Adelphi Studio, the multimedia division of Adelphi Translations a full-service translation agency, has subtitled films and videos in over 80 languages from Arabic to Welsh.
We are committed to offering a competitive and flexible service to suit your requirements and budget. We have a track record of producing high-quality subtitling, voice-overs, typeset print materials and website localisation, meaning we can handle all of your projects’ multimedia requirements in-house. We also offer Articulate Storyline localisation for your e-learning projects.
We can offer a one-stop foreign language subtitling package that others say they have but don’t, giving our clients a unique advantage.
Our work brings us into contact with translation agencies, e-learning production companies, video production houses and advertising agencies, but we also regularly deal with end-clients directly and our reach is truly global.
Your projects will be supported by a team of experienced and meticulous project managers, we are also happy to work with any translations you provide. Our experience in our field means we can advise you on technical issues like font selection for more challenging languages.
We have an established reputation for producing media in languages with complex scripts like Hindi, Japanese, Bengali and Burmese and we can also handle right-to-left languages such as Arabic, Urdu and Farsi. The lists above are by no means exhaustive: we have a multimedia solution for potentially any language – just ask.
These are the standard methods of producing foreign language subtitles.
Open Captions
The subtitles can be ‘burned’ onto the video, which means they cannot be turned on or off and are always visible. These are also referred to as ‘open’ captions. They become part of the video file itself. Although using this method means that multiple languages cannot be selected using the same file it is possible to produce multiple versions of the video with different subtitles which can be selected by the user, for example by clicking on different links on a web page.
Closed Captions
For more sophisticated formats such as DVD closed captions are used, this format allows multiple channels of subtitles (and audio) to be created as separate streams on the disc. These can be switched on and off through the selection menu created in the authoring process. At Adelphi Translations we can re-author your DVD to include subtitles and foreign language audio tracks if you can provide us with the original video or the original DVD.
It is also possible to produce switchable foreign language subtitles programmatically. In Adobe Flash, for example, subtitles can be created in an XML file, which can then be linked to the Flash movie. An XML file can be created for each language and these can be selected using links in the Flash movie itself. YouTube also provides the facility to upload timed subtitle files that can be switched in the player.
SRT Files
SRT is perhaps the most basic of all subtitle formats.
It consists of four parts, all in text..
1. A number indicating which subtitle it is in the sequence.
2. The time that the subtitle should appear on the screen, and then disappear.
3. The subtitle itself.
4. A blank line indicating the start of a new subtitle.
English original and translated SRT file
