Import Tool

The Import tool can import over 30 subtitle formats.

The Import Tool of Subtitler 1.7 replaces the TitleListConverter.

Most list formats are textfiles, some are binary (EBU, PAC and others). You can specify the textencoding for the textfiles. You can also import RTF versions of the textfile formats, In that case, textencoding is specified in the file. You cannot import Word of Excel files (convert them to textfiles first).

The subtitle file can have one of the following formats:

Adobe Encore Image

This is a simple text format that can be imported into the Adobe Encore DVD authoring program. Each subtitle begins with a number (optional), a timecode for in and a timecode for out and then the filename. Two lines at the beginning show directory and image size and are ignored. The separators can be tabs or space.

Zone_d'affichage (0,0,720,576)
Répertoire C:\
1 10:07:49:22 10:07:53:15 film001.tif
2 10:07:53:19 10:07:57:00 film002.tif

Adobe Encore Text

This is a simple text format that can be imported into the Adobe Encore DVD authoring program. Each subtitle begins with a number (optional), a timecode for in and a timecode for out and then the text. If there is a second line, it is added as line. The preferred text encoding is UTF-8. The format is ambiguous and import errors have been reported if a subtitle text line starts with a number.

1 10:07:49:22 10:07:53:15 In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...
2 10:07:53:19 10:07:57:00 during the war which lasted 77 days.

Avid DS

This format is used normally to import subtitles into Avid DS. The format has a header with formatting commands (which is ignored) and a data section starting with the tag "<begin subtitles>". Titles are separated by double returns and each title is preceded by a timecode line. Text must be in Windows ANSI text encoding.

@ some comment lines and formatting

<begin subtitles>

10:07:49:22 10:07:53:15
In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...

10:07:53:19 10:07:57:00
during the war which lasted 77 days.

<end subtitles>

BSPlayer

These are textfiles that can be read by BSPlayer. Each line is a title. Framecount of start and end are written in curly paranthesises, then the text, multiple lines separated with "|".

{6153}{6200}In this building behind me I spent|over 70 nights and most days ...
{6312}{6382}during the war which lasted 77 days.

CapMaker Plus (.cap)

This is a binary format used by CapMakerPlus. Subtitler imports the spotting and english text. We do not have information about other textencodings. CapMakerPlus is designed for continuos spotting, so the titles do not have an outpoint (except when there is an empty title). Subtitler creates a splitting distance between the titles according to the split difference preference setting.
Note: The importer is written with sample files. If you do experience wrong imports, please submit us the files.

Cavena (.890) file import

These are binary files and we do not have a specification, so the parser is based on samples sent to us by users. The importer reads timecode and text information and inline italic styles. It can also read some of the umlauts.

Current limitations:

Cheetah (.asc) file import

This is a text file format. It has a header section where all lines begin with "@" which is ignored. You have to set the framerate yourself. Then all titles are separated by double returns. Every title has one line with the titlename and a period, two lines with starting and ending timecode and one or two lines with text. Italic text is marked with "#".

@ headers

1.
01:02:27:20
01:02:31:03
In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...

2.
01:02:38:13
01:02:39:13
during the war which lasted #77 days#.

Cinetyp Film

Each reel is a line starting with: "ACT" , followed by the number of the act and the offset of the reel in framecount. There can be more than one reel in a file

Each title has a header line with the unique title number, a space, a framecount for the in, a space and a framecount for the out-point. The framecount can also be in feet:frames notation. It is then followed by one or two lines starting with a tabulator and the actual title text.

Following a valuable sample file (where <tab> represents a real tabulator):

Input C:\CINTINEU\\IOCT
Output a:\9611df.tc
Convert TIMECODE

ACT : 01 OFFSET : 000000

0001 000191 000321
<tab>BELLE NUIT MONTAGE presents

0002 000386 000432
<tab>Hier hat es keinen Staub.
<tab>Il n'y a pas de poussière.

Cinetyp Timecode

Cinetyp timecode files are textfiles with windows textencoding. Titles are separated by double returns. A first line contains timecodes with a period as separator, separated by a "-" an spaces. A second line contains the title number, a period a space, then the first line of text. An optional third line contains a second line of text.

10.07.49.22 - 10.07.53.15
1. In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...

10.07.53.19 - 10.07.57.00
2. during the war which lasted 77 days.

Cinetyp Timecode 2

Cinetyp Timecode 2 files ressemble Power Subtitling files with the difference, that there may be a header, that titles can have three or four lines depending on line count and that the titles are aligned to the timecode with spaces.

Some Header

0001) 02:18:45:17 02:18:48:04 Duree :02:12 Lisibilite :29
      In this building behind me I spent
      over 70 nights and most days ...

0002) 02:18:48:14 02:18:51:21 Duree :03:07 Lisibilite :39
      during the war which lasted 77 days.

0003) 02:19:05:04 02:19:09:16 Duree :04:12 Lisibilite :53
      No problem. I love to talk about
      these things if you don't mind.

Note: RTF files can be imported directly and italic style information is imported. If the file is .doc, then open it first in TextEdit, change it to RTF or text only and save it as textfile before importing to Subtitler.

Closed Captioning

This cuefile has the format most closed captioning software use.

Timecode lines are starting with "*TC" for a start and "*ERASE" for an closing time. If no closing time is specified, the closing time is the opening time of the next title. There must be a closing time after the last title.

*TC10:07:49:22
In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...
*TC10:07:53:19
during the war which lasted 77 days.
*ERASE10:07:57:00

CMX 3600

This format supports CMX 3600 EDL and retains the clip comments to create the filenames of the titles.

The parser uses relaxed rules so it may also read other EDL formats.

Use this format if you want to create a subtitler file with spotting from an existing EDL spotting.

EBU (STL Binary)

This format is a specification of the European Broadcast Union (http://www.ebu.ch). Search for tech 3264: "Specification of the EBU Subtitling Data Exchange Format".

Imported is the text, horizontal alignment and italics.

This format has often the extension ".stl". Note that there is also a text format STL which is different from EBU.

Note: This format supports more than two lines of text. These are imported into the Subtitler document, but not rendered. You need to reformat these titles manually.

Import format EBU (STL binary) Teletext

This format is essentially the same, but it also imports Teletext color codes for the title. Only one color code per title is imported, as you cannot have more than one color per title in Subtitler.

The vertical position of the titles is now imported into EBU Teletext as good as it is possible. But it works only correctly under certain conditions.
Some math: The Teletext layout as 23 lines. If you take the PAL format with 576 lines and remove 20% title save, then you get 460 lines, which makes 20 picture lines for one Teletext line. The Teletext line is defined for each subtitle line, but Belle Nuit Subtitler accepts only one vertical position of each title. So actually only the last line is read.
To get a correct translation, the vertical position in the Subtitler document has to be set to bottom title save (576- 10% = 519) and the vertical alignment has to be set to bottom.

FAB

This is a simple text format that can be imported into the Adobe Encore DVD authoring program. Each subtitle begins with the filename, a timecode for in and a timecode for out and then the image size (ignored). The separators can be tabs or space.

film001.tif 10:07:49:22 10:07:53:15 film001.tif 000 000 720 576
film002.tif 10:07:53:19 10:07:57:00 film002.tif 000 000 720 576

Filmtext Studio

Format of the Swedish Lab Filmtext Studio.

The textfile has a header ("Filstruktur") which ends with a typewriter ruler ("---------") and a double return. Titles are then spearated by triple returns.

Each title has a header line with a Feet/Frame-Count for the Start and for the End. It is then followed by a return and two lines of text (encoded Windows Latin-1) centered with spaces.

2 275- 0 N 278- 0 N N

BELLE NUIT MONTAGE presents



3 304- 7 N 307-14 N J

Hier hat es keinen Staub.

Il n'y a pas de poussière.

Final Cut Pro Text Effect XML

This importer allows to recover the text and the timing of titles made with the Text Effect in Final Cut Pro 4. Formatting is not retained. Make a copy of your sequence and remove all tracks except the subtitle track. Export the sequence as XML file. The XML files are rather huge (10 KB per title) and the import process may be slow.
TitleListConverter will use the starting timecode from the XML file, but uses the framerate defined in TitleListConverter itself. If there is more than one track, all tracks are parsed, but the titles are not sortyed by timecode.
Note: This importer is only to recover titles made with Final Cut Pro. We do not recommend this practice. You should export a DV movie from FCP and spot and translate within Subtitler.
Note: This importer does only import "Text" effects, not "Lower 3rd" effects. If you have "Lower 3rd" effects, you need to preprocess the XML file in a text editor: Replace all "Lower 3rd" with "Text" and all "Str1" with "Str".

Flying Sky

The Flying Sky format ressembles the STL text format, except that there are no commas between the fields and that the "//" separator is used to separate lines and there is no formatting. Each title is one line. The line starts with TCin, space, TCout, space, text. Text lines are separated with "//".

02:18:45.17 02:18:48.04 In this building behind me I spent//over 70 nights and most days ...
02:18:48.14 02:18:51.21 during the war which lasted 77 days.
02:19:05.04 02:19:09.16 No problem. I love to talk about//these things if you don't mind.

Ledit10

Ledit10 files are standard files from the subtitle lab Titra. The files are RTF formatted, from which first the text is extracted. Each title starts with an asterisk * and then start and end separated by a colon and then other information that is ignored. start and end can be in timecode, frames or feet:frames. Then two lines of text follow and at the end a line with an at-sign @.

Timecode notation:

* 10:07:49:22-10:07:53:15 00.0 1 0001 00 16-070-020
In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...
@
* 10:07:53:19-10:07:57:00 00.0 1 0001 00 16-070-020
during the war which lasted 77 days.
@

Feet.Frames notation:

* 02899.01-02904.12 00.0 1 0001 00 16-070-020
In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...
@
* 02905.00-02908.10 00.0 1 0001 00 16-070-020
during the war which lasted 77 days.
@

Frames notation:

* 0289901-0290412 000 1 0001 00 16-070-020
In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...
@
* 0290500-0290810 000 1 0001 00 16-070-020
during the war which lasted 77 days.
@

Mauritius Film

This format is used by some labs. It contains a first line with title number and a period, a second line with feet.frames of start and end separated with a slash and then the textlines.

1.
615.03 / 62.00
In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...

2.
63.12 / 64.02
during the war which lasted 77 days.

MTL Text

The MTL text format is output of Cavena subtitler editors. Titles are separated by double returns. The first line contains title number, starting and ending timecode sparated by tabs. The following lines start contain the lines.
Note: the title numbers do not have to be in order and can contain suffixes.

1[TAB]10:07:49:22[TAB]10:07:53:15
In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...

2[TAB]10:07:53:19[TAB]10:07:57:00
during the war which lasted 77 days.

Online CaptionMaker (.onl)

This is a binary format used by OnlineCaptionMaker. Subtitler imports the spotting and english text. We do not have information about other textencodings. OnlineCaptionMaker is designed for continuous spotting, so the titles do not have an outpoint (except when there is an empty title). Subtitler creates a splitting distance between the titles according to the split difference preference setting.
Note: The importer is written with sample files. If you do experience wrong imports, please submit us the files.

PAC

This format is a proprietary format from Screen Subtitling Systems.
Note: The conversion algorithm is based on example files, as we do not have a specification of the file format. Unknown accented characters are translated by there hexadecimal values. Please report files so that we can improve the algorithm. Note: This is a binary format that also encodes some low Ascii characters in a non-standard way. We have detected some of them, but please report if your files do not convert properly.

Power Subtitling

Textfiles exported by the Power Subtitling program. (Be sure that it is a text file and not a word file). Titles always have four lines. The first line contains title number, starting and ending timecode. The second and the third line contain the text and the fourth line is always empty.

0001) 02:18:45:17 02:18:48:04 Duree :02:12 Lisibilite :29
In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...

0002) 02:18:48:14 02:18:51:21 Duree :03:07 Lisibilite :39
during the war which lasted 77 days.


0003) 02:19:05:04 02:19:09:16 Duree :04:12 Lisibilite :53
No problem. I love to talk about
these things if you don't mind.

QuickTime

The cuefile has the format of a standard Quicktime text track.

Timecode lines are starting with a opening brackets "[". If no closing time is specified, the closing time is the opening time of the next title. There must be a closing time after the last title.

[10:07:49:22]
In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...
[10:07:53:15]
[10:07:55:00]
during the war which lasted 77 days.
[10:07:57:00]

Scantitling

Scantitling is a interchange format from swedish Subtitler translation. The titles are separated by double returns. The title contains a first line with the titlenumber, a period, two spaces, input timecode with a period before the frames, two spaces, output timecode with a period before the frames and one or two lines of text.

Sonic Producer, Sonic Scenarist

Subtitler now provides importing from Sonic Scenarist and Sonic Producer SST files.

Softitrage

Softitrage is a format for subtitling film. After a header, the titles start with a line [BODY]. Each title has a line with the number [n], a line for start and a line for end in format reel.feet.frames and one or two lines of text.

[HEADER]
...
[BODY]
[1]
01.00002.06
01.00005.06
In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days
[2]
01.00006.00
01.00008.12
during the war which lasted 77 days.
[FOOTER]
...

STL Text

This format is supported by Apple DVD Studio Pro 2. There is one title per line, fields separated by comma. The first field contains the starting, the second the ending time code, the rest the titles. If the title contains more than one line, the lines are separated by a "|".
Note: The formatting lines starting with "$" are ignored. The inline formatting tags are translated in style tags to be used with Subtitler 1.6.

10:07:49:22 , 10:07:53:15,10 , In this building behind me I spent | over 70 nights and most days
10:07:53:19 , 10:07:57:00,10 , during the war which lasted 77 days.

Note: There is a text format STL (used by Apple DVD Studio Pro) and a binary format STL (used by european broadcast stations). Use the EBU converter for the binary format.

Structured Titles

Titles are separated by double returns. The first line contains title number, starting and ending timecode. The following lines start with LIN03 and contain the lines.

0001 : 10:07:49:22,10:07:53:15,10
LIN03 In this building behind me I spent
LIN03 over 70 nights and most days ...

0002 : 10:07:53:19,10:07:57:00,10
LIN03 during the war which lasted 77 days.

Subrip import/export

Subtitler can now import and export Subrip (.srt) files.

Substation alpha import/export

Subtitler can now import and export Substation alpha (.ssa) files. Formatting is ignored.

1.  02:18:45.17  02:18:48.04
In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...

2.  02:18:48.14  02:18:51.21
during the war which lasted 77 days.

3.  02:19:05.04  02:19:09.16 
No problem. I love to talk about
these things if you don't mind.

Note: If the file is an RTF or a Word file, convert it before with TextEdit to text only.

Tempo

Tempo is a subtitling program from Cavena. A new title starts with a line with "#". The first lines contains title number, start, end, duration and format instructions. The second (and third) line contain the title text.
Note: Be sure to import a text file and not a Microsoft Word file.
Note: Cavena exports .cip files. These files are actually RTF files. Open them in TextEdit, make them Text only save them then as textfiles. You can then use TitleListConverter to read the textfile.

#00001[TAB]10:07:49.22[TAB]10:07:53.15[TAB]00:00:03.18[TAB]#F LL00000D0[TAB]#C
In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...
#00002[TAB]10:07:53.19[TAB]10:07:57.00[TAB]00:00:03.06[TAB]#F LL00000D0[TAB]#C
during the war which lasted 77 days.

TimeCode

Titles are separated by double line returns. The first line contains starting and ending time code and duration, followed by one ore more other lines with the text. A line beginning with "#" signifies the end of the cuefile. All following text will be ingnored. Time Code values must be valuable, there will be no checking on parsing.

10:07:49:22 10:07:53:15 03:18
In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...

10:07:53:19-10:07:57:00 03:06
during the war which lasted 77 days.

TimeCode @

The file can have a header which is ignored.

Each title is starting with a line "@", followed by another line with starting and ending time code and one ore more other lines with the text. A line beginning with "#" signifies the end of the cuefile. All following text will be ingnored. Time Code values must be valuable, there will be no checking on parsing.

@
10:07:49:22-10:07:53:15
In this building behind me I spent
over 70 nights and most days ...
@
10:07:53:19-10:07:57:00
during the war which lasted 77 days.

Titra

Each reel is in a separate file. Each title starts with a line "@" and a header line with feet count of first and last image.
It is then followed by one or two lines of text, or comments starting with "**".

Following a valuable sample file;

0000 MISSION EN ENFER 1AB
0000 1.85
@
0043.03-0048.00 00.0
Look how I wrapped it well.
@
0052.00-0052.00 00.0
** chang' plan **
@
0055.03-0058.15 00.0
I wrote inside of it...
Now I can't read them any more.

Note: 35mm feet count is assumed (1 feet = 16 frames).
Note: The header line may also start with a * and spaces

Titra 2

Titles are separated by double returns. Each title starts with a line with a title number, feet in, feet out and a third number. Each title then has one or two lines of text. Comments start with "**".

MISSION EN ENFER REEL1

0001 0043.03-0048.00 00.00
Look how I wrapped it well.

0002 0052.00-0052.00 00.0
** chang' plan **

0003 0055.03-0058.15 00.0
I wrote inside of it...
Now I can't read them any more.

Note: 35mm feet count is assumed (1 feet = 16 frames).
Note: The header line may also start with a * and spaces
Note: The file from Titra maybe an RTF file. Open that RTF file first in TextEdit and convert it to a textfile before you import it to Subtitler.

Titra 3

These are RTF files from film spotting. Titles are separated by triple returns. The first line starts with duration, title number and an internal number. This format has not enough information to recover the timecode, so only the text is imported.

02.03 0002 06
In this building behind me I spent over 70 nights and most days


02.00 0003 06
during the war which lasted 77 days.


02.00 0004 06
No problem. I love to talk about these things if you don't mind.

Note: We do not have yet a sample file with titles of more than one line.

Titracode

The Titracode program writes textfiles with tags starting with a period. All subtitles start after the keyword :DONNEES:. Subtitler recognized the tags .NUM_ST., .DEBUT_ST., .FIN_ST. and .TEXTE.. The other tags are ignored. The spotting information is in feet and frames, currently recognized as 35mm (1 feet = 16 frames).

Feet.Frames notation:

:DONNEES:
.NUM_PLAN.2 .NUM_ST.0002
.DEBUT_ST.02899-01 .FIN_ST.02904-12
.TEXTE.In this building behind me I spent
.TEXTE.over 70 nights and most days ...

.NUM_PLAN.3 .NUM_ST.0003
.DEBUT_ST.02905-00 .FIN_ST.02908-10
during the war which lasted 77 days.

Transscript Import

The transscript format in the import tool is a convenient way to quickly break a transscription or a translation into titles. The transscription file is expected to be a simple continuous textfile, with one convention: Changes of the speakers are separated by double returns.

The text is broken into the subtitles using the following rules:

The titles are all one liners, to be broken with smart wrap.

Note: This is a first fast automatic approach. Manual editing by a craftsperson is certainly needed.

Other formats

These is the only formats I know. If you have other formats, please submit them to me so we can include them into the program (matti@belle-nuit.com).


www.belle-nuit.com - 2.7.6