OT: Beta update for X-Title Extractor

I've created a new version of X-Title Extractor – it's beta.

The older versions were all based upon the release of FCPX 10.0.1 which had a poor XML support. Later versions added the XML features of 10.1.x. So the app became quite a moloch.
So I rewrote finally more or less the complete app. It doesn't do the complicated analyze of Motion Titles any more. That makes it faster and also independent of the installed templates.
Main thing though is that the complete timing stuff is rewritten from ground up, All apps which do a kind of same job as X-Title Extractor do have trouble to get the correct timing of titles out of a project XML. That's why X-Title Extractor required an XML with subtitles only in the past to keep correct timing. With the new version this is not needed anymore – you will get the correct timing for each subtitle right out of a project. Subtitles in compound clips will be ignored. Transitions for subtitles will be handled the FCPX way. This means the subtitle timing will use the FCPX subtitle times for fade in/out or cross fade.

As said, it's beta.
So several of the interface things are not connected, not working or simply not there. The help is not updated yet. The main things (standard import/export) are working.
For me it would be very important to test subtitle timings and get some feedback. From the tests we had run it's world's finest app for this purpose – just a joke

Final features will include:
Project selection out of an event XML.
Extended WebVTT support.
Probably "color to speaker" option. If you don't know what that means drop me an email.
SBV support.
Maybe optional DCP (Interop, SMPTE) support, this depends on feedback.
Options to check for broadcast subtitles (character count per line, words per minute, characters per second, subtitle length etc).

To download this beta go to:
dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/63959366/X-T...%20Extractor.app.zip

Feedback is appreciated.

- Andreas

I had never heard of it, it looks really useful.

I didn't know about X-Title Extractor either.

I though x2srt was the only way to extract subtitles from a FCPX project. It's great to have an alternative.

What advantages does your application offer over the x2srt web utility? I'd love to know more!

Thanks in advance, Andreas!

Just have a look at the website of x2srt.

1 Use native text generator for avoiding bugs
2 Don't expect text-styles, as bold, italic etc, they are not supported by now!
3 Using differents text-styles inside subtitle cause line-break!
4 Line-breaks are usually recognized, don't use text-clips layered. Assemble all lines into one single text-clip instead
5 Only framerates 24,25,30,50 correctly works. 29,97 and 23,98 will be soon available

XTE will support the popular DH_SubtitleX generator from Digital Heaven (X-Title Importer already does)
All styles will be supported.
Layered text can be merged into one subtitle.
All frame rates are supported.

x2srt doesn't support roles and as the name says only SRT.
The current release version of XTE based on the 2011 release already supported/supports all points from 2-5 but no complete project or event XMLs.

The only other app I know which can handle fcpxml is Annotation Edit. It's a very powerful app for many subtitle uses and subtitle creation. It costs 245 Euro. It lacks correct timings for projects and mixed style support.

Another league is the 99 USD SugarFX Subtitle which works both with FCP X and PremierePro. It allows to import and export SRT into it's own fxPlug track. So it's not very flexible and more or less limited to a finished movie.

- Andreas

Thanks for the information, Andreas.

Certainly, X-TItle Extractor already looks like a much more solid tool than x2srt, and it's only in beta state!

I'll give it a try as soon as I can.

Keep up with the good work!

By the way, I listed a couple of your apps in this FCPXML chart I made for my Twitter account.



I hope it helps to get more people to know your apps, as well as all the other apps that support FCPXML and empower new workflows with FCPX.

Cheers,

Jesús
@jesus_edits

Hi Andres!

I have use your software like water! I love it and it makes my life a lot easier and fun

I'm one of does that would love the DCP export directly form X-Title Extractor, because the process of using first X-Title Extractor and then TitleExchange is canid of not reliable (had mixed results there).

Thanks for the grate work!

Thanks Jesus and Santiago for your replies.

Regarding DCP: It's a difficult decision wether to implement or not. There are some people who would love to see it there.
But all together that is a hand full or two. To implement DCP will take a lot of work and wouldn't make sense in regards of making some money on this with the current small interest in it.

Regards
Andreas

That's to bad DCP is one of my mind deliveries and being able to work the subtitles inside FCPX and the just export them is a dream come true... would love to have less steps and more reliability... But any how, I will continue donating to your cause

I didn't say it won't be there. I meant it won't be there for there for the final release of this version.

You can also use www.michaelcinquin.com/tools/DCP/DCP_subtitling
it doesn't have effect support or "individual" style support per subtitle but otherwise it works fine.

- Andreas

JPM Editor wrote:
By the way, I listed a couple of your apps in this FCPXML chart I made for my Twitter account.

And these are some of the apps WITHOUT FCPXML support... yet. We'll see if the list stays the same after NAB.

For those who are interested.

I've uploaded a new version which supports event fcpxml with multiple projects.
Also Digital Heaven's DH_SubtitleX generator are supported.
Most (if not all) of the UI stuff is connected to code again.

I appreciate any feedback.

- Andreas

dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/63959366/X-T...%20Extractor.app.zip

Trying now.

By the way with all your apps I get an error at startup:

Hi Andreas,

So I've just opened the XML of my shortfilm with your app (light version).

I am using DH_subtitleX in my film. The app detects it and makes a conversion.

The first issue I see is that the subtitles are not in the right order. Most of them are but there are several that are detected with the wrong timecode and placed where they should not be.

Hi Manoucho,

Sorry I missed your post.

There will be a a new thread over the weekend which covers the answers to your questions.

- Andreas

Thanks Andreas

Would be great if you can notify here of the new post, I really don't want to miss it.

Hi Andreas

Was just curious if you had made progress with the app ?

Hi Manoucho.

Sorry, again late response.

There is a lot of progress, but it's not yet implemented into pubic versions.

Here a big "Thank You" to all of the testers who sent me their problematic XMLs.

Several of those feedbacks required to re-think the handling.
Several of them showed FCPX oddities.
Other showed user errors which are not visible in FCPX.
Often enough there are problems with output formats since some players or apps don't cover the specs.

Meanwhile I have serious doubts whether all this time investment makes any sense at all.
If I do a rough calculation time against money I get something like 20 cent per hour invested time.
So finally there is no real market for an app like mine in the FCPX ecosystem – even though is the most advanced within the available apps.

Back to your original questions.
The current versions have the annoying but harmless bug with the serial number fixed.
Subtitles have to be within a subtitle only project cause of timing issues (little consolidate for me: this is valid for all other apps of this type)

- Andreas

I understand.

I know nothing about this, but have you considered packaging it into FxFactory or something like this ?

I am sure there is a market for that app. But people don't know it that much.

Manoucho,

Thanks for the reply.

fxFactory unfortunately is no option, it's for plugins only.
The AppStore currently doesn't fit for my apps (or the other way round).
AppStore stores requires that I pay for the app to be in the store and change my apps to fit into the store.

- Andreas

Yeah. Doesn't seem easy indeed.