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The Wonders of [Hidden] Fansub Translation Notes
This post is brought to you by GomPlayer, a wonderful media player, which is sadly, very much underrated kinda like Opera.
I’m not sure if we’re all aware of the hidden comments that reside in subtitles, because they’re not really meant for us leechers public viewers. They’re primarily useful for the fansub translators, QC people, etc –- aka the staff, for clarifying translation nuances, adding side-comments, etc. The moment they get encoded into the video, it’s supposed to be not rendered by the players. Or so people thought.
Now here’s where GomPlayer comes in.
GomPlayer, as I briefly introduced above, is a really lightweight media player which supports playback of most, if not all, video formats, and supports them well (unlike VLC which often fails with mkv files). It also allows ease in taking snapshots with a simple Ctrl+E shortcut, automatically saving the screenshots in one folder, named after the video’s filename (with a bunch of random characters following the filename). But of course, like any other media player out there, GomPlayer is not without its faults.
First, it doesn’t render fonts embedded in mkv videos (hence you have this plain old Arial font, or whatever font you choose—in all the mkv files you play), so you have to bid a bit of goodbye to super stylish fonts when using this one. Second, the screenshot capability isn’t all that ‘stable’. It advances a few frames when you take the snapshot, so you might not really get the screenshot until a few microseconds rewind -> re-snapshot. Then lastly, it renders the {comments} in the mkv file, comments that are supposed to be hidden. I noticed this way back when I was watching Kure-nai (and now, in Antique Bakery and Natsume Yuujinchou). I found this bug annoying at first (especially if the particular scene you want to capture has the additional {comment} on them), but eventually got to appreciate after all the eureka! and lulz moments it brought to my anime viewing experience. It’s kinda like seeing side comments in niconico douga, but this one is in English, and from the translator/QC-er himself/herself! To give you guys a brief overview of what I’m talking about, here are the proofs.
from Kure-nai:
Explanation for the sake of those who don’t get the chess term metaphors… orz
close encounters with the nuances of the Japanese language
from Natsume Yuujinchou:
fuck yea! hurray for side comments!
from Antique Bakery:
learn something new with each phrase!
Lost in translation, literally. @__@
The evolution of translation. bow.
For the sake of those who don’t get it, duh.
Kickass translator elaborations. Like yeah.
Translator-tan is dumbfounded o.O
Who ever thought a simple “Un!” could mean this much?!!
Instant manga comparisons FTWWW
So yeah, despite the glitches of GomPlayer, I decided to stick with it, to see more of these hidden translation notes 
This only happens in mkvs, if I’m not mistaken, so this also prompts me to download mkvs.
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25 comments for “The Wonders of [Hidden] Fansub Translation Notes”
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Yeah, I figured that out a while ago when I was fiddling with different players. Admittedly, the comments can get distracting at times, but fun stuff nonetheless.
Lol, context is fun. I didn’t know about that. I use mplayer, it’s pretty simple to map things around, like left-click to snapshot, etc. For some reason I don’t think I can get it to snap the subs >.>
Un!
Lol, this is good stuff. Un! And translator being dumbfounded.
I always think they are great for a second/third rewatching, when you do not have to read the subs as closely to grasp the meaning. This way, the nuances of the language that come through the translation notes make more sense and add more to the translation.
Oh I’m so tempted to get GomPlayer and start downloading mkvs again when available.
Now that I’m learning Japanese, fansubs have become part of the enjoyment when I get to go, “haha…no” in response to some awkward translations. I want more, “lolwut” moments now.
Though…perhaps not a wise choice when watching something sentimental…
ZPlayer never lets me down. But now the score between the tow stands as GomPlayer 2: ZPlayer 54. <— I din’t just make that up
A lot of these kinds of notes are visible when you play MKVs in VLC as well. Which is all part of the MKV implementation being broken in that program.
I personally use Media Player Classic (MPC). Screenshots can be taken with the press of F5. Only issue is that it relies on codecs, so if you don’t set it up properly, you might not be able to watch everything you download. Subs are rendered fine.
As for the comments, I suppose watching with VLC/gomplayer lets you see the comments in real time, but you could always use mkvmerge/mkvextract to extract the sub file, and open in notepad. Or use Aegisub. But then again, that’s quite an involved process, not really for those that aren’t as inclined. =P
I did QC for Menclave for a while, and yeah, comments are full of LULz. Of course, the final release might not have as many comments, depending on how the sub group does things (i.e. how many editors/TL/QC they have).
Lol! This is good stuff. Kinda interesting
Hah~
Seems fun.
I use MPC and love it. :’p
But I guess it can have a bit of a flaw too. But still it’s great. x’3
Now..I think I have a friend who has GOMplayer. :’o
Can’t remember who though.
Oh yea…have you read the article about the SkiBi’s casts’ interview?If not…here: http://news.dengeki.com/elem/000/000/105/105300/
If the comments are of any relevance and not just plain idiocy, then I guess you could treat them like easter eggs. However, for the most part, all you’ll see in {comments} are completely irrelevant remarks…
On the other hand, comments are a good way to force retards to wake up. “Why are you watching softsubs on a media player that can’t properly handle soft subs in the first place?” “We’re going to purposefully put comments in our subs that way VLC-tards learn that VLC sucks, {see this retard? why aren’t you using MPC?!}”
… t least that’s how some subbers may feel…
intro already said it tho, generally you’d want to remove {comments} when finalizing an RC :/
I’m thinking of picking up GomPlayer right now (all thanks to this post). Zoom Player served me well until it just stopped working for some reason (which I can’t be bothered to find out); now I’m on MPC.
@GC: yesss
@Ryan: Oh, I had that problem too. Turns out that I had to switch the DirectShow video rendering option to VMR7 or VMR9
@Marmosette: Un ne! lol.
@Panther: total lulz indeed
@Kabitzin: yup, it’s totally distracting the first time, more often than not… it’s like being force-fed with info you don’t really want to see (yet).
@FuyuMaiden: I think the strict(er) fansub groups out there won’t let those comments get away. But it’s real lol fun
@Omisyth: the fact that ZPlayer crashes in my office laptop makes it utter FAIL to me. No questions asked.
@Mike: Oh the lol that these bugs bring… But VLC’s MKV-rendering bugs is too much of a pain to deal with. Not being able to see the video properly, among other things x__x;;
@KayDat: that’s too hardcore
I relied on MPC for years… then somehow got spoiled by the auto-save snapshot feature of GomPlayer. And it’s good if the comments left are the totally lulz and informative ones, otherwise… 
@Wija-chan: lol, that interview was awesome. I was thinking of translating… then got lazy orz.
@sho: wow, fansubbers’ silent rebellion
as for the {comments}, either the informative ones get retained, or better yet, get its very own translation notes section.
@Diego: Zoom Player never worked for me… in my office laptop, that is. I found that GomPlayer performs rather well in my comp there, with all limited RAM and all x__x; Hope you find GomPlayer good, if not great!
I personally feel blogs and forums make for better discussion grounds… I don’t see a need for commentary within my animations, and am in fact against translation/editor/on-screen notes period :/ (typesets such as translations of signs should blend with the original animation, and wikipedia excerpts are totally unnecessary, if I wanted an explanation of why you personally like Tamagoyaki then I’d contact you on aim or this blog inquiring such, and clipping out “the” ingredients that comprise this Japanese omelet is really pointless -.-)
If you really like comments all over your footage though, maybe you should consider scripting a media player like niconico’s and have users commentary overlay the video clips ;o
just kidding.
I mentioned this on the other blog but not here; {comments} aren’t actual “comments,” so if you really want to look at some groups commentary, you could check out the .ass in aegisub or open the script up in notepad (if you’re smart enough to read between the lines).
In any case in regards to your blog entry, it’s an interesting post… way back in the day when I was uber-noob I’m pretty sure I thought subbers were just dumbasses for leaving things like that in their scripts…
Here’s another reason why most learned subbers are anti-gom/vlc … say for instance two people are talking simultaneously… those media players will only bother to display the line which times started first (line 1 is timed at 2:30 to 2:40, line 2 is timed at 2:31 to 2:39, you only see line 1), meaning you entirely miss numerous lines ~_x well… that was the case back in Fall 07 at least, maybe VLC and GOM have modified their players
Lol I also use GomPlayer and I also found the side comments funny XD! Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu Na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~ is an another example.
@sho: ROFL. user commentaries on the video would be far tooo distracting, and more retarded too, most likely
also, looks like VLC and GOM still has the issue with simultaneous subs. I looked at Kure-nai episode 3 to double check… it seems that I used MPC when I watched that before. Talk about a major flaw I overlooked orz.
@kanzeon: Ooh, the subs for Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto has been really slow that I relied on raws/chinese subs instead
@usagijen
Hahaha~ xDD
We all get lazy. So don’t worry, you’re not alone. ;p
ahahaha… i watch mkvs on MPC but get my screenshots on VLC. we get pretty much the same thing.
so the latest VLC seems to play mkv files great…
on my amd 3200+ geforce 2 gfx mplayerc sometimes doesnt loses audio and video synchronization, cause my gfx card is too damn slow
[ RANT on my solution (ignore if you want):
i managed to alleviate this somewhat by fiddling around with the codecs but after 5-10 min the desynced again. so i would have to start playing again from where it desynced. ]
anyway the new vlc played the files awesome…subs included…
i still use mpc for my xvids and vlc for the hires mkc files that mpc has trouble playing
@biankita: eh, why use a different player for playing and taking screenshots? Unless you watch an episode twice, I think that’s gonna be real hard.
@bobofet: I seem to have grown out of MPC, though I use it when I feel like watching the MKVs with more style lol. VLC is… quite a last priority in my media player options
well VLC takes png screen captures by default whereas MPC doesn’t… so that could be considered a “reason”
Hey, I never noticed that! Even though I had GOM Player, I never used it. But a time comes where you have one too many media players (like 12?) so I thought at least one had to go, so GOM made its way to the Recyling Bin. I use either CCCP for .mkv or The KMPlayer for everything else; it does pretty much everything too!
@sho: hmm, icic. That, or the fact that VLC automatically saves the pics too.
@oTAKu: oohh, I’ve never used KMPlayer… might look into that sometime.