{}[subed]--> manual

usage

subed [options] INPUT OUTPUT

INPUT :: The input filename.

OUTPUT :: The output filename. If you split a subtitle in multiple parts,

put a '%' inside the filename, which will be replaced by the partnumber.

options

-if FORMAT :: Override autodetection of input file format.

-of FORMAT :: The output format. It defaults to the input format.

-ir RATE :: The framerate used for microdvd input.

-or RATE :: The framerate used for microdvd output.

-m MOVIE :: Moviefile to probe for the framerate for microdvd output.

-fl :: Convert false l (I inside a word)

-hi :: Remove text for hearing impaired.

-rf :: Reformat the whole subfile. (cosmetic)

-tg :: Remove style tags.

-eol EOL :: End-Of-Line conversion. EOL is either unix, dos, mac or src,

which is the default and means no conversion.

-h :: Print a help message.

-hf :: Print a list of supported formats.

-license :: Get licensing informations.

timetags

To fit the timing of a subtitle, split it into multiple parts or merge a set of files, you put timetags inside the subtitlefile, before processing it with subed. Every tag belongs to exactly one subtitle and it just tells subed the time on which this text has to appear. subed detects these tags inside the input file and changes the timecodes of the output file to match those tags. The tags don't appear in the outputfile, of course. The timetag format is quite flexible. Here are some examples:

<1:12:23.8> ::

1 hour, 12 minutes, 23 seconds and 8 tenth of a second

<1:5:3> ::

1 hour, 5 minutes and 3 seconds

<12:07> ::

12 minutes and 7 seconds

<23> ::

23 seconds

<3.234> ::

3 seconds and 234 milliseconds

input files

Here are various examples of subfile formats along with timetags. Note that a tag has to be placed on a single line, with nothing else on that line. Also note that the line following the tag determines the subtitle to which the tag belongs.

microdvd

<3:41.5>
{3901}{3934}How are you?
{4128}{4152}Hello!
{4185}{4231}Yes, this is Harold Angel.
{4242}{4291}Yes, initial R, like in the phone book.
{4302}{4331}Excuse me?
<4:12>
{4353}{4383}Winesap.

The first timetag belongs to "How are you?" and the second one belongs to "Winesap."

subrip

1
<2:30>
00:01:52,487 --> 00:01:57,201
Look. This is a big claim. The cops
want to nail the guy who stole it too.

2
00:01:57,284 --> 00:02:00,204
The difference is we have to make good
the 30, 000 bucks. They don't.

3
<2:38>
00:02:00,287 --> 00:02:02,206
To them it's another heist.

subviewer 2.0

[INFORMATION]
[AUTHOR]
...
[SUBTITLE]
[COLF]&HFFFFFF,[STYLE]no,[SIZE]18,[FONT]Arial
<5:40.5>
00:05:20.80,00:05:22.84
I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!

00:05:27.10,00:05:28.06
What do you want?

<6:11>
00:05:31.27,00:05:32.23
I don't know.

format conversion

You don't have to specify the input format under normal circumstances, since subed will figure it out for you. The output format defaults to the input format. If you want to convert a subtitle file to another format, specify the output format with the -of option:

subed -of sr in.sub out.srt

-if and -of recognize various short and long forms as formats. You can get a list of supported parameters with:

> subed -hf
format     aliases     supported
----------------------------------
microdvd   mdvd   md   read write
subrip     srip   sr   read write
subviewer  sview  sv   read write
textonly   text   txt       write

microdvd framerates

The microdvd subtitle format uses frame numbers for the timing. This means that those files only work with videos that have the right framerate. But with subed, in most cases you don't have to specify any framerates manually.

• When reading a microdvd file, you can specify the import framerate with the -ir option. But you only need to do this if there are no timetags in the input file, for example if you just want to convert the file to another format. The default framerate can be set in the script. The two most common framrates are either 23.976fps (NTSC) or 25fps (PAL).
• When subed writes a microdvd file, it searches for a video file with the same name as the subtitle file. If there is such a file, transcode is used to find out the the right framerate. Otherwise you can set the output framerate with -or on the commandline.

timing

All timing, split and merge operations are defined via timetags, which are detected by subed in the inputfile. subed then adjusts the timecodes of the outputfile(s) accordingly these timetags.

• All subtitles which have a time tag directly attached will be display at the exact time of the timetag.
• The time codes of all remaining subtitles will be interpolated according their surrounding timetags. It's just like all subtitles were written on a rubberband that you stretch using your thumbs as timetags.

step by step

Here is a general theme of using subed with timetags. We will assume you have a video file Foo.avi and its subtitle file Foo.sub.

1. Normaly you want the final subtitle file (the output of subed) to have the same name as the corresponding video file (with different extensions of course). Therefore you should rename the original subtitle file (the input to subed, in which you will place the timetags) to something different. We will call this file in.sub for example.
2. Open in.sub in your favorite text editor and Foo.avi in your favorite movie player.
3. Read the first subtitle and note the time, when the corresponding audio for the subtitle starts.
4. Insert a single line with our timetag just above the subtitle text.
5. Repeat step 3 and 4 with the last subtitle.
6. Save the subtitle file and run subed like this:

   subed in.sub Foo.sub

7. After checking the result in your player, you might wanna do some fine tuning on the tags and rerun subed.

merge

To merge multiple subtitle files into one file

• copy all subtitles into one file and
• put timetags at the beginning and end of every part.
• Finally run the file through subed:

  subed in.sub Foo.sub

split

subed automatically splits a subfile into multiple parts, when it finds that the timecode of a subtitle is earlier than that of a preceding subtitle. So just attach a timetag to the subtitle, that is the last of one part, and another timetag to the next subtitle, that is the first of the following part.

To create your subfiles execute subed like this:

subed in.sub 'Foo CD%.sub'

You have to put a '%' in the output filename, so it can be replaced by the corresponding partnumber.