--- Forwarded Message from Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 10:26:57 -0600
>From: Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]>
>To: LLTI-Editor <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Japanese Text Tracks in QuickTime movies

I am having a problem with QuickTime Title Tracks.  I want to display a 
Japanese word in the corner of various short QuickTime movies, along 
with the English gloss of that word.  For example, one file would say 
"Agemas" (in Hiragana) and below it, "to raise."

I can display English text as desired, but the Japanese comes out as a 
string of meaningless Roman characters and punctuation.  This stream of 
characters is consistent for a given Japanese word.  It also matches 
what I see in a word processor, such as TextEdit, if I try to display 
the hiragana with a font like Monaco.  So I think I have a font 
substitution/character set problem.

I have set the text tags (descriptors) to various fonts (capable of 
displaying Japanese), in the text file for the QuickTime Text Track. 
Using Arial, for example, I can display the Hiragana fine in TextEdit, 
but it comes up scrambled in the QuickTime movie.  Using some of the 
Japanese fonts, such as Hiragino Mincho Pro or MS Mincho, I get no text 
on the QuickTime movie- just the black background of the text box. Both 
the English and the scrambled Japanese that displayed using Arial have 
disappeared.

I have set the language: tag and the encoding tag to Japanese and utf-8 
in various combinations.  Some settings seem to have no effect, while 
others eliminate the text, as described above.  I have TextEdit set to 
import and export as UTF-8.  My problem seems to be getting QuickTime 
to evaluate display the characters as the proper Unicode set.

If you can offer me any suggestions, I would be grateful. Other 
techniques would also be welcome.  I have tried inserting the words as 
iMovie titles, with and without third-party title plugins.  In both 
cases, the text in the resulting QuickTime movie is too ragged and 
unclear for the professor's tastes.

Thanks,

Derek

Derek Roff
Language Learning Center
Ortega Hall 129, MSC03-2100
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
505/277-7368, fax 505/277-3885
Internet: [log in to unmask]


***********************************************
 LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for
Language Learning (http://iallt.org/), and The Consortium for Language Teaching
and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/).
Join IALLT at http://iallt.org.
Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask])
***********************************************