Pinnacle NEEDS to add a subtitle track at least that at least supports .txt formats. Please make sure it is its own track! There are programs and companies out there that will make the subtitles for you and send you the .txt file...Pinnacle needs to create the track that allows the subtitles to be dropped in!!

 Thank you,

Linda

Do Pinnacle NEED to do anything? Surely, they will do what makes their program more likely to sell, and I'd hazard a guess that very few users make use of subtitles.

I know it's always controversial when someone questions a feature request, and I have no objection to your request, but subtitles are a fairly specialized area. There are (admittedly expensive and difficult to use) programs that will do this, and I don't see it as a major selling point.

 There are many features that would be of greater interest to the general public. Handling mpeg transport streams, adding another video track, and improving DVD compatibility are just a few...

Studio's DVD burning section is very limited. You can't specify different aspect ratios for different chapters, you can't add alternative language tracks or commentary tracks. It would great if all these things could be incorporated, in addition to subtitles, but it moves the DVD authoring facilities into the professional area.

You may be right. All I know is that I "entered" the DVD world less than 4 months ago and have had many requests for subtitles. I think more and more people are using products like Pinnacle for small business use (instruction DVDs, etc) and will be going global with their DVDs. I guess for now I will have to take my business to the "professional" arena.

Thanks for your input.

I agree, the market for sub-titles is large. I hope in studio 12 with full blue-ray support they put them in. Blue-ray spec supports sub-titles, Some if Pinnacle competitors support sub-titles. If you want to keep growing you have to put features in there that would make us stop buying the competitors product, or someday they may have more in there product were we stop buying pinnacle.

We could argue this all night, this is the forth request and thus the most requested feature since studio 11 came out. Now it's all in the hands of Pinnacle marketing.

jjn:

Do Pinnacle NEED to do anything? Surely, they will do what makes their program more likely to sell, and I'd hazard a guess that very few users make use of subtitles. There are many features that would be of greater interest to the general public. Handling mpeg transport streams, adding another video track, and improving DVD compatibility are just a few...

Studio's DVD burning section is very limited. You can't specify different aspect ratios for different chapters, you can't add alternative language tracks or commentary tracks. It would great if all these things could be incorporated, in addition to subtitles, but it moves the DVD authoring facilities into the professional area.

 There are more people than you think who could use subtitles.

I suppose we can add them to a second video track, but you still can't switch them on or off...subtitles are really helpful if you don't want to wake the wife watching a DVD in bed- you can reduce the volume.

...and I am not willing to make a second, subtitled copy of a DVD or reduce the video quality by including the program twice on the same disc.

I wonder if this would make a good plug-in type of feature - buy it if you want it.

Of course, that approach could be applied to so much of the program that it would quickly become annoying.  But we already buy plug-ins.  We buy menu packs, etc.

Of course the real issue is to develop support for it.  How to package and sell it is secondary.

I have been using Pinnacle Studio since version 7 then version 8 and version 9 was the last upgrade that I made. I was (I am) waiting to upgrade to the version in which the subtitle feature will be added (maybe it will be Studio version 15 ? how long do I have to wait people ?)  I am just editing my home videos and spending $500 to buy avid just to have the subtitles feature does not justify the cost. For jjn: times are changing, home users can have today in terms of software, computer power, video camera quality and ideas what they want to do, what only professionals had a few years ago, and nothing will ever be only for professionals. I am just some user who put passion in his home videos and I need the subtitle feature since Studio version 8 and now years later, at Studio version 12 you tell me that subtitles and DVD authoring are for professionals ? I strongly disagree!  I like to edit in Pinnacle Studio but I am frustrated that I can not finish my projects in Studio and I have to loose time and use other programs just because I want to add subtitles to my DVDs when they (Pinnacle) could make things a lot easier by adding the subtitle feature. 

Yes indeed, times are changing. There are a couple of threads running here discussing Studio 12 and nextgen - liquid's replacement. It doesn't look like Pinnacle are even going to put ONE extra video track into Studio.

Pinnacle carry out surveys. Then they decide which features will help them sell the most product at a target price.. However, if I try to explain what I think is Pinnacle's marketing rational behind Studio's development, I get called arrogant. Never do I say that a feature shouldn't be included, just why I think it won't. Unfortunately, people only read the bits of posts they want too read.

So I'm not going to comment on feature requests again. Even mentioning there is a workround seems to send some people into a rage.

Carry on asking for things that are never going to be implemented, by all means.

I'm going to ask for World Peace and a drop in oil prices

 

Well if you don't ask, your certainly will never see it. Studio 11 and 12 have been focus on HD, and it looks like 12 has this all covered now. I think nobody will argue that HD was the right thing at this time to focus on. But they got it. So what are they going to add to studio 13? For me, the think what they lack the most is Sub-titles. Now that they support blue ray subtitles are a lot easier to add, on a SD DVD a subtitle could never have more then four colors on it, this limitation is all gone in blue-ray, the blue-ray spec says that sub-titles can even move around. So studio has all the underlying stuff there already to do it, except the code to inject it into the correct video stream.

Studio 12 is going to be interesting, because there is very little there over 11. To keep sales up, from repeat customers there going to have to add features, and sub-titles would be a very good one.

A naive question: which NLE products offer a subtitle or dubbed language or commentary function that can be turned on or off in the menu?  Do any sell for under US $500 or as a plug-in under $100?

It the answer is NO / NONE, than all I can think is either to: a) pay more and upgrade to a product that does, or b) burn two versions of your wares.

Only a few amateurs will need subtitles, but I can imagine that a lot of enthusiasts might like to offer the option to activiate or mute a voice-over narration.  Some travel video is worthless without a good narration, but some viewers do not want to hear so-and-so blab about everything that pops on the screen.

 Action hero stunts, dramatic chase scenes, evocative music, and graphic portrayals of violence, romance, slapstick humor, and conflict often outweigh the attention to dialogue or voice-over in most blockbuster commercial productions. 

I really looking forward for a plugin (subtitle, audio) for HD, but I guess this won't be possible in this version of BD structure.

Is this correct ?

A naive question: which NLE products offer a subtitle

Apparently, Powerdirector 7. I have downloaded a trial of this, and it's multitrack interface seems to be everything I fear about Pinnacle trying to introduce more tracks to the current GUI. If you want to do a split AV, then you lose one of the audio tracks.

However, If I were to want to add subtitles, then I might buy this as a supplement.

Different software producers can listen to public feedback and introduce features they think will sell their software.

Yes, please. Subtitle is really a notable missing, compared to other competitors.

Also DVD multiple audio streaming (for alternative audio selection (dolby 2.0, 5.1), language or commentary).

Yes, there are other solutions out there. Some are both well implemented and yet still very reasonably priced. (I'm considering one of these solutions now.)

But I really like Pinnacle Systems Studio. Maybe I'm just used to it. It seems to me that adding another track (it wouldn't have to take up as much room) would be a pretty easy thing to do, at least that's my perception based on what some other vendors are offering.

Please, Pinnacle Systems, please add subtitles!

Thanks,

Edro

The most simple "fix" might be to introduce a menu button to allow the viewer could toggle to show or hide titles, which could serve as the track for subtitles.  Better yet, add a "viewer optional" track in the project timeline that could carry anything (subtitles, video, sound) that, when exported to disc,  could activated or suppressed by the viewer. This might be useful to a broad set of users.

JKoch:

The most simple "fix" might be to introduce a menu button to allow the viewer could toggle to show or hide titles, which could serve as the track for subtitles.  Better yet, add a "viewer optional" track in the project timeline that could carry anything (subtitles, video, sound) that, when exported to disc,  could activated or suppressed by the viewer. This might be useful to a broad set of users.

Subtitles are a subset of the DVD format. There is no point in Pinnacle trying to work round it, it should either decide to implement them or not.

It's the same situation as implementing a "Play All" menu button. Pinnacle's disc authouring is just not powerful enough.

 

Was any progress made on this very essential feature? I have recently upgraded to Studio 14 Ultimate but could not find anything. Is there any adds-on which can be bought from third parties which would allow for inserting timed transacripts into a Pinnacle project?

Would a scrolling title overlay near the bottom of the video frame be nearly the same thing?  Or perhaps a series of static overlay titles presented in approximate sync with the speaker(s)?

When you need sub-titles there are just no good work arounds. This feature has been asked for a lot, but has not made it to Avid's things to be added list. Maybe it will if they ever re-do there menu'ing system to handle a more advance blue-ray menu'ing system. 

IMHO, anyone who is looking for subtitles in a low-cost editing package needs to stand back a bit and think about their editing software and whether they have chosen the correct package.

Let's analogise - you can drive from New York to San Francisco in a Mini; but would you choose to do it? No! You would fly! And it will cost you more!

If subtitles is a 'deal-breaker', you should choose the software that will do it!

 

 

 

alan wells:

Let's analogise - you can drive from New York to San Francisco in a Mini; but would you choose to do it? No! You would fly! And it will cost you more!

NYC to SF is 2,906 via I-80.  Non-stop travel time is about 45 hours, barring speed infractions.  Fuel would be at least $250.  Absent a second driver (who would probably want $20 / hour or more, plus a return flight ticket),  there would have to be a stayover, perhaps at $150 all-in.  Depreciation to the vehicle would be at least $0.20 / mile ($32k price / 150k mi life x 2,906) or $600.  Add $50 for an oil change and $25 in tolls (OH, IND, CHI), and you get an total cost of $1,025.

Round trip EWR-SFO air fares range from $220 to $360.

Take a plane: it's faster, safer, and much cheaper.

If Studio offered sub-titles, probably more important to some than ToonIt (for which there is a free alternative), and less PC-demanding than some other effects Studio offers, but which not everyone can use.

My guess is, though, that to edit subtitles to sync with the speakers or lyrics would have to be a lot like editing series of overlay titles, perhaps more like driving a Mini cross-country than napping on a plane.  Meanwhile, to dub in a language in sync with the speakers or (worse) singers would be quite a foot trek indeed. 

 

alan wells:

Let's analogise - you can drive from New York to San Francisco in a Mini; but would you choose to do it? No! You would fly! And it will cost you more!

 Let me put it another way - "Why ask a boy to do a man's work?"

Do you mean that making a product accessible for the deaf needs to provide a profit? How about the effect on profit for NOT dong it? Not good PR.

mmillerpsyd:

Do you mean that making a product accessible for the deaf needs to provide a profit? How about the effect on profit for NOT dong it? Not good PR.

Answer: an overlay with an interpreter using signs.  Use the overlay editor and / or the 2D editor - advanced.

As for text, successive or scrolling overlay titles can probably yield a close facsimile of sub-titles.  Wouldn't a dedicated sub-title function be the same thing by a different name?

The only problem is that there would be no option to turn the effect off or on.  The user would have to create two versions: one with and the other without, either as distinct menu options or distinct discs. 

As regards profits, Avid is already something of a charity in favor of its users, if the successive financial losses are any indicator.  

 

Let me chime in with my request for subtitles and supertitles.  The latter could be imported as an SRTor other file format.

Regards - Martin