FAQ
The application
Does Scene Cut work on Intel Macs? No, Scene Cut requires a Mac with an Apple Silicon processor (M1, M2, M3, M4).
Is an internet connection required? No, except for AI features (which can also work offline with Ollama) and license verification. Subtitling itself works entirely offline.
Is the license a subscription? No. The license is a one-time purchase that includes all future updates. It is tied to a single machine.
Subtitles
How many lines per subtitle? Scene Cut supports a maximum of two lines per subtitle (L1 and L2), in accordance with professional standards.
Can you work with an audio file only, without video? Yes. Scene Cut accepts audio files (WAV, MP3, FLAC, etc.) and displays the waveform normally. The video player remains empty, but all subtitling features are available.
Is it possible to copy subtitles between two projects?
Yes. Select the subtitles, copy (Cmd + C), switch to the other project, and paste (Cmd + V). The subtitles are repositioned at the playhead position of the target project.
Timing
What is pyramidal balance? Pyramidal balance recommends that the first line of a subtitle be shorter than the second. This improves readability by giving the eye a natural anchor point at the top of the subtitle.
What is the difference between ATAA and Netflix? Both are standards profiles with different thresholds. ATAA is the French-language cinema standard (stricter on reading speed), while Netflix is the platform standard (more lenient on speed but stricter on scene cut safety). Details are in the Standards profiles chapter.
AI
Which AI provider should I choose? For French-language subtitling, Claude (Anthropic) delivers the best results. For occasional use or a limited budget, economy models (Haiku, GPT-4o mini) are good alternatives. Local models via Ollama work without an internet connection but are less accurate for linguistic analysis.
Does the AI have access to my video? No. Only the subtitle text is sent to the AI provider. The video and audio never leave your machine.
Are AI suggestions always correct? No. The AI may produce false positives or suggestions that are inappropriate for the context. Each suggestion should be evaluated by the subtitler before being accepted. When in doubt, ignore the suggestion.