Amara support

"This video shows how to type a transcript in Amara's Subtitle Editor. [Subtitled in:] English original Chinese, Traditional French Indonesian Italian Portuguese, Brazilian incomplete Russian Spanish "

Subtitles can be downloaded in various formats from the page of their language

"Different users are requesting the possibility of including other sign languages (we currently have ASL) because signing is radically different per language or region. Furthering complexity is that sign languages are not equivalent to spoken languages: While Spanish may cover most of Latin America, most every Spanish speaking country has it's own particular sign language. How could we allow the option for users to identify original language of video as a specific sign language? Would we need to add all languages on the list to Amara?"

"How do I know what is an acceptable rate to charge? Depending on the nature of the audiovisual medium, rates vary. When subtitling DVDs, for instance, subtitlers tend to be paid per programme minute. The rates for documentary or commentary subtitling are usually higher than those for feature films. Subtitling companies have their own budget and the rates they offer can vary. A good way to evaluate if a rate is acceptable is by estimating the equivalent hourly rate you would be paid for the job. Some given rates are so low that if you decide to accept them you will - in addition to not doing yourself any favours - be endorsing the general downward slide of rates which will inevitably hamper the future of the profession. "

"In some video pages where the video language had been selected before the June 29, 2013 upgrade of the Amara software, this selection has been deleted after (by?) this upgrade. " I only listed 29 instances drom 2 sources because I got bored, but I pointed to other sources likely to yield heaps more of other videos where the video language got unselected"

"Lem Gordon started a topic 6 months ago (2013-02-03) I'm not a huge of the current embed code In my opinion, it's not so great visually to have a block on the left that doesn't cover all the width of the video Also I would prefer to display the subtitles below my video, instead of over it Here is a quick mockup for example [picture] Ideally, we should be have a few customization options when generating the embed code, like the position of the subtitles, the color of the text and background, whether the background has a gradient or not, and even font options if possible Thx"

"David King started a topic 6 months ago (2013-02-05) I just created an account and all my videos have the added link at the very top of the description. Is there any way to make that link automatically add to the bottom? I'm having to go through and move it in every video (300+) which is a huge pain. "

"Sorin started a topic 6 months ago (2013-02-08 ) The font you chose might look nice, but it's bad for people who want to learn languages, because SMALL-L is like BIG-I. That generates confusion. "

"Sorin started a topic 6 months ago (2013-02-08) Moldovan? There is no Moldovan language! Only Stalin believed that. Or ordered that. Moldavian is just a dialect of Romanian. It is just Romanian, how many times do we have to teach you? Adding that to the language lists is stupid, like adding the American language. It's not even "Moldovan", the way you try to spell it, but "Moldovenească". Instead, you are ignoring the Aromanian language, which IS considered a separate language, although very close to Romanian. Do your homework."

"Buzbee at Amara started a topic a day ago (2013-08-06) I can think of a few things that would improve search for captioners. I'd like the videos to be sorted into types. There are certain types of videos I prefer to caption. Probably it's the same for everyone. You have to listen to it several times before the work is done, so it might as well be something you like, right? There are certain videos I couldn't get through, by the same token. And sometimes 200 of those seem to be uploaded all at once. (From the same place.) Doesn't matter which so I will leave that vague. Aside from being able to search categories I would also like to be able to search: Videos which need English captions (can substitute language of choice there; right now can only search for videos which HAVE a given language - or which have no languages - but the latter often has incomplete captions and I prefer not to step on any toes) Videos which have been uploaded - that day, that week, that hour, etc. Videos from favorited channels (captioner can pick 'favorite channels') Videos from favorited topics (this can include a musical artist, key word for title, etc.) Videos by length - this can make a difference if the captioner is tired or hasn't much time that day. Or may be looking for a long project by the same token. Anyone have other ideas for improving search? Making it more efficient? Please specify if the idea is for benefit of Captioners or Viewers. (Both are important, I just think it's important to keep the two searches separate, since there are different needs.)"

"Buzbee at Amara started a topic a day ago (2013-08-06) I would love it if I were able to create a sort of 'watch list' or favorites list. A 'Save til later' list, if you will. Slogging through page after page in the "Watch" list, to try to find ones with 0 languages including no incomplete captions - seems the best way to find ones that someone put here, but which haven't had any work done on them yet. The downside of that, is, there are also many many pages to slog through...As I browse to see which one I will caption next, I run across several "maybes." It would be great to be able to bookmark those "maybe" videos, to come back to later on. For one thing I might be in different moods different times - wanting to caption music one day, a lecture the next, something silly the day after that...etc. But (being able to make a favorites/saved list on my account page would) also simply save time and would make sure I can find the videos again easily. It is too unwieldy to type a list elsewhere, and my computer bookmarks are a mess already, without adding more literal (computer) bookmarks. A saved list or favorites list, right here on this site, would be great. (This could of course be very handy for viewers also - not only for captioners.) I should add, this would not imply that the person has "dibs" on that video - that is a separate issue. If anything it would decrease competition since each person would have several videos handy that they can work on. Thoughts?"

"Claude Almansi started a topic 6 months ago (2013-02-10) Granted: "nick3 changed primary url from http://vimeo.com/39734142 to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2IJb1YnAmQ - 2 days, 22 hours ago [as I'm writing this]" for the video embedded in the home page of Amara.org. But http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2IJb1YnAmQ , in spite of its changed YouTube title, is still the "Learn about Universal Subtitles" video that was added to YouTube on on Oct 9, 2010, and hence to then Universal Subtitles four days later. As a result, the info on how the subtitling interface works and about accepted video formats - from 0:32 to 1:14, i.e. more than half the video - is now misleadingly obsolete. True, changing the title of the YouTube video means you don't have to bang an Amara thumbnail on the video anymore, but it changes nothing to the fact that this is a video about how Universal Subtitles was in 2010."

My comment: "However, it's interesting to see that there is NO automatic syncing between the YouTube channel [ http://www.youtube.com/user/friendlyandfun/videos ] for this video and Amara subtitles."

"Claude Almansi started a topic 7 months ago (2013-01-01) After the New release Amara 1.2.1, the Send a message link disappeared from users' profiles: it only remains present in teams' member lists. The possibility to message users who are not members of any team can be essential, for instance if their subtitles get deleted by a change in other subs for the same video (see A roll back destroys Spanish subs and messes up most other subs for PSY's Gangnam Style video and the other instances linked in that post)."

Still erroneously tagged "Planned" although I pointed out a month later that the messaging link had been restored.

"Claude Almansi started a topic 6 months ago 2013-02-14 There are 3 video tutorials that appear within the subtitling widget until you instruct the widget to skip them, and sometimes even when you do: for transcribing, syncing and revising. Paradoxically, they themselves are not subtitled. And then they refer to an old version of Universal Subtitles, before editing the title and description of the video was integrated as step 3 of the widget. So they should be updated, subtitled, and linked to in the corresponding step, instead of embedded in theoretically skippable intermediate pages. This would be most useful for people who are deaf (1) or don't know English. "

No reply.

"András Fuchs started a topic 6 months ago (2013-02-20) My team of translators often finds itself in a situation when the original transcript is out of sync, missing, misspelled or shows something other than what the speaker said. Sometimes we fix the English subtitle as well, but then the other subtitles in different languages which are already started (or finished) might have problems. It would be great to combine the subtitle versioning feature (planned to implement) with subtitle rating and/or approval. Amara should limit the translators in a way, that nobody could start a language specific subtitle until the original transcript is 100% finished and approved by let's say at least 3 independent users (or even native speakers). I think this step would increase the quality of the subtitles greatly."

Dean's rely: "... We've thought some about the idea of requiring a translation to be complete, before allowing translations to be based from it. However, in certain cases it is better to allow translation directly from the dialogue in a video. For example, during the Arab spring, we had a number of politically sensitive videos which were done in spoken Arabic - for the translators, speed was the most important thing, so needing to wait for an Arabic transcript, before they could translate into English, would have been a major disadvantage. We are working towards a simplified system for peer review that will first appear on teams and later become available for every video. ..." Mine: mentioned problem with autocaptions in the - now deleted - Coursera team.

"András Fuchs started a topic 6 months ago (2013-02-20) I'm working with a team on Khan Academy's site and when you're watching a video with subtitles there, it is often the case that the subtitle covers part of the active screen area and you can't see what the speaker is showing you. It would be much better to have a small, but separate control with black background to display the subtitles under the actual video. It might be Khan's task to do this, but I think Amara could do an option in its control too to decide where to display the subtitles."

"Enrique Govea started a topic 5 months ago I received a nice email with the NEW and old TEXT after another person on my team reviewed my subtitles. But I had to click on the link "Compare the new version to the last version." in order to see the changes on RED. Could we receive the emial with text already on RED? Could we approve/denied each new subtitle individually? Right now we have a system like, it is ALL or nothing. "

PCF Support comment: "Thanks for these suggestion, Enrique - I'll pass them on to the product team. --Dean" In the main post, the link to http://www.amara.org/videos/diffing/446887/446721/ on "Compare the new version to the last version." doesn't work anymore, because the URLs for subtitles changed after the June 23 2013 upgrade? See "The URLs of several subtitle sets have changed. Another aftershock of the June 29, 2013 upgrade?" http://support.amara.org/support/discussions/topics/26350 .

"Antony Brand started a topic 5 months ago (2013-02-26) I am a teacher and learner of languages including a number of non-latin scripts (ie. not abcde...) I excitedly entered my first subtitle track for a song (in its original script) which is Bengali (Bangla) together with an English translation. http://www.amara.org/en/videos/gas6mX5g1uWU/info/hrid-majhare-anusheh-anadil/ I ended making my Bengali track with the original script on the top line and made a line break to show the pronounciation on the bottom line but this solution was anglocentric. This gives undue weight to English/Latin script and excludes the possibility of transcribing into other scripts.. How much more powerful would it be to have transcriptions of videos in multiple scripts for people all around the world. If implemented it could be so so useful for: Koreans learning English Japanese studying German Russians singing Sanskrit Urdu speakers beginning Chinese in fact anyone anywhere needing to get their head around using a new script. Is this of interest to anyone else?"

rereading my comment: maybe I didn't understand the 1st topic.

"Sorin started a topic 6 months ago (2013-02-07) Now I remember why I gave up using Amara some time ago! And they haven't fixed it yet. 1. It's so hard to set the subtitle's end. You have some video, some dialogue, you set the beginning of the subtitle, but the end is just floating loose until the next subtitle. When you want to set the end, you have to deal with a lo-o-o-ong sausage. You have to drag the subtitle eng back 4 sec, and 4 sec, and 4 sec, until you get sick. Why don't you just make a right click menu like "End subtitle here"?? 2. When you wnat to watch the video in full screen, the subtitles just disappear! How incredibly stupid is that?? Hasn't anyone complained yet??"

In comments: explanation about up arrow and making a "buffer" subtitle.

"Hi, again I have a problem here. Thanks to Amara support, my subtitles once gone after the maintenance were restored and after that I could add some new subtitles to the video I had been working on. That's ok, but when I got back from a couple of days' trip and tried to add new subtitles again, I realized I had to "type whatever I hear". I mean, when I started to translate this video, I translated what the speaker says from English subtitles to Japanese subtitles as I usally do, but now, I have to translate what I hear in the video directly to Japanese. Why is this happening? Does this have something to do with the maintenance? Can anybody help me? " Mami Kawade is member of the TED team and this is about subtitles of a TED team video. I pointed her to Dharma Lee's "I am translating talks, but appears the transcribing system" topic on the same issue in the TED help forum, to which PCF Support (Margarita Shamraeva) replied to use the new editor to get a translation interface. Mami Kawade re-replied she'd done that, but had problems getting the 2 transcripts showing subtitles for the same moment in the video. In the TED support, apart from PCF Support's answer, a how-to about the new editor was added to the Solutions section: http://ted-support.amara.org/support/solutions/articles/107527-the-transcript-is-missing-when-i-resume-my-translation No reply from Amara staff on the general help forum and no tutorial added in the general help solutions section 2013-07-15. Mami Kawade reposted the description of the issue with the new editor on the TED help in http://ted-support.amara.org/support/discussions/topics/25107 2013-07-15

In http://ted-support.amara.org/support/discussions/topics/25107 , PCF Support explained: "There is a small lock icon at the bottom of the left column. If you unlock it, then you can scroll each list of subtitles independently from each other and align them as you wish."