[Lynk Former]

even your concept is pretty complicated. not so much as making a new DVD mind you, but first, we search through the myriad of sites who sub things. With popular series, there's usually 2-3, soemtimes more if it's Inuyasha.

It's not complicated, believe me it's not. And I think you've misunderstood what I was saying too... I'll explain further.

Then we must make sure the given subtitle files will fit on a USB stick, given you even have one. I'm pretty computerish and I dont own one, I never saw the use. Then your DVD player must be appropriately region equipped. Given it's not a domestic DVD. And your player must have a USB port and the appropriate programming to do this thing. Unless the subtitle files are some kind of executable.

Subtitles are as simple as html, they aren't anything complicated, they're just text which are augmented with positional, colour, timing information, etc. All in all the subtitles for an entire movie would be around a few hundred kilobytes of information if we're talking a movie with a lot of dialogue. The DVD player then takes those small pieces of information and acts on them accordingly. Just like how the browser you're using has interpreted the html on this very page.

My idea wasn't meant to be something that you can do with current technology as it is, but rather something that should've been implemented or should be implemented in some form in future technology. To add to that, this idea wasn't limited to just fansubs of anime. It could just as easily be made to add subtitles to a local release. I also had recent technology trends in mind.

In recent trends it's been pushed that we should be having digital media hubs in our homes that can play disc based media, record live tv onto a hard disk and also be able to access the world wide web in some manner. This combining of technologies opens up a wide variety of things, including what has been recommended in this thread.

I never meant for my idea to be final, the way I explained it was just a way I thought would be the most easily understandable approach rather than going into digital media hubs and the likes of that...

Lastly, you need to make sure the timing is correct. It's great to watch with subs, but if the timing is off by 5-10 seconds, while you may not know japanese, it can look pretty horrible. If the timing is not correct, you'll need to clear your USB stick, and repeat the whole process.

You missed my point, you're not the one who's doing the timing, the people who are creating the fansubs are, and they already have to worry about timing and all that in the first place.

Personally I think thats all rather a waste of time. Most Japanese releases HAVE english subs to my knoweledge. It would be must easier to get a region 2 DVD player off ebay or something. And simply own two copies of the show, OR wait till a domestic release with subs and dubs comes out.

It's a waste of time to implement this idea to current technology, yes. But that was not the point at all. And no, most Japanese releases of animes don't have English subtitles. Very few do, the most recent release was the FMA movie. It's a very rare event to see a Japanese release of anything to have english subtitles. Plus the idea of waiting for a domestic release of something that will probably never get a domestic release is what led me to this idea

Plus I will give into one fact that I overlooked. The fact it's illegal to enforce region codes in Australia in New Zealand while it isn't in the rest of the world. I keep forgetting everyone else around the world gets shafted by that XD






What I was trying to illustrate with this idea is that it's possible to easily create a method that allows people to add more subtitles to a digital video. But I guess my example was confusing.

Personally I'd like to be able to see this sort of thing implemented in future technology, obviously there is a better delivery system and it'd have to be embraced by the companies involved who would allow this sort of thing to occur.

The idea was never meant to be a practical excersise, more of a "it would be cool if our digital viewing experience was as flexable as this."