Daigoro

I would think even a five year old computer should probably be able to play an xvid AVI with the 704 x 396 resolution used by, say, Shinsen with softsubs, if you use Media Player Classic. Before I bought my current computer I was using a 1 GHz single core CPU Sony laptop to view softsubbed dramas without any problems. I think your problem is probably more related to the use of higher resolution and the H.264 codec in the mkv version. Unfortunately, I'm aware of the reasons why anime fansubbers like to use hardsubs (fancy fonts, karaoke effects, and to avoid having them "ripped off"), so I don't suppose we'll see any softsubs other than Gattai's. Jwinges, have you tried using your TV as the sole display, instead of cloning? That should reduce the workload on your graphics chip. I was also thinking the Shinsen subs were great, until I looked at their subs for episode 4. I wonder if they were trying too hard to avoid duplicating the lines that other sub groups have already used. Just today I saw that yet another group -- Lunar Anime -- is coming out with hardsubs! With so many groups subbing the same episodes, it will be hard to avoid occasionally duplicating lines without deliberately picking a translation that is either more awkward or less accurate. And yeah, I have to admit I probably come across as too harsh. I know it's loads of work to put out fansubs, and we're getting them for free. But I just find this situation -- multiple hardsub versions, each with minor but different "mistakes" -- frustrating compared with what I am used to in the drama and movie community. I'd also probably be happier if I didn't know _any_ Japanese, instead of just enough to pick out possible mistakes in the subs... EDIT: OK, thinking back now on some of the Korean dramas I've watched, there were quite a few with much worse subs than what we're getting for Macross F. I guess I've let the otaku in me get a bit too finicky. But I'd still like to see more softsubs, so that I could, say enjoy the Shinsen subs with some HD raws.

This is something I just don't understand -- the importance American anime fans attach to things like custom fonts and flashy karaoke effects. Perhaps it's just a generation gap, but as someone who's been watching subtitled live-action movies and TV shows from childhood, I prefer that fonts be readable without being distracting. You don't see professionally subtitled movies with the wacky, hard-to-read fonts that some anime subbers like to use just because some character is speaking with, say, a spooky voice. I also really wish more subbers would use softsubs, so that I could turn off the subs when watching certain scenes to more clearly see the animation (the "My Boyfriend Is A Pilot" segment in the asteroids, for example). That's one of the things I like about Gattai's use of .mkv containers. Softsubs would also make it easier for revised or edited subs to be released. I watch a lot of fansubbed Korean and Japanese dramas, and the type of mistakes I've been seeing in these Macross F subs would usually be corrected after some feedback. I mean, I understand how it can be difficult to figure out what non-Japanese words the characters are speaking, like proper nouns, but some of the other errors I find harder to explain. For example, if you watch the original Macross series, you'll hear variations of the phrase "PURPLE, VERMILLION shotai, kaimetsu!" about 300 times, so I don't see how this could get translated in one of the DeCulture edition subs to "Purple, Vermilion Squadrons JOINED" instead of "destroyed"! Maybe part of the problem is that the fansubbers are just working too quickly on this title, as others have suggested. But I think that being able to edit subs in response to feedback would also be a good idea. Not to mention we'd all be able to enjoy better visual quality with softsubs, regardless of which sub we picked.

And they come across looking like 12-year-old fanboys... I'm sure it's been said many, MANY times on this board, but Robotech was the "gateway drug" for a whole generation of older anime fans like myself. Sure, it would have been great if there was some other way to bring Macross over without tying it with two unrelated series, but at the time Robotech came out, there was no way an animated series with only 36 episodes could get distributed in North America. Are the fans here so fanatical that they'd rather NO Macross had been broadcast here, rather than a bowdlerized version? Robotech is largely responsible for seeding the North American anime boom. I certainly would never have discovered Macross if it weren't for Robotech. As for the Youtube video itself, it made me laugh out loud. It was AWESOME! I think people used to the abundant supply of anime now can't imagine what an impact Robotech had on those of us first viewing it the 80's, when American cartoons consisted of stuff like dubbed Transformers and GI Joe! The music may seem to suck now, but the nostalgic feeling I got from seeing it used in this video -- words can't describe it! Goofy, SILLY fun. The guy who posted the video, dodofly, had this reply to the angry "ROBOGAYTRASH" comment: macross和ROBOTECH我都喜欢。 如果你不喜欢，没有人强迫你看。 你的嘴很臭，像马桶！你根本不懂得什么是真正的娱乐！ To translate: "I like Macross AND Robotech. If you don't like it, no one is forcing you to watch it. Your mouth is very foul, like a toilet! You basically don't understand what is real entertainment." (Actually, he said "chou" or literally "smelly", but that doesn't convey the right meaning in English.) EDIT: Hmm, after reading the rest of the comments, I think I'll return to my original policy of never reading Youtube comments! Instead of some anti-spam bot security check, they need you to pass an IQ test before posting...