Linguistic Team International Forum

Quoted from "ossi11111"

Obviously you do not have time to lend us your excellent time-shifting eyes.

And they have just cut one hour to what we had
I completely forgot about this.
So here's what I think you need to focus in order to improve it. First, an overview of how Timeshifting/transcription guidelines are determined for all LTI; last, at the bottom of the post, how I am doing it lately.

From the guidelines below, taken from a wiki page which the info could need some updates and that is why I copy this from there, if you follow the 1st guideline, the other 2 will be almost always well applied too. In other words, if you divide the strings according to the grammar rules for building sentences and the flow of the speech (the rules to make sentences are in accordance to how ideas are connected and transmited -nouns, verbs, complements, etc; Jacque usually has a nice flow and respects these rules when talking, which makes our life easier), the resulting strings will tend to be longer than 1,5 seconds and shorter than 80 characters. If they end up being not so, 1,5 characters is critical because if the string passes too fast we can not read it or it will tire us from following the subs. 80+ characters strings might be preferable, sometimes, if the reading time improves by making the strings longer. With Jacques speech we usually don't find this challenge but we do with Peter quite often. Nevertheless, I find the strings on the working location above quite short and so changing often, which demands some focus from my eyes when watching. I like to appreciate Jacques expressions and to enjoy the extra time he allows with his speech pace to fetch more references in my mind about what he is telling. If the subs transition between strings in shorter periods of time, I can't do that so well.

• Consider the strings structure through 2 main parameters: a) the grammatical structure of the sentences
  

when determining the [transition point]
from one string to the next one, and b) the character per second ratio
in the subtitles strings display time, in order to achieve the best
reading comfort possible.

• Minimum display time for a subtitle: 1.5 seconds
  

Consider leaving at least 1.5 seconds for 1 line of text or less (42
characters), and at least 2 seconds for more than one line (more than 42
characters), if possible.

• String length consideration for a subtitle string, ~70 characters (including spaces),
  

Since the maximum in a TV screen is 84 chars (two lines, 42
characters per line), this reference of 70 chars is taking other
languages into consideration (those that use more letters than English
to say the same thing). Some languages need up to an extra 25% of string
space, but be aware that splitting the speech in smaller strings can
also compromise the reading comfort.



What I am doing lately, when transcribing or revising, is to divide the strings according to the sentence/ideas structure and the reading time, in a combination of these two towards the best reading comfort. If it is possible to have that comfort and not have 2 full lines of text on the screen, I leave them shorter [ex: until 1,75 (1+3/4) lines, depends mostly of the sentence(s) structure(s)] in order to avoid other languages to have to use 3 lines of text on screen to fit their translations. If that change compromises the reading comfort, I put it back as it were and leave the strings bigger (longer in words but also in reading time)

Synchronization can be compromised in order to achieve this reading comfort. Aesthetics is secondary to effectiveness.

I hope this helps.
have fun ; )