The only mention of subtitles in the Vegas PDF manual or in the Vegas help file is in relation to Windows Media Files, and that uses the Command Marker, not markers.

Sony, this (the ability to create subtitles within Vegas) appears to be a completely undocumented feature, if indeed it even exists.

For grins, I tried inserting a Text command marker, and rendered as an MPEG2 file. However, when I put this in DVDA2, inserted a subtitle track and tried to "Import Subtitles," there were no subtitle text files to be found.

I noticed, however, that in the DVDA2 "Import Subtitles" "Files of Type" box, it does say, "Sony Vegas Regions List (*.txt)." This is weird, because Vegas regions are used to create chapter stops for DVDA. Obviously, you don't want to have subtitles pop up only at chapter boundaries, so I can't imagine that regions are really used.

However, I then fast forwarded through the NAB DVDA streaming video tutorial to 42:30, and at that point he talks about using markers in Vegas to create subtitles that can be imported into DVDA!!

Well, I am confused. If you can create subtitles directly within Vegas, it is the ultimate stealth feature. The NAB tutorial guy definitely said it can be done, but I don't know ...

[edit]... content deleted as the answer is below... and my response here (while not completely irrelevant).. would just confuse matters.

1> Create regions in your Vegas project. What you name them becomes the subtitle.

2> Make sure the regions don't overlap.

3> From Tools > Scripting, run Export Regions as Subtitles to save the file.

4> In DVDA, create a subtitle track in the timline view of your media.

5> Click in the subtitle track and then choose Import Subtitles (third icon from the left).

6> Navigate to the file you saved in step 3. The subtitles appear in the subtitle track.


Gary

Regions. Of course! I tried it and it works. The length of the region determines how long the subtitle stays on the screen. It had to be regions in order to specify the duration of the subtitle.

Now, I know this information isn't in the manual or the help file. Is it documented somewhere else?

Thanks!

One more question: Is there a shortcut key that can be used in DVDA2 to navigate to the next subtitle? I tried selecting the subtitle track and then using the Vegas Ctrl-arrow and Ctrl-Alt-arrow combinations, but they didn't work.

>Now, I know this information isn't in the manual or the help file.<

Have you tried the DVDA help file under Subtitles > Import Subtitles > Create Subtitles from Regions in Vegas Project ? :-)

As for jumping to subtitles... haven't found that yet.

Gary

You'd also find it in the V5 White Papers/New Features pdf file, page 35/36.

Marco

Have you tried the DVDA help file under Subtitles > Import Subtitles > Create Subtitles from Regions in Vegas Project ? :-)

I never thought of looking in the help file for DVD Architect in order to figure out how to use a feature in Vegas. You are definitely correct, the information is there. It is certainly a novel way to do things. Now that I understand how this works, I'm going to look at the Sound Forge help file and see if I can get a few hints on how to use DVD Architect ...

You'd also find it in the V5 White Papers/New Features pdf file, page 35/36.

Ah, the Llearn To Use The New Features" PDF file. I had started reading that before I installed V5/DVD2. However, once I installed, I got so excited, I forgot to go back and finish the reading.

This information (on how to create subtitles in V5) still should be added to the next update of the V5 manual and the V5 help system. It is pretty essential to someone that wants to create well-timed subtitles.

Thanks to both of you (I hope the original poster got his question answered as well).

I never thought of looking in the help file for DVD Architect in order to figure out how to use a feature in Vegas.

It's not telling you how to use a feature in Vegas. It's telling you how to use Vegas to simplify using a feature in DVDA!

Thankx you guys !!
Your reply seems very exciting for me !!
I`ll try your ways !!

But I can`t find any script that can export .txt file for DVD Authoring software !!

The script is available under the Tools menu in Vegas 5. It's called Export Regions As Subtitles.js. I don't think it's for DVD Authoring software in general, just for DVDA2.

I just made a script that does the opposite too, Import Subtitles As Regions.js.

> This information (on how to create subtitles in V5) still should be added to the next update of the V5 manual and the V5 help system. It is pretty essential to someone that wants to create well-timed subtitles.

The reason it's not in the manual or help file is that it's not a core feature of Vegas: it's a hack only possible because of scripting.

It's welcome of course but the use of regions is certainly not ideal:

(1) if they're used for subtitles they can't be used for anything else
(2) they can't be added in real-time
(3) regions can overlap (DVD Architect discards overlapping subtitles)

If they were going to exploit something already built into Vegas, using Audio CD Track Regions would probably have been preferable.

Roger Magnusson has mentioned his hot-off-the-presses Import Subtitles As Regions script and has also promised Import Subtitles as Commands (clearly one wouldn't want to have to enter the text twice if using both subtitles and command markers).

Good points barleycorn. I think we should modify the subtitle export script so it uses events instead of regions. The Active Take Name could serve as the subtitle text. You would just designate one track to be the subtitle track with a name "SUBTITLES". The script would export the event names as subtitles.

I think you need to use an actual piece of media to get an Active Take Name, but you could just use the same still image cloned a bunch of times. Each one can have its own individual Active Take Name.

I don't know if there is a limit to the number of characters. Markers and Regions used to be limited to 260 - I'm not sure if they still are, but it's something to check before using this idea.

Taking it a step further, you could have multiple SUBTITLE tracks for multiple languages. You would control which language gets exported by soloing the track. Just a few ideas...

From memory the standard way of defining subtitles is in a file with two columns, TC, text. You clear a subtitle with TC and no text.

Is this script only for V5 ?
Can v4 use it ?

One could use events instead of regions but I'm doubtful it would really make the process any more streamlined.

By far the quickest way to get text into Vegas is to use the 'Enter captioning text from a script' procedure described in the help file (see 'Adding Closed Captioning') but command markers don't have an end time and in order to make it possible to translate them into subtitles, one would have to add blank lines to the original text (separating each statement) so that a script could read the blank commands as end times.

A little bit of tweaking (adding an end time) would have made 'Enter captioning text from a script' a viable system for adding subtitles but neither Sonic Foundry nor Sony seem to have considered this (I'm pretty sure I once suggested it).

There remains too the frustration of not being able to have burnt-in subtitles whatever one does, since the text of Text Media isn't scriptable.

The new regions system works but for an extended job I think one would have to prepare things elsewhere (I'm not sure Satish Kumar's Wax can't be used).

I try it and Successful !!

This is from V5
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
0000 00:00:00:00 00:00:05:00 HI

0001 00:00:05:00 00:00:12:00 I`M OK
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
And change to
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
0000
00:00:00:00 --> 00:00:00:00
HI

0001
00:00:05:00 --> 00:00:12:26
I`M OK
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
you can use ti any DVD authoring software !!!