I'd like to find, or build, a tool for stripping differently encoded text from bilingual (Chinese/English) text documents. Bonus - since this is for subtitles, I need to be able to train it to recognize timecodes and unique characters like returns and hyphens. Double bonus - I know jack about programming, but since the only way to do this right now I have is by hand, which costs me hours and hours of tedium and is putting me at risk for carpal tunnel, I'm definitely willing to put in the time to learn. [more inside]
posted by saysthis on Nov 5, 2009 - 8 answers

I have two files, an Adobe Encore subtitle file of a particular film, and a dialogue list txt (no times) of a newer, shorter cut of that same film, which is to say that there is nothing in the short cut that isn't in the longer cut. I want to ensure that's the case and check the two versions for consistency, i.e. make sure the content in the new/shorter version matches the dialogue in the old/longer version. Is there an automated way to do this that doesn't involve CTL+F and a lot of cutting and pasting? Bonus challenge: the subtitle file is En/Chinese, the dialogue transcript is Chinese. I'm checking to make sure the Chinese is consistent. [more inside]
posted by saysthis on Jul 16, 2009 - 1 answer