JBI Studios' Blog on Voice-Over, Dubbing, and Multimedia Localization.

Most of our subtitles translation posts have centered on questions that we get from you, our clients. For today’s post, we’re going to flip the script, and instead look at a question we ask for every single project: Do you have a high-resolution version of the video that you’d like us to use? Many clients aren’t sure either what this video would look like, or how to ask for it – and sometimes it’s not even available. However, getting high-res source videos can raise the quality of the final subtitling deliverable, so it's crucial for multimedia localization professionals to know what they are.

Today’s post will look at the pros and cons of using a high-resolution video file for your subtitling video localization project.

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This is one of the most common questions we get from voice-over recording clients, for both video and audio applications. Specifically, are timed audio and synchronized audio different deliverables? The answer is a resounding yes. More importantly, they’re different in ways that affect recording workflows – and therefore, pricing. So it’s essential for audio and video translation project managers to be able to understand the difference between them.

This post will outline the difference between timed and synchronized voiceover audio.

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On-screen titles are often a source of frustration during otherwise straight-forward video translation projects. Why? It’s simple – they require a large amount of labor to replace and re-format during localization, and in video editing software all this work has to be done by hand, without the aid of translation exports. Fortunately, there are three steps that video editors can take to make their timelines much more localization-friendly – and much more cost-effective.

This blog will list three tips for editors that will significantly lower on-screen title replacement costs.

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Last week, Articulate 360 announced exciting new features for e-Learning translation – in particular, support for standard caption and subtitles formats in Storyline. Along with that, Articulate added new functionalities to Review, their online portal for course QA. Review is already a game-changer for e-Learning localization, but these two features make it even better.

This post will look at the new features in Articulate Review and their impact on e-Learning QA.

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Accurate voice-over services quotes are crucial to the success of any audio and video localization projects. However, voice over can be somewhat difficult to quote. Why? First, several service options exist for the same content. Second, pricing can depend on market factors as well as studio labor involved. It's a little tricky – but it is possible to get accurate quotes, if you know what to ask.

This blog post will list the six questions you must ask to get an accurate VO translation quote.

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You read that correctly – in the latest release of Articulate 360, Storyline supports standard captioning and subtitling formats, for both audio and video files. This is a game-changer for e-Learning translation & localization, affecting everything from course development to translation workflows. At JBI, we’re very excited about this.

This post will look at why this added functionality is so exciting for e-Learning localization.

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Subtitling into right-to-left languages like Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, Dari and Urdu is one of the harder tasks in video translation. It’s gotten better in recent years, with Unicode and robust language support, which has made localization into these languages much more reliable and straight-forward. But issues can still pop up.

This blog post will list 3 crucial tips that any multimedia localization specialist must know when subtitling into right-to-left languages.

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In today’s post, we’ll look at the single most important question facing a video translation project – whether to choose voice-over or subtitles. Both services are excellent ways of localizing video content, but they are better options for certain kinds of content. And of course, they can have very different costs. So, how do you determine which is right for your video project?

This post will list the three questions that corporations, production companies, and e-Learning developers must ask before choosing a video translation service.

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Cleaning is a must for all professional, high-quality audio voice-over productions. However, the sorts of elements that get cleaned for corporate and e-Learning voiceover are not the same as for entertainment or marketing applications. Even some e-Learning content has different cleaning requirements. So how do you know when to clean out an element in the audio – and when to not clean it?

This post will list the three situations that require a different standard for cleaning in audio localization services.

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