Subtitles are added during the authoring process and differ from captions. Subtitles are used to display language translation whereas captions are used to display information for the deaf and hard of hearing. A properly formatted subtitle file from a subtitle/caption bureau is required. You may supply a properly formatted file or have us create one at an additional cost. The formats we accept are “.STL” (Spruce Technologies) or “.SON#8221; (Sonic) UTF-8 Encoding. Either format can be supplied with PNG/TIFF images. PNG/TIFF images provide a cleaner or anti-aliased subtitle but can add to the overall size of the content. This may impact the final disc requiring the video to be compressed further resulting in quality loss.
Subtitles must be created using the same exact video we use to create the DVD or Blu-ray master otherwise sync issues may occur. If your video starts at an hour, the subtitles must start at an hour. If the video is 23.98fps (for DVD only) subtitles must be created at 23.98 then exported at 29.97fps non-drop or sync issues may occur. Our authoring software is DVD Studio Pro so subtitles must be created to be compatible with that program. We can also author using Encore but this requires a different format (.txt or .FAB files) created specifically for Encore (FAB files use images and may impact the final disc requiring the video to be compressed further resulting in quality loss). Encore does not require export at 29.97.
For Blu-ray, subtitles must be submitted as a XML file with PNGs, 8 bit, 256 color, with a 3 frame buffer (both video and subtitle file should be set to 00:00:00:00). Again, the same master used to create the subtitles must be the same we use for the Blu-ray master. Our Blu-ray software is Scenarist BD Studio and subtitles must be created to be compatible with that program.
*Subtitles cannot be added to a finished master without disassembling the master and re-authoring. Additional charges apply.