The limit per box is 100 but recently I have been subtitling where it is 106 - 110 characters. What do I do?
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At the moment, you can just ignore it if you’re not able to stay within the limit. You can either use the Bulk translator as @a_hauth_238 suggests (also, see the topic pointed out for more info) or simply click on the next segment. The subtitles get saved, so no big deal (for now).
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No. Viki has also changed it there and there is the 100 character limit. Here you can NOT jump to the next segment with the TAB key or click on the next segment yourself and it will be saved automatically. You have to press save here for it to be saved. I think this is good, so we segmenters can see directly when there are too many characters and can adjust the corresponding segment directly.
The problem should therefore no longer occur in future projects. It is only problematic for old and already released things before day X.
When segmenting, we just have to make sure that the maximum number of characters is around 80, then the other languages also have a chance.
And Viki should somehow manage to ensure that the formatting characters don’t count, that would be ideal.
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Yes, I completely agree. The formatting characters counting toward the limit cause an unnecessary problem sometimes. I was one character short of a rather wordy segment because of a break. Also, the one break per segment rule confuses me a little when there are three people speaking or: dialogue, reply, another reply from the first person. I’m not really sure how else we should format it. I noticed the biggest problem for me was in the acknowledgment section where realistically there’s no way to cut or reword, since everyone’s username should be included. I think they should allow us some leeway for those at the very least, especially for older dramas which were segmented before the limit was instituted, because everyone who worked on the project deserves to be included. So far, it’s no problem since you can save anyway, but if it’s not like that in the future, I think it might be a good idea for there to be an exception for those segments, especially in the older dramas.
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That’s how I would do it.
-Dialog. & Reply. < br > - Reply.
It’s rare that we actually have segments with 3 speakers, but it happens because the segments can’t be done any other way, otherwise they’re too short. We have to see what we do then.
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I have encountered such a situation where the editor/translator decided to do this, and it made a complete illogical mess of the dialogue. However, now we know the rules, let’s hope situations like this won’t happen in the future. As for older series, whoever will translate them will have lots of “fun”.
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We can cut multiple credit segments.
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Checking every single segment in the bulk before we can even decide to cut, combine, or leave it be? We used to have the bulk on the side and now it becomes our main working space?
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No. I can see how much text there is in the segment timer. If it’s a lot, then I look in Bulk to see whether it’s better to split the segment. And when I combine a segment, I can also see whether there are too many characters.
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Hi Alex.
Based on Viki’s 100 characcters and your suggestion of a maximum of around 80 characters, I have put together the below document to help seggers roughly estimate the number of characters in a subtitle by using the time scale in segment timer.
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Maybe I don’t understand your document, but I find it misleading. We are not aiming for segments that are 17 seconds long.
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This sentence has 74 characters with formatting and is 5.5 seconds long. @manganese
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I agree, the length of the segment is just over 5 seconds long. Using the timeline to measure the length of the subtitle, though, shows that the subtitle is around 15 seconds long.
The approach I’m suggesting is only a quick estimate. It has nothing to do with the actual length of the segment. Rather it is how long the subtitle is on the viewer in the segment timer
Thank you for mentioning this as it gives me an opportunity to clarify things. As a result, I’ve updated my document to refer to the “subtitle’s on-screen display.”
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This is a very good idea. I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks for the suggestion. 
Yes, I think for the newer dramas it shouldn’t pose much of a problem. As for the older dramas, if it becomes a definite rule, I’ll guess we’ll have to figure out how to deal with those segments as they come along.
I can only hope Viki isn’t reckless enough to undo subtitles of the old shows. There should be some kind of adjusting period.
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But… Segmenters come before our editors.
The Viki pre-subs will surely be within limits, so there’s no problem if you don’t merge their segments, right?
The problem of more characters will appear when our TE adds the info that was skipped and the GE adds team notes.
Are you suggesting that the segmenters also come after the TE and GE?
I think the most rational thing to do is
- Seggers avoid merging subtitles, unless they are really really short (How are you? Well, thank you)
- The English editors can ask seggers to visit again and split some sentences that have become too long after editing. Or, since they won’t be many such instances, if they are trained seggers themselves, they can do it on their own, as usually happens anyway.
Who knows? Lately, seggers sometimes have to cut more than they combine so it depends on Viki’s future instructions to the paid staff/bot.
Still, the segments also need to be suitable for any other language on the planet so we can’t only look at English.
Seggers shouldn’t have to avoid all combining because of this. They can use their good judgment.
It’s usually the CS who makes those requested adjustments.
Only with the consent of the CS.
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With the new channels, I think it is the CS’s job (if the segmenters haven’t already done so) to pay attention to the number of characters in the segment during QC. It makes little sense to work on a episode several times because you haven’t paid attention to it. It costs time and is unnecessary.
As a first hint, there are the English presubs and then 3 other presub languages that have more or fewer characters for the corresponding English presubs. Plus the 5 language (their own).
It is therefore not necessary for the segmenters to avoid combining segments. They have learned what they have to pay attention to and should then adjust the segments. If they realize that there might be too many characters, they have to change the segment accordingly.
So if the segments at QC are such that the English presubs don’t have 100 characters (I think a maximum of 80 characters fits), there shouldn’t be any problems. Most of the segments in my current dramas had between 30 and 80 characters. The segments were usually between 2 and 5 seconds long.
Now even the English edit has room to add and change something. If the English subtitle comes close to 100 characters, the editor has to discuss with the CS whether the segment is splittable or whether he has to change the subtitle.
Like everything, it’s a question of communication (which is sometimes sadly lacking).
At the moment, I don’t see a problem with reducing the number of characters to 100 in the new dramas.
However, Viki should perhaps make sure, and if possible program, that the formatting characters are not counted as part of the permitted 100 characters.
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Yes, I agree. I thought the same. If it affects older shows and cuts off already translated segments, that’ll majorly affect the viewing quality. But seeing as there is a huge catalog of older shows, it would be a huge workload to fix it all, so I would assume the older shows will be an exception.
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