# Tahir Hassan's Blog

My Technical Notes

## Tuesday, 2 March 2010

### Re-Syncing subtitles with Subtitle Workshop

If you have a movie where the subtitle file that you downloaded is not in sync, then don't worry: there is an easy process to re synchronise them using a free program called "Subtitle Workshop". Subtitle Workshop can be downloaded here.

To resync, follow the instructions below:

1) Open Subtitle Workshop (the link can be found in "Start" -> "All Programs" -> "URUSoft" -> "Subtitle Workshop").

2) Open the video file by using ("Movie" -> "Open") and also open the the subtitle file by using "File" -> "Load Subtitle".

3) Play the movie (the play button is the left most button below) and pause it immediately when the speech begins.

You can find the length of the video already played by looking at the right of the above bar (the top value).

4) You then note down when the first subtitle was played. You can find this out by looking at the "Show" column in the table below the movie (look at the first row):

5) Assuming that the subtitles are shown before the speech started then work out:


Offset = (Time that speech starts) - (Time that first subtitle shown)


6) Once you have done this arithmetic, you can then use ("Edit" -> "Timings" -> "Set Delay") and then input this calculated offset and then hit ("File" -> "Save"). Note that a back up of the subtitle file should be made before doing this. This is the end of the process.

If on the other hand, the subtitles are shown before the speech starts then we work out the offset by:


Offset = (Time that first subtitle shown) - (Time that speech starts)


Then we follow the same process to set the delay except that it should be minus (-):