Subtitles Offset (Alpha 3)

So far, the previous version (alpha 2), worked quite well for me mainly because most of the edits I had to do were simple offset changes that were applied to all the subtitles.

But, three days ago I had to adjust a subtitles file which required many edits to large groups of subtitles, something that was not possible to do with the available version.
I thought that I would implement a way to select multiple subtitles and then move them all at the same time as a group. This would have worked but before implementing this feature I realized its many flaws and the problems it would cause.

The solution? Ripple Edits! […]

Subtitles Offset (Alpha 2)

Well, so I continued to work on this little project and it’s starting to shape pretty nicely.

In this version I’ve added the following features (besides correcting tons of bugs from the previous release):

• Added support to load the video file associated with the captions.
  This is done using VLC so you must have VLC installed for this version to work.
  You can always download the latest (stable) version of VLC from its official web site: http://www.videolan.org/
  VLC support for .NET is available thought the VideoLan DotNet set of libraries provided for free by ZeBobo5. You can find more information about this library here: http://vlcdotnet.codeplex.com/
• You can now add, delete and edit subtitles.
  The subtitles editor is a rather simple dialog which you can use to edit the subtitle’s text and the start/end time.
• Changes to the subtitles are applied in real time so you can see them rendered in the VLC player as you work.
• A captions browser control has been implemented which facilitates the visualization of the captions.
  This control, still under development, supports:
  • Rapid scrolling by either dragging an empty area or by moving the scroll bar.
  • Selecting subtitles by clicking them.
  • Changing the start, end or position of any subtitle by dragging it. The speed at which the dragging operation affects the subtitle can be increased by holding the CTRL key down.
  • Use the mouse scroll wheel to change the zoom level.
  • Add additional subtitles by double clicking while holding the SHIFT key down.
• When a video file is loaded, everything is kept in-sync so selecting a subtitle (using any of the available methods) will automatically synchronize the video as well as the other controls (such as the editor).
• Option to select the Audio Track (for multiple language videos).

Here’s a screenshot of the current version:

Subtitles Offset (Alpha 2)

As always, if you feel adventurous, feel free to download the source code:

Update: Please always refer to the latest post about Subtitles Offset to make sure you always obtain the latest version.

Subtitles Offset

If you arrived here through Google (or Bing, or whatever) then you are like me: tired of downloading countless subtitle files that although they contain the correct subtitles, they are offset by a couple of seconds.

Sites such as opensubtitles.org and subscene.com, among many others, are great sources for subtitles but, unfortunately, it is quite hard to know which subtitles will work correctly with your video.

For example, yesterday I decided to rip my two versions of The Exorcist so that I could play them through MediaPortal without having to insert the DVDs.

The ripping process was a snap using the wonderful Freemake Video Converter but, unfortunately, if you decide to include the DVD’s own subtitles in the ripped version, Video Converter does not generate separate SRT files, instead, it embeds the original bitmaps from the DVD subtitles resulting in awful and almost impossible to read captions.

Subtitles Offset

So I decided to rip the DVD without any subtitles and then hunt for an appropriate subtitles file…
After much frustration I launched Visual Studio and started coding a small and simple program that would allow me to offset the subtitles by modifying the timing information in the subtitles file.

The results? Perfectly synced subtitles!

At this moment the program is quite simple and probably missing some functionality but it definitely does the job. Who knows? If I get sufficiently bored I may even upgrade it to make it a fully functional and featured subtitling program…

So, if you need to “just” apply an offset to an SRT file, then this little toy will do just that.
Note what when you save the changes, the program will create a new SRT file so the original is never overwritten.
Also note that Subtitle Offset requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client Profile.

[…]

Network Monitor for Windows 7

If you are using Windows 7 you may have noticed that Microsoft decided to remove the Network Activity icon from the tray area and instead, substituted it with a dull plain white icon.

According to this video at Channel 9, the design team for Windows 7 removed it because they wanted to make Windows quieter. Well, I’m all for “quieter” as long as it doesn’t compromise an important feature.

Since I find it very important to know how much activity (if any) is going on through my network adapter I decided to code a small utility that would mimic the behavior of the old Network Icon.

[…]

I Want My Screensaver Settings!

Screensavers are no longer what they used to be… I guess that’s because people now use their computers more than before so there’s no time for those colorful and fun assortment of random animations to show up.

But I’ve always been a fan of screensavers. Some of them are truly works of art, some are simply amazing works of coding and some are, well, just fun to watch.

Who doesn’t remember the AfterDark screensavers pack!
Man I loved those and one of the things I loved the most is that they came with tons of configuration options. Actually, I remember spending a lot more time configuring them than actually watching them.

One of the things I noticed when I started toying with Linux distros was the huge amount of screensavers that were available. Some I had already seen but many others were just amazing pieces of coding and art. And as if they were actually meant to satisfy my geeky needs, they had tons and tons of settings. I was a happy lad.

Unfortunately, at some point, some smartass had the bright idea to remove the “settings” button that gave us access to the settings on those screensavers. I was like, what the FUUUUUU?!?! […]