English Subtitles for AI Barks

[datiswous]

On 4/10/2023 at 8:27 PM, Geep said:

An update of command-line tool "buildSubtitleShaders" is now available:

Win executable

C++ source code file

With this Feb. 10 version, if you ask for help (buildSubtitleShaders -h or ?), there's an additional option shown:

-c counter start value     (default: 1). Eases merging results from different sound file folders.

As before, comments in the source code file provide full documentation.

 

Thanks, this will help me a lot.

I'm currently creating the subtitles for The Black Mage, which has sound files organized in different folders.

Edited April 11 by datiswous

[datiswous]

On 3/11/2023 at 6:09 PM, Geep said:

For that, I've downloaded and installed "Cadet", free captioning software produced by public TV station WGBH in Boston. Working with one clip, I was able to produce a srt file. Painful process, though. I clearly need to look at more Cadet tutorials....

I just tested Cadet because I wanted to know if it's good at something and I have to say, it seems very limited. I don't really understand why you need an editor for inline text though (maybe you told that already).

Oh and I just used

-c counter start value

and it worked really well. Saved me a lot of time by creating one sndshd file for all sound files in different folders.

Edited April 19 by datiswous

[datiswous]

Btw, I found that some subtitles still fit in inline subtitles although they're over 6 seconds because the speach is spread out. For example:

Quote

Oh... (1 second pause) Ahh... (1 second pause), Good question... (2 second pause) I'll think about it.

[Geep]

16 hours ago, datiswous said:

I just tested Cadet because I wanted to know if it's good at something and I have to say, it seems very limited.

Yeah, it's pretty simple. I'm using a beta build, that adds an automatic cps calculate & display, and better supports my workflow... don't know the beta has seen public release yet. I found I could live with Cadet's quirks better than those of kdenlive. Chief among the latter: because kdenlive is based on video, it insists on changing exported srt times, presumably to conform to the frame timestamps (of a non-existent video). This bothered me too much, maybe more than it should.

16 hours ago, datiswous said:

I don't really understand why you need an editor for inline text though (maybe you told that already).

I don't specifically, though I do use utility programs and Excel to help calculate constraints and make decisions about -

• inserting line breaks
• when to use the new inline durationExtend option, and what value to give it
• SRT instead of inline
• Non-verbatim instead of verbatim transcription

For a given vocal set, it appears just a small number of bark clips need the SRT treatment (and so Cadet) instead of inline.

17 hours ago, datiswous said:

Oh and I just used

-c counter start value

and it worked really well. Saved me a lot of time by creating one sndshd file for all sound files in different folders.

Another satisfied customer of buildSubtitleShaders.

I've got another console utility about ready to release, for group checking SRTs. Soon.

7 hours ago, datiswous said:

Btw, I found that some subtitles still fit in inline subtitles although they're over 6 seconds because the speach is spread out. For example:

Quote

Oh... (1 second pause) Ahh... (1 second pause), Good question... (2 second pause) I'll think about it.

For me, this is an example of where it CAN fit in an inline, but should be placed in an SRT instead. I would definitely put the final phrase into a subtitle message, and at least consider breaking into 3 or 4 messages.

For The Wench, there were some clips (of 7 - 30 seconds) where she's idly humming. Rather than a single inline, e.g., "(humming long tune, hoarsely)" that stayed up the whole time, I went with srt, showed that message briefly, and then towards clip end showed "(humming ends)".

[Geep]

checkDurationsinSRT is now available:
checkDurationsInSRT.exe
checkDurationsInSRT.cpp

This Win/console program scans a directory for .srt files, reporting on each in turn. It warns about those subtitle phrases(aka messages) that are potentially too short or too long in time, or that seem to require too high a reading rate, expressed in characters per second (cps). It also looks for within-file subtitle messages that overlap in time.

Invocation:
checkDurationsInSRT -l lowerBound [default is 1.0 sec] -u upperBound [default is 6.0 sec] -c maxCPS [default is 17] -d dirWithSrtFiles [default is current dir] -o output file [default is stdout]

For more, run with -h or ? options, or see comments in the C++ source code file.

EDIT: The above links now access a May 6, 2023 update, that corrects a significant error in character counting for the cps calculation. In addition, if a given subtitle's cps is too high, the warning now includes a suggestion: "try x.xxx seconds". That says what longer duration would be needed to achieve the target cps. How or whether than longer duration could be achieved is left up to you.

Edited May 7 by Geep
May 6 update

[datiswous]

16 hours ago, Geep said:

Chief among the latter: because kdenlive is based on video, it insists on changing exported srt times, presumably to conform to the frame timestamps (of a non-existent video). This bothered me too much, maybe more than it should.

I don't know what you mean by this. When you change the srt file inside kdenlive you have to export it (which is saving), or if you saved as a project before, you can just click save to (also) export the srt.

Or do you mean this import window? I always ignore it, because I don't know what it means in relation to audio files and it didn't give me any problems:

 

16 hours ago, Geep said:

I'm using a beta build, that adds an automatic cps calculate & display, and better supports my workflow... don't know the beta has seen public release yet.

Where can I download the beta?

Edited April 20 by datiswous

[Geep]

8 hours ago, datiswous said:

I don't know what you mean by this.

In the kdenlive subtitle editor, use the "End" counter to adjust the subtitle phrase end point. Then export to an .srt file, and look within that file. Does the phrase have the same specified endtime, or has it been changed?

8 hours ago, datiswous said:

Where can I download the beta?

The latest Cadet release version, 2.0.044 of April 14, incorporates the beta. The main feature added was that, if you go into Tool/Preferences, there's a new line "Show cc reading rate with alarm threshold of [...] in units of [CPS or WPM]". There's also a bit more flexibility in how to advance from one phrase to the next.

BTW, I found the Cadet project feature adds no value. I just (re)use an anonymous project, and export the .srt. If later I need to adjust something, I can use "Import" of the .srt to do so.

If I strongly needed a tool that had speech-to-text capabilities, I would not use Cadet. Since I've got preexisting text for the vocal sets I'm currently processing, I'm not needing speech-to-text right now.

[datiswous]

4 hours ago, Geep said:

In the kdenlive subtitle editor, use the "End" counter to adjust the subtitle phrase end point. Then export to an .srt file, and look within that file. Does the phrase have the same specified endtime, or has it been changed?

Hmm, yes I see it now. Actually it doesn't actually change it, but it just looks slightly different in the editor. So if you resize, then export, then import, you see the same end time, but it is different from the srt. Very weird, I never noticed it. But I can understand this is an issue.

Btw, although Kdenlive has built-in speech to text and I was initially excited about it, I now use Whisper for that, which is MUCH better at it.

[Geep]

The update to subtitles for The Lord vocal set ("Lord2") is now available, that makes use of the new -dx (durationExtend) feature of 2.12dev:

testSubtitlesLord2.pk4

Corresponding Excel file - TheLord2Subtitles.xlsx

As usual, the testing FM is used as the vehicle to distribute this update. Out of 390 subtitles (all of which are inline, no srt needed), the changes are as follows.

Durations Extended

• 67 times, -dx was used to pad duration between 0.25 and 0.50 second (instead of default 0.20), calculated based on a presentation rate of 17 cps. The value of 0.50 was set as a cap by policy. When reached, it leads to a presentation rate higher than 17 cps.
• The cap is ignored if the presentation rate reaches the quite fast 20 cps. For Lord2, this occurred once (-dx 0.61, a value calculated for 20 cps presentation rate). This particular subtitle now is verbatim, unlike the original Lord subtitle release, where the text was shortened.
• Also for presentation rate reasons, leading optional "(...)" descriptors were dropped or shortened (1 case of each).
• In the spreadsheet, additional columns were added to help in the foregoing calculations. This will be documented when The Wench is released.

Style Issues

• Capitalize leading 'Tis or 'Twas 14 times.
• Replace [...] with (...) for descriptors.

Improvements for testSubtitles... FMs

• This applies to Lord2, forthcoming Thug2 and Wench releases, and later.
• In-game, the "Prev", "Again", and "Next" buttons are now twinned with a group of 3 more buttons labeled "Same but Quiet". As requested by @datiswous, these affect the cursub numeric counter without either playing an audio sound or showing its subtitle.
• The cursub counter (as an HUD overlay) shows itself more consistently, thanks to an implementation hack.
• Each subtitle appears in a field that is now Geep-standardized to a half-screen wide, compatible with a 42-char/line limit. This is done with an override of  tdm_subtitles_common.gui, based upon a customization of TDM 2.11 code. (So it does not include visual indicators of AI location or speech volume found in recent 2.12dev's tdm_subtitles_common.gui).

Edited May 4 by Geep
Oops, option is "-dx" not "-xd"

[Geep]

The update to subtitles for The Thug vocal set ("Thug2") is now available:

testSubtitlesThug2.pk4

Corresponding Excel file - Thug2Subtitles.xlsx

The testing FM is used to distribute this update. (See the preceding description of "Lord2" for recent testingSubtitles... improvements.) Out of 392 subtitles, the changes are as follows.

Durations, Phrases, Linebreaks

5 formerly-inline subtitles are now each 2 srt phrases. Of the 5, 4 are muttering or snoring; 1 has a yawn between 2 sentences.
For inline, 14 -dx extensions are added to pad duration between 0.25-0.50
4 previously-shortened inline captions are  now restored to verbatim, due to extension (-dx or auto 0.20 seconds)
10 enforcements of 42-char/line policy are done by adding linebreaks

Style Changes
15 Square brackets are replaced by parentheses
3 Sentences starting with 'evening are changed to Evening

Transcription More Like Vocalization
1 "is" replaced by 's
1 "?" replaced by "."

[Geep]

The subtitles for The Young Builder (Builder 4) vocal set is now available:

testSubtitleYoungBuilder.pk4

As usual, the testing FM is used as the vehicle to provide these subtitles for eventual incorporation into TDM.

Statistics

• There were 471 subtitles. Only 10 were SRT; the rest inline.
• Of the inline, about 87 required a -dx extension of duration in the range 0.25-0.50 seconds (By policy, 0.50 was the cap, hit by 35 of these. In a worst case, that cap could be raised; none required that).
• Of the srt, two had a first phrase that had to be slightly shortened (non-verbatim).

Corresponding Excel File

TheYoungBuilderSubtitles.xlsx

The final form of the Young Builder Excel spreadsheet was also retained (without data) as Version 4 of the evolving Subtitle Template. Documentation about the spreadsheet/template usage will be available.