Playing .srt subtitle files

[Steve]

Hello,

  Does anyone know if Qlab has a way to play a video file and have it's associated subtitles, (which are in a .srt file), display as well?  If I were using, say, vlc I'd have to explicitly tell vlc about the subtitle file but I can't, as far as I can tell, do anything remotely similar in Qlab.

I don't want to have to remake the subtitles as a text file and play it out separately.

All thoughts gratefully received.

Thanks.


Steve.

[Chris Ashworth]

Hi Steve,

Alas, QLab does not support reading subtitles in a video file.  

Mic Pool has a clever scripting approach to this that might help though:

https://qlabcookbook.com/2012/01/04/subtitles/

[Steve Wald]

Chris,

   Thank you for your quick reply.  I’ll definitely look into Mic Poole’s solution.  No point making a feature request, I suppose?

Yours,



Steve

[micpool]

I dont think thats going to help you in this case

That method is for subtitles that are going to be manually cued in a performance. It wont take the timings from the srt file.


I think I know a way to do this, Ill check it when the plumbers finished fixing my sink.

Mic

[Paul Gotch]

On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 02:52:27PM +0100, Steve Wald wrote:
> Thank you for your quick reply. I’ll definitely look into Mic
> Poole’s solution. No point making a feature request, I suppose?

What's the issue with preparing a version of the video file with the
subtitles burnt in? Or are there other requirements which mean you have
to have them separately?

-p
--
Paul Gotch
--------------------------------------------------------------------

[Steve Wald]

Dear Mic,

Thank you. I’m in awe of anyone who can knock up an Applescript just like that. I’ve done it a tiny bit with AS and it’s so hard to work out the syntax for each different thing you want to do - perhaps I’m just too dense.

Please don’t put yourself out, particularly as I think I’m actually going to be forced to use vlc this time.


Yours,



Steve

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[Steve Wald]

Paul,

It’s a pre-existing art film which is intended for showing in different countries and so there are different srt files for each language. I’m just the hapless person who’s showing it, so I can’t make them do what you sensibly suggest.

If there’s a way, using non-specialist, (i.e. free), software to burn the subtitles in using the file I’ve got, that would do it.


Yours,



Steve

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[Paul Gotch]

On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 03:33:02PM +0100, Steve Wald wrote:
> If there’s a way, using non-specialist, (i.e. free), software to burn
> the subtitles in using the file I’ve got, that would do it.

I think VLC itself can do it

http://rikardo.kinja.com/how-to-hardcode-subtitles-using-vlc-and-rendered-mp4-fi-1438028334

for example.

However you may find that it renders very slowly. It depends on what
formats you need and if you get generational loss from the
decode,recode cycle.

You may find you have to use a Magic Mic Pool script or VLC to play
them to preserve the quality of the video.

[micpool]

My solution was a burn in one,  but it's not very satisfactory for  your use. If you want to experiment with it use a copy of your movie not the original!!

Convert the .srt to QT using the online tool at

http://www.3playmedia.com/services-features/free-tools/captions-format-converter/

open the movie file and the subtitle .txt  file in QT7 Pro

Select all the text movie and use add to movie to include the track in your movie file

Extract the sound track from the movie file

Delete the soundtrack from the movie file

Export the movie file to a new file in QT7 Pro using ProRes 422 LT  (Because there is no sound track the titles get rendered with the video)

select all the extracted sound file and add to the new movie file and save.

And you should have a QT video with burnt in titles and a soundtrack.

But it won't be that good, as characters  are not stroked with the contrasting color so won't show up against all video, without an opaque background, and you may lose some quality in the re render  of the  video.

Playing in VLC is probably your best option.

It would be possible to adapt my subtitle script to parse the in and out times of the captions to pre waits in a group cue with Titles cues, but I don't have the time or need to do that at the moment. And you will still have the problem of non stroked characters over video to contend with. 

Mic

[Steve Wald]

Mic,

  I think I’ll take the path of least resistance and use vlc, particularly if the results will not be as good.  But thank you for taking the time to think about it and come up with a solution.

Yours,



Steve

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[Johannes Halvorsen]

Use Hanbrake and render one video file with burned in subs for each language?