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Answerman - Digital Deficits


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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 1:27 pm Reply with quote
Absolutely agree on the pointlessness of the frills of modern fansubs.
Even if it wasn't technically impossible to reproduce, I don't think companies would do that for DVD/Bluray. Also, just like Justin said, most don't care if a sign is 2 frames off. Only a few care, but those few have very large mouths. It's best to ignore them.

Here's a related question for Justin: do you think it's possible for companies to also release digital extras, like they do for DVD/BD? I mean have a digital Booklet or artwork along side the digital video.
I know a lot of people who love those extras, so why don't they add them for digital as well?
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
Posts: 3717
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 1:43 pm Reply with quote
WRT digital downloads. I buy a ton of digital music. But video is a non-starter for me and most other people when it's encumbered by DRM.


WRT fansubs. Didn't AnimEigo also use fansubs? Time of Eve is also using them for other languages. Yes, it's rare, but the US anime industry is staffed with former fansubbers anyways. Also, it seems like there is not the same reluctance to collaborate with fansubbers with the VN industry.

I agree about the typesetting and effects. Some minimal amount does help though, and this is basically what Crunchyroll does. I believe the BD standard allows for animated sub track (bitstream) that might be useful to implement positioned subs that move and track onscreen items, like panning past a sign for example, though I have not seen anyone attempt that yet

DmonHiro wrote:
Here's a related question for Justin: do you think it's possible for companies to also release digital extras, like they do for DVD/BD? I mean have a digital Booklet or artwork along side the digital video.
I know a lot of people who love those extras, so why don't they add them for digital as well?

Not speaking for Justin, but some of the digital albums I've bought do include extras like this: artwork, making of, commentary. Personally for artbooks, I like both physical and digital versions
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief


Joined: 28 Jul 2003
Posts: 1685
Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 1:51 pm Reply with quote
configspace wrote:
Didn't AnimEigo also use fansubs?


I very much doubt that. They were control freaks for most of their reign, and it seems very unlike them to do that. Also, most of that stuff was translated in the VHS era.

Quote:
I believe the BD standard allows for animated sub track (bitstream) that might be useful to implement positioned subs that move and track onscreen items, like panning past a sign for example, though I have not seen anyone attempt that yet


OMG no. That would be completely impossible. It's hard to even have adjoining subtitle graphics refresh without blinking on Blu-ray. Email a question if you want to learn more.

You too, DmonHiro -- questions don't get answered in the forum or on Twitter. Gotta send 'em in so I can track 'em. Smile
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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 1:58 pm Reply with quote
Sorry about that. Didn't mean to screw up the forums.

As to not be off topic, I do remember a certain s*** storm when Odex used fansubs for their official releases. I don't remember what show though.

Edit: Oh, right, it was Haruhi.
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Mesonoxian Eve



Joined: 10 Jan 2012
Posts: 1858
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 2:11 pm Reply with quote
jsevakis wrote:
You too, DmonHiro -- questions don't get answered in the forum or on Twitter. Gotta send 'em in so I can track 'em. Smile

But what if the question is benign, such as "Distributors are accepting returns of unsold disks?"

I was under the impression this was nixed due to the cost on both ends.

This seems to be supported by stores like TRSI, who buy unsold product and resell under the bargain umbrella. Many titles I've purchased from TRSI have had BestBuy stickers on them. One even had K-Mart, surprising me they're still around.

Also, thanks for mentioning the retailer element of the answer in this week's questions. So much is discussed about the "front end", but rarely the back end, and they're the ones who have to deal with the impact of unsold merchandise just as much as a distributor.
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 2:12 pm Reply with quote
jsevakis wrote:
I very much doubt that. They were control freaks for most of their reign, and it seems very unlike them to do that. Also, most of that stuff was translated in the VHS era.

Gotcha. I'm probably misremembering, but I sorta vaguely recall something about Yawara. Does that ring a bell?


Quote:
OMG no. That would be completely impossible. It's hard to even have adjoining subtitle graphics refresh without blinking on Blu-ray. Email a question if you want to learn more.

Ok sent a forum PM (edit: didn't notice; will send email)


Last edited by configspace on Fri Aug 02, 2013 2:37 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 25 Oct 2003
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Location: Wales
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 2:13 pm Reply with quote
jsevakis wrote:
It's hard to even have adjoining subtitle graphics refresh without blinking on Blu-ray.

Something anyone in the UK who has any Kaze discs is painfully familiar with Sad

Andrew Kent, another old pro, has gone into some detail on the problem of DVD subtitles and fonts etc., e.g. http://avatar.mee.nu/zombie_mode & http://avatar.mee.nu/nanoha_s1_in_the_can

I suspect the software for BD production is still similarly limiting, complicated, expensive - or all three.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 2:13 pm Reply with quote
Sucks that dics will never be able to do proper typesetting. I do like my anime typeset like a manga would be, with either Japanese replacement where possible, or the translation in the same place on the image, and top at the top or bottom of the screen withe "Note: translation".
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 2:31 pm Reply with quote
Shiroi Hane wrote:
I suspect the software for BD production is still similarly limiting, complicated, expensive - or all three.

The software now ranges from free, to affordable, to expensive. Likewise for DVD. Here's one free tool: http://multiavchd.deanbg.com/
You could also do things by "hand", like encode the h.264 using the proper profile, mux it and the various streams (sub/audio tracks) into an m2ts, layout the filesystem structure manually, and use UDF 2.5. The most complex part might be Java (BD-J) for interactive content. I think most of the limitations are in the spec
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 3:30 pm Reply with quote
It would be nice if professional subs for streaming did at least translate the opening and ending credits more often. Case in point Watamote, where the songs are actually relevant to the show but are left untranslated. sadface.jpg

I remember the furore that erupted when FUNimation did use fansubs (not in the actual release but for in-house work). Of course there were all the idiots who said that it couldn't possibly be a fansub because a professional company like FUNi who had such a vehemently strong anti-fansub position would never use them, even though the evidence that they were using fansubs was so overwhelming that you'd have braincancer or the like to deny it.

Anyway, I did not know that copyright law allows companies to use derivative works, that is most fascinating. You learn something new every day.
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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 3:47 pm Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
It would be nice if professional subs for streaming did at least translate the opening and ending credits more often. Case in point Watamote, where the songs are actually relevant to the show but are left untranslated. sadface.jpg


But they can't. They need special permissions to translate the OP/ED. It's not that the streaming sites don't want to, but they would have to either pay extra, or go through some more legal crap.
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Sakura Shinguji



Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 197
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 3:49 pm Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
Sucks that dics will never be able to do proper typesetting. I do like my anime typeset like a manga would be, with either Japanese replacement where possible, or the translation in the same place on the image, and top at the top or bottom of the screen withe "Note: translation".


I think you may have an extra word in there, so I might be misinterpreting your post, but it's certainly possible to simply have text that's translating something like a store sign to be located near where that sign actually is onscreen. ADV used to do it, and those same folks now with Seraphim Digital doing subtitling work for Sentai and Maiden Japan still do it. FUNimation almost always does NOT, which is a time-saver but also inconvenient, and more noticeable from the point of view of their products being more prominent than either Sentai's or Maiden Japan's.
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Sakura Shinguji



Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 197
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 3:56 pm Reply with quote
DmonHiro wrote:
dtm42 wrote:
It would be nice if professional subs for streaming did at least translate the opening and ending credits more often. Case in point Watamote, where the songs are actually relevant to the show but are left untranslated. sadface.jpg


But they can't. They need special permissions to translate the OP/ED. It's not that the streaming sites don't want to, but they would have to either pay extra, or go through some more legal crap.


^ This.

There are of course certain situations where you do end up with streams that have OP and ED subtitles. Horizon in/on the Middle of Nowhere is one example I can recall offhand, which likely had a lot to do with Sentai and TAN producing the subtitles for it themselves for the TAN stream, which was then also re-streamed on CR. Of note in that particular situation is that while Bandai Visual then included the English subtitles on their Blu-ray release in Japan (see Justin's comments about Japanese ownership of English materials, something folks don't generally think about), they did NOT include the subtitles for the OP and ED sequences, for any number of reasons. All of the reasons and motivations and logistics behind this stuff can be just one big hairball, more often than not.
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The Coffee God



Joined: 22 Jul 2010
Posts: 412
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 4:15 pm Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
It would be nice if professional subs for streaming did at least translate the opening and ending credits more often. Case in point Watamote, where the songs are actually relevant to the show but are left untranslated. sadface.jpg


Sentai's delaycasts on TAN of CR simulcasts generally do get OP/ED song translations.
So Watamote will very likely have streaming subs for the OP/ED songs.
That doesn't really help you out on the CR streams, but professional subs do get OP/ED song translations.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 4:30 pm Reply with quote
DmonHiro wrote:
But they can't. They need special permissions to translate the OP/ED. It's not that the streaming sites don't want to, but they would have to either pay extra, or go through some more legal crap.


But the songs are usually translated for home video releases, so what makes Crunchyroll's streams so different? Is Crunchyroll just a cheapskate company who can't be bothered forking out for them?
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