What is subtitles? How do I enable captions?

Today for a person who decided to studya foreign language, especially English, is much simpler than ten years ago. And it's not just a huge number of new-fangled training courses, who swear that in just three or four months a person will be able to master a new language.

Modern technologies allow studyingforeign language yourself. All you need for this is a computer connected to the Internet, a desire and perseverance. In the network you can find not only all information about English or any other language (rules and exercises), but also communicate with its speakers on all sorts of forums and specialized sites. In addition, every interested person has the opportunity to download a foreign film in the original language, in order to practice their ability to understand the language by ear. However, in the early stages, not having mastered enough the studied language, you can watch films that are equipped with subtitles.

What is subtitles?

In itself, the word "subtitles", or, as they are abbreviated as "Saba", came from the French language from the phrase sous-titres - signatures.

Subtitles are the text at the bottom of the screen, which isThroughout the whole film or television shows the speech of the characters. Sometimes subtitles do not duplicate information from the sound track, but supplement it with new ones or comments (this is more typical for TV shows and news).

In most cases, subtitles are formatted aslight (most often white) printed text with a dark stroke. This text is present throughout the film along with the image, in contrast to the "intertitles" (periodically appearing on the screen of the inscriptions used in the silent cinema).

Why use subtitles? The history of their origin

Having understood what subtitles are, it is importantpay attention to how they originated and for what. The need for subtitles appeared at the dawn of the era of sound cinema, as every country that shot films dreamed of selling the rights to their rental to as many other countries as possible. For this, films were brought to various film festivals and were shown to representatives of different countries. Those who liked the film, signed a contract and bought the rights to demonstrate it in their country.

However, the creation of a dubbing in another language intimes were a rather long and expensive process. In addition, it was not easy to predict which countries would be interested in the "product". Therefore, it was decided to leave the films in the original language, providing them with subtitles in a foreign language. A translation of the film involved a country that bought the rights to rent it.

Over time, subtitles were often used to transmit the lyrics of songs in a foreign language, which were difficult to translate.

On television, subtitles were introduced in order to "so that people with hearing loss can better understand what is happening on the screen. But more often it concerned ready-made programs or documentaries. Since in the news that came out in real time, it was very difficult to quickly create subtitles, here the sign language was used more often. But with the improvement of technology, in particular with the advent of digital television, subtitles have become more accessible both at price and speed of creation.

Today subtitles not only help deaf andhard of hearing people to know what is said in the film or program, but also give additional information to all viewers about what they are watching. Especially it concerns educational programs and documentaries, where they tell about the meaning of certain terms using subtitles.

With the advent of VCRs, movies withsubtitles are increasingly used to study another language. For example, in many language universities in the initial stage of studying students show films in English with Russian subtitles. After they get used to distinguish the majority of phrases in films by ear, they are shown a video with English subtitles. And having mastered this, students gradually switch to films without translation and subtitles.

Indispensable subtitles and for fans to seenew films. Most of the modern Internet users, in order to quickly enjoy the recently released foreign film without waiting for its translation, use Russian subtitles, which are less labor-intensive than translation, and appear openly much earlier.

This practice also applies to popular TV shows. Usually it is necessary to wait a couple of days until a new series, dubbed into Russian, is released. Subtitles, however, translated into Russian, you can get almost the next day after the premiere.

Another relatively young field of application of subtitles is everyone's favorite karaoke.

Types of subtitles

Having learned what subtitles are and why they are used, you can consider what kinds of subtitles they are.

First of all, it's wired subtitles, or hardassabs. In this case, the text is superimposed on the original image, and it can not be turned off. It is worth noting that all the first subtitles were sewn. There were several ways of applying the text to the film. Later there were even cars that did it automatically. It was a laborious process, because it was necessary to apply subtitles to almost every frame. Today, thanks to digital technology, this is much easier. However, because of hardassabov video quality is deteriorating.

Much later, software subtitles appeared, orsoft. These are separate files that contain subtitles. They can be freely connected to the video file, as well as choose the desired size, placement, font and even speed up / slow down their appearance. If you want, almost to every movie you can find a file with subtitles in any language and easily install it. Moreover, almost all modern phones have the ability to embed subtitles in the video being viewed.

In form all subtitles are divided into two large groups:

1. Built-in subtitles (located in the same video file, you can turn them on or off by selecting the appropriate item in the context menu).
2. External subtitles (individual files of specialized formats that are also connected using the context menu).

Subtitle formats

Today, for those who want to watch a movie with text, there is a huge selection of external subtitle formats that are perfectly suited for the most common video players.

• SRT is the most popular subtitle format. It is extremely simple to use, it can be edited. In addition, SRT is able to synchronize with the video on its own, preventing premature appearance of subtitles or their delay.
• SUB - was once a very popular format for subtitles. But today it is replaced by more modern formats.
• SAMI is a specialized format developed by Microsoft. It has a very clear structure. Supports the possibility of changing the font, its color, size and location.
• MicroDVD - subtitle format developedspecially for the player MicroDVD. In this regard, when using subtitle data in other players, there may be a time mismatch. After all, the subtitles of this format are synchronized to the frame number of the video sequence, and not in time, like most other formats. At one time was very popular, but today it is replaced by more universal formats.
• PGS is a modern subtitle format designed for use on Blue Ray discs.
• SSA - the format of subtitles, intended for use in the program Sub Station Alpha. This is a specialized program for creating subtitles.
• ASS is an advanced SSA format.
• IDX + SUB - graphic subtitles intended for DVD.
• TT - one of the most promising formats of subtitles for today.

How to include Russian subtitles and captions in other languages

In order to download subtitles, they must first be downloaded. Most modern discs are equipped with the appropriate subtitle files. Otherwise, you just need to download the file with them.

In most of the most common modernplayers (Media Player Classic, GOM, KMP, Quicktime player and others) to include subtitles, if they are built-in, you can use the context menu called by pressing the right mouse button. In the window that appears, select the "Subtitles" tab. In the appeared menu - put a check mark in front of "display / show subtitles". In the same menu you can correct them to your liking. If there are several, you can choose the appropriate subtitles: Russian for example.

In the absence of embedded subtitles, the same paragraphThe menu in the GOM will allow you to connect external sabas. Just in the context menu you need to select the "subtitle manager" and, by clicking on the "folder" icon, select the desired file on the disc.

In the KMP player, in order to enable external subfamilies, you must select "open" in the context menu and "open subtitles" after it.

In Media Player Classic, you need to select "file" in the context menu, and after "open subtitles", and you can watch the movie.

Of course, there are other players, but they load and turn on subtitles in a similar way.

Where to find subtitles

Knowing what subtitles are, how to install them and what are the most common formats, it is worthwhile to figure out where they can be found.

If the subtitle file is not included on the disc withyou can find it on the Internet. To do this, go to any library of subtitles and download or purchase the required file. It is worth to be careful with the subtitle formats, so as not to suffer later with the adjustment for the video stream manually.

When searching for subtitles, it's also important to know howThe name of the film is written in Russian and in the original - this will simplify the search. Some players, for example Media Player Classic, are able to find the subtitles themselves for the film. To do this, put the open file on pause, go to the "file" menu and select "subtitle base". With this item you can find and download the necessary subtitles, but the function does not work in all versions of the player and not in all regions.

With the development of modern digital technologiesTo see a foreign film with a read translation was as easy as translating a phrase from one language to another in an online translator. Every day more and more people use subtitles not only as an entertainment tool (watching fashion films and karaoke), but also for developing the ability to perceive a foreign language by ear. To date, subtitles are the most affordable and cheapest way to do this.