Foreign subs (.SUP/VOBSub) to SRT/SSA?

[Undead Sega]

I hope the title is understandable, but basically, i have subtitles that are in a different language (Chinese and Japanese characters) which are in an image-based subtitle format.

for a long time i have been wondering if it is possible whatsoever to take these kind of subtitles and have them converted to a well-known editable format such as SRT or SSA?

i imagine there is a step which is incredibly tedious to taking this language subtitle to a text based one, but after for so long, i was wondering if it is any way possible?

i wuld really appreciate the help :)

[LUCHOO]

but you should know the meaning of the language and translate to your language, it is a very tedious ...
SubRip to extract the original language with subtitles and then you can translate it slowly......
and you need keyboard with Japanese language..

http://i.imagehost.org/t/0710/jp.jpg (http://i.imagehost.org/view/0710/jp)

[Undead Sega]

yes i am very aware of that, this is the step i mentioned that is incredibly tedious.

plus i only know english, and the language is japanese, which is what i want to make into either a SRT or SSA. in addition, i do not know if i have those characters to match, there is probably too many :D

is there a simpler way by any chance? or does anyone have a Japanese Character Matrix whatsoever?

[Undead Sega]

anyone at all may i ask?

[LUCHOO]

I'm sorry .... Seeking the characters matrix japanese, and I can not find anywhere..

[Undead Sega]

i see then, anyone else may i ask? :D

also, would a Chinese Character Matrix help or work by any chance?

[laserfan]

i only know english, and the language is japanese
Then what you need is not a MATRIX, but rather someone who is Japanese-fluent but English-trained, in order to make a reasonable English explanation of the symbols. Their symbols do not even *translate* to English--not directly, and sometimes not even indirectly, such that the Japanese would have to suggest only an English *approximation* of the meaning that is intended.

I can at least sympathize. I bought a Norwegian DVD w/no English subtitles and (have) had a heck of a time trying to build an English st track. I even went back to the English-translated novel which interested me in the movie to begin with, in order to get the subtitles to where I was comfortable that they portrayed the spirit of the on-screen action.

If the program is very important to you, you might consider hiring someone to do a screen-by-screen translation.

[LUCHOO]

also, would a Chinese Character Matrix help or work by any chance?
No, Chinese Character Matrix only contains Kanji,.. Japanese contains Kanji , hiragana, katakana 　 野 , の, ノ ..

Then what you need is not a MATRIX, but rather someone who is Japanese-fluent but English-trained, in order to make a reasonable English explanation of the symbols. Their symbols do not even *translate* to English--not directly, and sometimes not even indirectly, such that the Japanese would have to suggest only an English *approximation* of the meaning that is intended.
If the program is very important to you, you might consider hiring someone to do a screen-by-screen translation.

I think the same thing...

[Undead Sega]

translating is not my main priority, its basically have a .srt/.ssa base subtitles containing the japanese characters.

[Undead Sega]

anyone may i ask?

[Ghitulescu]

anyone may i ask?

What do you really want? It's not clear at all.

This is why people do not spend their time answering.
You want SUP (default DVD subtitle) to SSA etc. to edit them, or what? If it's Japanese why do you need to know/speak/read English? You want to translate them into English?
First of all: the text file should understand Unicode, which is not a default option for many of them. Then you need an Unicode-enabled text editor. Like this one:
http://www.emeditor.com/
Finally you need an Unicode-enabled subtitle compiler (encoder).
That's the search function for and probably google.com.

[Undead Sega]

i just want to have non english subs like Chinese or Japanese writing in a text-based subtitle format, translating is an option, but not priority.

[Ghitulescu]

i just want to have non english subs like Chinese or Japanese writing in a text-based subtitle format, translating is an option, but not priority.

Get them using SubRip, then run each bitmap through an OCR that knows Japanese. It will take a while for an average number of say 1000 per movie ;)

There is no easy method unless one has a matrix for SubRip.