Subtitles For Youtube

[aanon]

Hi all,

I've just spent a little time working out how to do subtitles for youtube videos again. In case someone else wants to do some, either for a learning project or as a way to respond to a question here on thaivisa, I'm going to share what I found. Things have changed since I last did youtube subtitles a year or so ago, and the news is good. Because youtube now supports the uploading of subtitles, there is much less mucking around with software required.

Here's the process I ended up using:

1) Use Youtube Downloader (freeware) to get the video you intend to subtitle (it will be in FLV format)

2) Use Youtube Downloader to convert the video to AVI format (simply so that it can be viewed within the subtitling program)

3) Use Subtitle Workshop (freeware) to do the subtitles and save them in SubRip (SRT) format

4) Re-upload the original (FLV) video to youtube, then upload the subtitle file to go with it (look for the 'captions' button)

Simple, eh? Step 3 is the only one that really takes any time or effort.

Notes:

* Any copyright issues are up to you, obviously.

* There are other freeware alternatives. Media Subtitler would be a better choice if you want to add Thai subtitles (eg. you're transcribing a video) or if you already have the subtitles typed up and simply want to align them to the video.

* Youtube allows uploading of multiple subtitle files, so you can provide subtitles in more than one language and let the viewer choose.

* Youtube makes it easy to remove and re-upload a subtitle file, so what you upload doesn't have to be final; you can always edit it.

I encourage those who are interested to have a go at subtitling. It's a great way to learn -- and there is a real lack of English-subtitled Thai content out there. If you have any questions about the process, feel free to ask here. Oh, and please post a link if you do put up some subtitles.

[aanon]

Here's the one I just did using the above system. I still need to add a few cultural notes to help explain a few of the lines. Any comments welcome. As I described above, these subtitles can now be edited and improved over time.

Oh, and if you don't see any subtitles, make sure you have turned on captions (click on the box with a triangle in it in the bottom right corner of the video window).

[Jay_Jay]

I agree - Subtitle workshop has become one of the most useful pieces of software for me for both work and learning languages.

I use it to subtitle my Thai shows back into English and re-upload them to youtube - whereas before I would have to burn the subtitles into the actual video, kudos to Youtube for allowing us to now upload the tiny raw SRT text file. Has made life a lot easier.

You can also use subtitle workshop to add a language to the subtitles on a DVD - though the process is a little more complicated.

As far as using it to learn language, I will often use my video camera to tape native-speakers of the language that I'm using - collect a whole lot of samples and then get someone (or the person who spoke) to translate what they said. I then go and lay the translations over the video with subtitle workshop and analyse what they've said against how it's been translated. You can learn a lot about a language that way

[aanon]

I agree - Subtitle workshop has become one of the most useful pieces of software for me for both work and learning languages.

I use it to subtitle my Thai shows back into English and re-upload them to youtube - whereas before I would have to burn the subtitles into the actual video, kudos to Youtube for allowing us to now upload the tiny raw SRT text file. Has made life a lot easier.

You can also use subtitle workshop to add a language to the subtitles on a DVD - though the process is a little more complicated.

As far as using it to learn language, I will often use my video camera to tape native-speakers of the language that I'm using - collect a whole lot of samples and then get someone (or the person who spoke) to translate what they said. I then go and lay the translations over the video with subtitle workshop and analyse what they've said against how it's been translated. You can learn a lot about a language that way

Interesting use of the software, Jay_Jay. This is great technology for bringing audio, video, manual manipulation, repetition and, most importantly, real live people into your learning. By the way, I've enjoyed some of your recent subtitled vids...feel like posting something here?

[SoftWater]

ฺBrilliant idea, aanon. Sometimes I love this forum - I'd never have thought of this in a million years.

From what I can tell the software mentioned above is PC. Two free subtitle editors for Mac I just found are at

http://www.fluffalopefactory.com/miyu/

and

http://sourceforge.net/projects/subtitleeditor/

I haven't tried either yet, but downloading them was a simple one-click affair, no registration or other nonsense to go through.

Edited January 11, 2010 by SoftWater

[aanon]

ฺBrilliant idea, aanon. Sometimes I love this forum - I'd never have thought of this in a million years.

From what I can tell the software mentioned above is PC. Two free subtitle editors for Mac I just found are at

http://www.fluffalopefactory.com/miyu/

and

http://sourceforge.net/projects/subtitleeditor/

I haven't tried either yet, but downloading them was a simple one-click affair, no registration or other nonsense to go through.

You're right, Softwater. What I mentioned is PC software. Your suggestions should be helpful for others on the dark side.

[Rikker]

Another thank you for this post, aanon. I should finally get around to doing some subtitling myself. Glad it's this easy.

[CSS]

Here's the one I just did using the above system. I still need to add a few cultural notes to help explain a few of the lines. Any comments welcome. As I described above, these subtitles can now be edited and improved over time.

Oh, and if you don't see any subtitles, make sure you have turned on captions (click on the box with a triangle in it in the bottom right corner of the video window).

Thanks Aanon. I enjoyed that.