Subtitle Purgatory

Hi,

Operating DVD Studio 4, Final Cut 6, mac G5

I have a master digibeta and a series of attempts at STL files generated by a caption house.

The subtitles won't line up to my encoded feature. Sometimes they start out lining up then drift off; sometimes they start off, line up in the middle, and then drift off again. Currently they line up at the beginning and then get later and later as the feature goes on.

The master digibeta is drop frame. I capture it in final cut. The sequence knows it's drop frame. I encode it to an MPEG2 (m2v) file, telling Compressor that it is drop frame. The post house says the worktape they are working from is drop frame. And when I attempt to import the STL file against a NON-drop frame encoded sequence (that I have also encoded just to make sure), it's WAY off. I include all this to explain why I don't think it's a drop frame/non drop frame issue.

Can anyone think of anything I could be doing wrong? The only explanation I can think of at this point is that my master is somehow different than the worktape the post house is using. They've tried 4 times with different STL files and they keep getting like a little closer but they're still off. Meanwhile, I've never done subtitles before, so I'm inclined to think it's my bad...but I really don't know at this point.

Thank you for your help...

J