05 Subtitle creation process

Universal Subtitles/Amara* was identified as the best tool for creating initial subtitles. The interface is easy to navigate and does not contain any more tools than are needed for each step which saves time.

NOTE*: If video can’t be uploaded to an internet location it is recommended that Subtitle Workshop is used to create subtitles instead.


The following steps provide instructions for creating subtitles in Universal Subtitles/Amara.

Step 1:
Upload the video onto a video hosting site (ie YouTube, Vimeo ) or any site or web server that you have access to.

Step 2:
The Universal Subtitles/Amara website and instructions on how to create subtitles are provided in the link * below. The site contains short instructional videos for each step. Step 3 below contains instructions on how to save the subtitles to your computer.

http://www.universalsubtitles.org/

NOTE*: Due to an imminent name change from Universal Subtitles to Amara the web link above will likely change. If the link is not working it would be best to search for ‘Universal Subtitles Amara’.


Step 3:
Save the subtitles to your computer.

• select the ‘Download subtitles’ button at the end of the final step

• copy the text from the text box(this contains the actual subtitles)

• open any text editor such as Notepad on the PC or TextEdit on the Mac
• paste the copied text into the text editor

• delete the first 3 lines from the file, these relate to Universal Subtitles/Amara requirements only.
• save the file as subs.srt

Step 4:
Convert the file from subs.srt to subs.vtt *

• navigate to this website: http://atelier.u-sub.net/srt2vtt/ (search string used to find this site initially was ‘convert srt to webvtt’)
• upload the subs.srt file by selecting ‘Choose File’
• select the ‘Convert me please’ button
• the converted, WebVTT (.vtt) file will download

NOTE*: The differences between .srt and .vtt are currently slight. A properly formatted .vtt file has WEBVTT at the top of the file and then a blank line and replaces commas in the time format with decimal points.

Step 5:
Convert the file subs.srt to .xml for Flash

• Navigate to this website*: http://vsync.tunezee.com/convertCaption.html
  (search string ‘srt to timed text’).
• Select ‘Choose file’ and choose the subs.srt file created earlier.
• Choose W3C Timed Text from ‘Output format’.
• Select the ‘Convert’ button.
• Download the converted file.

NOTE*: This site uses a PopUp window to process the file conversion. Check that the PopUps are unblocked on your browser. 

Related posts:

Accessible HTML5 video for all
How to create a basic HTML5 webpage
Fall back to Flash
Current HTML5 subtitle support
Subtitle creation process
Link subtitles to video
Making subtitles work now
A Flash solution
Making it work now, on an Android device
Making it work now, on an Apple device
Thoughts on HTML5 video and subtitles - conclusion