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How to create a SRT subtitle file

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How to create a SRT subtitle file
Mushroom
2023-01-23 20:43:33
How to create an SRT Subtitle file
Long being a fan of foreign movies, I love when I can find one that is subtitled and not dubbed.  You can hear the original delivery of the actor, and simply read what is being said in your language.  And they are available in every language there is.  You can even keep multiple subtitles in multiple languages, so you can change easily from English to Spanish.
However, they can also be rare or hard to find.  This is because it takes time to actually create one.  Basically sitting in front of a computer with a copy of the video running, transcribing everything that is said into a text file.  But it really is not difficult, I created 2 in 2 days.  And I will give a quick lesson to help others who want to know how to make one.
Now I only know English, so started with a video that had hard subtitles in Chinese.  I use a dual monitor setup, I simply did the following things:
1.  Set the right monitor (32" TV) to play the movie in full screen.
2.  In the left screen I ran Notepad.
3.  I played the movie, with my cell phone open to the Google Image Translate app (free).
4.  When something came on the screen I had my phone translate it, noted the time, and added it.
5.  After several hours of Step 4, I was finished.
There, that is really all there is to it.  This is easier if somebody can speak the language of the file they want to make.  But not required, as there are many ways to get translations today.
The SRT itself is just a raw text file.  It can be created in any text or HTML editor, and I tried a few different ones early on.  But they were buggy, did not work, or crashed.  So I gave up and just used a text editor.  And the format is simple.
Line Number
Start Time - End Time
TEXT LINE
TEXT LINE 2
There, that is really it.  Each line number counts up as you go down the file, and times are in HH:MM:SS,MIL or Hour, Minute, Second, Millisecond.  I find in most cases, around 5 seconds seems to be about the right amount of time.  So mostly was looking at my phone to translate the text, then a little creativity in creating the actual text file.
And you can actually get quite creative.  My first one was just the straight text, and nothing fancy.  But it also accepts standard HTML codes for things like Italics, bold, underline, and colors.  For my second one, I got a bit more creative.  Each time I entered text for a male, I put it in dark blue.  Each time it was text for the female, I put it in pink.  This will hopefully help the viewer differentiate who is talking if it is a back and forth conversation.
If anybody has questions, feel free to ask.  I am by no means an expert in this, but I got comfortable amazingly fast in how to create an SRT file.  It is simply time consuming, but now I can view at least 2 movies and fully appreciate them as now I know exactly what the actors were saying.
In fact, you can get all MST3K on it, and put in your own text and tell your own story, using the actors on the screen to act them out, the limit is your imagination.  But if you do this, I would suggest adding a disclaimer that it is your own interpretation and not the actual story being told on screen.
I admitted, I took a few liberties with my second one, as it was actually a sequel to another.  I made a few minor changes, to make it more obvious that it was indeed a second movie, and made slight changes to the text to reflect that.  But nothing major.
"Let me try it once again." was originally "Let me try it."
"Already sucked, wanted again for long time." was originally "I have wanted for a long time."
"But don't you want to try it again?" was originally "But don't you want to try it?"
Minor changes, but I think it helps show it followed another one, and reads a lot more enjoyably.  But do not be afraid of making one, it is super simple.  Converting a half hour of movie to SRT took me about 4 hours, which included me actually making the file, then watching the movie again so I could catch and make any corrections.

Re: How to create a SRT subtitle file
ptu73
2023-06-01 18:29:24
Is it a Chinese movie?
Re: How to create a SRT subtitle file
truc1979
2023-06-02 11:19:28
Mushroom was talking about JAV, so Japanese movies. But a lot of Chinese subtitles exist for JAV, so most of English subtitles are based on Chinese ones.
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