GloPAD Subtitled Video Authoring System
Using Quicktime 6 Pro 		 
 
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Overview -
These instructions create a Quicktime file with video and timed text tracks for subtitles in multiple languages. We were especially interested in creating timed text tracks in two-byte scripts such as Japanese and Chinese while using equipment on English operating systems.

The resulting Quicktime video is intended to be used on the Global Performing Arts Database (GloPAD, www.glopad.org), and to be easily playable by general users. For upload to GloPAD the subtitled video is linked to a hosting HTML page and the various files are loaded into GloPAD as a complex media object (CMO). The result is a record on GloPAD that is a basic Web page with a still image of the video and some basic info (title, performance date and place), and which calls up the Quicktime player on a viewer's computer to play the subtitled video. Instructions for authoring the various parts of the HTML page for hosting videos are given in the separate tutorial "Authoring a GloPAD video page."

For an example of one of these GloPAD records see http://www.glopad.org/pi/record/digdoc/1939

Contents
I. Subtitles with QT 6 Pro:

II. Online resources, for troubleshooting and ideas

  
 

Proviso
These instructions, and the template files that go with them, work well with Quicktime Pro version 6.1 and earlier. With the introduction to Quicktime 7 the Unicode text descriptor was no longer supported, and so there are problems with importing and displaying text tracks in non-roman scripts (e.g. Japanese and Chinese). For using Quicktime 7 we have developed a work around. See these separate timed text authoring instructions using the caption editor MagPie 2 and Quicktime TeXML.

 

  
 

Required materials and software -
Quicktime Pro media player - a $30 upgrade for the free Quicktime player. Available at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
A plain text editor such as TextPad or WordPad (Notepad on Windows works, but has a problem with carriage returns that I'll explain later).
An html editor such as Dreamweaver or Netscape Composer. But one can just use a plain text editor.

Source digital video in Quicktime (.mov) format. (the size H320xW240 pixels is a good visual size for videos)

Template files used in these instructions

 
I.

Create the subtitle text track -
We are just using a plain text editor to create the subtitle text track. So first you will type, or cut and paste, your subtitle text into the following plain text (.txt) file. This file already contains the head Quicktime code to create a rectangular blue box of text in the Quicktime player.

  • choose one of the following subtitle language templates and save as to your work folder or desktop (change the file name by putting your video name at the beginning of the file name--e.g. Othello_subtitle_rus.txt):
    English/Roman scripts (subtitle_eng.txt)
    Japanese (subtitle_ja.txt)
    Russian (subtitle_ru.txt)
    Simplified Chinese (subtitle_zhsimplified.txt)
    Traditional Chinese (subtitle_zhtrad .txt)
  • open the text file in your text editor (* proviso on Notepad and other Windows text editors. See below)
  • do not change any of the QT code at the top. The text in the {} brackets is the Quicktime formatting code. You will only add to this file.
  • paste in or type in your subtitle text below the [00:00:00.00] on the third line and above the [end=00:00:00.00]. Make a new line (line break) for what you think will be each new line of subtitles. You will adjust these line lengths later, but a general guide is to make your text editor window half the width of your monitor screen (around 400 pixels) and make each line of text about three quarters of the window.
  • Once you are done typing save the file. Be sure to save the file as plain text format, keeping the .txt. If your text editor prompts you to give an encoding for the file, save as unicode (UTF-8).
  • Keep the file open in your text editor.

(*) A note on Window's text editors, carriage returns, and Quicktime -
There is a problem with how Quicktime handles new lines of text created by some Window's text editors. Quicktime is a product developed by Apple originally just for Macs, and Mac uses line breaks in its software. Sometimes--and who knows why only sometimes--Quicktime will read a carriage return generated by NotePad (or MSWord it seems) as either a new blank line or as a broken text descriptor. In either case it will mess up the formatting or timing of your text track. Unfortunately, one cannot see where such "hard returns" are in your document and you have to mess around deleting or rewriting lines in your text file. The way to avoid this is to not use NotePad (WordPad seems to work fine), or if you do use NotePad, not use carriage returns (which is hitting the Enter key to get a new line). One can copy a line break from this file--linebreak.txt (right click and save-target-as, then open in NotePad)--and use that instead of a hard return/carriage return. Follow the instruction in the WebAim QT tutorial section 2.2 step 9 Hint note.


 

Making a timed text track with Quicktime 6 Pro -
Now we will give the text file its timing cues. To do this you will have the video open in the Quicktime player and the subtitle text file open in the text editor and will add time stamps to the text file.

  • Open your .mov video file in Quicktime Pro;
  • Your video should already be edited for length, transitions, audio track, and other features that you want for display. The subtitle tracks should only be added to finished movies.
  • On the Quicktime player select "Show Movie Info" (in Windows versions on the Window menu). Click "get more" if needed to display all the movie info such as data rate, format, size, and especially current time;
  • Use the play/pause button to scrub through the movie, pausing at points where you want a new subtitle text to appear. Note the current time--00:00:00.00 at beginning--for each point and enter that time in your text file on the line above the text you want to appear as the subtitle. In the following screen shot, the current time 00:01:34.25 corresponds with the text file line "But let that be, O ferryman" (the blank line in between is format the line at the bottom of the subtitle box).
  • Note that the time scale (in the QT code "{timeScale: } is 30 frames per second. This means that the time stamp will always end in .00 - .29. If your video fps is not 30fps (or 29.97fps), you will have to adjust. Also make sure that the last two digits of the time stamp are preceded by a decimal point, NOT a colon.
  • Continue adding the time stamps until you have finished all the text.
  • Make sure that you replace the [end=00:00:00.00] with the "Duration" time of the video as shown in the Movie Info window (in the screen shot above the end time stamp would read [00:04:19.27]).
  • Save the text file.
 

Adding the text track to the movie -
Here you will add the timed text track to the video by openning the text file in Quicktime and adding it to the movie to create a new movie file.

  • In Quicktime Pro go to the Edit menu and select "Open movie in new player" or "Open file" (depends on version of QT). In the dialog box open your text file (~_subtitle_ru.txt) by selecting "All files" and navigating to your project folder.
  • If the file will not open in Quicktime you have added some code that it does not like. Likely candidates are a mistyped time stamp (Quicktime will usually tell you if this is the case), saving the file in some other format than .txt (e.g. .mov or .doc or something), or corrupting the QT code with a carriage return. You have to play around to see what works.
  • Once you have the file open, it should look be a QT player window with a light blue box and your text appearing in black (these are controlled by the {textColor: 0, 0, 0}{backColor: 48933, 57379, 65535}descriptors at the beginning of the file). Like the player on the right:
  • Play the track in the player, or just drag the triagular cursor to fast-forward through it, to check that the text is displaying properly. If you see a bunch of junk symbols you have probably displaced the Unicode encoding by saving the .txt file in some other encoding. Go back and "save as" the file in unicode, and make sure you give this new file a different, recognizable name. Try again.
  • Once the file looks good in the Quicktime player, copy it by going to the "Edit" menu and chosing "Select All" and then "Copy."
  • If you have your movie open in a different Quicktime player, go to it. If not, open the movie in the Quicktime player. On the movie player, go to the "Edit" menu and chose "Select All," then chose "Add Scaled." This will add your text track to the movie with the exact same length.
  • The blue rectangular box of the text track should appear on your movie at the top. Like so:

    You can play the movie to check the timing of the subtitles. If you want to adjust anything, you will need to make the change on your text file in the text editor, save it, and re-attach it to the movie by going through the above steps (and deleting the old, faulty track just before adding the new one).
  • Now we will adjust text track box position and name it. Select "Get Movie Properties" from the "Movie" (or "Edit") menu, which should bring up another small window as shown below.
  • Select the "Text Track" from the left pull-down menu and "General" from the right menu. Change the name of the track by adding the language name after "Text Track".
  • With the left menu still on "Text Track," go to "Size" on the right menu and hit the "Adjust" button. The corners of the blue rectangle will be red. Hold down your keyboard Shift key and drag with your mouse cursor the box down to the bottom of the window until a bit of space shows between the video and the text box. While still holding down the Shift key, use the keyboard up arrow to bring the text box up until it meets the video. When done positioning, click "Done"
  • You can add annotations to the text track in this same Get Movie Properties window. For example, you might note the date and author of the subtitle creation.
  • Add other subtitle text tracks to the same movie by repeating the above steps. If you add more than one language track, make sure to Rename the tracks with their languages and use the "Set Alternate" button on the Get Movie Properties right pull-down list to make one subtitle track the alternate of another. Also select the language of the track from the right pull-down menu. This will let the viewer's switch between languages in their Quicktime player. With multiple subtitle tracks you should have the one you want to appear first (usually the first one you added to the video) checked in the Properties menu when you save the file.The other text track(s) should be left unchecked so long as the alternate value is set from one text track to another.
  • Go to the "File" menu to save your new creation. You should use "Save As" and select the "Make a self-contained movie" option. Be sure that one the Movie Properties menu you have your primary text track selected and its alternate set to the other text track. Save as the file with a new name--such as Othello_rus_subs.mov.
  • You now have a subtitled video clip.
 
II.

Online resources, for troubleshooting and ideas

 
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