Softel SWIFT video problem

JuliaGoellnitz wrote:

I'm not sure where to post this and not too many people are familiar with subtitling software such as SWIFT, but there doesn't seem to be great support out there and I have encountered a problem that others might have, too.

I have been working on a project on Friday with a wmv video but when I open the document and video today in swift, the video won't play when I hit the "play" button. It is there alright and when I manually skip the timeline forward there are pictures, but it won't play.

I had a similar problem before after I updated video codexes and since then I haven't done any quicktime, wmv or any video codex updates, but as far as I can see in the windows update log, there hasn't even been a windows update between Friday and today.

I am totally clueless, I have checked three different wmv videos and they all behave the same.

Any help if greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Max Deryagin wrote:



Very few freelance subtitlers have SWIFT, as purchasing it makes little sense from the point of view of productivity, so I doubt anyone on ProZ can help you with this problem. In addition, the company called Softel does not exist anymore, as it was acquired by Miranda Technologies, which then merged with GrassValley (of Belden). That means you will probably not get any official support.

Also, what kind of project are you working on? If you need to create subtitles from the ground up, why freeze on wmv? You can just convert the video into any other format that plays as intended and work the way you're used to.

[Edited at 2014-10-27 12:41 GMT]

JuliaGoellnitz wrote:
Well, some clients send me stuff in mpg which works fine, others in wmv which does work usually. So they do the converting, not me. Do you know a good, maybe free, converter?

Thanks for your help!

Yes, Swift was expensive to begin with but not much more than other software, pretty much the same as wincaps. however, I am not convinced anymore swift is as good as others. I hear great things about EZTitles but having invested in SWIFT I am reluctant to spend another chunk on another software and having a hard time getting used to the UI and key commands...

JuliaGoellnitz wrote:

It seems that our experiences are a little different regarding freelancers working with pro softwares. All of my clients expect their freelancers to work with softwares such as Wincaps, Swift or EZTitles. There might be a way around it sure but when I started out I had a deal with the client whereby I loaned Wincaps from them and after the project was finished, instead of buying the whole program I was able to "freeze" my wincaps account. They then got a new client and promoted SWIFT that way whereby I pay them back for swift step by step - it was a more than fair offer and enabled me of getting into the profession "professionally". I think it makes life easier if you have the right tools and at uni we only worked with SWIFT, so why bother getting to know other, possibly less able software.

Anyhow, we're drifting!

I managed to solve the problem. It turned out it was an error on my part and I had tools -> internal time code CHECKED instead of unchecked...

Thanks everyone for their help!

Max Deryagin wrote:



I agree that professional software gives you an edge, but it is quite costly. By the by, does your SWIFT has the new Automated Timecoding feature? WinCAPS and CaptionMaker now offer a new tool which, using speech recognition, automatically creates timecodes for videos. I was wondering whether SWIFT has this tool, and if it does, how accurate it is.

I'm glad you've fixed the problem. Too bad we don't have separate forums for subtitling

JuliaGoellnitz wrote:
I've got an old version of Swift and I have to do everything manually. I am using speech recognition sometimes but you have to be so vigilant as to what it sometimes transcribes! So that function would be very useful. Do you happen to know if EZTitles has this function? Do you know how useful they are in Wincps? How does it do with shot changes then?

I've meanwhile run into a new problem: I am now working on a teletxt project which I deliver in EBU stl do all of my clients, but this client with EZTitles has now said that when they open the file, they get blank characters at the end of the row in a short subtitle, which they then have to remove manually.

We have found that this problem does not occur when I deliver as SRT but then the colour green is not a light neon green like I put it in but a dark green, whic again they will have to change.

I am seriously worried that I am going to loose this client in the long run, due to those problems. But I can't afford spending 1500 pounds/euros on new software just for that one client.