Subtitle translator

Hi folks
These days I find with some modern movies / TV series the sound quality (vocals - speaking etc) is very poor while the special effects are hideously loud -- seems the mixing engineers have lost the art. My ears are perfect - and I have no trouble with some really old movies from the 1940's and 1950's !!!

So it's easy to get subtitles from say opensubtitles,org (if you use KODI then you can dynamically download the subtitles for movies / TV series).

Then a bonus is that once you've got the subtitle usually in .srt format you can translate into almost any language. The translation A.I these days is really good -- huge improvement over "canned machine translation" of a few years ago.

Anyway here's the link -- works with browsers on W11 without issue.


Cheers
jimbo

On thing to consider with the audio, though, is that newer titles tend to have advanced audio output, including multichannel output. Might need to evaluate how Windows audio output is set up based upon your listening device (in particular headphones), because not all headphones will correctly combine the different channels into a smooth blend for a 2 channel listening experience. But this is more than usually the fault of Windows, as it may be trying to offer you enhanced audio on a device that doesn't deal with it well (or, conversely, not having it enabled on a device that *can* deal with it correctly).

At any rate, though, thanks for the link. That will come in handy where STs are not included on foreign movies I watch to watch.

johnlgalt said:

On thing to consider with the audio, though, is that newer titles tend to have advanced audio output, including multichannel output. Might need to evaluate how Windows audio output is set up based upon your listening device (in particular headphones), because not all headphones will correctly combine the different channels into a smooth blend for a 2 channel listening experience. But this is more than usually the fault of Windows, as it may be trying to offer you enhanced audio on a device that doesn't deal with it well (or, conversely, not having it enabled on a device that *can* deal with it correctly).

At any rate, though, thanks for the link. That will come in handy where STs are not included on foreign movies I watch to watch.

Click to expand...

Hi there

Audio isn't the problem -- it's the quality of the mixing that is. !!!! I wish some of those sound Engineers would look at the older B&W classics from the 1950's / 1960's and compare sound quality on those movies with some of the modern stuff --OK Sound effects etc no contest as those didn't exist back then but Spoken Dialogue. !! maybe modern movies don't need anybody to be speaking any more !! who knows. !!

I translate often BBC / other UK series e.g Midsomer Murders to Icelandic for my grandparents (in their 90's !! but still really lively ) -- their English is "Ok-Ish" but they love having Icelandic subtitles --not often availble as standard.

cheers
jimbo

Yes, and it is mixing that is exactly the enhancing. With multi-channel streams, using a 2 channel device can have you lose the items that are going to channels that that your device does not support.

The old movies were in single or dual channel only - so Dolby Pro Logic / DTS / DTS:X / ATMOS or anything like that. it was great for the limited hardware.

But if you enabled a multi-channel audio output on a system that also supports multi-channel sound, then your audio experience is a much, much richer experience.

My headphones (SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless) can handle multi-channel sound. It's no different (well, supposed to not be different - in reality it cannot ever equate to) a true mutli-channel sound system.

In a movie, for example, if there is a very loud P-51 Mustang flying from left to right, the sound in my headphones moves from left to right - as it would in real life. If my headphones were not multi-channel capable, the effect of the movement of the sound following the movement of the object in the movie would be much less pronounced.

In an older movie, you may still be able to get the effect of the movement of the plane, but it is very diminished. I would not call this bad mixing, I would call it advanced capabilities that your device cannot replicate / reproduce, so it sounds awful to you.

Windows 11 definitely has setting to force mono audio output, but check to see if it hasn't helpfully enabled headphone enhancements / audio spatializer / whatever the heck Windows is calling it now, in order to try to be 'helpful', when in fact your setup is not set up for that.

Also realize that I'm explaining this as an audio enthusiast, nothing more. People like @Cliff S could explain this much better than I can.