Stellar Version History

neb · 19 January 2023 14:40

V6.3.0 – 10th March 2024

Major Changes

Add Respeecher voice to voice service
Add Elevenlabs synthetic voices
Add Microsoft Azure Speech to text (ASR) Service
Add new Synthetic Voice Widget and support voice style and settings for Microsoft and Elevenlabs voices
Update ESF File handling to support legacy systems
Integrate all new file drivers to include .890, IMSCR, Lambda Cap, .Scc, Ooona TTML.
Add Three Dot shortcuts to most widgets to access the options available by right click

Minor Changes

Play in rehearse mode doesn’t change current subtitle until the intime of the next title.
Goto Subtitle in Rehearse no longer starts video playback
New shortcut (Default Ctrl+Shift+R) to realign subtitles on timeline
New shortcut to open all Comment boxes (Default Ctrl+Alt+Q)
Add target audio level settings in Style Profiles
Add muted audio Take deletion for a Title, a Role or a whole file.
Improve Subtitle Split function to take account of reading speed when calculating the split point.
Auto mute hidden audio tracks

V6.2.1 – 7th December 2023

Major Changes

Improve compatibility of ESF files with Starfish Advantage software
New conform options to match the text duration to the audio duration or to pad audio with silence to match the text box duration.
Add full support for Subtitle Zero and matching QC checks
Simplify video timecode setting controls
Add Hide and Unhide option for timeline tracks
Improvements to managing synthetic voices for Roles in dubbing files
Add multi key sequence support to Hotkey maps
Add auto-fix control to AD fade mismatch error.

Minor Changes

Tidy up text file context menu with new File Options submenu
Remove audio scrub track option from video import as it is no longer required
Add three default fade depth options for AD tracks to match program audio levels (Quiet, Normal, Loud)
Enable editing of tack titles on timeline
Change Split control to set intime of second title at the current video time
Add Exit Task or Project button to top bar.

V6.2.0 – 15th October 2023

Major Changes

Support for all aspect rations, including cinema wide screen and social media portrait formats
Improved shot change snap rules and display for subtitles.
Support for more native file formats – edit directly in Stellar
- IMSC-Rosetta – the new universal subtitle file format.
- LamdaCAP – Supports Japanese vertical text and Rubies.
- Cavena .890 – Directly edit all forms of .890 file
- .scc – Closed Caption format
- .ass – Aegisub format used by a few broadcasters
Improved text format bar
Support for Centre Left text justification where supported in the file format
Mark, Cut, Copy and Paste titles within or between files
Chat GPT integration to rephrase text to fit reading speed restrictions
Integration of Imdb search
File split, merge and append functions added
Mass format, deletion and correct options added to File Status dialog
Auto Correct history added to File Status dialog – see what auto fixes have been applied.
Direct access to individual audio files in AD and Dubbing modes – open and edit in external audio tools.
Favourites lists for synthetic voices – make a list of you favourites with setting out of the thousands of voices available.
Assign a synthetic voice to a Role (character) in a dubbing file.
Hide and unhide tracks on the timeline

Minor Changes

Current hot keys now displayed in Hover Help
Move title function added – maintains style and duration
Usability and workflow improvements – use fewer clicks for the same action.
Improved timecode format support for Script Imports

NOTE:

Layouts moved to Settings menu

V6.1.1 Build 922 – 27th April 2023

Minor Changes

When Edit Over Video text is enabled subtitles now update correctly in Rehearse Mode
In Rehears Mode placing a cursor in a text box (Click in box or Tab) will Pause the video, if playing.
- Clciking out of the text box or pressing Esc will resume play mode.
A problem with the Subtitle Renumber function has been resolved
A problem with remote audio recording in the Dubbing mode when stopping the recording has been fixed

V6.1.1 – 20th March 2023

Major Changes

Add Task Manager support
- Task upload and download
- Upload Media
- Add Users and User Groups
- Assign work to any user
- Auto sync all changes
- Multi user Task access for collaboration and review

Minor Changes

Add support for splitting Dubbing files by Role
Add Merging of Dubbing files
Improve dialog gap detection when creating AD script files
Allow configuration of low readings speeds to be warnings or errors in QC system
Improve shot change rule QC and error reporting

V6.1.0 – 15th January 2023

Major Changes

Change the way Layouts zoom to make it easier to fit Stellar onto different screen sizes.
Add new text display modes in the text editor to provide larger text sizes on small screen.

Minor Changes

Improve Undo (Ctrl+Z) to include more operations
Improve QC tests for reading speed calculations and display
New Softel Swift hotkey map an Layout to simulate Swift ‘look and feel’.
Add Microsoft Azure synthetic voices for text to speech.
Add Drag and Drop for importing text into a Project
Add option to automatically move the video to the incue of a subtitle when you click in the text box – in Rehearse mode.
Look up text on Google, Wikipedia or Google Translate using the text format bar (Right click)
Fix issue with Chrome V109 and right-clicking actions in text column tab

V6.0.1 – 24th August 2022

Minor Changes and bug fixes

Minor Changes

Add Drag and drop of subtitle files and audio waveforms
Change Rehearse mode text scrolling
Clicking in a title in rehearse mode moves video to in-cue – If enabled in Timed Text Widget Settings
If the cursor is in a text box and the video is playing the text scrolling will pause
New Wikipedia, Google search and Google Translate options on text format pop-up bar.
Disable Record button if in Rehearse mode or if selected text file is not an AD or dubbing format file
Add option to disable Alt+Letter hotkeys as this can interfere with accent entry on some keyboards – Hotkey to toggle on/off – F2

Bugs

Fix problem with Advanced file setting control for some file formats
Prevent invalid font files being uploaded
Fix problems with horizontal alignment in some file formats

V6.0.0 – 7th August 2022

Major Feature Release

V6.0 adds a range of features targeted at subtitling

General Features

Enforce login to use Stellar
Undo and Redo
- Full Undo and Redo functionality on most edits and changes
Hotkey Maps
- Change the way the keyboard and mouse operate to suite user preferences
- Standard maps available for EzTitles and WinCAPS simuation
Style and Rules Profiles
- Set the style rules and QC tests for each file in a Project
- Profiles stored centrally for a Company so all Users access the same settings
- Instant updates to all users – no need to distribute new settings.
- Option to override settings in the current Project, without impacting other users.
Improved File Split and Append features
Company Layouts stored centrally and available to all users in a Company
- Changes updated automatically for all users.
Easier file browsing
- See all the drives and network connections on you PC or Mac
- Set up folder shortcuts
Default settings for most actions reduce the amount of user intervention in most cases.
Renumber titles – option for automatic or manual renumbering
Full screen mode
- Zoom the video window to full screen
- Ideal for checking subtitles or for when recording AD or Dubbing audio in a recording booth
Improved Media Import
- Default folder locations
- Option to add new or existing subtitle or script files as part of import process.
- Higher resolution option
  - Useful for AD scripting to see details in the image.
- Automatic frame rate detection
- Automatic timecode detection
Integrated Web Search
- Highlight text and search in Google or Wikipedia
- Highlight text and translate in Google Translate.
Find and Replace
- Comprehensive text search and replace tool
- Work in one text file or across all text files in a Project

Audio Description

Automatic Gap Detection using Speech to Text technology
- Create an AD file with blank text boxes at al times with no dialog
Dip program audio during recording
- Makes loud program audio less distracting in your headphones
Some changes and improvements for AD scripting, recording and mixing.
- See details of the changes for AD users. AD Changes in V6.0 – Nebula
TTAL File support
- Add full support for Netflix TTAL file format
- Directly edit TTAL files – no need to convert.
- Convert between TTAL, SRTAD and ESF formats for Audio Description

Subtitling

QC Rules
- Comprehensive quality checks and reporting
  - Auto fix options
  - Central rules Profiles – assign a Profile per text file in a Project
    - Possible to load two subtitle files with different rules Profiles into a single Project
File formats
- Directly edit SRT, STL, PAC, FPC
- Convert between all subtitle and caption formats
Comprehensive text styling and editing via hotkeys or right click format bar.
Edit text over the video – option
Classic view – option to set display to show Previous, Current and Next subtitle in video window.
Fonts
- Store fonts centrally
- No need to load fonts onto each PC or Mac
- Supports .ttf font formats
Subtitle Splitting
- Convert from timed word lists to subtitles (From ASR output or from Transcript files)
- Convert subtitles back to timed word lists

Bug Fixes

General bug fixes and minor improvements

V5.5.1 – 13th January 2022

Minor Features

Improve retention of last used path when importing and exporting
Add file name suffixes by default

Bug Fixes

Fix problem with media path and file name extensions when importing media
Fix bug in Project Export – not all files included
Fix bug in Audio File Import
Fix bug when browsing for Layout
Fix bug where file name is lost when using a Save As dialog

V5.5 – 22nd December 2021

Major new features

New style top menu bar with:
- Find and Replace
- Direct access to account pages
- Media and record audio level manager
- Background process status
Subtitle output encoding and rendering
- Output in a range of burn-in and transmission formats with full style control
- Web media burn-in
- Full res broadcast media burn-in
- subtitle only images in Mov format for use with video editors.
- DVB subtitle encoding and multiplexing
- Powerview subtitle encoding and multiplexing
Simplified Text file handling
- New Files submenu for:
  - Creating a new Text file
  - Adding an existing text file to the Project
  - Opening a Text file in a blank Project
  - Converting a text file to a different format
Use Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) to create Audio Description templates
- Automatically find the gaps in the dialog suitable for AD descriptions
- Set min duration and Dialog to AD gap rules
- Creates an AD file with blank boxes ready for scripting.
Record hotkeys added
- F12 to start and stop Recording
- Esc to stop and abandon recording
Hide the AD text overlay temporarily
- So you can see text or other video content.
Remember the video and text positions in a Project
- So when you reopen a Project you are at the same location as you left it.

V5.4 – 24th November 2021

New ASR Services

Add Google, Amazon and Speechmatics automatic speech recognition (ASR) services.

Added to existing Apptek and Rev.ai services.

Improve silence detection when recording audio.

Add custom branding support by Company.

V5.3 – 14th September 2021

Bug Fixes and Updates

Add new Protected Text mode

Protect text with new pencil icon to enable editing
Improve Text Editability settings and add Text only option

Add new multi track audio support

Separate faders per audio track
Sync names between tracks and faders

Add Netflix Timed Text Authoring Lineage specification (TTAL) file support.

Simplify Project and layout menus

Add Auto Silence detection mode for AD recording

This removes the need to manually set a suitable silence level before recording
By default automatic mode is set. To change go to the Audio Recorder settings

Add word count to dubbing info on File Status screen

Improve cursor handling on Insert, Split and Merge of subtitles

Add new version of Task Management option

Add full DRM and second factor authentication support

Add login to Nebula from within Stellar

Add new OCR functionality – requires OCR Process to be running

Add No Video Loaded yellow banner in video window

Bugs

Fix problems with video playback during remote recording
Fix AD fade default settings
Fix bug with file paths when importing and ASR
Fix bug that allowed negative timecodes to be created when dragging on the timeline.
Correct handling of audio files on Duplicate

V5.2 – 21st June 2021

Bug Fixes and Updates

Audio Recording
- New Record Stop Modes
  - Controls what happens when a recording is stopped short
  - New modes: Abort, Keep, Merge
- Record end guard added
- Auto Trim for ESF
  - Option to auto trim audios before storing in ESF files
AD Layouts updated to set more sensible defaults
Bug in foldback level during recording fixed
Bug in VU meter updating fixed

V5.1 – 16th June 2021

Bug Fixes and Updates

Audio Recording
- Make Ctrl+ D and F12 work correctly for Start and Stop Recording
- Add Ctrl+ Shift + D to Start/Stop Recording and keep partial Take
- Rationalise Insert Subtitle in text box
- Improve AD recording alignment
- Update defaults in AD Layouts
- Change description for Auto Alignment settings
Audio Conforming
- Add Alt+ Double click to conform a Take or a Title
Align and Recut
- Improve information in dialogs
- Tidy up operation
- Enable video controls while dialog open
Script Text Display
- Add Line countdown and progress mode
- Add progress mode to pie chart option

V5.0 – 16th May 2021

New Features

Audio Description
- Original AD Widget has been removed.
- AD Script over or under video
- AD script in Wipe, Static or Rythmoband modes
- Record count down timer in graphic or numeric format
- Multiple audio Takes on the new Timeline
- Improved audio trimming and aligning on the timeline
- Simplified synthetic voice controls
- Enhanced Record modes to record sub sections of a title or multiple titles in one go.
  - With automatic audio splitting and aligning
  - Automatic fade settings
- Global Fade settings and editing controls.
New Timeline
- A significant new update to the Timeline to support AD and Dubbing and to enhance subtitle editing
- Tracks on the timeline can be re ordered with Fixed sections at top and bottom and a scrolling section in the middle
- Record markers
- Fixed and moving Playhead modes
- Improved time track with time markers
- Hover shortcut controls over text and waveform boxes
- Show or hide some or all audios associated with an AD file or a Dubbing Role
- Subtitles
  - Text in the subtitle box
  - Subtitle number on the timeline
  - Improved in and out cue editing on the timeline
  - New multi-track alignment tools – more all tracks by the same relative amount when conforming.
- Audio Description
  - Multiple Takes on the timeline
  - Move, trim, split and merger audios
  - Record markers to record larger or smaller segments
  - Edit Fade settings on the timeline
- Dubbing
  - Completely new Dubbing support
  - Dubbing files with multiple Roles displayed on the Timeline
  - Full adaptation editing on the timeline for lip-sync dubbing
  - See Titles (Lines) for each Role on a separate track
  - Select one Role for recording
  - Record multiple Takes
  - Move, trim, split, merge, mute and delete audio Takes
  - Mute and unmute individual Roles.
- Multi track audio
  - Support for up to 8 track audio in media file (4 stereo pairs)
  - Mute and mix the level for each track
Video Overlays
- Major updates to a range of overlays in the Video window
- Scale the video either to fit the video window or shrink to allow space for other controls – always maintains the correct aspect ratio.
  - Timecode
  - Audio level meters
  - Intercom controls
  - AD and Dubbing Script prompts in Rythmoband, Wipe or Static styles.
  - Improved context controls for all overlays – set your preferences directly in the video window.
  - Major updates to a range of overlays in the Video window
Subtitle Align and Recut
- Simplified alignment of subtitles to correct timecode.
- Align, Recur and Stretch shortcuts on Timeline and Text editor.
Other Updates
- Improved hover help for all controls
- Preview play mode – Play only the sections with AD or Dub audio or subtitles and skip over the gaps

V4.0.0 – 27th October 2020

New Features

- New user interface
  - A new look for Stellar with more consistent colours, controls and general usability improvements.
    - New screens and dialogs
    - Improved right click context menus
    - Time editing improvements for
      - Offset
      - Recut
      - Stretch
- Zoom to fit control
  - New control to zoom any layout to fit the available screen space
- Improved Layout editing
  - Automatic zoom
  - Screen size Canvas to show the available space for widgets ate normal 100% zoom
- Media Controller
  - Add Small step buttons
- Machine Translation interface
  - The AI Tools machine translation option now has a new interface and more translation services
- Subtitle encoding outputs
  - New Subtitle Tools Widget
    - Output subtitles as encoded DVB or Powerview Plus (Imitext) subtitles
      - Subtitle only Transport Stream (TS) files.
      - Multiplexed TS files with video, audio and subtitles
- Software update warning screens
  - Warning screens when a new version of the software is released.
- General bug fixes and minor updates

V3.9.0 – 14th August 2020

New Features

Import and Export text files
- Move subtitle, caption and AD script files in and out of Stellar Projects
- Supports file format conversion
Dedicated Volume controls
- Pop up fixed volume mixer controls
- Allows quick access of all volumes in one place
- Input (mic) and output level controls
- individual mute buttons
- dB level indicators
- Rename each control
New Machine Translation services
- Use a wider range of MT services directly in Stellar
  - Convert a whole file from new menu option
    - Tools – AI Tools – Translate File
Zoom button and auto zoom
- Zoom your Stellar Layout to fit your screen
- Layout mode auto zooms out to allow easier positioning of Widgets
Improved Context Menus
- More direct controls on right click in many widgets
Subtitle Tools
- New Subtitle Tools menu section
- Add Subtitle Render
  - Output subtitles in a range of delivery formats
    - DVB with or without multiplexing into a video stream file
    - Timed Graphics (MOV)
    - PowerView subtitles with or without multiplexing into a video stream file
Shortcuts
- New shortcuts on Windows Desktop (Not Mac)
  - Shortcuts for Stellar,
  - Device Status
  - Device Start
- Browser bookmark now supported
  - Bookmark Stellar in Chrome
    - Device must be running for Stellar to start.

V3.8.0 – 25th June 2020

Major update to AD functionality

- Improved AD audio recording features
  - Multiple Takes
  - Playback while recording
  - Audio scrubbing of AD audio
- Improved audio record quality
  - Improved AD Mixing features
  - Mono wav output supported
  - Better control of input and output files
- Improved right click Context menus for all widgets
- Subtitle Go To option
  - Jump to subtitle number or timecode
- Improved subtitle cueing
  - New Highlight on timeline shows selected text box.
  - Drag video position on timeline for fast subtitle cueing
  - Jump timecode to spot on audio waveform by double clicking
  - Play/Pause using Spacebar (Only when no text cursor present. Press Esc before using Spacebar)
  - More intuitive cueing
  - Override minimum gap rules with Shift key when cueing.
- Overlay Timecode over video
- Improved text column sorting,
  - Swap positions now supported
  - Configurable Number of Columns
  - Column order stored as part of the Project
- Recent Lists
  - Recent Projects and Layouts now shown on Open dialog.
- Edit Column names in place
- Hover over column tab info section
  - Number of Subtitles or AD Text blocks shown in file
  - File Name and path
  - Read/Write mode
  - Comments
- Project file status
  - Show if files within a Project are present on disk.
- Remember last folder used
- Trap unsaved changes
- Higher level of Undo – Alt+ Z
Auto Detect and warn if the Nebula Device is missing
- This prevents work from not being saved correctly
More hover tips and help links.
General bug fixes

V3.7.1 – 16th April 2020

Minor update to add ASR (Speech to Text) functions

New AI Tools menu item – if selected in configuration
- External ASR services supported
- Extract audio from media
- Audio to SRT subtitle file
- Text alignment to audio using audio and script files
All external file access for Import Export and Deliver functions can now be configured to support drive roots (C:/)

V3.7 – 2nd April 2020

Major update to Subtitling functionality

Reading speed indicators and warnings
Subtitle style settings
- Colours
- Justification
- Style
- Vertical Positioning
Recent Project and Layout tabs
Subtitles over video
Comment fields in individual subtitles
Improved file browsing in all dialogs
Subtitle file support
- Direct editing (without conversion) of:
  - Pac
  - FPC
  - STL
  - SRT
- Read only viewing of other formats
Subtitle file conversion on Duplicate
Style Templates for files, types and layouts
- Character set support
- Supported styles
- Line lengths
- Other style and layout limits
AD Reorder
- Multiple takes can be recorded per text element
  - Only stored in srtad files
  - Not supported in ESF Formats
- Adjustable Text Size
- Audio scrubbing of AD audio – Option,
- Auto Trim Audio to fit within text timecode limits – Option
Importing Media files – direct support within Stellar
Import and Export complete Projects
- With or without media file
Stretch or Compress subtitle time
Save Layout short cut on top bar
Esc now closes all dialogs
Smoother widget movement in Layout mode
Media Control Widget (play controls)
- Audio Scrub mute button
- Can be resized

V3.6- 2 Sept 2019

File access dialogs

All areas where files are listed display better in smaller screens and when there are many files.

User Forum

Link has been changed to our new Discourse based forum.

Other minor changes

.fpc files are now supported for read & time edit.
AD Recorder widget now saves wav automatically when a gain is applied to the audio snippet.
New Project now fixed. Note that if a file ‘default.proj’ is written to the project folder, this will be used as the .new. project.

V3.6 – 22 July 2019

Top Menus

New graphics and physical layout
Enhanced Help section
- User Forum
- Active Hotkey list

Context pop-up menus

Right click pop-up menus on some Widgets
More to follow in future releases

Play/Pause on video Widget

Click in video window to play/pause the video

Duplicate Text files

Single click to create a duplicate of a text file to the current Project
Useful for creation backup copies or new versions of a file (Subtitles, AD or transcriptions)

New options in Timed Text Widget

Select between 19:3 or 16:9 display option.
Useful for visualising vertical positioning.

Print and Preview

Print subtitle and AD files
Preview Subtitle files over the video

New User Forum

Forum for information and discussions about Stellar
You need to have a Google login to use this forum
You need to be invited to use the forum – all Nebula users will be added automatically.

New AD Tools

Synthetic voice configuration and rendering
Automatic Gap detection from subtitle file
Convert AD single Wav file back to audio segments and AD file with timecodesUseful for editing AD content where the original AD files have been lost
Convert AD single Wav file back to audio segments and AD file with timecodes
- Useful for editing AD content where the original AD files have been lost
Collect and Zip all AD files for delivery

Layout Templates

System Templates – Protected Layouts that can’t be updated or overwritten by any users.
User Templates – Users can protect Layouts as User Templates to prevent accidental overwriting.

V3.5 – 14 June 2019

AD Recorder

New graphics and physical layout
Automatic pan and fade settings now the default option but can be disabled
Configurable lead in countdown timer

AD Mixer

New graphics and layout
Added option to mix AD audio back into original MP4 media file

AD Synth Voice render

New Widget
Provides access to over 400 synthetic voices in 25 languages from Google, Amazon, Cereproc and Acapela.
Speaking rate control options
Pitch and volume controls

Text editor

Updated version with improved layout and display styles
Support for AD text type
Variable number of subtitles visible depending on Widget size
Support for all timecode styles

System

New consistent look in Projects, Files and Layouts sections
Comment fields now available in Projects, Files and Layouts
Option to set a Default Layout in a Project
Demo File download option added to Project menu
Help pages added and updated – Help menu or F1 to access.