Subtitling Help

[Sakuya]

Hey, I was wondering about subtitling. To those who are experienced, is it really hard to time the subs? What program(s) do you use? Is there tutorials anywhere or references? I'm thinking of starting a fansub group but if it is too hard for me, I guess I will drop the idea.

[zalas]

Originally Posted by Sakuya

Hey, I was wondering about subtitling. To those who are experienced, is it really hard to time the subs? What program(s) do you use? Is there tutorials anywhere or references? I'm thinking of starting a fansub group but if it is too hard for me, I guess I will drop the idea.

It's not hard to time at all. You'd need something like Substation Alpha to do it. There should be a tutorial in the Fansub Groups forum. Plus, please don't start a fansub group unless you have at least some experience or are willing to put in the hard effort to organize and lead one. Fansubbing as a whole isn't something you can pick up by reading materials, a lot of it is experience, and you won't get enough experience (IMO) to start a decent fansub group. Besides, there are so many groups out there that need staff.

[Sakuya]

Thanks! It seems complicated. Is there a tutorial anywhere as to how to put the subs in an SSA file? Also, does the re-encoding at the end take a long time? I don't think my computer is up to the subtitling job because it's so slow.

[TaMz]

Originally Posted by Sakuya

Thanks! It seems complicated. Is there a tutorial anywhere as to how to put the subs in an SSA file? Also, does the re-encoding at the end take a long time? I don't think my computer is up to the subtitling job because it's so slow.

Timing isn't complicated at all...
if used 2-pass encoding the encoding of a sub takes about 1-4 hours depending on machine power...
1-pass encodin takes half of that...
How to put subs to an SSA file? ; by saving the timings in SSA... :P

[Sakuya]

I have tested it by subbing a small sequence and it's pretty easy but time-consuming. But, my computer is slow. It has around 250,000KB of RAM. Does that tell you the computer's speed? I think I will put off subtitling and just download the fansubs that are already there. Thanks! It's a good insight though. Now I know what to do to subtitle.

[zalas]

Originally Posted by Sakuya

I have tested it by subbing a small sequence and it's pretty easy but time-consuming. But, my computer is slow. It has around 250,000KB of RAM. Does that tell you the computer's speed? I think I will put off subtitling and just download the fansubs that are already there. Thanks! It's a good insight though. Now I know what to do to subtitle.

You do know that SSA and its likes were developed a LONG time ago right? There's no way they have 256MB of RAM back then. You really don't need a fast computer to time. As long as it can play audio smoothly (if it can winamp, it can time) you should be all set.

[TaMz]

Originally Posted by zalas

You do know that SSA and its likes were developed a LONG time ago right? There's no way they have 256MB of RAM back then. You really don't need a fast computer to time. As long as it can play audio smoothly (if it can winamp, it can time) you should be all set.

He meant the encoding will take his machine power...
not the timing...

[zalas]

Originally Posted by TaMz

He meant the encoding will take his machine power...
not the timing...

But unless you have a state of the art computer, encoding will always take a good chunk of time. I remember our encoders used to just leave their computer on for the night.

[RavenChild]

i've encoded on my laptop before (see profile for specs) and it took about an hour to encode a 25 min. video. My PC's specs helped a little but you need a PIII to run most divx 640x480 movies.

[hhaamu]

Originally Posted by Sakuya

Does that tell you the computer's speed?

No. It is fully dependent on your CPU speed. For example, my 1GHz T-Bird encodes XviD at about 15 fps (frames per second). That means that it takes about 50 minutes to encode one 25-minute episode on 2-pass.

I think if you do some multiplication with your processor speed, you can get the approximate time from my figure. For example, if you have a 300MHz CPU, one episode should take about 150 minutes.

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by hhaamu

No. It is fully dependent on your CPU speed. For example, my 1GHz T-Bird encodes XviD at about 15 fps (frames per second). That means that it takes about 50 minutes to encode one 25-minute episode on 2-pass.

I think if you do some multiplication with your processor speed, you can get the approximate time from my figure. For example, if you have a 300MHz CPU, one episode should take about 150 minutes.

The math is wrong up there. You would have to be doing 24fps to do that. (24 fps means you are encoding in real time, so 25min/pass, so 50 min for 2 pass).

Secondly, it is not linear. It depends on many other things like how many programs you have open, what filters, what color space and everything else. (It takes my p3-733 40min for 1 pass with just raw + subtitle filter).

[Sakuya]

Wow, if it'd take you guys 1 hour, my computer would be dead before it is finished. x_x"