Subtitling in ELAN: Adding Text to Video
- Ben Chung (Unlicensed)
Introduction
ELAN is a free tool that you can download and install on your computer device.
Lots of people use ELAN in their language documentation projects. It is mostly used for transcription.
You will be able to add tiers to audio and video to the level of detail that suites your needs and project. In the demo videos, you will see how you can add to the phrases-level. However, you might want to go deeper and transcribe or write subtitles for each part of a word.
Knowledge Check
If ELAN is a new program for you, we recommend that before you continue with this article and module that you view the ELAN Basics article and module, here: ELAN Basics: Layered Transcriptions
It is also suggested that you familiarize yourself with commonly used terms that may be referenced in this article and video tutorials. You can review these terms, here: Glossary of Digitization Terms
This resource will provide you with the information on how to install ELAN (in detail), add, remove, and modify annotations, and change tier attributes. There will be recaps of these foundational steps in this article and its accompanying videos too.
Installing the Software
ELAN
ELAN is a transcription software that is provided by the Language Archive.
Follow this link to download the correct software package for your device: ELAN | The Language Archive
Be sure to allow your computer’s security to let you install this download. Follow the prompts to complete the download and installation.
Handbrake
Handbrake calls itself the open-source video transcoder.
Follow this link to download the correct software package for your device: https://handbrake.fr/
Follow the prompts to complete the download and installation.
If you plan to use ELAN and Handbrake often together, it is recommended to save them and make shortcuts in the same place to easily transition between the two.
Dot.net
The last software you will need is Dot.Net. This is necessary to use Handbrake.
This software will run in the background of your device. You do not need to worry about where you save it unlike ELAN and Handbrake.
In order to download Dot.Net, go to this link: http://dotnet.microsoft.com
Dot.Net is supported by Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. It is recommended to download the latest software to install on your device (.NET 6.0 as of April 2022). Follow the prompts to complete the download and installation.
Subtitling in ELAN
Refresher
In this section, you will have a closer look at how to use Segmentation Mode in ELAN after uploading your MP4 file to the software. Segmentation Mode allows you to quickly divide time-stamped audio into shorter sections or chunks, but does not as easily let you transcribe in these segments.
If you would like to refresh and focus on other aspects of ELAN and transcribing, please review the ELAN Basics article and module, here: ELAN Basics: Layered Transcriptions
You should work to transcribe video files that are MP4s. This is an access file type, which means that your video should already be edited and cleaned up the amount that you want. You should consider these subtitled videos as ones to share on social media or sharing platforms like Youtube or Vimeo.
Using Segmentation Mode
Before using Segmentation Mode, you will need to:
Upload your MP4 file;
Save your file as an .eaf (ELAN file);
Turn on automatic backups;
Add how many tiers as you need in the file;
and, change the names of your tiers appropriately.
If you need assistance with any of these steps, go directly to the interactive module and skip to Part II: Subtitling in ELAN video tutorial.
Segmentation Mode can be found in the Option tab of the ELAN window. You are in Annotation Mode right now and should switch out of it.
While in Segmentation Mode, there will be an additional tier now that is the selected tier that you will be segmenting. You can toggle through your existing tiers with your 'Up' and 'Down' arrow keys.
In whichever tier you decide to segment in, you can hit play (with the little black arrow) and use the 'Enter' key on your keyboard to start and end a segment. This way, you can continue to segment with a click of a button, which can be really helpful with longer audio instead of dragging and clicking to make every segment in Annotation Mode.
It is recommended to try out Segmentation Mode and see if you can get into a good rhythm. When it is used effectively, it can save a lot of time. However, Annotation Mode might be better for your smaller videos.
Once you segment one tier to your liking, you can switch to Annotation Mode. Now when you click a segment, it will highlight a column in all the other tiers, making them stacked. You can now double-click and make aligned segments for translations or the breakdown of words/phrases.
This is the magic of ELAN.
Exporting Your SRT
Once you have the video segmented and transcribed, you will go to the File tab, find the Export option, and select 'Subtitle text'.
You do not need to export the video itself since you will be embedding the subtitles to the video. You can leave the video as is.
When exporting the SRT, it will give you the option to export specific tiers that you transcribed. When they are embedded in the video, they will be stacked on top of each other. For this reason, if you want to have the same video with different alignments of subtitles, make multiple copies of the video and export different SRT subtitle scripts.
Be sure to save the new exported file with a systematic name and export as a .srt (SubRip Subtitle file).
Using Handbrake
Uploading Your Video
Next, you will head over to Handbrake.
When you first open Handbrake, it will automatically allow you in the first window to drag and drop your MP4 file. It is recommended that you press ‘Cancel’ and check out Handbrake if it is your first time using it; get familiar with the program.
To upload after exiting the opening window, you need to find the movie clapper icon that also says, ‘Open source’.
Here you will select the video source. Once it is in Handbrake, the video’s metadata will be displayed in the many windows of the program.
Save the File
If everything looks alright, then save as a new name that denotes or shows that this file has subtitles.
First, navigate to the bottom of the window! Be sure to save videos that have subtitles with the same tag or metadata too.
For example, if you put every video with subtitles as [-sub] at the end of the title, do that for all your files. It will keep everything organized in the long run.
You can press ‘Browse’ to then add the newly saved file with the subtitles to a location that differs from where you usually save photos and videos if you like.
Once the file is saved, then it is time to add the subtitles!
Embedding the Transcript
Go to the ‘Subtitles’ tab in Handbrake and then you will see a pretty empty box.
Click the ‘Tracks’ dropdown menu and then import the subtitles using the ‘Import Subtitles’ option.
Now, you can select the SRT file that you created.
Another line once you input the subtitle file that you will see is ‘Foreign Audio Scan’. Unfortunately, at this time, it is not a very applicable feature likely with your language. This option will try to detect when non-English language is used in your video and try to prescribe text to what it recognizes.
With Indigenous languages of this region, there is not currently the capacity to automatically add subtitles in this program.
You can delete 'Foreign Audio Scan' if you like.
Be sure to tick the ‘Burn in’ option box on the subtitles line. If you do not click ‘Burn in’, the subtitles will not be encoded when we start this next process.
Whatever tiers you exported from ELAN will be present in this new video with the subtitles. For example, if you have two tiers in this video that are subtitled, they will be stacked up on top of each other when you play the video.
If you only export, for example the Indigenous language transcription, then this tier will be present (with no English subtitles) as just one line.
Embed the subtitles by pressing ‘Start encode’. Then, the subtitles will merge. It will take some time depending on the length of the video.
When it is finished encoding your video with the subtitles that it burns into the file, whenever you play this new file, the subtitles will appear. You can make multiple videos with a mix of subtitles for your many educational and communal uses (e.g. with more detailed transcriptions, abridged versions, story narration).
This is why you definitely should save ELAN files so that you can simply re-export or modify or add to your tiers and not duplicate your work.
Link to Interactive Module & Video Tutorials
Please follow this link to take you to the interactive module with video tutorials:
If you have questions about adding subtitles, feel free to contact us at:
Ben Chung
Cell: (604) 319-7094
Email: ben@fpcc.ca
FPCC Office: (250) 652-5952