Subtitles possibilities

[Tonic]

The question is simple - are there possibilities to obtain subtitles for video tutorials? I suppose MB doesn't have them underhand, but perhaps there are companies in US that would create subtitles? Of course, if paying is needed and affordable, I will pay. The situation is that due of my hearing problems, pulling out wisdom from spoken dialogues is impossible. I have checked local companies that could make subtitles synchronised with video, but the prices were horribly high. The lowest I could find was about 22$ for 10 minutes. That makes 130$ for one hour. Thanks in advance.

[Cam Sykes]

perhaps you could use one of those programs like 'naturally speaking'. Then when you play the video through a microphone it would translate the dialogue into text.

[Arshes Nei]

I thought there were some programs that allowed you to add subtitles after a video was done - but I don't think that works for streaming

[Tonic]

perhaps you could use one of those programs like 'naturally speaking'. Then when you play the video through a microphone it would translate the dialogue into text.

I always thought that the speaking recognition isn't so well developed and it's expensive. Did it change these days? Have you used such software? Though, it's interesting idea, I should look for trials and see how they works in nowadays, thanks for suggestion. The another problem is that the artists are artists, they draw instead speaking for public - not like actors who spend years practising speaking ;) And there might be speaking nuances that program would have hard time recognising. Also, software might need a dictionary with art words, as art is a specialised field, not general that people would use for daily communications.

I thought there were some programs that allowed you to add subtitles after a video was done - but I don't think that works for streaming

Yes, there are such programs, however I don't want to add subtitles, but find a way to create them. A company that would sit at computer, listen to spoken dialogues and convert them to text dialogues. And eventually synchronise them with video, but that would optional. A content of those words are what matters me :)

[Qitsune]

I'm sure we could find volunteers on CA to divide the workload and type the text, then it's just a question of including the text with the downloads or maybe having it included in the video, so that it wouldn't cost for MB. I'm sure it would not only help people with hearing problems but also those whose first language is not english. I'm volunteer for 1h's worth.

[Tonic]

I'm sure we could find volunteers on CA to divide the workload and type the text, then it's just a question of including the text with the downloads or maybe having it included in the video, so that it wouldn't cost for MB. I'm sure it would not only help people with hearing problems but also those whose first language is not english. I'm volunteer for 1h's worth.

Hey, thanks for taking initiative. Your suggestion sounds very plausible and doable - there are many Americans, Britons and people who speaks English well. And to make things better, they're there mainly because of art, so they may be more motivated to do this group work. I hardly can volunteer, but I could do things possible for me, like cleaning text (putting punctuation, big first letters etc.) - in that way person who writes dialogues wouldn't bother much with text "cleanness" (if it bothers him/her).

Also, I thought it would be a good idea to ask video tutorial's author to check if there aren't any misspellings before publishing subtitles - just guessing.

[Brashen]

I wouldnt mind helping out either.

[Studio Colrouphobia]

I can also help out somewhat.
This is something I don't think you should have to pay for, I understand that for MB it might no be doable to keep the low costs to subtitle the entire videos, but the community can most likely help out with everything here.

Let us know which ones you wish to have subtitled and if I have them I will start taking some notes. I do not have the know-how to put subtitles in the actual video, but I can start with the text-writing :)

[Tonic]

You're great, really. So it makes three people willing to write text. When I return to home evening, I'll write topic in Lounge section to ask for volunteering - perhaps we will get more people to help with this. It's not like I will choose videos, rather I would like to do it together with you. But I think the most popular videos would be the best - it's better to ask Jason who might have download statistics. If I had to guess, I would say Jason Chan's, android's and ZhangLu/Jason Manley's, el coro's and Marko Djurdrevic's videos are the most popular.

But I guess we're limited to what videos you have on hard disk. What titles do you have?

[Maidith]

The situation is that due of my hearing problems, pulling out wisdom from spoken dialogues is impossible.

Oh my God. I thought I was the only one.
There are so many cool videos, including Robert Hale's anatomy lessons and Bobby Chiu's podcast, but since they have no subtitles I couldn't really watch them.

If there was indeed some speech recognition software that could transcribe directly from audio or video files, that would be the most awesomest thing since the invention of semisweet chocolate. And I'm young so I will wait for that. :)

[Brashen]

My list of Videos:

1) Marko's entire DVD
2) Jason Chan's Style Exploration
3) All of Kemp's Vehicle Concepting DVDs 1-4
4) Jason Chan Painter Sketch
5) Coro's Gun Tutorial parts 1 and 2
6) Whit Brachna Masks Tutorial
7) Whit Brachna's Whit snow mountain parts 1 and 2
8) Whit Brachna's Environment Design parts 1 and 2
9) Gregory Manchess "Above the Timberline" parts 1 and 2
10) Zhanglu's and Jason Manley's Portraits -Caucasian females.

[-leo]

The subs could be placed into a text file with .srt extension (the file have a structure but it's simple) and you can plug it into your player... this is how lots of anime subbers work. Dunno if it would somehow works with stream and don't forget about (c) issues. I haven't seen much notes from the recent mb workshops comparing to the old ones.

[Tonic]

The subs could be placed into a text file with .srt extension (the file have a structure but it's simple) and you can plug it into your player... this is how lots of anime subbers work. Dunno if it would somehow works with stream and don't forget about (c) issues. I haven't seen much notes from the recent mb workshops comparing to the old ones.

Not only, a plain .txt file is also suitable. The only difference is probably that .srt can uses additionally milliseconds to display subtitles, while .txt uses only seconds. But that's really enough and the difference would be probably hardly noticeable. But if you're a cyborg, then maybe.. :P

Wikipedia source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SubRip

In other words, with .txt, you have dialogues like that:

[hour:minute:second] [hour:minute:second] bla blaWhile in .srt you have this:

[hour:minute:second:milliseconds] [hour:minute:second:milliseconds] bla blaAdding subtitles to video isn't really a issue because you can have video and subtitles separately, as .txt or .srt or another subtitle file extension, then rename it to exactly name as video file for sake of compatibility. Usually video players automatically loads subtitles file from the same folder as video file, even if the subtitle file name differs. But there are older players, especially Windows Media Player 9 that doesn't allow to load subtitles manually, nor loads subtitles file if it has different name than video. It works only when names are exact.

DVD isn't also a issue - viewers could download subtitles from internet and load them in DVD player (most of players allows this).

Streaming - that might be issue, but Jason has already said (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2290704&postcount=42) he will what can be done :)

Brashen, these are pretty popular videos, but we can't decide which videos could be used, it's a bit too early. We need to get few informations, sort out things and then start rocking'n'rolling! ;)

EDIT - ATTENTION!

We've moved the discussion (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=160005) to Lounge section. I suggest to look at second page as there we have started to make solid steps. Check the post number 44 - there you will see list of people and jobs. If you want to join, tell us in this Lounge topic :)

[spaztastic]

perhaps you could use one of those programs like 'naturally speaking'. Then when you play the video through a microphone it would translate the dialogue into text.
this would be a great idea if they had the proper technology out there,
but they don't and person making the video have to use monotone speech patterns, and have precise word use for it to work effectively. also certain words that are soft will not show up or show up as something completely off the wall , so there will always be a certain amount of typing involved. I Would prefer to just type it, less stress, you are able to correct more easily, and you can go back if you missed something. I am sure what ever they figure out using will be great, also if you could make sure it's compatible with macs.... but if not I have a pc lying around somewhere.

[REGNIRUTH]

I think adding subtitles/captioning to the downloadable videos and DVDs would be convenient. I also have a hearing impairment and my hearing sucks, the only way I can hear well enough is through the use of "hearing aids", but even those aren't perfect. I end up having to watch the videos multiple times or click back a few seconds if i missed something the said by the commentator. Since I don't hear so well, i have trouble hearing the commentator if they end up speaking softly, or slight distortion from the mic, etc.

I like how some of you mentioned ".srt" subtitle files for subtitles as a separate piece, since others may not want it.

I hope to see this made available, thanks.

[Purrdey]

There I was feeling sorry for myself, then something always comes up to remind me I really don't know I'm born. I volunteer for typing/whatever :D

[Tonic]

Hey, here! If you want to help, jump there and read: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=167176

I think adding subtitles/captioning to the downloadable videos and DVDs would be convenient. I also have a hearing impairment and my hearing sucks, the only way I can hear well enough is through the use of "hearing aids", but even those aren't perfect. I end up having to watch the videos multiple times or click back a few seconds if i missed something the said by the commentator. Since I don't hear so well, i have trouble hearing the commentator if they end up speaking softly, or slight distortion from the mic, etc.

I like how some of you mentioned ".srt" subtitle files for subtitles as a separate piece, since others may not want it.

I hope to see this made available, thanks.

There will be also .ass file (or alternative) as well. .srt is a format that only gives time stamps and text. The way how subtitles are looking, depends entirely on video player and codecs settings. It may work, but in some cases not - like if viewer has bad settings, or default subtitles style doesn't read well on video (white subtitles with light outline on bright area is so-so..). .ass if a format where you can set how subtitles will be displayed. You can set font type, size, outline, shadow etc. We will adjust font settings to fit each video best in terms of readability.


There I was feeling sorry for myself, then something always comes up to remind me I really don't know I'm born. I volunteer for typing/whatever :D

Check the link above, read and see if you still want to volunteer :)