English 
Deutsch Subtitling – FAQ
Do you require subtitling in the video (source) language or in one or more foreign language(s)?
You need a straight forward standard subtitling or, for example, a version for the hearing impaired or visually impaired?
Do you want to transcribe/translate and subtitle? Or is the transcript/translation already available and you merely need subtitling with regards to the spotting/time stamps?
How long is your video or are your videos?
In which format should the subtitles be composed (e.g. ass, srt) or should they simply be embedded into the video file?
What are your wishes regarding the specifications for spotting (determining the start and end of the subtitles as well as timing)? E.g. more but shorter text segments, or rather less segments containing longer text (number of lines/characters)? Standard at MSS Cape Town is
- for landscape format 1-2 lines of max. 35-40 characters each,
- for portrait format 3-4 lines with max. 25-30 characters each.
How much on-screen text, if any, needs to be subtitled? And where in the frame would you like the on-screen subtitles placed in the case of overlap with speech subtitles?
Is there anything in particular that should be taken into account?
E.g. non-standard aspect ratio?
Add-on, only if MSS Cape Town also takes care of the translation for multi-language projects:
- Should the translation be more word-for-word/verbatim or smoothed/slightly adapted to written languages?
- If the speed of speech is high (too many characters per second), can the text be smoothed/shortened?
For large volumes: What is your preferred processing time and output/volume delivered per week/month?
For subtitle hard-coding: For what purposes will the subtitles be used? E.g. brand videos for YouTube/social media, own website, exhibitions, explainer videos/e-learning, company intranet, etc.?
- With which program will the final product be played? (VLC Player, Adobe Premiere, embedded in a website, for YouTube, etc.)
- On which device/medium is the final video likely to be played?
In the case of multiple languages: Are multiple videos to be created, each with a hard-coded subtitle, or just one video including all subtitles to choose from?
- Data format: mp4 etc.
- Bit rate: Minimum 128kbit/s, standard 192, 256 kbit, etc.
- Sample rate: e.g. 48.000 Hz. Etc.
- Channel: Mono or stereo?
- Video resolution: e.g. 1920 x 1080 or 12080 x 720 pixel?
- Video compression codec (HEVC): H.264, H.265?
Do you have any specific wishes regarding the appearance of the subtitles (colour, frame, shadow, font, font size, position?). (Company-owned/designed fonts must be supplied).
Thank you for your enquiry.
Your team from MSS Cape Town - The Language Agency.
You have questions? Simply call us:
- Tel. Germany: +49 531 224593040
- Tel. South Africa: +27 21 4617452
- E-mail: info(at)msskapstadt.de or keyaccounts(at)msskapstadt.de
