30 replies to this topic

[Eviltorrent]

Some of you may not know me. I am et823, one of the moderators at the AKB48 online tracker (plus participate in several other communities with similar nicks). After some discussion with people there I believe it is time to get a translation team working there but for the benefit of every AKB48 fan. I know it is hard and usually they crash when the translators retire, but it is worth a shoot. The idea is to gauge the possibilities we have to start something like this (we know there is demand), to see how many people are interested in participating and donate their free time to get this done.

Anyone interested can go to the thread at the tracker. If you don't have an account there, just create one (if you have problems creating, just tell me, since we are limiting now to one account per IP due idiots creating leeching accounts).

Contrary to previous efforts that were usually born and died within a community, I want to contact the whole AKB48 fandom, not only the tracker and this forum, but also the other main trackers and forums. So, it is likely you will see similar posts in other trackers and forums as well (Stage48, Jph!p, Nihongogo, D-Addicts, etc). Every place has its own regulars, and some may feel better at some forum than another, but I think we are all grown ups and would be able to leave differences behind and work together towards the same goal. There is much talk about translations, so let's see how many are actually up for something this big.

I don't think this should be considered a spam message, since the goal is clear and in benefit of every AKB48 fan. Also, while discussion about whether this will work or not, pros and contras, and whether to join or not can be held here, I would appreciate if the actual serious discussion (timetables, software, etc) could be held in the thread I posted. I am kind of tired of finding lots of willing people to help but none actually organizing such an effort. While I don't have a background in fansubbing, I have over 5 years helping organize programming teams at work, including analysis and design, and setting one up shouldn't be harder if everyone is serious about the task.

And besides, if this fails, it would be nice to actually point to a thread showing that such an attempt has been made when someone new asks about why there are no weekly translations I will gladly solve any doubt or answer any question.

[dev-null]

Just some input from my side, what I would consider important to any subtitling (as I read the opposite of what I think would be useful in that very thread of yours already).

Besides, even if we were to release our episodes a week later, if they are subtitled I am sure we would still get a lot of downloads.

That sounds to me like you want to make hard-sub re-releases.

Personally I think going the soft-sub way (.ass-Format if you like it fancy) has various important advantages over the hard-sub way:

• It's a more open way to do things as part of the community (like the open-source software concept, if you like)
• People who downloaded huge episodes already don't have to re-download another huge file
• Less disk space waste in case both a RAW and subtitles are wanted
• Avoids re-encoding (lose of quality)
• Allows easier translation to other languages
• People can perhaps reuse the subs (or parts of it) once the shows get released on DVDs and use it together with their legal content
• Subtitles can be switched off when not required or wanted (useful for people who learn Japanese, like me)
• etc.

and probably most importantly:

• You don't merge your community work directly with the copyright-protected material, but keep it nicely separated.

All that is void when you go the hard-sub way.

Just some (hopefully constructive) input from my side. At least I wouldn't bother re-downloading hard-sub files. The same way I also wouldn't bother making tons of posts in a forum just to be able to get access to subtitle files.

Perhaps just me.

[Eviltorrent]

Thanks for the feedback!

That sounds to me like you want to make hard-sub re-releases.

Actually, if I am recruiting from several forums and trackers, it would be ungrateful to make them hardsubbed and distributed only via that tracker. However, getting the shows translated is my goal, and if all the subbers actually don't want soft subtitles around, I would have no other alternative. However, by default, we would be releasing subtitle files (srt files at the beginning, if we get enough helpers we could add ass releases to handle signs in a better way). It could be that the SD releases (the ones we do) could be hardcoded, but there will always be subtitle files available for everyone. Every translator may have its own demands (we have seen how at D-Addicts most request their subs not to be uploaded in streaming sites or sold, for example), but I think we won't be compromising the main idea of the project, to give people AKB48 translations.

We won't be doing our encodes (though there are people offering to get the raws), because the H!O ones are the most downloaded around (plus we reencode them in SD). So, the timing would be pretty much based in what is being uploaded here.

Regarding copyright, well, a translation is actually a derived work and therefore copyrighted by the original copyright owner, so it wouldn't make you safer than hardcoding it.

Just some (hopefully constructive) input from my side. At least I wouldn't bother re-downloading hard-sub files. The same way I also wouldn't bother making tons of posts in a forum just to be able to get access to subtitle files.

Well, many times the restrictions to access subtitle files are also requirement by the subbers (like the no streaming, no editing, etc). Not that I am defending that, as I said I would prefer having subtitles available for everyone. But it is also true that you need a central repository, a way to track them all so that people don't need to check four or five sites trying to get the full collection.

[Eviltorrent]

I know double posting is usually bad, but I think people would be interested in how goes the recruitment (and may encourage others to join us).

So far, one user from the AKB48 tracker and one user from H!O have offered help to translate. Both are JLPT2 level, and should be able to work without Japanese subtitles. There is also a user from D-Addicts who says she can help as well translating. And there is another user at the AKB48 tracker who mentioned someone close to him could translate for us, being a native.

We also have several people willing to do the QA check, and a few timers. Contrary to what I expected, timers are harder to come by

One of the translators is starting with the 110105 AKBINGO! episode by himself, while another is testing with 110107 Shuukan AKB. That should show people around that we are doing something serious.

In total, around 15 persons are offering their help, and this is just a few hours after asking for help, far more than what I expected. We will continue accepting help, since four translators mean a lot of timing and QA required. I can't guess how many people would be in the project once we start in full force, and I also know managing large groups is never easy, but as long as each keeps sight of the goal and we keep organized and respect each other, we should manage.

I will keep everyone updated, maybe one update per day. Right now it is important to let everyone know things are advancing (faster as is right now, or slower, doesn't matter as long as we continue advancing).

[Eviltorrent]

Daily update. We currently have 28 members (approximately 7 full translators (who can work from audio itself), 5 translators (who prefer working from Japanese subtitles, but can eventually do it from audio itself with some help), 8 timers, and 5 QA and 3 timer/QA). We also count with two Japanese native who can transcribe some sections for us, plus one of the full translators can transcribe as well.

110107 Shuukan AKB has been translated, and now it is being timed (50% done), while translation for 110105 AKBINGO! is underway. We already have assigned a translator for this week's AKBINGO! and Mousou Deka (the new SKE48 dorama).

For now we are still meeting at the AKB48 tracker forums, but we are already setting up FTP, a forum and a wiki. The IRC channel is already working (#[email protected]).

It has been a pretty busy weekend, but I think it has been really productive. I have posted similar requests in several places (Nihongogo, Stage48, H!O, Jpopsuki, D-Addicts, JPH!P, and asked people to help posting similar requests in other sites) and have found people interested in helping everywhere. This week we will start for serious. While subs may take a while to be finished, and may have some problems, I am sure we will become better as time advances.

Thanks for the support!

(PS: Still looking for Japanese subtitles for shows, but they can only come from people who actually cap the shows themselves )

[Krusha]

I am very happy to see that this is taking off.

There's a huge mass of material to use when it comes to AKB48, which I think we all know, and instead of many splinter groups competing with each other, perhaps it's for the best for all to unite and do this together.

I've always been sort of impressed with the anime community, how much stuff gets churned out by so many groups, but when it comes to idols, it's not really comparable. Of course, there are groups, both of the past and present, which have done great things, but still...

So I can only give my full support to this and hope more can join - of translators, timers, QA, and so on and so forth.

[Eviltorrent]

110107 SHUKAN AKB released. There are a few missing lines we forgot to translate, but I think it was good enough for a group created two days ago. Credits to everyone who helped, won't name them since they know who they are.

Our Twitter is http://twitter.com/#!/ProjectSUB48, I will update project status there. The roadmap is at the forums of the AKB48 Online tracker, in case anyone is interested.

Thanks for your support!

PS: If you are going to share the file, please pass the above link and don't attach it. I want to gauge the amount of downloads it can get to help prioritize projects in the future. Thanks.

[Krusha]

Thanks!

But: There's a massive amount of people who most likely will not come to this topic, yet will check the tracker. Wouldn't it be an idea to upload the subfile to the tracker (also)?

File size doesn't matter. And you will get total downloads shown there as well.

[lazyパンダ]

I just wanted to say thank you for putting all of this together. It means a lot to a new fan like me! Sometimes it gets hard to understand everything that is going on with AKB48. But with subtitles I think it would be much easier and much more fun. I can only imagine what a huge challenge this is, but I'm so grateful that you and your team are willing to take this on.

[droopy10]

@Eviltorrent

Since you made a sub48 forum, will you still post links to sub files or should we register to the forum to get them from there?

Thank you for you and the rest of the subbing group

[Eviltorrent]

@Eviltorrent

Since you made a sub48 forum, will you still post links to sub files or should we register to the forum to get them from there?

Thank you for you and the rest of the subbing group

The sub48 forum has a public section with the releases. The magic to get the subtitles done is kept hidden in internal forums, but once we are finished we create a release post in the public releases forum. Right now, there is no difference if you are registered or not, since both can download the subtitles. And it is not my intention to put access restrictions to them, at least for as long as it is possible.

[Eviltorrent]

Mousou Deka episode 1 released. Took us a while, but the process was much cleaner than last time. In some weeks we should be able to do it faster and better.

Congrats to all those listed in the page. Since the subtitles themselves don't have group credits, it would be nice if you would share the forum post instead of the subtitle itself, to give those who helped what is due to them.

[andkandk]

@Eviltorrent

Here are Japanese teletext subtitles extracted from ts (transport stream) files.
Shukan AKB and Star Hime are broadcast with teletext data.

I've already thrown away the old ts files, so I can provide only the latest ones now.
Hope these help in some small ways.

 110114 SHUKAN AKB.srt.txt   26.69K   20 downloads
 110115 Star Hime Sagashi Taro ep18.srt.txt   10.01K   17 downloads

[Eviltorrent]

@Eviltorrent

Here are Japanese teletext subtitles extracted from ts (transport stream) files.
Shukan AKB and Star Hime are broadcast with teletext data.

I've already thrown away the old ts files, so I can provide only the latest ones now.
Hope these help in some small ways.

 110114 SHUKAN AKB.srt.txt   26.69K   20 downloads
 110115 Star Hime Sagashi Taro ep18.srt.txt   10.01K   17 downloads

Thanks :-) That will help us quite a lot, as we have many translators that can work from subtitles but few (4 or 5 only) that can actually translate it from audio. Thanks again :-)

[Eviltorrent]

We redid the 110107 Shuukan AKB subtitle, since it was the very first and came out too fast (missing signs, with some typos and errors, bad timing, etc). This one is how it should have been. There are reasons about why I pushed the release even though it was not finished, which you may find somewhere else.

And the subtitle for the Documentary of AKB48 - The future 1mm ahead released. While we had the translation and timing done pretty fast, we spent a lot of time QA'ing this. There are probably some errors around, but personally it is the cleanest release we have had. in the name of Project SUB48, I hope you enjoy it :-)

Again, no attachments so that we are able to (roughly) estimate the amount of downloads. Statistics are very important during the beginning of the project when your previous records was 0 in everything. We will eventually share the subs via torrent, but for now, I kindly request everyone to link to the forum page instead of sharing the subtitle directly. Thanks!

[bure82]

thanks for the effort

i dont really mind about error on the sub. just as long as they come out quickly then that's all that matter to me

please sub akbingo

[Masuku]

i have seen you guys promoting around many places now. i think that's a good sign! I reallly appreciate the work you are offering to do and also it seems you get subs out pretty fast too

[Eviltorrent]

First hardcode release, the PV for Sakura no Ki ni Narou (release page). We haven't yet defined our typesetting guideline, so it will likely change in the future. Also distributed via Multiupload.

[Eviltorrent]

Double posting!

110114 SHUKAN AKB released. It is much easier to release Shuukan than AKBINGO! for those wondering. Credits to all the people who participated, and again, don't share the subtitles if possible, just point to our forum post.

[Krusha]

Thanks!!