Subtitle Edit 4.0.8 keeps losing waveform

[MarjoFI]

I'm a total newbie with SE (and I'm also middle-aged so bare with me;) and I'm doing my first SE project. SE has saved all the subtitles I've made, plus their time codes, but every time I open the .srt file to continue my work, the waveform is missing. I have to click the waveform window every time. Luckily, SE then shows everything in its right place. However, when I try to send the .srt file via email to someone else, they cannot click the waveform open. It is sort of missing from the file. I have done the FFmpeg thing in the settings. I'm using a laptop and there's plenty of memory. What could be the problem? Thank you!

[AuroraMartell]

I'm a total newbie with SE (and I'm also middle-aged so bare with me;) and I'm doing my first SE project. SE has saved all the subtitles I've made, plus their time codes, but every time I open the .srt file to continue my work, the waveform is missing. I have to click the waveform window every time. Luckily, SE then shows everything in its right place. However, when I try to send the .srt file via email to someone else, they cannot click the waveform open. It is sort of missing from the file. I have done the FFmpeg thing in the settings. I'm using a laptop and there's plenty of memory. What could be the problem? Thank you!

Waveform is not saved into the subtitle.

[MarjoFI]

Ok, hmmm. Do you mean that I have missed the saving of the waveform or that it is never included in the .srt files?

[GrampaWildWilly]

The subtitles are in a text file, srt being an example of a text file with subtitles in it. The waveform is a graphical file. There is a Waveforms subdirectory in the SE directory tree where the waveforms are stored. The file name of a waveform is .wav. I think this might be mnemonic in the sense that the word waveform begins with wav. But the standard usage of .wav is as an audio file & waveforms are not audio files. I tried to play a waveform just now in VLC, outside SE. VLC claimed it was happily playing the file but I was not hearing anything. I would put forward the idea that the SE waveform files need to be named something else so as not to conflict with the previously long standing usage of .wav as an audio file. Maybe .wvf would be better. In any case, I don't know exactly what the internal format of a waveform is. Animated gif? Some wacky form of jpeg? I don't know what application might be able to display a waveform other than SE.

I just did a web search for wvf. Wouldn't you know? It is an acronym that is used. But it isn't anything to do with multimedia or computers in any way so I think it would be safe for SE to stake a claim to .wvf as a file naming convention. I'd never thought about this before. I think the choice of .wav for waveform is not good.

In any case, if you want to E-mail a waveform to somebody else, you would have to find it in the SE Waveforms directory. If you are sending both a subtitle file & a waveform, that would require that you attach 2 files to your E-mail. Or better yet, create a zip archive with the subtitle file & the waveform file in it & attach the zip archive.

[GrampaWildWilly]

On the subject of naming the waveform file, it appears to be generated as a random string of letters & digits. I would put forward the suggestion that you name the waveform something that ties it to the original video file or at least the subtitle file. If you've got a Waveforms directory full of waveforms, you would be hard pressed to differentiate which waveform file goes with which video or captions.