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Frequently Asked Questions


Upgrading from Spot 5

General

Video and audio

Encoding

Upgrading from Spot 5 to Spot 6

Do I need a new dongle if I upgrade from Spot 5 to Spot 6?

Yes, you do. Spot 6 uses a modern, driverless dongle. Your old dongle must also be returned to Spot Software.

How does the upgrade process work?

Once we've received your order, a new dongle will be shipped to you. We also ask at this time that you return your old dongle to us. While awaiting delivery of the new dongle, you will be issued with a temporary software key which will allow you to work with Spot 6 for a two-week period.

I get an "Out of memory" error message when trying to run Spot

Two of Spot's system files require that version 2.0 of the .NET framework be installed on the machine on which it's running. Later versions of Windows (8, 8.1 and 10) have support for v2 but it is turned off by default. To turn it on, go to Control Panel, Programs and Features, Turn Windows features on or off, and turn on .NET framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0).

General

The spell checker isn’t working

Spot uses Microsoft Word to spell check subtitles so if a version of Word is not installed on your computer, you cannot use the spell checker or the thesaurus.

If you do have Word installed and the spell checker is still not working, make sure you have the correct language selected in Spot’s language bar above the video window.

If you are working with Spot 6, selecting the new "Spell check using the file save method" option (Tools, Options, General) forces spelling checks to work as they should.

I can’t raise subtitles using Ctrl+Alt+Up/Down

If nothing happens when you press Ctrl+Alt+Up/Down, then another program on your computer, usually the software installed by your graphics card, has most likely hijacked the key combination. You need to find out which program is the culprit and then change or disable the key sequence.  

How do I set a fixed number of characters per line?

Select "Set Characters Per Line Width" from the Subtitle menu. Setting a figure of 36, for example, will ensure that only a maximum of 36 characters are allowed per line. Note that as the only way to set the maximum number of characters per line is by using a fixed width font (i.e. a font in which each letter shares the same width), Spot will change the current screen font to Courier New. This will not affect the target broadcast font.

There is a more elegant approach that lets you keep Arial 16 as the edit font. Change the edit line width to a figure that sets the CPL value on the status bar to approximately 36 (e.g. 5000). Because Arial is a proportional font, this does not guarantee that you won’t be able to type more than 36 characters in a line but it will prevent it from happening most of the time. As you work, keep an eye on the two line length indicators above the current subtitle: if they turn red, one of the lines in the subtitle is too long. When you’ve finished working on your file, a "Too many characters in line check" (or switching to Report view will pick up any warnings you may have missed.

Arabic text is displayed left to right when exporting bitmaps with a kerning value greater than 0

This is a known Windows GDI bug. Set kerning to 0.

I get a "Parse error" when trying to import a DCP XML file on Windows 7

Oops! Microsoft forgot to update this file for certain flavours of Windows 7. Download as per the instructions on Microsoft's site and the problem will be solved.

Many thanks to José Canário at BLIT for tracking down the solution to this.

Video and audio

I selected the wrong frame rate when I opened a video file

Click the small black arrow on the right of the "Open media file" button on the video toolbar, select "Delete video format flag" and then reopen the video.

A video file won’t open/plays erratically/is out of sync with the audio

Although it’s possible that the video file you are trying to open is corrupt, a more likely explanation is that your system does not have suitable video splitters and decoders installed and therefore cannot render the video correctly. The default decoders installed by Windows will not let you play back MOV or MPEG-2 files, for example, and may cause problems when attempting to play other video formats, such as WMV or MP4. To work around this problem, install a codec pack such as K-LIte and it wil automatically configure itself to decode the most common video formats. Spot 6 contains various diagnostic tools that can help to troubleshoot video issues, as well - see the user guide for information on how to view the decoder and splitter being used to play the video and how to choose your own.

How can I increase the size of the video window?

The video window is automatically resized whenever you change the size of Spot’s main window. If you maximise Spot, you will maximise the video window.

On Windows 8.1/10 with a display settings scaling value greater than 100%, the video is cropped.

Open the Media Preferences window, click the DirectShow Filters tab, select Video Mixing Renderer 9 (put a tick next to it) then click OK. Now open a video - it should automatically resize itself to fit the new Windows scaling size.

My 23.976 fps video does not run in sync

There is no such thing as 23.976 SMPTE timecode. If a 23.976 fps video contains burnt-in timecode, the timecode will be 24 fps, so you must open the video at 24 fps, not 23.976.

Encoding with SpotCVT

My encoded video doesn't contain subtitles

There are two reasons why subtitles may not appear in your encoded video.

  • Your Fonts folder has not been set. See pages 86 and 87 of the Spot 6 User Guide for more information.

  • Your subtitles have been timed against the timecode in the source video. If the in cue for the first subtitle in your file is 10:00:02:00, the subtitle may be in sync with the source video when rehearsing in Spot but will not be encoded in the target video as it is only marked for display after ten hours and two minutes. To stop this happening, either time your files starting at 00:00:00:00; or offset the timing of your subtitles.

  • Your subtitle file may contain empty subtitles. All subtitles must have text and valid in and out cues.


How do I choose the right video and/or audio codec when converting a video?

Not all video container formats support all audio and video codecs. If you choose a codec that is not compatible with a particular container format, an error might occur. The following table shows the six major container formats available in SpotCVT and the audio/video codecs that each one supports:

Video container format

Supported video encoding

Supported audio encoding

AVI

ALL

ALL

MOV

MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.263, H.264

AAC

MPEG-1

MPEG-1, MPEG-2

MP2, MP3

MPEG-2

MPEG-1, MPEG-2

MP2 ,MP3

MPEG-4

MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.263, H.264, H.265/HEVC

MP3 ,WMA , AAC ,AC3

WMV

ALL except H.264

ALL