Video Subtitling

Video subtitling is timed text laid against a finished edit so dialogue can be read while the picture plays. The work is produced by people and not by software, and what shapes it here is caption files built to the standard the platform or the regulator requires, so the deliverable fits how you actually work instead of a generic template. Every file is checked by a second reviewer before it is sent.

Subtitles are timed against shot changes, so a line does not straddle a cut and force the eye to re-read. None of that is left to chance on the day: it is confirmed at quoting stage. Reading speed, line length and line breaks are set to the target standard before the first file is timed.

Subtitling starts at $11.20 per minute of runtime, with volume pricing once a project passes an agreed size. The quote for video subtitling is worked out from the runtime, how many target languages you need and whether the file has to be timed from scratch. The rate follows the runtime of the video, not the number of caption lines the finished file contains. Video subtitling is quoted from the material you send, so a short job and a long one are worked out the same way. Send the material and the figure comes back within minutes.

The delivery date is agreed before work starts, and rush delivery within 2 to 24 hours covers anything urgent. Material sent at the end of your working day is in progress overnight. Timing is set by hand against the audio, so the schedule follows the real runtime of the video and not an estimate. Video subtitling is scheduled against the people who actually do this work, not against a general pool.

The 99+% accuracy standard applies to every file, and it holds because each subtitle file is produced by a person and then played back against the picture by a second reviewer. What gets checked on video subtitling is the detail a viewer would otherwise have to verify alone: names, figures, terms and anything the source left ambiguous. Every file is played back on screen before release, because a caption that reads correctly can still land on the wrong shot. Anything genuinely unclear is flagged for you, never guessed at.

Access is the control that matters, so it is kept to the assigned pair and nobody else. Video subtitling often involves material people would not want circulated, so the file is closed to everyone except the pair working on it. Unreleased video is routine here, so review links are restricted and nothing is held longer than the project needs. Transfer is encrypted, every person involved is under NDA, and files are deleted on request once you no longer need them held.

SRT, VTT, SCC, STL or a burned-in version, built to the specification of the platform you publish on. One source file can produce several formats in the same order. The format for video subtitling is agreed at order stage, so the first delivery is the one you can file, send on or publish. Caption files are delivered to the standard of the platform you publish on, whether that is SRT, VTT, SCC or STL.

Three steps: send the material, approve the quote, receive the finished work by email. Nothing starts before you approve the price, and revisions are free for 30 days after delivery. Say what the video subtitling is for when you send it, because a filing, a publication and an internal record are formatted differently.

Worth asking for: the same timed file is exported as SRT, VTT or burned-in picture, depending on where the video runs. It is easier to set at order stage than to retrofit, and it costs nothing on top of the quoted rate when it is part of the original brief. The same timed file can produce a burned-in version and a sidecar caption file in one order.

Yes. Video subtitling is available in 100+ languages, with every file going to a native speaker of the target language and a reviewer who also reads it. A translated caption track is timed separately, because reading speed differs between languages. Where a language is rare, availability is checked before the quote.