User profile for user: famo_sa
famo_sa Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

subtitle format for iMovie

I have a 45 minute play which I had videoed at its first performance. The sound quality was really bad so I tried to caption it in iMovie, but it was just too labor intensive. I had it subtitled by rev.com. The file is ready but they're asking me what format(s) I want to download. The choices are

srt

ttml

txt

dfxp

mcc

txt

scc

qt.txt

vtt

cap

stl

srt(facebook ready)


The video I have now with the bad sound quality is an mp4 format. I want the final product to be another mp4 file with the subtitles embedded. So I have 2 questions.

#1. What format should I download?

#2. How do I embed the subtitles in the mp4?


If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm not very good at iMovie or any of this stuff. Thank you in advance.


P.S. I have a MacBook Air with 0SX 10.10.5, iMovie is 10.1.1

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jul 2, 2017 9:27 AM

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4 replies
User profile for user: Rich839
Rich839
User level: Level 8
48,156 points

Jul 2, 2017 8:36 PM in response to famo_sa

Hi,


Your questions, I think, are more appropriately posed to the folks at rev.com. Ask them what works on Mac/iMovie and how to embed their captioning file in an Mp4 video. They are sending you a file that is supposed to be embedded in your movie, so they should know how to do it. I have looked at their website and cannot tell exactly what type of file they are going to be sending you. I personally have never heard of any of the formats on the list you posted, and none of them are listed in the formats that iMovie supports, as far as I know. According to the rev.com website the format called MCC is named MacCaption, so maybe that one is intended to be used on a Mac. I don't know. I tried to download their "Example" caption file, but was unable to get it to open, so no help there. I found nothing else on their website that gives instructions on how to use their product or any suggested formats for the different types of movies. I think that if you talk to somebody knowledgeable there (not a salesman), you should find your answers.


Sorry I can't be of more help. Best of luck with this. I hope that the captioning works for you. It sounds almost too good to be true. Would you post back with your results, in the event that it will help some other person who has the same or similar need for captioning of their movie?


Best,

- - Rich

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User profile for user: Rich839
Rich839
User level: Level 8
48,156 points

Jul 2, 2017 9:18 PM in response to famo_sa

That's encouraging that the .srt caption file will play in VLC.


I take it that in VLC your were able to play your movie and the caption file separately, without them being merged. So, when you play the caption file I assume that you just see writing, not superimposed on the movie?


Now you need to find out whether the caption file plays in iMovie, because VLC plays some formats that iMovie doesn't. If it does play in iMovie, you should be able to overlay it onto your movie, perhaps using the Picture in Picture feature. Then the caption would become embedded when you share out the project to your desktop as a new Mp4 movie. I would be interested in learning how the caption file is synced to the video. The rev.com people didn't give you any instructions for this?


-- Rich

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subtitle format for iMovie

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