Urdu Subtitles and Captions

Working together with our experienced and qualified translators, voiceover artists, interpreters, audiovisual translators, transcribers and subtitlers, we offer a wide range of language services.

Available in over 200 languages within the UK and beyond, our linguists can get you heard in any language of your choice. While we do not offer a walk-in service, we are only one phone call away from discussing your language requirements.

The difference between subtitles and captions

Subtitles are usually created for viewers who can hear the speech, the audio and any sound effects, but they do not understand the language being spoken.  If your target audience is Urdu-speaking for example but the source language of your video material or film is English, you may require us to produce Urdu subtitles for you so that your audience can understand what is being said.

Closed captions are generally added so that the Deaf and hard-of hearing are better able to experience the video.  Closed captions provide extra information such as speaker changes, noises such as a door slamming and other audio elements. Closed captions can be turned on and off depending on who is viewing the material and their particular requirements.

“Open” captions provide the same function as “closed” captions except that they cannot be turned off and are always on view.

We can create subtitles in the same language as the source material, or in any other languages.  Just let us know what you need.

The art of providing perfect Urdu subtitles and captions

So what are our subtitlers trying to achieve when they start work creating your subtitle or caption file?  To make the experience of watching the video as meaningful and satisfying as if you were able to hear and understand without subtitles.

The best subtitles are those that the viewer almost forgets are even there!  The text needs to be readable, to capture the spirit of the original speech as closely as possible, to be well timed and not obscuring something crucial appearing on-screen.

Much of the above applies to creating the perfect captions, except in addition, our Urdu linguists must include audio events that form part of the viewing experience.

Urdu subtitles for the Deaf and hard of hearing (SDH)

SDH are intended for viewers who are Deaf or head-of-hearing and also do not understand the source language being spoken.  It is the most comprehensive form of subtitles as they include all non-verbal sounds and also provide a translation of what is being said.

Good SDH creators are very skilful as they need to encapsulate everything non-visual, construct meaningful subtitles in a different language – and to know how to put this information together so that the onscreen visual action is not compromised.  When there is a lot of dialogue and other (important) sound effects happening at the same time, the linguist must make decisions about how to prioritise the information without adversely affecting the viewing experience.

Real-time or live Urdu captioning

To help you reach a wider audience, we can provide live stream captioning for your conference, event or meeting. Choose between human, computer-generated captions or a mixture of both in the languages you need, including sign language.

Live captioning is specifically for live events and to help the Deaf and hard-of-hearing to participate and engage in events such as a live webinar.  The live captioner and the participant will join the event at the same time and will begin captioning so that the captions can be accessed in real time.

If you have an upcoming event, do get in touch with the details.  We’d love to help.

Post-event Urdu subtitle and caption service

Some of our clients choose to recycle their live events by editing the video content and re-using it on their social media pages and websites.  Just let us know if you need our team to add subtitles or captions to your cut-down versions – we’d be happy to help!

Output format of the subtitles and captions

Using subtitling software, we can provide subtitles in virtually any language and produce the end result in most industry-standard formats such as:

• Avid STL
• Ayato
• BDN XML
• Blue-ray
• CapMaker Plus
• Cavena
• Cheetah
• D-Cinema
• DVD Studio Pro STL
• EBU STL
• EDL
• FinalCut Pro
• PAC
• Subrip SRT
• VobSub

If you don’t see the format you need, just ask, as we will probably still be able to help.

If you prefer, we can simply embed the subtitles onto your video so they are immediately visible to the viewer.

How is the cost for Urdu subtitling or captioning calculated?

• The form (subtitle, open/closed, SDH, live etc)
• The number of minutes in the source file(s)
• The volume
• The number of speakers
• The subject matter

Get in touch with one of our lovely project managers and they would be very happy to discuss all the available options with you. Do also take a look at the security procedures and infrastructure we already have in place to protect your data.

While you’re here… some quite interesting facts about the Urdu language.

Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language with about 104 million speakers, including those who speak it as a second language. It is the national language of Pakistan and is closely related to and mutually intelligible with Hindi, though a lot of Urdu vocabulary comes from Persian and Arabic, while Hindi contains more vocabulary from Sanskrit. Linguists consider Standard Urdu and Standard Hindi to be different formal registers both derived from the Khari Boli dialect, which is also known as Hindustani. At an informal spoken level there are few significant differences between Urdu and Hindi and they could be considered varieties a single language. Urdu is also spoken in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Fiji, Germany, Guyana, India, Malawi, Mauritius, Nepal, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, the UAE, the UK and Zambia. Urdu has been written with a version of the Perso-Arabic script since the 12th century and is normally written in Nastaliq style. The word Urdu is Turkish for ‘foreign’ or ‘horde’. Courtesy of Omniglot

Where is Urdu most widely spoken?

Pakistan and India (Jammu and Kashmir, National Capital Territory of Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Telangana). Urdu is a recognised minority language in South Africa.