Julia & Tania Online Blog

The Sony Video Walkman does not appear to support videos with embedded subtitles or externally-stored subtitles (soft subtitles/softsubs). The only option available for this device then is to burn the subtitles onto original video frames (hard subtitles/hardsubs). So, for this entry, we’re going to suggest a way to hardsub your video footage so you can watch it on the Sony Video Walkman; this is not meant to be a step-by-step tutorial, but an overview of what is needed to hardsub videos.

There are four programs you’ll need – all are completely free to download online:

1) Auto Gordian Knot (AutoGK)
2) VirtualDub
3) Handbrake
4) SubRip

Brief explanations of what each of these programs are for:

AutoGK and VirtualDub

    Together with VirtualDub, AutoGK is used to burn the subtitles onto the video footage and converts the file to an AVI video format. A note: when you download the full package, it’ll come with three more installers: VobSub (a plugin for VirtualDub to do the hardsub), AviSynth, and the XviD codecs. Make sure you install all of these if you haven’t got them on your computer already as they will be called upon by AutoGK during the hardsubbing and conversion process.

Handbrake

    We talked about using this program in a previous post, “Finally! A video converter for the Sony Video Walkman!“. This is the converter we’ll use to encode the AVI file produced by AutoGK to MP4 (or any one of the other formats accepted by the Video Walkman).

SubRip

    If you have a DVD, a VOB file, or some other video file with embedded subtitles, you can use this program to extract the subtitles and save it as a subtitle text file (for example, an .srt file) for inputting into AutoGK. This program isn’t necessary if you’ve other means to obtaining a subtitle text file, for example the internet.

Hardsubbing

    Now that you have all the required programs, plugins and codecs installed, you can begin hardsubbing. Grab your source file (video footage) and subtitles and input those into the appropriate fields in the AutoGK program; select the audio track/language track you wish to use, define the output size before adding the job to the queue at the bottom of the program’s interface. That’s pretty much as hard as it gets as AutoGK does everything else. At the end of the process, you’ll get an AVI file with burned-on subtitles.

Converting to a format compatible with Sony Video Walkman

    Take the AVI file AutoGK produced and get the Handbrake program to convert the file to a format the Sony Video Walkman accepts. Remember, make sure that you do adhere to the supported file format specifications outlined in the Sony Video Walkman user manual; make sure you do not exceed the maximum resolution, framerate, bitrate, or file size stated. If you do exceed them, you’ll find that the file won’t play on the Video Walkman.

Last words

    Apparently in the AutoGK program, you can select – what we assume – embedded subtitles from your video footage. If you find that embedded subtitles from your source file do appear in the program’s “Subtitle track(s)” section, you could try using those instead of external ones. Since our video footage was just video footage with no embedded subtitles, we used an external subtitles file for the subbing. To input external subtitles, you’ll need to bring up the “External Subs” field by pressing CTRL+F8 as the field is not readily displayed.

    There are also Advanced Settings for AutoGK which allows you to configure the output resolution, codec, and audio type. We left them all as default: “Auto Width”, “XviD”, and “Auto” (respectively). We figured if we wanted to change anything we’d do that in Handrake where we do the final conversion.

Well, there you go. This is one way of getting subtitles on the Sony Video Walkman. We know people don’t like hardsubs because 1) it takes hours to encode a 1-2 hour video; 2) you can’t turn subtitles on and off; and 3) you lose multilingual support; but when it’s the only option, it’s the only option.

    For those of you who are looking to hardsub for this device, we hope that this has been somewhat helpful. If anyone has any questions or need some help, don’t hesitate to send us a message. Also, if anyone knows another way or there is in fact an alternative to hardsubbing for this device, please do let us know too.

Well, that’s a wrap! Enjoy watching your subs!

Looking for a video converter that can convert your favourite video content for the Sony Video Walkman?—Yes? No? Well, we were and it took surfing countless sites, downloading and testing countless video converters available for free download to finally find one that was compatible with the Sony Video Walkman.

    The video converter we’re referring to is called HandBrake. All other programs available for free download either produced poor video quality or the audio was horribly out-of-sync by the end of the clip—guess you can’t really expect too much for free stuff, eh?—but HandBrake proves you can get stuff that works for free. It compresses well, accepts pretty much any type of video as source (including DVD VOB files!), converts them to video formats compatible with the Video Walkman such as MPEG-4 and M4V, and most important of all, it is not a free-trial version, it’s free.

    We won’t go into the features here as you will be able to read all about them on HandBrake’s site (which we’ll provide a link following this entry). Just know that it creates good quality video with synced audio that will play on the Sony Video Walkman, allowing you take your favourite clips, episodes, films, etc anywhere you go.

    Testing the program, we decided to try it with an episode from our favourite TV series, Star Trek Voyager. We dropped in a 44-minute DVD VOB file into HandBrake and began converting it to MP4 (MPEG-4) format, using the XviD codec (and later the H.264 codec too), and for the audio, AAC codec, Stereo, 44.1kHz, 128Kbps. It took roughly 45 minutes to encode and came out to be about 175MB in size.

    The results were not bad at all. In fact we were very pleased. Unlike the other free video converters we tried where we encountered problem after problem—poor video quality, out of sync audio, and fluctuating audio levels—HandBrake presented us with clear video, great audio quality that did sync with the footage, and a file size we were happy with. Finally, our search for a good free video converter was over, leaving us free to convert and enjoy our Star Trek Voyager episodes on our Video Walkmans (we have E-series Walkmans if that’s any use)! Yay.

So if you’ve still yet to find a good video converter for your Sony Video Walkman, try HandBrake.

    Just a note about encoding video files using the H.264 (x264) codec to produce an MP4 file: for some reason the Sony Video Walkman does not recognise it. To solve this problem, go to the “Advanced” tab of the program and copy and paste in: ref=2:bframes=2:me=umh into the text box at the bottom. That should do the trick. We can’t remember the forum we found this piece of code from, but if we find it again, we will provide a link to it. The forum has some helpful threads.

    Another couple of tips: 1) In the “Audio & Subtitles” tab, click the drop down menu and select the source audio track (usually third in the list) instead of leaving the source as “Automatic” as we found that not selecting it sometimes produced out-of-sync audio; 2) make sure the video and audio specifications meet the ones listed in the device’s user manual because if they don’t, you’ll find an error message saying that the file cannot be played even when the file is in a format accepted by the Video Walkman.

Happy watching!

Useful Resources:

HandBrake

A fantastic free video converter that is compatible with the Sony Video Walkman. It is also good for general video converting. It takes in a range of video format as source: VOB, AVI, FLV, WMV, etc, and converts them to M4V, MP4, MKV, AVI, and OGM, as well as allowing one to set the file size limit (very handy).

Looking through some of our works in music videos we have come to realise that our music videos are rather simple and basic-looking: the final render has very little special effects, using only the basic editing tools such as trim and adding a few fades here and there to create the music video. But a music video that looks simple does not mean that it is any easier to make or that any less effort is required to make it. Even when making a simple music video with little special effects it requires quite a bit of thought and effort; it is not as simple as just a few edits of scenes and piecing it to music.

    So, for this entry, we thought we’d write about creating a music video and what we believe are some (but not all) of the important things to pay attention to when creating it.

Camera shots and position:

    When selecting scenes for our music video, we should take into account the camera shots and position of the selected scene. Because different camera shots and positions give us different information (for example, time, location, who or what our focus is, a character’s disposition, or even a character’s status in society), we need to study them and take some time to think about whether or not the selected shot or sequence of shots can be used effectively to tell the story of our music video.

    On many occasions, we’ve seen completely unedited scenes taken from an episode and simply “dumped” into the music video. It would seem that these music videos were attempting to use the meaning created in the episode and transferring it over to the music video to help create its meaning. Although the meaning/the author’s intentions of the unedited scene may be loud and clear for some (i.e. to those who have seen the episode the scene was taken from), for others, it may be just a sequence of shots that has no connection to the music used whatsoever. The result is one that reaches some and not others, or even worse, make no impact on the viewers and is dismissed as a poorly made music video.

Tempo and Mood:

    The tempo and mood of the piece are probably dependent on the piece of music we choose and the genre of the music video. So, for an action piece, we’d imagine we’d choose a piece of music that is faster, with lots of beats—whereas, for a romantic piece, we’d choose a slower song. For a faster piece, one would expect a lot more shots than a slower piece in order to capture the intensity of, one, the music, and two, the action genre. This would mean a greater amount of editing (as we’d expect more shots to be used) where the duration of the shots are typically shorter. So here is another example to why we cannot simply keep long sequences taken from an episode without editing it ourselves: the scene has been edited for the episode it came from, and not for the music we have chosen to piece it to.

Flow:

    As there are many genres of music videos out there, how the the scene flow from one to the next depends on the type of video we are trying to make. The point we want to make here is just that we should make sure our eye doesn’t jump or pop in and out unnaturally or dart everywhere as we try to watch the music video. To ensure that we don’t cause such an effect on our audience, we should watch our music video several times, even a dozen times during the editing process to see if it flows as the music video should.

    As a couple of tips, there are a few ways we connect our scenes. One is fade. Fades are probably one of the most used techniques to connect scenes, whereby we leave one scene by fading out and in to the next. Another way is to pay attention to the actions of characters and objects in the scene. We can use the flow of their motion—whether it be a glance of the eyes, a turn of the head, or a throw of a vase (for example)—to head into the next shot. Yet another way is to use the flowing motion of the camera and carrying on this flow of motion onto the next shot, making sure that this next shot carries on the motion and from a similar position it left off.

Facial expression and body language of characters:

    We’re not sure if people pay attention to such things, but we find that facial expressions and body language of the characters to be an important note to take when choosing our shots for our music video. Why?—because a smile (let’s say) does not only come in one form, but it comes in many: there’s the kind smile, the smug smile, the devious smile, the sad smile—well, we’re sure we all get the picture; and sometimes choosing the right shot with the right smile can greatly add to the music video and the story we’re trying to tell.

Mouth Movements:

    This is the last point we want to make and it is the one concerning mouth movements during sections of the song where there are no lyrics. Ideally, during sections where only instrumental music is playing, characters should not be speaking at all. Those who are strict on having no movement of the mouth during such intermissions will not tolerate it. But for those who are less strict, they may tolerate a very tiny movement of the lips. Either way, do your best to keep characters’ lips still during instrumental parts of the music.

Last Words:

    Before making a music video, it is probably a good idea to listen to the song a dozen times before beginning so that you understand its intending meaning. Once you get that, either use its intended meaning to create your music video or alter its meaning to tell your story. We also think that it’d be helpful to understand at least a little of how the different camera angles, positions, and other filming techniques are used to create meaning. Understanding “the grammar of television and film”—as a site so nicely phrased—it’ll allow you to use the shots to your advantage and create something that connects to the audience more. We want the people who watch it to go “Wow, that’s deep…”—well, not exactly like that, but we don’t want them lost because the shots we’ve chosen just don’t suit the music.

Further reading:

Camera Shots, angles, and movement, lighting…

A good place to read about the different camera shots and angles, camera movements, and lighting.

Cinema — Directing

A site that briefly goes into the different types of camera shots with examples of how it might be used to create meaning.

The Grammar of TV and Film

A nice site discussing the different camera shots, camera techniques, editing techniques, lighting, sound, and more. It also discusses how they are used and what effect/meaning they are trying to achieve.