until now worked fine with all media players and subtitle editors...

[Edited at 2018-02-07 13:55 GMT]