export subtitles with alpha for dvd studio pro

Hi everyone!

I've created English subtitles for a documentary in FCP. Now I need to export them, I think as one long file with alpha, so I can use them as one subtitle option on a DVD authored in DVD Studio PRO

Is this possible?

I did the subtitles in FCP because I needed to output an HD quicktime with them burnt in.

They are all timed already to fit over the dialogue, so I want to avoid typing them all in again in DVD Studio Pro and timing them again.

Many thanks in advance for all and any advice from lafcpug

Cheers!

Andy Wills

Hi Andy,

You for sure can render out those titles with alpha. But that only would make sense if you want to go film and laser them into a negative.
For DVD this doesn't make sense except you will render title by title to a single graphic and then create a DVDSP text file which contains the TC info and the link to the rendered file.

The faster and more effective way is to export you sequence as XML and then use a tool to convert the titles to a DVDSP compatible file.

But your subtitles need to be created by a standard text generator and NOT Boris.
There are several tools out there which can read FCP XMLs with text generator info and convert them. Belle Nuit, Subbits are popular.
My TitleExchange in this case can do a bit more as it can handle more kinds of generators. To use it for free you've to split your titles into blocks of 50 or less and put each block on a new track and then convert each of this blocks with TEP - they can be within onre XML. When you're done you have to merge the resulting text files into one file which then can be used with DVDSP.

Regards
Andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

Hi Andreas - thanks for your help

I see that in DVDSP it's possible to import a graphic and use the subtitling function to have it superimposed throughout the film.

Since my subtitles are already timed, couldn't I just import them into DVDSP as one big "amimation" quicktime with alpha and superimose that quicktime like a single graphic?

My titles were created using a standard FCP text generator.

I feel a little daunted at the prospect of converting the titles to text files and then merging them again. Would this mean re-timing them?

Regards,
Andy

Hi Andy,

Maybe I was bit "misleading" with my reply.

And to be honest I don't know whether you can "import them into DVDSP as one big "amimation" quicktime with alpha and superimose that quicktime like a single graphic?" and make them a "switchable overlay" track. I think there is no way on a DVD to make 2 movie tracks visible at the same time.
This also wouldn't make any sense as you would waste a lot of data for this.

Simple thing: Use one of the mentioned software packages to create a simple text file which can then be used for import as a subtitle overlay file for DVDSP.

Regards
Andreas