LAMP - Lingual Media Player for listening practice with videos and SRT subtitles

[mlescano]

After discovering and enjoying WorkAudioBook thanks to these forums, I decided to find a similar tool for watching videos with matching .SRT subtitles.

 

So I found LAMP (Lingual Media Player).

 

The good:

-It's free

-It can play the video line-by-line, FluentU style

-Can display two subtitles (One in Chinese and another one in English, for example) side by side

-You can quickly turn on/off both the Chinese and English subs with keyboard shortcuts

-Keyboard shortcuts for repeating, previous sub and next sub

 

 

Disadvantages:

-Installer is Windows only. There's a browser version, however.

-Still can't open subtitles embedded inside the .mp4 file, and development seems to have been halted years ago, so it's unlikely this feature will ever be included. You need a separate .SRT file.

 

How to use to practice listening:

-.SRT Subs will be loaded automatically when you open the video file and both have the same name and are in the same folder.

-To make sure you're actually listening and not reading, 1) Press the little arrow on the top right to hide the panel with the full transcript, 2) Press Q and W to toggle both Chinese and English subtitles (if any) are hidden (both indicators will turn orange).

-If you're not that advanced, press TAB to toggle between continuous playback or line-by-line playback. Press LEFT arrow to repeat the current line, and the UP/DOWN arrows to move to the previous/next line.

-Repeat each line as many times as needed. Only after trying hard without the subs, turn on the Chinese subs by pressing Q.

-If you don't have the English subs to clarify meaning, you can bring back the side panel and just select a portion of the text. It will be automatically translated with Google.

 

Tip: Keep your left hand in the alphabetic keyboard and your right hand in the numeric keypad, both in touch typing positions, and the keyboard shortcuts will make sense. Turn off Numlock.

 

What to do if you only have embedded soft, text-based subtitles (nor hardcoded): UPDATED 2017-07-22

-First, make sure you can extract the subs by checking the info in VLC. Open with VLC > Ctrl + I > Codec and if you see a "tx3g" subtitle stream you're good to go.

-Convert the mp4/m4v to mkv using Handbrake. Make sure to "add track" in the subtitles tab.

-Open it with Subtitle Edit

-Save the .srt and enjoy learning with LAMP

(if you open the mp4/m4v directly with SubtitleEdit it might get the timings wrong. That's why we first use Handbrake to convert to mkv)

 

If anyone knows of similar players (or a simpler workflow for extracting a properly offset tx3g stream from an mp4), please comment.

 

Bonus:

If you need it, you can create a pinyin version of your .SRT with this online tool:

https://easypronunciation.com/en/chinese-pinyin-phonetic-transcription-subtitle-converter

 

You can then load it as your secondary subtitle track. So when you press Q you turn on the Chinese-only subs, and when you press W you turn on the pinyin version.

[Flickserve]

Do you have examples of video have you used and sourced from where ? 

 

27 minutes ago, mlescano said:

make sure you can extract the subs by checking the info in VLC. Open with VLC > Ctrl + I > Codec and if you see a "tx3g" subtitle stream you're good to go.

 

[mlescano]

Yes, but I think most people won't find these videos interesting. Right now I'm practicing with this video:

https://tv.jw.org/#cmn-hans/video/VODStudio/pub-jwb_201703_1_VIDEO

 

This site has many mp4s with embedded tx3g subs, some short, some long. This is the reason I had to find a workflow to extract and correct the offset.

[Flickserve]

23 minutes ago, mlescano said:

This site has many mp4s with embedded tx3g subs, some short, some long

 

Thanks.  I am just wondering if tx3g subs are common. It is the first time I have heard of it. And would Chinese video websites have them? 

[mlescano]

My experience with Chinese sites is limited. However, this is the format you must encode your subtitles in if you're authoring for Apple devices. (I use Subler for that).

 

So, it is my wild guess that iTunes movies use this format, too. So if you have movies from iTunes Taiwan (or the now defunct movie section in iTunes China) and have a way to "jailbreak" them, you can try the steps I outlined. Who knows, maybe there are a few Chinese movies in iTunes USA.

 

EDIT: I guess you could search for movies in "iTunes", "iPhone", or "AppleTV" format. These should include tx3g subs, if any.

[mlescano]

Quick update on what to do if the soft subtitles are embedded in the video:

 

-Convert the mp4/m4v to mkv using Handbrake. Make sure to "add track" in the subtitles tab.

-Open it with Subtitle Edit

-Save the .srt and enjoy learning with LAMP

 

(if you open the mp4/m4v directly with SubtitleEdit it might get the timings wrong. That's why we first use Handbrake)