Importing stl files into Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro

Surprisingly, the workflow to import subtitles into DVD Studio Pro and Final Cut Pro are entirely different. After all, the programs are both from Apple so you would think that they would work well together.

In any event, we made hundreds of subtitles in .stl format -- because this is the preferred method to import subtitles into DVD Studio Pro. But Final Cut Pro requires an xml format for importing subtitles -- and DVD Studio Pro does not allow you to export their subtitles out!

So we had to find a way to convert the stl into the xml format for Final Cut Pro. Thank goodness for Subbits:

http://www.videotoolshed.com/?page=products&pID=12

For $200 it allows you to open various subtitle formats and then export them into other formats -- including Final Cut Pro, Avid and more -- including the xml format required for flash video subtitling. It's also a decent subtitler on its own. Great solution.
(Disclaimer--I am in no way related to the creator of Subbits -- as proven by the bugs listed below)

You can also use TitleExchange for conversions:

http://www.spherico.com/filmtools/TitleExchange/index.html

...and it even lets you convert 50 subtitles at a time for free. This can save you buying it for small projects, but can be very time consuming if you are in a large project and have iterations. TitleExchange is also a converter only--whereas Subbits includes a full featured subtitler.

A few more things (bugs) about Subbits. You'll find that it allows you to open files with other character sets--such as Persian-- but you can't view or edit the text in the interface --since the characters show up as rectangles. But it still does the conversion properly.

The Mac version also seemed a bit more buggy than the one for PC:

1. It converted diacriticals into HTML encoded entities.
2. It took the comma that separated the end time from the subtitle -- in the stl file -- and made it the first character in the subtitle. So all of the subtitles looked like this: ", We thought it would be best to..."

So make sure to test the free demo thoroughly before you buy it. I decided to buy the PC version since it seemed to read the stl files better than the Mac version.