In a MP4 file with already permanently burnt-in on-screen text, how can I translate this?
Thread poster: Fredrik Pettersson
Fredrik Pettersson
Fredrik Pettersson  Identity Verified
Hong Kong
Local time: 19:26
Member (2009)
English to Swedish
+ ...
Sep 6, 2020

In a MP4 file with already permanently burnt-in on-screen text, how can I translate this?

My customer's instructions are to translate both the subtitle text and the on-screen text in the .mp4 file and .srt file they provided me with. I'm using Spot Software for this project. However, I asked their support, and according to them there is no way of extracting the already burnt-in on-screen text in the .mp4 file other than using an OCR software like ABBYY FineReader.

Or i
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In a MP4 file with already permanently burnt-in on-screen text, how can I translate this?

My customer's instructions are to translate both the subtitle text and the on-screen text in the .mp4 file and .srt file they provided me with. I'm using Spot Software for this project. However, I asked their support, and according to them there is no way of extracting the already burnt-in on-screen text in the .mp4 file other than using an OCR software like ABBYY FineReader.

Or is there any subtitling software that can handle this?

Or any other solution?

If no, how to deal with a .mp4 file where I'm supposed to burn-in the subtitles I've translated and also the on-screen text if the on-screen text is already burnt-in by the customer in the wrong, original language? It seems like a dead-end alley to me, and that the only solution is to get a new .mp4 file with nothing burnt-in.

However, it's my first project where I translate both subtitles and on-screen text, and I don't understand which type of file to use for the on-screen text in the same manner as I use a .srt file for the subtitle text.

Any hints about this and guidande in the right direction is greatly appreciated!

I will ask the customer tomorrow as well.
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Sergei Leshchinsky
Sergei Leshchinsky  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 20:26
Member (2008)
English to Russian
+ ...
OCR Sep 6, 2020

... using SubRip (free) to generate a standard time-coded subs file.

 
Fredrik Pettersson
Fredrik Pettersson  Identity Verified
Hong Kong
Local time: 19:26
Member (2009)
English to Swedish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks, I'm downloading and installing now... Sep 6, 2020

Very helpful Sergei, thanks! I'm downloading and installing SubRip now.

Haven't found any info though how to keep the normal subtitles separated from the on-screen text. Maybe it works out itself when I start the process...

Seems like I must have AviSynth installed also, but I get 404 when trying to access info about it (handbooks etc.).


 
Sarper Aman
Sarper Aman  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 21:26
Member (2019)
English to Turkish
+ ...
Positioning the Subtitle Sep 8, 2020

How many burnt-in on-screen (forced narative, FN) text do you have Fredrik? What we do generally to avoid two texts overlapping, we move one of them to Top position. Mostly subtitles are aligned bottom-center, you can move your translation to top-center position. In some TV Shows you see credits at the beginning of the show and this continues to roll when characters start speaking, especially in sitcoms. Titles like "Executive Producer" or "Director" are burnt-in and to avoid overlapping you mo... See more
How many burnt-in on-screen (forced narative, FN) text do you have Fredrik? What we do generally to avoid two texts overlapping, we move one of them to Top position. Mostly subtitles are aligned bottom-center, you can move your translation to top-center position. In some TV Shows you see credits at the beginning of the show and this continues to roll when characters start speaking, especially in sitcoms. Titles like "Executive Producer" or "Director" are burnt-in and to avoid overlapping you move the dialogue (if there is) to top position. 10-20 top positioned translation (where necessary) seems fine but more than that, I don't know. I think it depends a little bit on how manys subtitles you have in total.Collapse


 
Fredrik Pettersson
Fredrik Pettersson  Identity Verified
Hong Kong
Local time: 19:26
Member (2009)
English to Swedish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Each forced narrative summarizes the main contents of each series of shots Sep 8, 2020

Each forced narrative summarizes the main contents of each series of shots and can be up to three rows (subtitles have a maximum of two rows, maximum 37 characters on each row). For instance, for the first 7 shots (subtitles), there is one single forced narrative that is displayed not furthest up but more in the middle and left-adjusted. Furthest up to the right is the logotype of the company. Furthest down is the subtitle, centered.

Then, for the next 14 shots there is another forc
... See more
Each forced narrative summarizes the main contents of each series of shots and can be up to three rows (subtitles have a maximum of two rows, maximum 37 characters on each row). For instance, for the first 7 shots (subtitles), there is one single forced narrative that is displayed not furthest up but more in the middle and left-adjusted. Furthest up to the right is the logotype of the company. Furthest down is the subtitle, centered.

Then, for the next 14 shots there is another forced narrative.

This is an e-learning course on 12,000 runtime minutes consisting of many different videos. I think most of them will have this layout with the company logotype furthest up to the right, the forced narrative left-adjusted in the middle, and the subtitle centered furthest down.

For this first video there were 119 subtitles and 13 forced narratives. The company logotype is always displayed on all 119 shots.

With this current layout, actually it seems like there is no risk that any of the three parts (subtitle, forced narrative, logotype) will overlap.




[Edited at 2020-09-08 07:25 GMT]
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In a MP4 file with already permanently burnt-in on-screen text, how can I translate this?







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