Mark Muhleder's guide to making subtitles
encode mpeg1 version of film with all keyframes
use subtitle workshop to produce frame accurate set of subtitles
subtitle format should be spruce <?>
bring subtitle into open office spreadsheet
add any special commands for changing font sizes or background using spruce format
copy and paste sheet to different sheets for different languages
ensure spreadsheet text encoding is utf-8 or utf-16
send spreadsheet to translators to translate to individual languages, or upload spreadsheet to editable version online.
save as text csv for each language
text encoding should be utf-8 or utf-16
edit filter settings and use , as field delimiter, and nothing at all as the text delimiter
save as osd again
remove .csv from filename of each subtitle file
open each file in text wrangler and set encoding to UTF-8 (rather than UTF-8, no BOM), then save each file
I've also worked out a way to have the language of the selected subtitle marked on the subtitle menu. It's a bit of a long winded process, and it would have to be done right at the end, as any changes to the subtitle menu mean the process has to be repeated.
FYI the process is to make 7 different copies of the subtitle menu, and then for each of them place an arrow next to one of the options indicating which subtitle setting that particular menu represents.
Then when a user goes to the subtitle menu the following process occurs. (but is not seen by the viewer till the process stops)
DVD goes to English subtitle menu. Menu checks if subtitle setting is english, if so stops, if not sends DVD to French subtitle menu. DVD goes to French subtitle menu. Menu checks if subtitle setting is french, if so stops, if not sends DVD to German subtitle menu. DVD goes to German subtitle menu. Menu checks if subtitle setting is german, if so stops, if not sends DVD to Italian subtitle menu. DVD goes to Italian subtitle menu. Menu checks if subtitle setting is italian, if so stops, if not sends DVD to Dutch subtitle menu. DVD goes to Dutch subtitle menu. Menu checks if subtitle setting is dutch, if so stops, if not sends DVD to 'No Subtitles' subtitle menu. DVD stops on 'No Subtitles' menu.
As you can see it's slightly complicated, and it's also quite fiddly to implement in DVD Studio, but we could set an arrow or whatever next to the selected subtitle on the menu which should make it clearer which one is selected.
