Macross streaming on Disney+ (under the "Star" label; Star/Hulu of D+)

[Seto Kaiba]

6 minutes ago, 100mega said:

It’s a stupid practice that needs to die. 

It's kind of pointless now, considering the prices of the Macross Blu-rays in the west are basically at price-parity with Japan... but for a long time it made really good sense to take action to prevent re-importation of media because the US DVDs and Blu-rays were about half the cost of the Japan domestic market releases.

[Areoborg]

I've started watching Frontier on Hulu, and I don't really care for how they're doing the subtitles.   They're actual subtitles, so you occasionally get "Upbeat Music" or "Dramatic Music" and having the translated signs be part of the subtitle feed rather than the usual subtitle options.

Its better than the nothing we had before, but kinda disappointing.

[Duke Togo]

45 minutes ago, Areoborg said:

I've started watching Frontier on Hulu, and I don't really care for how they're doing the subtitles.   They're actual subtitles, so you occasionally get "Upbeat Music" or "Dramatic Music" and having the translated signs be part of the subtitle feed rather than the usual subtitle options.

Its better than the nothing we had before, but kinda disappointing.

It's closed captioning, they're all like that unfortunately.

[Jeff J]

23 minutes ago, Duke Togo said:

It's closed captioning, they're all like that unfortunately.

Which is a shame when you consider how quality the subs are on other regions' D+ releases.

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, Jeff J said:

Which is a shame when you consider how quality the subs are on other regions' D+ releases.

Hopefully they'll go back and revisit the subtitle options and such once the region-specific remasters and releases are done.

[Shawn]

dumb question sorry
why are closed captions worse than a subtitle?

(without de-railing the thread...just one or two answers please LOL)

[Seto Kaiba]

6 minutes ago, Shawn said:

dumb question sorry
why are closed captions worse than a subtitle?

(without de-railing the thread...just one or two answers please LOL)

Closed captions differ from subtitles in the sense that they are required (by law in the US, Canada, and a few other places) to include support for the hearing-impaired.  That's why they include things like *upbeat music* and so on that would not normally be included in subtitles meant for non-impaired viewers who simply need a translation.

There's also a specific way that they're embedded in media so they can be natively handled by TVs and such, which doesn't support things like superimposing translations over signs.

Essentially, they're less versatile than the DVD/Blu-ray subtitles most people are used to because of how they're formatted and the legal requirements they aim to satisfy.

Edited Wednesday at 05:03 PM by Seto Kaiba

[Big s]

22 minutes ago, Shawn said:

dumb question sorry
why are closed captions worse than a subtitle?

(without de-railing the thread...just one or two answers please LOL)

Seeing things like as Seto said

 

17 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

*upbeat music*

Or record player starts, loud moaning are just some of the examples. It seems rather constant while no one is talking at all, its gonna inform you about something odd.

I do think it’s a bit annoying, but I can live with it, I think the bigger issue is the missing subs on Macross plus for certain tv’s. There seems to be a lot of complaints about that one here and in social media. 

[Powered Convoy]

It was surreal to watch Flashback 2012 with subtitles for the first time. First time with subtitles that is. 

[MaxFan2112]

It was surreal to see Flashback after all these years. And on a streamer! They say the waiting is the hardest part. 😆. Appreciate all the feedback on the cc and sub with the other titles

[davidwhangchoi]

I have a conclusion on why the subtitles are playing out of sync for of the Macross series including Plus and Frontier. 

The artificially added fade to black  between some scenes for supposedly commercials creates a split second delay. That gap in time that is not suppose to be there creates a lag in timing and the subtitle will be earlier than the dialogue.  

The lag in time between the subtitles and dialogue get progressively worse with each additional fade to black commercial break,  towards the latter half of an episode after 2 or more fade to black pauses, the gaps in timing are very noticeable which is why people are noticing them towards the middle or end of an episode not at the beginning. 

If the episode had only one or no breaks, it's barely noticeable. but more than one fade out will most likely create a jarring experience which is why some may notice it more on certain episodes. 

Examples:

Frontier ep.2 at the 4:29 sec mark to see the lag in subtitles.  

Macross plus OVA has several fade to black pauses each episode. 

I believe those fade to black pauses were edited in artificially after the subtitles were already timed with the dialogue without the breaks.

 

[Graham]

I wonder why you guys in the US are having these subtitle problems? 

Since we got the various Macross shows on D+ here back in September 2024, I haven't noticed any issues at all with the subtitles.

But I usually watch at home by casting from the D+ app on my phone or tablet to my smart TV. Or just watch directly on my phone on the D+ app when I'm commuting.

But I guess it's a bit different here, as there is no Star or Hulu here in Hong Kong, all content is just under D+.

[Graham]

20 minutes ago, davidwhangchoi said:

I have a conclusion on why the subtitles are playing out of sync for of the Macross series including Plus and Frontier. 

The artificially added fade to black  between some scenes for supposedly commercials creates a split second delay. That gap in time that is not suppose to be there creates a lag in timing and the subtitle will be earlier than the dialogue.  

The lag in time between the subtitles and dialogue get progressively worse with each additional fade to black commercial break,  towards the latter half of an episode after 2 or more fade to black pauses, the gaps in timing are very noticeable which is why people are noticing them towards the middle or end of an episode not at the beginning. 

If the episode had only one or no breaks, it's barely noticeable. but more than one fade out will most likely create a jarring experience which is why some may notice it more on certain episodes. 

Examples:

Frontier ep.2 at the 4:29 sec mark to see the lag in subtitles.  

Macross plus OVA has several fade to black pauses each episode. 

I believe those fade to black pauses were edited in artificially after the subtitles were already timed with the dialogue without the breaks.

 

Sounds plausible, as I've not noticed any fade to black pauses on D+ here so not encountered any subtitle lag.

[davidwhangchoi]

4 minutes ago, Graham said:

Sounds plausible, as I've not noticed any fade to black pauses on D+ here so not encountered any subtitle lag.

Most likely because in the U.S. all Macross is under Hulu and D+ is carrying Hulu shows. These fade pause breaks on are Hulu. 

[Seto Kaiba]

10 minutes ago, davidwhangchoi said:

Most likely because in the U.S. all Macross is under Hulu and D+ is carrying Hulu shows. These fade pause breaks on are Hulu. 

Hulu has a Disney+ integration, though.

Has anyone checked the issue is repeatable accessing Hulu via the Disney+ app?

 

EDIT: I have the Disney+ w/ Hulu integration, so I'll check it momentarily.

Edited Thursday at 04:51 AM by Seto Kaiba

[davidwhangchoi]

1 minute ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Hulu has a Disney+ integration, though.

Has anyone checked the issue is repeatable accessing Hulu via the Disney+ app?

FYI, I'm in the U.S. and have both Hulu and Disney and tested both day one. 

Duke Togo and others already confirmed it's happening on both platforms for U.S. because Hulu shows integrated on Disney plus seems to be a different experience vs. where Graham resides where there is no Hulu. Macross streaming directly on D+ in HK or Japan doesn't seem to have the fade out pauses or subtitle lag issues.

  

[Seto Kaiba]

Just now, davidwhangchoi said:

FYI, I'm in the U.S. and have both Hulu and Disney and tested both day one. 

Duke Togo and others already confirmed it's happening on both platforms for U.S. because Hulu shows integrated on Disney plus seems to be a different experience vs. where Graham resides where there is no Hulu. Macross streaming directly on D+ in HK or Japan doesn't seem to have the fade out pauses or subtitle lag issues.  

OK, I must've missed (or forgotten) that someone had already checked.

I tried running the first episode of Macross Frontier on Disney+'s Hulu integration using a Google TV 4K unit, and while I did see the fade-to-black at around 3:39 in the video it does not appear to have caused subtitles to noticeably desync for me.

[davidwhangchoi]

Just now, Seto Kaiba said:

OK, I must've missed (or forgotten) that someone had already checked.

I tried running the first episode of Macross Frontier on Disney+'s Hulu integration using a Google TV 4K unit, and while I did see the fade-to-black at around 3:39 in the video it does not appear to have caused subtitles to noticeably desync for me.

Thanks for checking:

See my original post example and try episode 2 where i marked it as the first episode doesn't seem to be noticeable. 

[Seto Kaiba]

4 minutes ago, davidwhangchoi said:

Thanks for checking:

See my original post example and try episode 2 where i marked it as the first episode doesn't seem to be noticeable. 

OK, yeah I see that desync... the subtitles seem to start running slightly fast on my setup after that first fate-to-black on episode two of Macross Frontier.

I wonder if whoever set this up forgot to disable the commercial break flag for ad-free customers or something?

[Big s]

2 hours ago, Graham said:

But I usually watch at home by casting from the D+ app on my phone or tablet to my smart TV. Or just watch directly on my phone on the D+ app when I'm commuting.

When I use the tv is when it has problems. The phone seems to have no issues. How does it look for you when not casting from your phone? 
I think it’s somehow a Hulu issue though 

[JB0]

In fairness, if they're only doing one set of captions, it should be "for the hearing-impaired".

 

I assume they aren't ACTUALLY closed captions, since no one's complained about the huge black boxes. Open captions for the win!

[Graham]

2 hours ago, Big s said:

When I use the tv is when it has problems. The phone seems to have no issues. How does it look for you when not casting from your phone? 
I think it’s somehow a Hulu issue though 

Hmm. Good question.

I've never actually used or opened D+ directly on my TV.

For some reason my wife and I always just cast from our mobiles.

[Big s]

2 hours ago, Graham said:

Hmm. Good question.

I've never actually used or opened D+ directly on my TV.

For some reason my wife and I always just cast from our mobiles.

We’re kinda the opposite. Unless we’re at a hotel or something 

[Master Dex]

4 hours ago, JB0 said:

In fairness, if they're only doing one set of captions, it should be "for the hearing-impaired".

 

I assume they aren't ACTUALLY closed captions, since no one's complained about the huge black boxes. Open captions for the win!

It's more just several apps port subtitles through the CC on smart TVs and Hulu and Disney are both examples of that. Functionally it looks exactly like CC, which on my TV settings I can edit to look different so I have large white drop shadow text CC with no background. That helps a lot.

[Areoborg]

5 hours ago, JB0 said:

In fairness, if they're only doing one set of captions, it should be "for the hearing-impaired".

 

I assume they aren't ACTUALLY closed captions, since no one's complained about the huge black boxes. Open captions for the win!

Mine has the black boxes, but they're set to be translucent, and I haven't really bothered to go into the settings to see if that can be removed.   I know there are settings to change how it looks on the PC at least.  

*EDIT*
Turns out, I can turn the background off to have Open Captions.  Doesn't fix the issue that they're the hearing impaired CC rather than just the regular subtitles that we're used to.

Edited Thursday at 02:50 PM by Areoborg

[Seto Kaiba]

There was an app update for Disney+ today, and I am sad to report it does not fix the issue with the subtitles being desynchronized or banish the fade-to-black moments.

[Duke Togo]

46 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

There was an app update for Disney+ today, and I am sad to report it does not fix the issue with the subtitles being desynchronized or banish the fade-to-black moments.

That's wouldn't be related to the app itself.

[Big s]

22 hours ago, Graham said:

Hmm. Good question.

I've never actually used or opened D+ directly on my TV.

For some reason my wife and I always just cast from our mobiles.

So I haven’t Ben able to test it until just a bit ago since we’ve been without power for the last few days. But I tried casting Hulu first thing when the power came back on because of your mention here and that seems to work on the Macross plus OVA. Not sure about the other stuff yet, but I’ve watched two episodes so far and now I got the subs on the tv.

Bassically for anyone else having this issue needing the subs, try casting from your phone as a work around 

[jeisurii]

On 1/15/2025 at 11:03 PM, davidwhangchoi said:

I have a conclusion on why the subtitles are playing out of sync for of the Macross series including Plus and Frontier. 

The artificially added fade to black  between some scenes for supposedly commercials creates a split second delay. That gap in time that is not suppose to be there creates a lag in timing and the subtitle will be earlier than the dialogue.  

The lag in time between the subtitles and dialogue get progressively worse with each additional fade to black commercial break,  towards the latter half of an episode after 2 or more fade to black pauses, the gaps in timing are very noticeable which is why people are noticing them towards the middle or end of an episode not at the beginning. 

If the episode had only one or no breaks, it's barely noticeable. but more than one fade out will most likely create a jarring experience which is why some may notice it more on certain episodes. 

Examples:

Frontier ep.2 at the 4:29 sec mark to see the lag in subtitles.  

Macross plus OVA has several fade to black pauses each episode. 

I believe those fade to black pauses were edited in artificially after the subtitles were already timed with the dialogue without the breaks.

 

Something along these lines are the likely cause as all the titles are fine when playing from another country where they are natively on D+, its only the Hulu versions that experience this. It becomes most noticeable on longer titles such as the Macross Plus Movie Edition where subtitles are appearing upwards of 7 seconds too early near the end. Checked the Frontier and Delta movies however and they seem fine, just something they need to fix on a few titles then.

 

I did spend a long chat with Hulu support reporting the issue on Plus Movie so maybe it'll get fixed one day.

 

Also made sure to send requests for improvement on both Hulu and Disney Plus requesting they add non-CC versions of the subtitles for all titles.

[sh9000]

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2025-01-20/several-minutes-from-macross-dynamite-7-streaming-release-cut-in-japan-globally/.220056

[Powered Convoy]

18 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2025-01-20/several-minutes-from-macross-dynamite-7-streaming-release-cut-in-japan-globally/.220056

I know this was talked about, but they should just have fair warning on the series or particular episode.

Edited 13 hours ago by Powered Convoy

[Hikuro]

5 hours ago, Powered Convoy said:

I know this was talked about, but they should just have fair warning on the series or particular episode.

You mean Mylene's drugging incident by her Producer? I mean, IYKYK I guess is the internet saying. 

 

 

I just finished Zero, and truthfully it was a bit painful to watch it. The closed caption isn't that terrible, but it sure isn't fun to deal with. I kind of figure programs like 7, Frontier and Delta to be the most problematic but I guess, wait and see. 

[Master Dex]

I dunno what I'm doing differently, but I've been watching on Hulu with my Roku TV and have had zero issues with subs and I'm almost 20 episodes into a Macross 7 rewatch. Maybe the others mentioned might still be an issue, I haven't checked yet.

It does port it through the TV's CC but Hulu has always done that so that's not new to me as I have watched anime there before. I also customized my TV's CC settings so the lettering is larger and has no black box at all with a proper drop shadow so it tends to look a lot nicer on my end. I don't know if every TV these days can do that but if so, consider it, I think it helps a lot for presentation. I can't offer much for timing as that's usually out of the user's control but at least on 7 I haven't seen any problems yet.