I can at least try it out in a few hours.

I just did a project with subtitles in V5 and DVDA2 and I wasn't able to move subtitles back and forth. I can check it in V6 and DVDA3 and see if anything has improved.

Not much help but it's another eye. (In the mean time this is a bump)

Rob Mack

Much appreciated!!

I spent the whole night trying to get it work. I have to turn in a project tomorrow morning in minidv, and it must have the subtitles I created in dvda3

Thanks!

Okay, it looks to me like you need a script to import it?

hmmm...

The output from DVDa is different from what Vegas would output with the Export Regions as Subtitles script...

I don't see a way to get the information into Vegas. I can't find a script at http://www.calderwood.org/ nor at http://www.vasst.com/search.aspx?type=4 that imports text to regions.

With a little elbow grease you could massage that output into an xml file but you really ought to be able to just paste the list into edit details (if this were a more perfect world)

Rob Mack

Aspenv,

Here's a script that gets you going in the right direction:

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/Forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=274919

Follow the link in the post to download the script.

Now, as far as I can tell, the script doesn't work on anything that DVDA3 exports directly BUT you can massage the *.sub file that DVDa exports and make it work. Here's what I did:

Export the subtitle track as a *.sub file. This gives you the subtitle number, the start, the end, and the text.

In my notepad (Editpad. It's Shareware) every letter has a dot seperating it from the next. The first thing two do is find the succession of three dots and replace them with a tab (/t in editpad). This makes the file into a "tab-delimited text file.

Once you've got the tabs in place search for all the other dots and replace them with nothing. The idea is to delete all the dots.

At this point you've got a text file with each record labeled with a 4 digit number and 3 blank lines between each record. This is all good and you should just leave it.

You may also have some of your title text continuing on a second line. That doesn't work so you should go through all the lines and remove the carriage returns that break them up. You just do this by hand unless you are using an editor that gives you something like regular expressions. (I wouldn't know how to use that feature anyway so it's quicker for me to do it manually just this once.

This should get the subtitles imported as regions. If you make mistakes it's easy to delete the regions in the edit details window.

Good luck!

Rob Mack

Why would you like to import the subs as regions to Vegas. I find it much easier to work with DVDA.

Okay, I just imported all my subtitles as regions and I'm seeing a quirk in it.

While all my subtitles are there as regions on the timeline, edit details only shows 117 of them. About 2/3rds of the total.

Doesn't seem to have a bad effect. The veg file opens and closes okay and all the regions export again as a region list. So I guess it's okay.

Rob Mack

I'm just answering the question. Ours is not to reason why, etc,etc.

If nothing else I supose you get a sub file that other programs can use instead of the stuff that DVDA puts out. When I last did subtitles I couldn't find anything, not even Vegas, that could read a subtitle export from DVDA. Only DVDA could read the export.

Seems a little funny to be able to output a Vegas Region List that Vegas can't use and that nothing else can use either. Here's a sample of the output:

·
·0·0·:·0·0·:·0·5·.·9·3·3· ·0·0·:·0·0·:·0·8·.·8·7·3· ·0·0·:·0·0·:·0·2·.·9·4·0· ·W·e· ·a·r·e· ·a· ·v·o·l·u·n·t·e·e·r· ·b·a·s·e·d· ·o·r·g·a·n·i·z·a·t·i·o·n·,· ·
·

Not simply a text list.

Rob Mack

Thanks so much Rob...I'm going to try it right now and I'll write back in some minutes...

About the why.....

I found easier to work with the subtitles in dvda than using regions or text in vegas. I needed copies in dvd, so it work out perfect. But now...I'm also requested a copy in minidv with the sutitles...so I have to do that in vegas, and that means that I have to bring the subtitles into vegas.

And, as Rob says...why is there an option to export subtitles as vegas regions that vegas can't even read?

Anyway, Rob...thanks so much for your help and time

Ok, I loaded the script but I get the following error when importing the subtitles:

Error: Lenght cannot be less that zero
Parameter: length

the subtitles, at least in notepad, don't have those dots you are refering to.

I'm testing a file with two subtitles:

0001 00:00:06:96 00:00:08:34 I'm from Puebla

0002 00:00:08:34 00:00:10:42 I'm from El Salvador

I spoke to Vega support, and they say that it can't be done.

They don't even know why there is a "Vegas Region List" export option in DVDA....

Well, I did it last night.

I wonder why all my exports look like that...?

Anyway, the error you're getting may have to do with having a blank line at the top of the file or some other formatting in the sub file.

If you want to create an example of how the *.sub file should look, put some regions onto a blank project and then use the export regions as subtitles script that's included with V6.

HOWEVER, looking more closely at your post, it sounds like you need for this stuff to show up in the picture when you render it. That's another issue, and I have no idea if or how to do that.

Rob Mack

Right...it won't show up if I play it in vegas....

At the end...I had to rip the subtitles from my master dvd...then export them as ssa format and import, both the video and the subtitles into virtualdub...and then save an avi unmcompressed...and put it back in vegas...render it and print to tape

thanks!

I love these little challenges. This would be dirt-simple if it wasn't for a bug in Vegas (see my post from ages ago Edit details and regions, a bug?

Basically, all you have to do is paste the contents of the file created by DVDA into the Edit Details box in Vegas, with Regions selected. If it wasn't for the bug, you'd be done. Unfortunately, as I documented in the above link, the information gets pasted as markers, not regions. However, there is a way around this, but it is a bit tortured. If you can follow these steps, however, you can transfer the subtitles back to Vegas in just a few minutes.

1. In DVDA 3.0, select all your subtitles and then export as a Sony Region List (*.txt).

2. Open this text file in Excel (or any other application that lets you select the contents of each column of data).

3. Open your Vegas project.

4. Open the Edit Details view (View -> Edit Details) and selection Show: Regions.

5. Create a few regions on the timeline. It doesn't matter where, and you don't have to name them. This is the first step in overcoming the Vegas bug. Just go with the flow here ...

6. Click on the first gray row box in the Edit Details window (the box that has a "1" in it). This should highlight the first row. Press and hold the shift key and select the gray box for the last region your created. I created four regions, so I ended up with four rows selected. Release the shift key.

7. Press and hold the Ctrl key and then press C to copy these rows to the clipboard.

8. Select the gray box just below the last numbered row marker box. This should highlight the first blank row after your last region. Press and hold the Ctrl key and then press V to paste the regions. You should now have double the number of regions.

9. Repeat step 8 as often as needed to create at least as many regions on the timeline as you have in the file you are going to import. If you want to speed this up, after a few iterations, you can go back to steps 6 & 7 to copy not only the original regions, but also the ones you've added. This will reduce the number of paste operations.

10. You're almost there. The whole point of this exercise is to create the "data structures" for the region list so the Vegas bug doesn't put the information into the marker data structure instead.

11. In Excel, select the data in the first column. DO NOT select the column, just select the data. Also, only select the data in the first column.

12. In Vegas, select the cell in the first row, first column (i.e., the one in the upper left corner). Press and hold the Ctrl key and press V to paste the first column into the region list.

13. Repeat step twelve for the remaining three columns, but move the move the paste location in Vegas from the first column, to the second column, and then to the third column and finall to the fourth column (all in the first row).

When you are finished, you can click on any rows at the bottom of the regions list to delete any excess region "placeholders" you created.

Wow

Thanks, John...that is really something...unfortunately Rob is right, and the regions won't play as subtitles so I can print them to tape.

I was not aware of that when I first asked the question.

It is a shame that vegas can't import subtitles as text events.

Thanks, John...that is really something...unfortunately Rob is right, and the regions won't play as subtitles so I can print them to tape.

Ahh ... you wanted to create line 21 close captioning. Not in Vegas. Unfortunately, despite endless prodding, no one seems interested in making Vegas a program that can be completely convesent (read and write) with all those goodies stored in video. Things like date and time, timecode (which at least can be displayed via an fX), close captioning, and anything else that gets preserved from the analog world when captured to DV. I believe there is also data relating to exposure, white balance and more.

There are external programs that you can use which would be able to read the file created by DVDA and then superimpose that information onto your DV AVI files, but it would be permanently displayed. There are also programs that can encode it into the close caption segment, which is what I think you want. Search across all Sony forums using my user name and "close caption" and you should find more information.

Thanks John, I look into that. I have used subtitle editor and works very nice, but I can not superimposed the subtitles on top of the video. It is just a subtitle creator.

Slick.

Rob Mack

That's something people have asked for from time to time.

I was thinking about how you were ripping the subtitles. You might have been able to replace the MPEG file in the DVDA project with a Black file of the same length. Maybe that would have made for a file you could overlay on top of the original footage.

Don't know it that would work. Just an idea.

Rob

Evidently there is a subtitle generator for Virtualdub that reads ssa files. I suppose you could frameserv out to vdub and have it put the titles onto the video.

Rob Mack

That would be great, if I could export and mpeg or avi with only the subtitles....but it does not seem to be posible...or...well... I just don't know how to do it