Unicode subtitle [Archive]

laane

15th January 2007, 02:33

Hi I'm looking for a program for subtitles thast also supports Chinese. When possible the program should be simple as hell because I only need to do this once and it are just 20 lines that need to be inputted..

Edit: sorry miscounted.. 21 sentences..

jel

16th January 2007, 01:30

hi laane and welcome to the forum!

i will move your thread to the subtitles forum, where hopefully one of the gurus there can help you out.

good luck!
j

manusse

17th January 2007, 00:30

What do you mean by "a program for subtitles"????
Do you mean a player, a software to edit/resynch subtitles, ...

Tell us exactly what your problem is if you want an answer.

Cheers
Manusse

laane

17th January 2007, 02:25

helge79

17th January 2007, 02:34

I am not aware of subtitling software that supports Unicode. However, Subtitle Workshop does support both Big5 and GB encodings, so it should be sufficient for your purposes. Make sure you work with the SRT format for your subtitles (and not MicroDVD SUB format, which has some bugs when used in conjunction with non-ASCII encodings). The interface of Subtitle Workshop is reasonably intuitive... Good luck!

laane

17th January 2007, 02:41

I just got myself the subtitle workshop, the intface is easy indeed but 2 minor problem.
1 when i copy the chinese caracters in the become questionmarks or squares
2 in which format are you supposed to save something like that?

BigCondor

17th January 2007, 02:47

Use Subtitle Workshop and make sure you set the fonts to Big5. You can load the video and see if the subtitle is in syn.
While saving, use subrip format.

laane

17th January 2007, 02:55

Thanks. I'll try. :p
If it doesn't work I'll be back :D

HeadBangeR77

17th January 2007, 03:11

I just got myself the subtitle workshop, the intface is easy indeed but 2 minor problem.
1 when i copy the chinese caracters in the become questionmarks or squares (...)
That's how non-standard (means everything outside the basic latin charset) characters are coded in Unicode, even some Polish letters. ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode

Unicode, in intent, encodes the underlying characters — graphemes and grapheme-like units — rather than the variant glyphs (renderings) for such characters. In the case of Chinese characters, this sometimes leads to controversies over distinguishing the underlying character from its variant glyphs (see Han unification).

In text processing, Unicode takes the role of providing a unique code point — a number, not a glyph — for each character. In other words, Unicode represents a character in an abstract way and leaves the visual rendering (size, shape, font or style) to other software, such as a web browser or word processor. This simple aim becomes complicated, however, by concessions made by Unicode's designers in the hope of encouraging a more rapid adoption of Unicode.

laane

17th January 2007, 03:44

thanks
Und wie ist das wetter in Heidelberg?

HeadBangeR77

17th January 2007, 03:52

thanks
You're welcome ;)

OT :D
Und wie ist das wetter in Heidelberg?
Ich hab' keinen blassen Schimmer, denn ich bin z.Zt. in Polen, bei meiner Familie. Und bei Dir? (Hong-Kong, ich kann nur vermuten)

cheers

laane

17th January 2007, 04:01

Nein ich bin jetz nicht in Hong kong ich bin dieser woche in Singapore :D Ich darf um die welt fliegen :P
Ich kenne nicht viel polish nur prosto, kurva, und noch was slechte worte :D:P

BigCondor

17th January 2007, 06:07

I am not aware of subtitling software that supports Unicode.

The characters handled by Subtitle Workshop are not unicodes. As helge79 said, no software available can handle these. Subtitle Workshop will only accept ANSI characters, not unicode.

kumi

17th January 2007, 09:07

Er, what about the Unicode version of MaestroSBT?

laane

17th January 2007, 09:14

what about it?

kumi

17th January 2007, 09:17

Have you tried it?

laane

17th January 2007, 09:22

No I haven't.. I'm a compleet n00b at thi like I said before.. If you want you can try for me :D got the file right here and also the text is in english and chinese written down so the only thing you have to do is copy paste at the right place :D

BigCondor

17th January 2007, 11:21

MaestroSBT, probably I have overlooked that. But I think that's too complicated for beginners.

KoD

17th January 2007, 18:30

Just like I mentioned in another thread, maybe Aegisub (http://aegisub.cellosoft.com/) can help you.

helge79

18th January 2007, 01:50

1 when i copy the chinese caracters in the become questionmarks or squares
This is solvable. Subtitle Workshop is not a Unicode program, whereas Windows XP is designed to work with Unicode. However, you can tell Windows XP to use one particular encoding for the non-Unicode programs. If you choose Big5, everything will be all right.

To do this, go to Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Advanced, and then choose Chinese(Taiwan) for "Select a language to match the language version of the non-Unicode programs you want to use". Press OK. You will have to reboot your computer. After that, Subtitle Workshop should be able to understand the standard Windows input of Chinese characters.

HeadBangeR77

18th January 2007, 02:40

This is solvable. Subtitle Workshop is not a Unicode program, whereas Windows XP is designed to work with Unicode. However, you can tell Windows XP to use one particular encoding for the non-Unicode programs. If you choose Big5, everything will be all right.

To do this, go to Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Advanced, and then choose Chinese(Taiwan) for "Select a language to match the language version of the non-Unicode programs you want to use". Press OK. You will have to reboot your computer. After that, Subtitle Workshop should be able to understand the standard Windows input of Chinese characters.
It's brilliant! As far as I know the above Windows XP settings are enabled by default, or at least it is so in my case. Now, the Subtitle Workshop doesn't support Unicode, but it uses different code-tables enabled in Windows, so I can choose between ANSI (doesn't display my national-specific characters), default (Middle Europe, probably the Window's own one, not ISO - everything is fine) and many more (including Chinese BIG5 :D).

While saving: subs are saved using the default Windows character table - if anyone wants Unicode UTF-8, then just open them in Notepad (Wordpad uses UTF-16, waste of space imho!) and save as UTF-8. I've just checked - works fine for Polish letters, let's see if it works for him either :)

laane

18th January 2007, 02:57

Can't be that simple.. I'll try inmediatly

HeadBangeR77

18th January 2007, 02:59

Can't be that simple.. I'll try inmediatly
Have faith! In case of failure don't blame Subtitle Workshop but Micro$oft instead. :D

laane

18th January 2007, 03:02

:D i'll see them in court..:D

BigCondor

18th January 2007, 03:44

If you're in HK like me and has a proper XP setup there shouldn't be any problem. Don't blame without trying! I have done uncountable number of subtitles in Subtitle Workshop.

laane

18th January 2007, 03:57

I'm trying to use it but I have my own laptop from europe.. that means I don't have a chinese patch which I'm installing as we speak..

BigCondor

18th January 2007, 05:18

I see the point, in this case then do as helge79 said, change the regional setting in the control panel. Good luck!

laane

24th January 2007, 04:23

OK it's official now. I'm stupid.. I tried everything, I even did the aegissub (what by the way only made my system unstable)

Any one else has any suggestions? everything is welcome.. That for a movie of 3 min with just 21 lines.... aaaaaaaaaargh i need a new job.. :( :( :(

HeadBangeR77

24th January 2007, 22:24

Hey, I know chinese characters are real pain in the ass when it comes to code tables and things like that, but you've been given enough hints to accomplish your task, soldier :D ;)

SUMMARY /ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
1) Make sure you've loaded your charset table (the one you've created the subtitles with) into Windows /language support, so basicly do, what helge79 wrote above.
2) Have a look at the input options (left side) of the Subtitle Workshop and tell me, what you've got there, mate. I have ASCI, default (Middle Europe), Chinese BIG5 and some other charsets.

To be continued, when've received an answer ;)

Lenchik

4th February 2007, 01:23

As far as i understood this thread.
The Problem:
1) WMV file
2) "Make me see chinese subtitles in this"
Part of a solution:
1) Be sure to have source in Unicode (I used http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Multilingual_support_(East_Asian))
2) Get VSFilter and make it work with your player of your file
3) Create unicode .srt or .ass subtitle file with Aegisub or Subtitle Workshop or any other subtitle creation program
4) Make your subtitle file work correctly with VSFilter (you may need to find some unicode fonts like ArialUnicodeMS.ttf somewhere like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Multilingual_support_(East_Asian)#Unicode_Fonts)
At this point we have Softsubs working but you probably don't need this (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=948587#post948587)
5) Install avisynth, load your .wmv with directshowsource function, render subtitles correctly with VSfilter (i don't remember it's function name in avisynth)
6) Reencode it to the format you want. If you want .wmv file i can not help you. I have no idea of what can create .wmv from .avs files (one can feed VirtualDub frameserving of avs files to Windows Movie Maker maybe).

3:10 am here. It is just fast description and it doesn't seem to be an easy way for noob.
As an offtopic: wmv seems to be an evil :)

BigCondor

4th February 2007, 02:07

Laane have sent me his data file me and I have reproduced the srt for him, but I don't know how his gonna handle that.

The file is in GB format, so no doubt Big5 won't work!

laane

5th February 2007, 02:24

Laane have sent me his data file me and I have reproduced the srt for him, but I don't know how his gonna handle that.

Well I just tried the .srt file BigCondor sended me did for me, for which thanks again. And it seems that is not the problem with the .wmv file or the subtitle workshop but a problem somewhere else in the pc because I still cannot see any chinese characters in the movie.
I'm going over all steps you guys have been giving me again maybe i missed a step and otherwise it's bye bye pc and welcome GeekSquad..
This thing has asked already too much of my time..

KoD

5th February 2007, 12:04

In Control Panel -> Regional and Language options -> Languages -> you need to have "Install files for East Asian Langauges" checked. Otherwise, the fonts with glyphs for east asian languages will not be installed and you won't see them rendered. You might also check the other option on that page.

And I hope you don't have Win9x/Me because if you do, things get complicated.

BigCondor

5th February 2007, 22:57

I have produced 3 sets of subs, Eng, GB and Big5. Try Eng first to isolate the language issue before you use the Chinese subs. Also, if you can see Chinese characters of the Chinese subs with your notepad everything should work out fine, then you have to re-consider your method. Good luck!

laane

6th February 2007, 05:33

In Control Panel -> Regional and Language options -> Languages -> you need to have "Install files for East Asian Langauges" checked.And I hope you don't have Win9x/Me because if you do, things get complicated.

I already tried that .. I mean i can read documents in chinese and also office is in chinese but the file from BigCondor.
And if i open the file in Subtitle workshop or aegissub i see the characters but as soon as I put them together the I got some nice charaters but they aren't chinese.. I'm reinstalling the programms..

But i need to be quick on friday i have to hand in my laptop and i get a new one with Vista and i'm just getting familiar with this stuff ( still a n00b)..

Lenchik

7th February 2007, 13:13

You can try to create subtitle file in UTF-8 and load it into vsfilter (in options you have to set unicode font with needed chinese characters) as a test.

Paddington

10th February 2007, 13:05

I have a video in .wmv the language is in english. They asked me to ad chinese subtitles to the movie (just 21 sentences). So I need to find a program which allows me to ad chinese subtitles to a movie.
If possible a simple program because i'm a compleet n00b at this and frankly I have too much work to spend all my time learning how I have to use it.
You can probably use SubtitleCreator (http://subtitlecreator.sourceforge.net) if simplified Chinese suffices. Go to Settings, Character Encoding, and choose Simplified Chinese. Next, go to file and create new subtitle (or open your SRT based subtitle). Here, you can also open your DVD (you may have to transform your wmv first to DVD format though)...

Erynnis

20th August 2009, 12:58

Just like I mentioned in another thread, maybe Aegisub (http://aegisub.cellosoft.com/) can help you.

Thank you so much, KoD. Aegisub is exactly what I needed and what I have been desperately looking for for at least six months. Although it cannot properly display the Unicode characters in Windows, it can at least export them to a nice UTF-8 encoded srt file which is exactly what I needed. Moreover, it has an extremely userfriendly interface for doing the subtitles by marking start and end times in the timeline of the imported media file.

:thanks:

rjd0309

20th August 2009, 16:44

Aegisub can read and write Unicode files. If you want to display and edit Unicode characters, then go to Aegisub's View -> Options menu, and you'll be able to specify the fonts used for rendering the characters that are displayed in Aegisub's 'Subtitles Grid' and 'Subtitles Edit Box'.

For example, the "music note character" occurs frequently when converting closed captions into subtitles. Normally, this character would not be visible or would be displayed as a rectangle. But if you save your captions as Unicode, this Eighth Note character is preserved (Unicode 266A). Then if you choose a font that contains this Unicode character, such as the Arial family of fonts, for your Subtitle Grid and Subtitle Edit Box, then you'll be able to view and edit this character.

So choose a display/edit font that contains the Far East characters that you desire.

If you then Export your subtitles from Aegisub in SSA format, UTF-16 encoding, then MaestroSBT_Unicode_version_2.6.0.0 will be able to read it and correctly render the Unicode characters.

In MaestroSBT's Styles menu, you can again choose a font with the (Unicode) characters that you desire. MaestroSBT can then render these characters as bitmap files, which can be imported into your multiplexer of choice, to be muxed with your video and audio.

Robert

Erynnis

20th August 2009, 17:57

Aegisub can read and write Unicode files. ... you'll be able to specify the fonts used for rendering the characters that are displayed in Aegisub's 'Subtitles Grid' and 'Subtitles Edit Box'.

Thank for this additional information, Robert. I did give up on Font selection as soon as i saw in the font menu that I have to specify the ANSI encoding, e.g. Western european, Cyrillic etc.

I selected a Font containing Unicode characters I need (DejaVu) and it works. I still cannot write those characters in the edit window. (I use Tavultesoft Keyman's keyboard layout to type them.) I have to write them in a text editor and copy and paste them to Aegisub. Well, that's something I should report to the Aegisub bugtracker...

Anyway. I need some Unicode subtitler so desperately, I can bite this shortcomming. Aegisbub's userfriendly interface rulez all subtitling programs, anyway.

rjd0309

20th August 2009, 18:57

Yes, typing Unicode characters into a Windows app can be frustrating.

Have you tried the Windows Hex Entry Method?

Press and hold down the <Alt> key.
Press the + (plus) key on the numeric keypad.
Type the hexidecimal Unicode value.
Release the Alt key.

It this doesn't work at first, you may need to update your system Registry to enable hex entry.

Run "C:\Windows\regedit.exe".
Go to HKEY_Current_User/Control Panel/Input Method.
Enter a new String Value:
name=EnableHexNumpad
type= REG_SZ
value=1