Mark Robertson wrote an article on his website titled “In-Depth Look at YouTube Closed Captions, SEO, and YouTube Indexing,” where he explores the many added benefits of adding closed captions to YouTube videos. In addition to increasing accessibility and allowing your video to have a global reach with the addition of multi-language subtitles, Robertson points out yet another added benefit—advanced search filtering. Both Google and YouTube allow users to filter their video search to include only videos with associated closed captions. If your Web video is not closed captioned, you are not only limiting your video’s accessibility, but you are missing out on an easy marketing strategy.

For more information on captioning your Web or YouTube video, visit our website!

Need multi-language translation for your YouTube video? No problem! Aberdeen will provide a professional and experienced translator to ensure that your message is understood globally.  All you need is a YouTube account.

To learn more about DCMP’s “YouTube Ready” qualification visit:

http://youtubeready.dcmp.org/

Also, watch Aberdeen’s YouTube video for more information on our captioning and subtitling services for your YouTube video at:

http://abercap.com/youtube_captioning.html

While traditional evangelism definitely has its place, there is no better way than the Internet to reach millions of people across the world with the least amount of effort.  Many ministries are using Internet-based evangelism by setting up virtual church campuses where members in remote areas without access to a physical church can attend.  These virtual churches have opened up the opportunity for millions of people who otherwise may not have been able to hear the Gospel or attend a good local Christian church.

ADDRESSING THE LANGUAGE GAP

When a cyber-church hopes to open its ‘virtual doors” to an international community they should first think of how they will communicate to a non-English-speaking community.

Providing multi-language subtitles is the most efficient and cost-effective method to localizing your webcasts in multiple languages.  Subtitles can be combined with just about any player: Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media Player, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, YouTube, RealPlayer, etc.  If you want your message to be understood by a multi-lingual audience, there is no way around localizing your programming for various languages.  This article summarizes the main ways to tackle subtitling.

COST AND QUALITY CHOICES

The Automated Translator

The cheapest option to subtitle your English video is automatic translation.  Google offers this as a free service for YouTube videos.  The main problem, however, is inaccuracy.

Here is an actual example of one such English to Spanish translation:

The original English subtitle: “The history of the Flood is precise. The history from Abraham on is precise. Everything else is precise. There’s precision in the Law and the history books. There’s precision in the Psalms and the books of literature that we call poetry. And there is precision in the prophets.”

The automated translation: “La historia de la inundación es preciso. La historia de Abraham en es preciso. Todo lo demás es preciso. No hay precisión en la Ley y en los libros de historia. No hay precisión en los Salmos y los libros de la literatura que llamamos poesía. Y no hay precisión en los profetas.”

But there are two serious problems with this translation. First, it doesn’t use the proper term for the Flood.  It is like calling the Flood “the inundation” in English. Second, it says that the Bible ISN’T precise in many instances, which exactly the opposite of what the speaker intended.

The main point is that automated translation will often distort, add or subtract from the Word of God, while a good human translator relies on the translations of the Bible into Spanish that have been diligently compared to the original Bible manuscripts. Therefore they do not need to do their own translation of the Bible.  Finally, good Christian translators rely on the Lord to give them the proper words, something a computer could never do.

The Volunteer Translator

If you have volunteer translators in your church, this can be an excellent way to go.  The translation will be free, but you will most likely have to team up with a subtitling company to create the needed subtitle file. Nevertheless your cost will be significantly lower.

One of the main advantages to using volunteers is that the translator will most likely be familiar with the speaker’s style and message as well as have a heart for what they are translating.

Nevertheless, there are two points to be aware of when dealing with volunteers.  First, just because they “know” another language, doesn’t mean they will be able to properly translate into that language in a Christian context.  Be sure they are native speakers of the target language, as well as having attended Christian church or listened to Christian teaching in their native language.  Also, as with all volunteers, you must be sure they can meet your production deadline week after week.  Be sure to have a back-up plan.

The Non-Christian/Amateur Translator

If you search for the cheapest subtitling package cost, you may end up with a “non-Christian” or “amateur” translation.  With a non-Christian translator or inexperienced translator you may find a cheaper rate, but you will run into problems similar to what you find with automatic translation. The terminology used is often of secular nature, or worse yet, that of another religion when referring to Christian matters. For example, in Japan, where less than one percent are reported Christians, it is very difficult to find a Japanese-speaker able to properly translate the word “atonement,” as this concept does not exist in Japan’s main religions, Buddhism and Shinto.

Another example that had me chuckling for hours was in an interpreted church service from English to Spanish when the interpreter referred to the Holy Ghost as the “Fantasma Sagrado,” instead of the correct Spanish term, “Espíritu Santo.”  For a Spanish-speaker this is like calling the Holy Ghost something similar to the Sacred Phantom. It doesn’t quite work.

The Experienced Christian Translator

Of course, this is the best option, but not always the most affordable.  The experienced Christian translator is a Christian with a heart for the message and also with the training and tools to localize your message properly to the target audience.  When searching for a full-package subtitling service, be sure to ask the company about the translators they use.  Do they have experience translating Christian material?  How many years of experience do they have?  What other Christian material have they translated?  Ask to see their resumes.  In addition to a good Christian translator, if you are willing to pay top dollar, also be sure there is an additional proof of the translation before the subtitles go live, so that any errors are caught.  If you have people available in your ministry to do a proof of the final translations, this option can bring your cost down significantly.

THE BOTTOM LINE

All and all, when translating your message for multi-language subtitles, be sure to allow feedback on the translation from the viewers.  This can be a simple box below the video where the viewer can input their feedback.  You never know, you may even get viewers across the world willing to translate your message for free.  Are you getting the number of viewers you desired in each country?  If not, it may be that the subtitles are so poor that the viewer gives up.

Although there are many service options out there at many different costs, the important thing is that you know exactly what you are getting and you evaluate what will work best for your ministry.  From years of experience, the old saying still rings true: You get what you pay for.

As you can imagine, as a closed-captioning and subtitling company, we work hand-in-hand with DVD authoring houses and individual DVD authoring people.  When we deliver our clients subtitle files for DVD Studio Pro (typically an .stl directory file with .tif images or a stand-alone .stl file), there are sometimes discrepancies with time code making DVD Studio Pro reject the .stl file.  Then our client calls us for help and we usually walk through the issue, and often we actually test out the files with their video in our authoring system to see where the problem is originating.  After going through this troubleshooting process with our clients time and time again, we have found a solution that pretty much does the trick every time.  

Are you ready for it?

1. Open your project in DVD Studio Pro without the video.  In other words, remove your video from the project.

2. Import the subtitle file (.stl for example)

3. Import your video

Now you have something you can work with.

Please feel free to leave your comments or your experiences.

If this trick doesn’t work, call Aberdeen Captioning at 800-688-6621and we’ll be able to give you a hand troubleshooting your issue.

Most multi-national corporations either have their own production department or they outsource to post-production houses specializing in the creation of corporate training videos.  Usually each post-production house specializes in a sector, for example, retail or construction.

Commonly, these post-productions companies will outsource to a subtitling company to create the translated subtitles for their corporate training videos.  Subtitling companies specialize in subtitling multiple languages, even exotic and not-so common languages, that is often too much of a hassle for the post-production house to handle.

The complicated part about translating corporate training videos is, for one, the industry-specific jargon.  The translator will usually be provided with a company-specific lexicon for the given language.  For example, a product might have the name, “Super-duper AirTight Duffel” but in Japanese there is no product name.  The multinational corporation will need to decide whether they want to keep product names in English or if they want the translator to create equivalent names in their respective language.  It is common for large multinational corporations to have teams of translators in multiple countries who, among other things, dedicate themselves to these types of issues.  In this case, the subtitling company will use the clients’ translations to do the subtitling.

Creating DVD or Blu-ray Disc subtitles is not as simple as putting a translation into a software and spitting out files.  It takes adaptation for subtitles, timing and placement of the subtitles, as well as special subtitling software capable of exporting files for DVD or Blu-ray Disc, like specially formatted .stl files, .son files, .xml files, .txt files, .srt files to name a few.  These file types are often accompanied by .tif images.  These files are later ingested into the client’s or post-production house’s DVD or Blu-ray Disc authoring system and added to the DVD or Blu-ray Disc menu.

One thing I have learned from subtitling thousands of corporate training videos, is that when we are handling the translation, to always, without fail, get the translation and the subtitles proofed by the client.  What we tell the company’s international branches via translated subtitles is very crucial to the company’s bottom line abroad, and making a mistake with one sentence or even one word could compromise the progress of the overall training.  Successful translation and subtitling of corporate training videos comes down to having all the available lexicons from the client, a translator who specializes in the sector (retail, construction, hospitality, et cetera), a proofer who also specializes in the given sector, and a final client proof of the subtitles.

All in all, international companies have found the importance of creating video for training employees abroad, and with these videos the easiest and most cost-effective way to adapt the video for multiple countries at one time is by the addition of multi-language subtitles.

The next question you ask is, “Do I have a video card or break-out box that came with my editing system’s software?”  If your answer is “no,” you must buy a video card or break-out box through a third party vendor.  The cost can be anywhere from $1000-$3000 depending on the manufacturer.  For example, Matrox MXO2 costs $1500 and AJA Kona 3 costs $3000. The video card is to be attached to your computer and functions as encoder.  When you output to tape, your NLE system maps the closed caption information from row 0, 1, or 2 encodes it to to your tape.   For example, all Avid editing systems come with cards, but Final Cut Pro does not include a card with its software.  If you are using firewire to output to tape, you cannot do NLE (tapeless) captioning.  Why?  Because the 6 lines of data get stripped, removing the caption data. The editing software package that you use is usually not the issue, but rather the hardware path used to get the video off your system and onto the tape. Some hardware boards/break-out boxes will ignore the caption data.  You can call your captioning company for a test file to see if your break-out box supports NLE (tapeless) captioning.

If you want to do NLE (tapeless) captioning you must ensure that you have the tape deck(s) that your station(s) require. If not, you may want your captioning company to record a different tape format than your original master.  If you don’t have the needed tape deck and you still want to do NLE (tapeless) captioning, your only option is to buy a tape deck.

If you are editing in standard definition, you have a break-out box or video card, and you have the appropriate tape deck, you can consider yourself a candidate for SD NLE (tapeless) captioning, captioning directly onto your editing system.  The NLE (tapeless) captioning process begins by posting a compressed video of your entire program from start to finish to your captioning company’s FTP site.  After they complete the captioning process, they will e-mail you a caption file, which is normally a compressed black QuickTime or AVI video that is either a picture-in-picture effect (alpha channel overlay) or crop effect (you must crop the video).   They can match the codec you are using so you do not have to re-render your project.  You then take this video and lay it on another video track in your project.  You must ensure the captions match the video by doing a 3 point check while viewing the captions as the video is played out of your editing system.  From here, you output your entire project–with captions included–to tape! Captions are created because two of the video’s lines are merged with your video program material.  When you output to tape, your NLE system maps the closed caption information to your tape.  There you have it–no shipping tapes, fast turnaround time, and a first generation quality closed captioned master!

“Subtitles in Lieu of Captioning

The rules provide that open captioning or subtitles in the language of the target audience may be used in lieu of closed captioning.”

So if you have a program in English that is being broadcast on a Spanish-language station intended for a Spanish-speaking audience, having this program with translated Spanish subtitles would fulfill the FCC requirement. Also, subtitles or open captions for the deaf and hard of hearing in English, would also suffice.  It is up the producer of the show if they want the open captions or the subtitles to always be on the screen, or if they prefer that the viewer have the option to turn them on or off.

Captioning VS. Subtitling

Captioning was created so deaf or hard-of-hearing viewers could read along to TV shows.  A technology needed to be created that was accessible to deaf viewer, but not obligatory for hearing viewers.  So today, closed captioning is decoded by a decoder chip in the television and it must be activated to view.  Captions are white letters with a black background.  The font looks similar to Courier New.  

Subtitling, on the other hand, was originally created so viewers of programming in a language other than their own could read along in their own language.  Unlike captions, subtitles cannot be turned on or off through a TV decoder chip.  They are burned on the video.  If you are watching subtitles on a DVD or Blu-ray Disc, they can be turned on or off through the menu.  Subtitles can be different fonts or colors and usually do not have a black or transparent background.

Roll-up Captioning

What is it?

Roll-up captions scroll up the screen line by line usually two to three lines at a time.   It is the most basic form of captioning, as it usually does not include extensive sound effect description nor speaker identification.  

When is it used?

Roll-up captioning is mainly used for ALL live programming and for post-production broadcast programming that only has one speaker (not very common).

For an example of roll-up captioning, view the video on this page: roll-up video

Pop-On Captioning

What is it?

Pop-on captions pop on and off the screen one caption at a time.  They typically look like a square box and each caption usually consists of two to three lines.  Pop-on captions should include sound effect description as well as movement for speaker identification.  

When is it used?

Pop-on captions should be used for pre-recorded broadcast programming with multiple speakers.  

For an example of pop-on captioning view the video on this page: pop-on video

Subtitling

What is it?

Subtitles pop on and off the screen just like pop-on captions but they typically do not have the black background and can be any font and color.  

When is it used?

Subtitles should always be used for DVD and Blu-ray Disc as they can be turned on and off through the menu.  They should also be used for broadcasts in countries where the programming is of a language other than the country’s primary language. 

For an example of subtitles view the video on this page: subtitling video

*Please note that this article’s aim is to be a general explanation for the person that has no prior knowledge of the topic.  It does not go into depth on the technical differences between captioning and subtitling.  I specifically talk about captions for broadcasting and not other purposes like online video, et cetera. When I speak about captioning, I am referring to Line 21 (analag) captioning, not captioning for HD.

Copyright notice: 

© Joanna Scavo & Aberdeen Captioning, Inc. 2009.

This article can be freely reproduced under the following conditions:

a) that no economic benefit be gained from the reproduction

b) that all citations and reproductions carry a reference to this original publication on [online] http://www.abercap.com/blog

First off, to get the record straight, Blu-ray does not support closed captioning.  This is for a very logical reason: Subtitles can be turned on and off through the disc’s menu (just like an SD DVD), therefore there is no need to add the closed captioning option.  Consequently, BD does not carry Line 21 due to its High-Definition Multimedia Interface specs (HDMI).  These specs were designed to displace the older digital and analog standards.

Converting SD captions to HD subtitles

You have a DVD or any other standard def video that you are putting on Blu-ray Disc.  The SD version already contains closed captioning and you don’t want to have to pay or take the time to get it subtitled all over again.  Don’t worry, there is a solution.  Your closed captioning company (like Aberdeen!) can convert your old caption files to Blu-ray compatible subtitles for your authoring system.  Depending on how it was captioned there may need to be some reformatting.

Some Cool “Blu-ray” Features

The really nifty thing about Blu-ray subtitles as opposed to normal SD subtitles is that multiple layers can be created.  SD subtitles must have the same font type, font size and color throughout the entire program.  With BD (and with the right service provider with this capability), you can add up to six different colors, fonts, and sizes.   For example, to subtitle on-screen signs, you can subtitle them in the same font, color, and size that is different from the dialogue.  Maybe you want each character to speak in a different font and/or color.  This could help in the area of speaker identification.  It’s now possible to have all your sound effects stand out from dialogue as well.  The options are endless.  If you want them to, HD subtitles can turn your boring subtitles from straight text on the screen, to an artful masterpiece.

Files Type for Subtitling for Blu-ray

The file type used for Blu-ray subtitles is an xml based textual format along with pictures (jpg) of each subtitle, similar to the type of files that are sent to DVD authoring systems.  The xml file is considered the directory file that tells each subtitle picture when and where to be placed.

Copyright notice: 

© Joanna Scavo & Aberdeen Captioning, Inc. 2009.

This article can be freely reproduced under the following conditions:

a) that no economic benefit be gained from the reproduction

b) that all citations and reproductions carry a reference to this original publication on [online] http://www.abercap.com/blog