Coldrainwater's Log

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MorkTheFiddle
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Re: Coldrainwater's German Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Jul 13, 2019 10:58 pm

I wonder whether there is a similar app for cutting out wasted non-speaking time in videos. As an example, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Most are probably familiar with the now aging program, even if they have not seen it. When I watched the French-dubbed version a few years ago, I tracked my time watching. But I divided the time in half, because half of Buffy is Biff! Boom! Bam!, so if you watch a 42 minute episode, 21 minutes consist of Buffy demolishing one enemy or another with no conversation except the occasional wisecrack. It would be nice to be able to rid a movie or TV show of long periods of non-conversation.
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

Sayonaroo
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Re: Coldrainwater's German Log

Postby Sayonaroo » Sat Jul 13, 2019 11:29 pm

I have suggestions! You can extract the audio using foobar2000 if you have a video file then use audacity to truncate silence
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tru ... lence.html

you can select a 10 second chunk of the audio to preview the truncate effect before you run it for the whole file.

I share the sentiments as you and I did that for French dubs of TV shows I've seen in English so I can listen to them multiple times efficiently. You can even isolate the dialogue if you have subtitles that match the video by using subs2srs. You can even filter in or out certain text on subs2srs. What I did for a TV show was run subs2srs to grab all the audio, join the mp3 with MakeitOne MP3 Album Maker, then run that through audacity. Most of the shows that I found don't have subs that match so I used audacity to chop off the beginning where they have the theme song, then truncated silence.

As for video you can use potplayer to watch the video and fastforward the video using the subtitles (you can jump to the next subtitle with a shortcut)
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coldrainwater
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Re: Coldrainwater's German Log

Postby coldrainwater » Sun Jul 14, 2019 2:28 am

Mork,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I share the sentiments and believe the forum would benefit significantly if we had more options to increase the efficiency of TV shows and movies. I have put it on my list to search for programs to help. At first glance, it looks like Audacity may be able to handle your request without needing to decouple the audio from the video. See the section on FFmpeg here. I suspect the FFmpeg library + truncate silence might do the trick directly, but I haven't tested this and have only come across FFmpeg on a few isolated occasions in the past (I recall it definitely has chops though). MP4 is the specific option I was thinking about trying since it is easy to get video content in that format. I tend to want to distill any process down to simple repeatable steps with minimal overhead so everyone can benefit.

You can install the optional FFmpeg library to import a much larger range of audio formats including AC3, AMR(NB), M4A, MP4 and WMA (if the files are not DRM-protected to work only in particular software).
FFmpeg will also import audio from most video files or DVDs that are not DRM-protected.

Sayonaroo,

Great suggestions. And while we are at it, thanks for sharing all of the text manipulation tools in the other thread. I can see using several of them in my day to day professional life as an analyst/developer. I appreciate just about any tool that makes short work of data munging. In the interest of tool sharing, I use nimbletext and its complement nimbleset almost daily. I like the way you integrated all the tools with sub2srs. Right now, I am leaning towards solutions that can use subtitles (or not) but that don't necessarily decouple the video from the audio. I think for many learners, that would take too much of the fun out of the media (even speaking as a super-heavy podcast and pure-form audio proponent myself). I have much exploring to do.
Last edited by coldrainwater on Mon Jul 22, 2019 2:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
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MorkTheFiddle
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Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
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Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Coldrainwater's German Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Jul 14, 2019 2:34 am

Sayonaroo wrote:I have suggestions! You can extract the audio using foobar2000 if you have a video file then use audacity to truncate silence
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tru ... lence.html

you can select a 10 second chunk of the audio to preview the truncate effect before you run it for the whole file.

I share the sentiments as you and I did that for French dubs of TV shows I've seen in English so I can listen to them multiple times efficiently. You can even isolate the dialogue if you have subtitles that match the video by using subs2srs. You can even filter in or out certain text on subs2srs. What I did for a TV show was run subs2srs to grab all the audio, join the mp3 with MakeitOne MP3 Album Maker, then run that through audacity. Most of the shows that I found don't have subs that match so I used audacity to chop off the beginning where they have the theme song, then truncated silence.

As for video you can use potplayer to watch the video and fastforward the video using the subtitles (you can jump to the next subtitle with a shortcut)

Excellent tips and resources. I like how PotPlayer jumps from one subtitle to the next. That saves a lot of time. Thanks :!:
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

Sayonaroo
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Re: Coldrainwater's German Log

Postby Sayonaroo » Sun Jul 14, 2019 4:08 am

I forgot to mention that pot player also lets you set up a shortcuts to copy current subtitle line, and loop the video based on the subtitle ie loop current subtitle, loop next subtitle, loop previous subtitle. It has a lot of cool features
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MorkTheFiddle
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Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Coldrainwater's German Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Jul 14, 2019 10:58 pm

coldrainwater wrote:At first glance, it looks like Audacity may be able to handle your request without needing to decouple the audio from the video. See the section on FFmpeg here. Keeping it simple, I suspect the FFmpeg library + truncate silence might do the trick directly, but I haven't tested this and have only come across FFmpeg on a few isolated occasions in the past (I recall it definitely has chops though). MP4 is the specific option I was thinking about trying since it is super-easy to get video content in that format.
I tried this idea this morning with a 2hr 15min long movie called L'Été meurtrier. Chopping off the opening and then truncating the silence cut the time down by about an hour. Very satisfactory. (BTW the movie is awful).
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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coldrainwater
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Re: Coldrainwater's German Log

Postby coldrainwater » Sat Jul 20, 2019 10:54 pm

Listening now is circumstantial as it was once before almost exactly two years ago to the summer. I train like every day is my last and I have been jogging sometimes upwards of ten miles daily, taking advantage of the sweltering heat. In addition to normal summer activity boosts, I also track steps and cardio points via Google Fit. Numbers don´t fib and I must be fairly goal-oriented as I can feel extra motivation as I track.

I am at a listening crossroads where an improved listening environment and focused, mindful attention almost make the difference between being able to follow the gist of an audio or not. Running is great for cerebral flow, but distracting as there is some overall motion disturbance and at least minimal sound distortion. I am setting the bar very high and my next passive/extensive audio chunk will be 100 hours of audiobooks, starting with ROTK.

When I am running, I recognize Middle Earth tones well and can pick out a decent number of German words along with it if I am careful, but nowhere near enough to get the gist. I remember the storyline, but really only its outline as it has been many years. On the run, I feel like Middle Earth dwarfs the smaller German prepositions that surround it but sometimes helps them to be understood. It is of a different character and more passive when I listen at work, but the result is similar.

In contrast, I am really helped by sitting quietly in my apartment, closing my eyes and mindfully focusing on the sounds with my best headphones. I remember being at this stage in Spanish, but I know my vocabulary was much stronger and it was later in my journey. Doing that I can almost make out the gist of the audiobook, enough for me to justify using it comprehensively. So for me, there is, now two languages over, a stage where special technique is very important and I can tell the difference between those and blunt listening.

By the way, I finished and updated my summary, 90 hours of News in Slow German. Through its course, I went from not being able to get the gist to being able to follow it, at least topically if not a bit more. More on the other language areas later as this post has run off at the word.
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MorkTheFiddle
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Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
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Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Coldrainwater's German Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Jul 20, 2019 11:55 pm

Understanding a TL while walking is too hard for me. I can't concentrate. Paradoxically, perhaps, listening while driving is easier. I have done FSI French that way. But even that makes me uncomfortable, so my listening is confined to home. Rarely, at Starbucks or Half Price Books. Incidentally, you jog a lot, it seems to me. I onced jogged in the Texas heat, but it was a generation or more ago.
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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coldrainwater
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Re: Coldrainwater's German Log

Postby coldrainwater » Sun Jul 21, 2019 12:19 am

Indeed, the concentration can be a major stumbling block. Most run routes really would not work at all. Wherever I live, I always have to be really careful to pick routes where there are no stops and very little to no traffic, and that preferably have long stretching of very little. I enjoy a version of meditating when I jog and I think that helps me understand somewhat, but still it is a compromise overall compared to library listening. Even if it is only for 20 minutes, I enjoy listening before going to sleep since the concentration is almost surreal. Like you, I don't do so well lin Starbucks or Half Price Books. Way too busy for me. And the grocery store is a cart collision waiting to happen.

I would like to develop a mini-habit around walking and perhaps either playing Duolingo or maybe even using Anki. I can read and move on a treadmill but not ideally and there is always the risk that the rear of the machine will get the better of me one day. Between wearing glasses, which fog over and blur with exercise, and a phone that has an affiinity for beads of sweat, my view is often obstructed after I have been training for a bit (making Duo and Anki more challenging than ever). My smartphone mistakes those drops for finger presses as well and it will even lock my phone randomly as I run. All that has been enough to deter me so far, hence the idea of trying walking + duo. I will see how that goes, maybe soon.
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coldrainwater
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El mercado de gramática

Postby coldrainwater » Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:20 am

Mi último viaje al mercado se convirtió en una expedición para recoger arándanos en temporada y al fin recogí el buen botín. Estas bayas son difíciles de encontrar en su estado de azul pastel. En los próximos días, voy a tomarlos como plato principal y alimento de primer orden. Todo ya está manchado de azul con cartones vacíos por los cuatro rincones del colchón. De verdad, podría responder con mayor facilidad a todos los errores que he cometido hasta la fecha que la mitad de las manchas y sobrantes que me hago cargo al diario.

Bueno, este finde, voy a poner los patos en fila. Todavía practico el alemán sin decir ni pío. Me imagino que debe ser un sistema evolutivo de carácter Zen. Ahora lo dejaré en manos de su sabiduría. Mas nunca están todas las zonas en reposo y hay un detalle que me gustaría poner en primera fila. Es decir, estoy preparándome para la parte buena, la de gramática. Jamás aprendí bien la gramática de un idioma y por eso, esta vez iré por la ruta de sitio. A largo plazo, construiré muros y atalayas de hábito, lo suficientemente alto como para ver la disposición estructural del idioma desde el interior. Vería un éxito aquí como logro que va más allá de los límites del alemán en beneficio de todos los idiomas del porvenir.

El momento es propicio y voy a empezar con Grammatik - Harry - gefangen in der Zeit. Las lecciones están adaptadas al nivel A1 y se imparten todas en alemán. Cada una es corta, hecha para picar. Puede que las asocie con algo de Duolingo. Aún espero adornar el árbol con ramas de una sola estrella. Es lo menos que puedo hacer para decir que lo he terminado. ¿Y sobre las otras cuatro estrellas? Tendré tiempo de decidir luego y además, contaré con más datos para la toma.
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