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Category: Subtitling Formats

Timecode vs Timestamp

Subtitles are timed to appear on screen at specific times.
Depending on the video format and the subtitle display method, the timing can be encoded in either Timecode or Timestamp.

SCC – Sonic Scenarist File Format

The SCC file format is the standard for closed-captioning in North American broadcast television.
The file contains positioning, style, color and timing information encoded using hexadecimal values.

XML – FCP7 xml

XML file used to import and export editing information from the original Final Cut Pro editing application is generally referred to FCP7 XML.

TXT – Avid DS

The AVID DS format is a basic text (.txt) document that contains timecode and subtitle content, as well as basic header information. The advantage of this format is that it is easily shareable and editable by anyone with a text editor. This is useful for translation and content editing. However, the AVID DS file does … read more

FCPXML – Final Cut Pro X

fcpxml is the XML file used to import/export editing information from the Final Cut Pro X editing program. After each major FCPX upgrade, there is also a version upgrade to the fcpxml version. These are the latest versions: fcpxml version 1.5 (FCPX 10.2.3) fcpxml version 1.6 (FCPX 10.3) fcpxml version 1.7 (FCPX 10.4) One major advantage of … read more

SRT – SubRip Title

The SRT subtitle format is the subtitle file outputted by the open source SubRip program. The SubRip program uses optical character recognition to convert video burn-in subtitles into a subtitle text file, with the .srt extension (SubRip Title).

Closed Captioning vs Subtitling

The captions are meant to display the program audio content through text and symbols. Typically, television captions will consist of voice information (writing what is being said) and non-verbal audio cues important to the story like : “strong wind blowing”  or “door slams shut”.

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