Hurin

Ah, DVD Shrink! I was reading along and saw the "almost" and wondered if you had noticed some video/audio quality degredation. . . but then I saw that you compressed it. So far, you're the only one I know of who has done this all the way through. But, hopefully these newer instructions will prompt others. Aside from the extraction and "Muxing" time (which you can spend doing other things!), it's really only about 15 minutes of work! I think a lot of people don't see the point if they don't have a dual-layer DVD burner so that they can burn a copy and watch it in all its glory on their TV/home theater. That's the only real weak link in this whole process. I'm considering offering to burn these for people as long as they are willing to send me their DVD first as proof that they are entitled to a copy. I just burned my first succesful dual-layer DVD and it plays great in my Panasonic RP-62 DVD player that is known to be finnicky with home-burned DVDs. So, I know it can work. The trick is to set the booktype bit setting on the DVD+R to DVD-ROM. This is a neat trick and makes a DVD+R compatible on nearly every table-top DVD player (but your burner needs to support booktype bit setting to burn a DVD this way!). Anyways, I'd need to consult with a friend of mine who is a copyright attorney before I could burn these things for strangers. I have no intention of becoming a bootlegger!

Hi there! I hope I didn't step on your toes! My R2 DVD is on the way from Asia right now too and I'm hoping to re-time things and make a "Total English Conversion" of it (new menus, etc.). If you're interested in the nitty-gritty of how this project got done, check out my original post that I archived on my own site here just in case someone like you needed it! Here's the link. Also, the tutorial that really got me off the ground is here. But I stopped following its advice about halfway through since I didn't like some of the techniques! Feel free to PM me or post any questions here. I'd be happy to help you out. Though, you might also just want to wait a couple weeks until my R2 version is out. H

There is an all-new version up and I have heavily edited the first post here. The improvements are many. First and foremost, you can now all edit the subtitles yourselves in case the mood should strike you. Second, the entire process is now much easier as long as you follow the instructions and extract the files to the proper places. Finally, a flashier, nicer menu is included. A lot of the ramblings above are superseded by this new version and the updated first post. Enjoy! H

Who's celebrating? This all sounds pretty level-headed to me if not downcast. Personally, I think we all just want this so badly that the thought of it not actually making it to production bothers us all the more. . . so we are more prone to expressing concern about it. I think it'll probably make it. I think the FAST Packs sold well. . . and that may be what Yamato is basing its targets for this on. If they only produce this and a CF 1/48, I'll consider Yamato's run complete. H

How much space does a PM really take up, anyways? 5k at the max? Maybe but with the amount of users here and the amount that never clear their PM box that can take a toll on the SQL. I'm no SQL pro. . . but I don't think this would have an effect unless a lot of people were messing around with their PM inboxes all at once. Otherwise, it's just storage space. Don't let A1 trick you into thinking this is a bad thing just because he likes a full inbox! But you could do like I did and send him 50-100 PMs. Just open up one message to him. . . but before sending, press CTRL-N about fifty times. Then click send on each one (ALT-F4 to close the send succesful window). Only takes a few minutes. And it will make A1 happy. And who doesn't want that? Well, besides me, I mean. H

LOL! It looks like it's full of out-of-work porn actors! That being said, the production values look pretty high. . . the guy with the obviously yellow-ed scout trooper helmet aside. A1, how can you say that about Harrison Ford!?!

Was it also called a cyclone in Mospeada? Or is that a RT term? H

Well, in the case of RT, the narrator is nearly always talking way too much over it.

If you mean the animation that shows the SDF-1 getting blown up (God, I love that!) I don't hear a thing...and this is not a joke. Either my Flash Player is hosed up, or he took the music down. I remember, about a year ago, my browser stopped playing the music from this site too. But it was back the next day. How odd is that?!? Just restart your computer and possible clear your browser cache (the latter probably won't help, but might). You could also try uninstalling flash player and then reinstalling it form Macromedia.com H

The intro music. . . before you actually enter the site is from RT. But it's actually one of the good pieces from RT. Some people are a little too uptight. H

Yeah, but as others have said, the other 99.9% of the site is pure Macross. Hey, you'd better complain about that .1% though until he shows up here and demands that his username be unregistered. This was the site that originally convinced me to try DYRL again a couple years ago. H P.S. That snippet from RT brings back a flood of memories for me that, yes, were originally RT from when I was a kid. But it's Macross now.

D'oh! I have been reading your name wrong for over three years! Fixed it. That's the plan! H

Ack! Too late! But that's okay, I'll consider it a collectible. BTW, you noticed where I credit you in the notes for the FX subbing, right? H

Cool thanks. That sets me at ease. H

As usual, it seems like there's a lot of jumping to conclusions without a lot of facts. It's fun to debate, but let's not get to adamant in our opions. Yes, it's possible Macross toys are winding down to an eventual hault. But it's also possible that this is just a lull before another surge. Personally, I think we'll probably see a trickle continue. The 1/48 GBP, and maybe some re-releases of the existing 1/48 valks. But nothing too terribly exciting other than that. H

Sure! I don't mind sharing! But it gets a bit technical. WARNING: TECHNICAL CRAP NOBODY NEEDS TO KNOW AHEAD! EDIT: All of the problems mentioned below are rectified in the new version now available. First, we need to understand what DVD subtitles actually are. The subtitle stream is actually just a series of BMP images (they aren't stored as text on the DVD itself) that are compressed into a single file along with the information for when to integrate each BMP image into the video stream. Now, here's the important part to get your head around: No software of which I'm aware can look at the BMP images in the stream and extract the text. In other words, it would be like me drawing an image with some words in it, and then asking you to copy and paste those words out of the image and into Microsoft Word. . . it can't be done. Though, of course, OCR software can scan an image and determine with varying degrees of accuracy what letters are in the image. But to my knowledge, there is no OCR-equivalent software that can do the same for a subtitle stream. So, we've got a subtitle stream, but we can't manipulate it. That's where we become dependent on Ali Sama's fansubs. These are essentially just a script in text format with timestamps for when each line should be displayed. These are intended to be used with video player software on computers that essentially throw the subtitles up on the screen along with the video. But the two aren't integrated. The nice part of this approach, however, is that these 3rd party subtitle players allow for overlapping subtitles and multiple colors to designate who is speaking, etc. But, the downside is that you can't really watch it on your couch unless you have a decent HTPC. And, even then, the output often doesn't look as good as a DVD would while playing from a table-top DVD player. So, the ideal situation is to somehow change the subtitles on the actual DVD. The first step is to take a script like Ali Sama's and import it into Subtitle Workshop (SW). Then you can adjust the timings and change the wording etc. I wasn't able to get SW to display the DVD stream with sound, so I wasn't able to use its built-in video playing feature to help me synch things right. But I did use it to adjust the timing of certain lines by hand. Now, I should have used SW exclusively until I was absolutely 100% happy with the text of the subtitles. But, I didn't realize this at the time, and I made a costly mistake. . . When you are 100% happy with the script and the timings, you can then import the SW-modified script into DVD-Lab Pro. At this point, you can also now use DVD-Lab Pro to format the subtitles (change font size, wrap long lines, move lines to top, bottom, left, or right, italicize, etc.). And then, finally, we use DVD-Lab Pro to render the subtitle script (words) into a subtitle stream (bitmap images) which takes the form of the SP1 file with which we're all now familiar. DVD-Lab Pro, upon compiling then slipstreams that SP1 file into the VOB files that make up the DVD's audio and video. Now, here's my mistake: I did all the formatting (moved Zentraedi words to the top, italicized lyrics, etc.) before I was 100% happy with the actual text and timing of the lines. So, from that point forward, unless I wanted to lose the hours of work put into formatting the subtitles, I had to do all my re-timing and line editing in DVD-Lab Pro. And its interface is a lot less user-friendly. I can't stress this enough: You lose all formatting and word wrapping when you import into DVD-Lab Pro. So, wait to do that stuff until after you are 100% happy with everything but formatting. So, to save anyone else attempting projects like this a lot of heartache, do things in the following order: 1. Work on your subtitles in SW until you are happy with the text and their timing. 2. Import them into DVD-Lab Pro, generate the subtitle stream, and compile a DVD for testing. 3. After you confirm that the timings are right and the text is correct, then (and only then) do all your formatting. One final note about a limitation of DVD-Lab Pro: When you import the text file from SW into DVD-Lab Pro, it saves the text of your substreams in your profile. So, I can still edit the text easily in DVD-Lab Pro and then generate a new stream whenever it is necessary (though, again, I have to do it via DVD-Lab Pro's rather poor interface). But, I can't edit the paths that my profile uses to locate the subtitle stream file (SP1) or any other media files. So, if I upload that project file here to try to give everyone the ability to easily edit the substream, it causes DVD-Lab Pro to crash when it tries to finish rendering the SP1 file. I suppose it might work if someone re-created the exact file structure of my desktop and renamed the substream file to the one I use as I work on things. But, I don't think anyone's still reading and I don't think I've explained this well enough for it to make sense to anyone but me! I hope someone found this interesting!

I have no idea. But, if you promise not to hold me responsible, I can help you guess. This is your TV, right? If so, I think you'll be okay because NTSC is listed there. Thanks, H

If you can find a timed subtitle script for it, I can show you how to create the substream from scratch. But, at that point, we would probably want to take it over to "other anime." My membership at scriptclub.org should be coming through in a few days. I'll look for a script for you when it does. And now. . . back to Macross. . .

Well, it's been a long while. But I finally went ahead and did this here. Once again, thanks to Ali Sama and mechamanic for the excellent work! It would have been too tall a mountain to climb without their groundwork! H

If there were a God this thread would already be locked. H

Hey Pat, I'm 90 miles north of LA. But in this weather, I think online is my best bet. What do you think of yesasia.com? They have it here for a pretty good price. Does this look official? DYRL R2 at Yesasia.com Sorta looks like an Asian Amazon! Edit: Well, I'm convinced it's legit. Though some of the reviewers were saying "if it's the real thing. . ." My copy is on the way. That's not a bad price. No tax and free shipping! H

Deleted post that was totally irrelevant (and possibly confusing) due to new version.

Hi All, Yes, I did a search. No, it didn't come up with anything. I'm looking for a reputable seller that has the original Region 2 (Japan) DVD of Macross: Do You Remember Love. Can someone enlighten me on three questions: 1. Is this DVD still in print or will any one I find be a bootleg? 2. Is the video transfer any different than the one used for the fx Perfect Edition bootleg? 3. Is the Bandai/Emotion release the best Region 2 release? I have found two stores that (apparently) sell it here and here. But, how do these fit with the questions above. . . and $90!?! Thanks for any info! H

Edit: This problem is a lot less likely now with the new version and instructions Make sure that your DVD Decrypter's Settings IFO tab looks exactly like this. Especially the "file splitting" option. Make sure it is set to NONE. Also, it could be this step in DVD Decrypter: This screenshot hopefully clarifies. You must highlight each one, and select Demux. So, select the video one, and select Demux, then the audio one, and select demux, then the subtitle one, and select demux. My guess is that it's that last bit that tripped you up. Your video stream should be one long file. Not several broken up ones. Let me know if this helps! H

Another way to look at some of the issues surrounding translating: (this is hypothetical) If I'm translating Swahili into english. . . and the Swahili have a linguistic idiom based on a Swahili fable of a fruit salesman who always claimed to have fruit for sale but never really did. . . until he lost all credibility. And therefore the Swahili use the term "fruit salesman" to denote a liar with no credibility. . . what do I do when the Swahili film uses that phrase? Do I translate it literally as "fruit salesman" and just confuse the heck out of my audience? Or do I use "liar" or "fraud" instead? I think that I would have to go with the latter. I think the primary goal is for things to make sense. . . rather than just literally translating word-for-word. Let the Japanese scholars appreciate the differences between the literal meaning and the idiomatic english translations out there. Did any of that make any sense. I'm so fried. I need sleep! H