Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with subtitles

English Subtitles for "Moscow I love you."

pandorasbox — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 19:35:50 -0800

There is a film series of short films called "cities of love." The most common one is "New York, I love you." and "Paris, j t'aime" which are all over the place. However, my friend said "Moskva, ya lyublyu tebya!" (Moscow, I love you) is really good, but I can't find the English subtitles. I already have the movie, I just need the subtitles file. (Though hints on finding the movie with subtitles is also appreciated!) Any ideas where to look? This movie seems to be really obscure!

closed caption / subtitle transcript availablility

amsterdam63 — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:32:49 -0800

Is there a place or a way that I can download the transcripts/ closed captions / subtitles for different television broadcasts? Like if I wanted the transcripts of the broadcasts for every NFL game played this year, would that be possible?

Or the golden globes last night...there were obviously subtitles produced, but I wonder how to get them?

Seems like this would be a trove of information.

They Are All Melons

Cogito — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:10:34 -0800

After seeing this hilarious summary of mistranslated subtitles for Chinese versions of Harry Potter films, I thought it would make a good gift for a friend. However, I'm having a hard time finding a place to purchase the amusingly subtitled versions. Does anyone have any experience with actual DVDs with content like this? I'd like to avoid buying a bunch of Chinese versions only to find the English subtitles are correct. I realize these likely come from bootleg releases, but I feel like I've given enough of my money to the HP franchise to offset a transgression for the sake of a humorous gift.

In summary, where can I buy these?

How can I read subtitles on my smart phone while in a Chinese movie theater in China?

crawltopslow — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 01:25:00 -0800

How can I read subtitles on my smart phone while in a Chinese movie theater in China? i'm going to see the film "cold war" here in China tonight.

It's in Chinese, and I'd like to bring subtitles in English on my smart phone, so i can scroll through and see what they are saying.. Is there any convenient way to do this? I'd also like to do it with other movies in the future. (the theater is almost empty and i'm sitting in the back row)

Subtitled video to static HTML page software?

pbh — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 11:12:26 -0800

Is there software that will turn a subtitled video into a series of snapshots of the video interspersed between the subtitle text? I have a bunch of video (in particular, from an online course) that I would like to watch. However, I find it difficult to fit in watching the videos, and inconvenient to slow down and speed up the videos depending on the content. I have the subtitle (srt) and video (mp4) files. Is it possible to turn these into an HTML file (or similar) that has the subtitle text between relevant images from the video?

Subtitled TED talks for my language students

mecran01 — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 12:33:34 -0800

I'm trying to find standalone copies of TED talks with English subtitles. I will be teaching in a room without an internet connection to Chinese faculty who have good vocabularies but are working on their delivery. I've tried the metalinks at http://metated.petarmaric.com/ and the downloaded videos don't show subtitles in either Quicktime player and VNC. I'm using an older Macbook with 10.6.8.

I can't access youtube or the internet in the classrooms. Oh, and if anyone knows of a good working VPN that would be helpful too.

Thanks Metafilterians. I have other content to use but the videos would be nice. Oh, and if my responses are sporadic it is because I am on Beijing time.

blu-ray netflix subtitles?

paphun123 — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 08:50:52 -0800

Does there exist a regularly updated list of Blu-Ray players that are capable of showing the subtitles on Netflix's streaming service?

Removing hardcoded subs from an avi

cozenedindigo — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:10:28 -0800

Is there a way to remove hardcoded subtitles from an avi file? This is probably impossible but I thought I'd give it a shot. I have an avi movie file that's in English but has foreign-language subtitles hardcoded in. (No .srt file attached). I know there are programs that can blur that part of the screen out but I thought I'd ask if anyone knew of a program that could remove them entirely.

Backwards-compatibility

Silky Slim — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 04:34:14 -0800

I'm looking for a better way to create a DVD with subtitles, without losing quality from the original DVD. I've been doing this for a while, so I know all about creating subtitled video files. The problem starts when the end product is to be a Video DVD. My current work flow is this:
1. Rip DVD as high-quality x264
2. Create timed SRT file
3. Combine the two using Submerge
4. Encode the file back to DVD format and burn DVD.
This problem is that steps 1 and 4 are extremely time-consuming, not to mention the loss of quality from the original file.
I tried using some utility to join the original VOB's into one file, but I didn't know where to go from there. I couldn't figure out a way to turn the joined MPEG2 file back into a DVD without re-encoding.
So... What would be a quicker way to achieve this? Mac or XP solutions welcome.

Converting MKV to MP4, and hardcoding SRT files into MP4

254blocks — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:36:07 -0800

2 related questions about creating/editing MP4 files to play on my Sony Bravia TV: 1) converting MKV files to MP4, and 2) hardcoding subtitiles - specifically SRT files - into my MP4 files. Ok, Hivemind, I've got some pretty basic video editing "stuff" that I'd like some help with. I'm sure some of you know how to do these things better than I do, or at least in the "best way" that there is to do them, so I'd like to query you all on how to accomplish these tasks.

1) What's the best way to convert MKV files to MP4 to play on my Sony Bravia TV? I've got a bunch of MKV files that I'd like to convert to MP4 files to be able to play on my Sony Bravia TV. The MKV files won't play on the TV, and are really large files anyway – like, file sizes of 4 to 6 GB. I'd like to make MP4 files out of the MKV files, which preserve the quality of the MKV files as much as possible, but are only about 2.5 to 3 GB in file size. I would normally use Handbrake for this, but that program seems to have gotten rid of the ability to choose your file size. Plus, I don't know if that is the best program to accomplish this anyway, and even if it is, I don't know what settings to use for it. What suggestions do you guys have to accomplish this task? The more detailed instructions that you can provide me with (i.e., what settings I have to choose in whatever program I use to do this), the better.

2) What's the best way to hard code SRT files into MP4 files, without sacrificing video quality? Again, I feel like Handbrake should be able to do this, if I knew what settings to choose. The TV will only play MP4 files, and won't load external SRT files to be played along with the video files. So hard coding the video files with the subtitles seems to be my only option. I just don't want to sacrifice video quality or substantially increase the file size when doing this.

Thanks.

What's long and hard and full of swearing? Subtitling!

pH Indicating Socks — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:50:04 -0800

Tell me about making and editing subtitles for home use: What software do I want? What's the workflow? Er, that is, how do I do it? tl;dr:

Subtitling spoken English with written English
For Windows 7 x64-to-DVD player, or Windows-to-Windows
What software is easiest/best/your favorite?
I have Handbrake, AnyDVD, SubCreator, and Subtitle Workshop.
I do not really know how to use them.
Please tell me how one does it (or point me at a tutorial) in an idiot-proof "first you do this... then you click here" kind of way.

/tl;dr

My dad cannot hear worth a dang, and had been saying that he is watching more and more non-English movies, because these are reliably subtitled. There are tons of movies in English he'd love to watch, he said, but often they don't have English subtitles. (TV, of course, is good -- he has closed-captioning)

I learned that one can get subtitle files online -- made by regular folks for the benefit of humanity, like Wikipedia -- and play them with movies that were not subtitled at release. These .srt files can be made by anyone in a text editor. One makes, or finds and downloads, an .srt file, starts the movie in VLC Player, and opens the subtitle file with VLC. Et voilà! Subtitles!

But available subtitles are often out of sync with my copy of the movie, or not accurate, misspelled, etc. Sync issues often cannot be corrected even by a global subtitle speed/lag adjustment in VLC. My dad can still hear just well enough that this would be as maddening to him as it is to you or me. And I imagine that sometime I will be unable to find any subtitle file for a given movie.

So I want to edit, and create-from-scratch .srt subtitle files. I could use Notepad for this, which is hell-fire tedious, or a subtitling program. I have tried SubCreator and Subtitle Workshop, but I don't really understand how to use them. I'm pretty much like a monkey, randomly poking stuff. If it has to be hear the guy start talking, look at the time, stop, type, rewind... OK -- but it seems like possibly the process could be more efficient than this, particularly when I'm just correcting sync issues or typos.

Ideally, I'd perform my subtitling magic and hand my dad a disc, that he could play in his DVD player with subtitles burned-in (or somehow accessible through his remote?). Next best, he'd have the files I have, and I'd show him how to use VLC (and the HDMI cable he got for Christmas).

So Metafilter... how?

Subtitles in Handbrake

drugstorefrog — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:45:58 -0800

How do I get subtitles to work with handbrake? I have a bunch of DVDs that I want to encode with their subtitles using Handbrake. Whenever I try to do this, the options in the subtitles menu are either "none" or "autoselect". It never encodes the subtitles when I select "autoselect" but the "forced subtitles only" options sometimes works.
I can do this just fine using Auto GK but find that Handbrake gives better results.

I am using windows 7.

well these subtitles don't do a damn thing!

threeants — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:32:56 -0800

I kindly seek free online video content in Spanish with Spanish subtitles. I'll be pleased with most anything, but extra points for those that are interesting, entertaining, relatively clear (i.e. not clips of people shouting at each other while rappeling down a mountain, or something chock-full of wordplay), and/or possessing continuity (i.e. an entire movie or t.v. series).

The four necessary components are that it be: 1) in Spanish 2) with Spanish (not English) subtitles / closed captioning 3) free and 4) online.

Thanks muchly!

"Soft and graceful and ladies singing."

Betty's Table — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:25:42 -0800

Operafilter: Soprano-heavy, French recs for a 5 y/o The five year old kid I nanny is very picky about what type of music she likes, but also has unusual aptitude (for her age) for understanding music. I want to cultivate this interest. She likes music that is "soft and graceful and has ladies singing." Yesterday, through a new game I invented where we went through my music collection and vetoed/approved songs, I discovered that "soft and graceful" were codes for "high soprano" and "operatic singing."

The Flower Duet was the song that revealed that it was opera that she was after. And she loved this excerpt from Anna Bolena.

I have seen this previous thread and am taking notes.

So, MeFites: I need recommendations for operas that are heavy on the soprano parts, but would also love if they met these requirements:

- Sung in French (she's bilingual French and English)
- Video recordings, especially if you think the operas are more kid appropriate than not (i.e. not highly sexualized, not a lot of representations of drinking/drunkenness, prostitutes/etc.)
- Video recordings with subtitles in French (twofer, boosting reading comprehension in general and in French)

I'm aware that the Metropolitan Opera has recorded performances in HD, but which ones should I get her?

Sprechen sie subtitles?

dust of the stars — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:10:22 -0800

How can I convert MKV files with subtitles into MP4/M4V files with subtitles (OS=Windows)? I archive DVDs in MKV format. If they are "foreign" films (meaning, not in English) I include the subtitles in the MKV files. I can play these files back using VLC and the subtitle streams are present (I can turn them on or off using the controls in VLC). But I have failed at multiple attempts to create MP4/M4V files, for playback on an ipod, that contain the subtitles. I am by no means a noob, and I produce non-subtitled MP4 files just fine in Handbrake, but I am unable to climb the learning curve in the forum posts I've found dealing with this question. (It's as if they're speaking another language ha ha.) If someone can explain in a step-by-step way, including needed programs (Windows only, preferably freeware), and detailed settings, I'd be most appreciative.

Stripping timecode from SRT file

Silky Slim — Mon, 30 May 2011 11:05:28 -0800

I would like to delete certain lines in a text document. It's an SRT file, which is basically a TXT file that contains subtitles and in & out points. I'd like to delete all the timecode numbers, and leave only the text. Example inside... The format is as follows:

1
00:02:46,250 --> 00:02:47,625
Yahoo!

2
00:03:04,768 --> 00:03:07,353
-Congratulations.
-Thank you.

My desired end result is this:

Yahoo!

-Congratulations.
-Thank you.

Thanks in advance!

Line-by-line document merge

saysthis — Sun, 22 May 2011 21:23:41 -0800

Is there any way to merge two Microsoft Word documents containing the same content in different languages so that one line of content from one document immediately follows the same respective line in the other? This is for subtitle translation, and I'll work with any word editor that can read .doc documents. I'm translating a TV series about antiques, and it occurred to me that this would be a fantastic candidate for machine translation. The repetition of ong words ("the cobalt-based dyes of Qianlong-period Jingdezhen porcelain") and time I spend typing things like "Yeah, ok, good" would be great to save.

The problem is, the client wants these in one document, with the English subtitle directly beneath the Chinese subtitle. Google translator toolkit gives me a side-by-side comparison, which is fine for me to work on, but not for the client.

I want to go into translator toolkit, fix my translation, download my English-language results, then merge the translated document with the original. Is that doable?

Help me to hack Google Translate

TheGoodBlood — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:50:06 -0800

How to get Google Translate to translate only parts of a Word document? I want to translate the subtitles of a movie and I'd like to use Google Translate to speed up the process. Thing is, I have to keep the formatting and coding of the original text made in Microsoft Word, that looks like this:

____________________________________

1
00:01:06,015 --> 00:01:07,346
Ordine.

2
00:01:07,517 --> 00:01:09,542
Ordine in aula.

3
00:01:09,853 --> 00:01:12,651
La corte sospende per 15 minuti.

4
00:01:16,659 --> 00:01:18,092
Quel Martin, perfetto come assolto.

5
00:01:18,261 --> 00:01:20,729
0:Quel giudice deve fare attenzione
1:alla gente di Loder.

6
00:01:20,897 --> 00:01:22,364
Sono dei cattivi ragazzi per giocarci insieme.

7
00:01:22,532 --> 00:01:25,262
0:Ehi, signora, scommetto 5 a 2
1:che il Giudice Shaw lascer, andare Martin.

8
00:01:25,435 --> 00:01:26,993
0:- Smamma.
1:- Oh, aspetti un attimo.

{{NOTE: IGNORE PUNCT}}
9
00:01:27,170 --> 00:01:28,728
Lasciamo perdere.

10
00:01:28,905 --> 00:01:31,669
0:Scommetto 10 a 1 che il giudice
1:Shaw lascier, andare Martin libero.

{{NOTE: BURNT TEXT}}

11
00:01:31,841 --> 00:01:35,743
0:- Fai 100 a 1 e ci sto.
1:- Oh, sei un professionista?

12
00:01:35,912 --> 00:01:37,277
Ragazzo, questa è una cosa interessante.

13
00:01:37,447 --> 00:01:40,814
0:Qui c'è un tipo che si muove nel fisco cittadino,
1:arraffa per sè 350.000 bigliettoni...

{{NOTE: ITALICS}}

14
00:01:40,984 --> 00:01:43,782
0:... e non c'è un giudice in cittá
1:che gli dia quello che si merita.

____________________________________

I have to keep everything but the text. I have to keep all that is red (in bold above) and those numbers at the beginning of the sentences, that indicate line 0 and line 1.

The formatting is important (the colour of the text), so are the codes in words that Google Translate will try to translate.

Is there a way to do that?

Thanks!

Are there stand-alone .srt players for OSX?

matrushka — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:47:59 -0800

Hulu is often great with the closed captions, but sometimes they're a day or week behind on adding them, or there's a set of bad captions. Is there some sort of .srt player for OSX that hovers over whatever video app you're using? (for Windows users I found this: http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/subtitle-player-to-play-srt-files-over-any-movie-that-lacks-subtitles/)

Extracting subtitles from recorded Australian TV?

surenoproblem — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 19:17:01 -0800

Can I extract subtitles from TV shows that I record on a PVR into an *.srt file? I'm recording TV in Australia; my PVR records into files called *.ts, which I believe might be mpeg2, but also contain the subtitles that are broadcast. I've been compressing the recordings into avi files with Freemake, but then I lose the subtitles. Is there an easy to use program that will take a *.ts file and output an avi and and srt file? I've tried Subrip, but it didn't recognise the *.ts file. Thanks!

Suggest a good TV series for learning English

rhombus — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 08:24:08 -0800

Can you suggest a good television series (preferably with available English subtitles) for people learning English? I am doing private English lessons in Germany. I've found that television series are a good way for people to learn the language, particularly if they also get English subtitles. Series are great because they have recurring characters and motifs, and that repetition is helpful.

The problem is that my selections thus far reflect my personal preferences, which may not match those of my students. For example, in the past I've used The Wire, but women don't always like it.

Note that I am not looking for simple English, but things that are real and which reflect English as it is actually used in daily life. I'm looking for suggestions across a broad range of genres (I'd prefer something rather more sophisticated than, say, Sex and the City). In other words, they should be good, not just "good for learning English" :)

Any ideas?

Are there French subtitles for Withnail & I?

two or three cars parked under the stars — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 09:50:58 -0800

Will my French friend ever be able to watch Withnail & I? I have a friend who is French. The other day we were discussing movies, and I brought up one of my favourites, Withnail & I. We then got all excited about him getting to see this terrific movie which he would clearly love. Trouble is, there doesn't seem to be a French-subtitled version of it out there. We looked over all the DVD information we could find, and searched various online subtitle databases: Nothing. I even tried translating the movie myself, which went well for about five minutes. Before I give up, my question is, does anybody know of any edition of this movie with French subtitles on it?

Subtitles for .avi

dearleader — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 16:12:47 -0800

I've got an .avi of a film, and a separate .txt file of subtitles, but playing it n Quick Time or Divx doesn't seem to bring them up (and it's not an option in the menu). Anyone know a quick and dirty way to make this work for Macbook Pro? Or do they have to be hardcoded somehow?

English Subtitles from Spanish channels (DirecTV)

sirhensley — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:29:27 -0800

How do I get English subtitles from spanish channels (I am using directv)? Hi Everyone,

I have Directv and would like to be able to view english subtitles on some of our spanish channels. My wife and her family watch a lot of novellas on Univision and I am left always asking what happened.

Is there any way to get english subtitles? Can anyone help?

Thanks.

Video and subtitles, all in one file?

afx237vi — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 06:13:49 -0800

I have a video file (.avi) and a subtitle file (.srt). What is the simplest way to merge these two files into one single video file with built-in subtitles? I have a cheapo DVD player with a USB port that allows me to plug in a USB stick and watch video files directly from that. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to do subtitles at all.

Most of the googling I have done seems to be concerned with burning divx discs to watch on a DVD player. This is not what I want.

I'm using Windows 7.