Posted: 3/24/2004 11:15 PM
Post subject: subtitles
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Unknown_User
Joined: 1/1/2022
Posts: 1716
i dont know if anyones thought of it, but, if perhaps the creator of a video wanted to append text to certain parts of videos, to describe anything about that part or make references etc. maybe instead of simply inserting text into the video, they could implement subtitles. just putting the text in the video might take away from the esthetic "art" of the video... so , a subtitle could be used instead. the subtitle of course would not be for everyone. it could be for the especially hardcore people people who wanted more than to just watch the 'art'.. and made available as a seperate download (so one .avi and one subtitle file). creating these subtitles for videos would be additional work, but it would be, in my opinion well worth it. perhaps the amount of videos with subtitles could have a priority (maybe only very excellent videos made which aren't that likely to be beaten easily) one problem might be the fact that in many of these games the screen is moving so rapidly it will take a few seconds for the person watching to read the subs and the scene they wanted to describe had ended. possible solutions might be starting to describe what is going to happen in frames before it happens, or it could be as simple as having the viewer pause the video . i dont know what everyone thinks of this idea... it seems interesting to me, it would be a lot more work than just encoding videos, but for the best of the best it would be very interesting to see the authors comments (if they should want to do something like this in the first place)
Posted: 3/24/2004 11:27 PM
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Jukeboksi
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 79
Location: Finland
I think it's been done in some videos already. No NES-videos to my knowledge, but some other platform videos (like SNES IIRC). I haven't downloaded 'em, but I read this from the descriptions...:)
Posted: 3/24/2004 11:48 PM
Post subject: Re: subtitles
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Bisqwit
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
This is another one of the ideas I have been thinking about. So far I haven't tried to do something like that because I think the movies are too fast-paced to allow the audience to read the text :) Of course, pause is invented... but it's nicer if pause isn't needed when viewing the movie.
Posted: 3/24/2004 11:56 PM
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Sjoerd
Former player
Joined: 3/21/2004
Posts: 32
Location: the Netherlands
I think it shouldn't be too much work once you figure out how to do it. Subtitling movies and such just takes a lot of time because of both the translating and synchronising. The first is not applicable here and the second is much less important. I don't know what the best way to implement it would be. I don't know too much about this kind of stuff. But I think that many DVD playing programs support external subtitle files. Some research on ripping sites would probably reveal more. Then you could either add seperate files, or create seperate files and rerecord from the DVD playing program. I'm just curious what you'd like to see in the subtitles. Most movies are rather fast, so you only have time to make very quick comments on some things and that can also be done by just posting it here or adding a text file with comments... Still, the idea sorta appeals to me. :-)
Posted: 3/24/2004 11:59 PM
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Michael_Fried
Former player
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 1107
How about audio commentary? Then people could easily listen to it while watching the fast paced movie.
Posted: 3/25/2004 12:17 AM
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Bisqwit
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Michael Fried wrote:
How about audio commentary? Then people could easily listen to it while watching the fast paced movie.
At least if their native language is English or the speaker speaks clearly... (At least I am much more fluent in written English than in spoken English)
Posted: 3/25/2004 11:04 AM
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Nach
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
You can put subtitles at level ends where the NES is calculating how much time you have left.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Posted: 3/25/2004 11:16 AM
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Warp
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Actually we thought about this with Bisqwit some time ago, after watching some Zelda (I think it was for playstation) video with audio commentary. Having subtitles as a separate file is certainly possible. There are subtitling codecs which can show subtitles (read from a formatted text file) over any videos. However, I don't know if it's possible to make a video so that it will show the subtitles only if the subtitle file exists. I once saw a subtitled video, but it did not work at all if the subtitle text file did not exist (ie. it required the text file or else the player was unable to show the video). Of course one problem is the already mentioned timing issue. Timeattacks are fast-paced and it's not easy to comment on tricks and curiosities if they happen 0.1 seconds apart. It would be nice if the video could be interactive, that is, you could pause the video from the subtitle file and allow the viewer to read the file and then unpause the video. However, I think this is not possible. One possibility would be to have some signal (eg. some blinking symbol in one corner) which tells the viewer "some fast-paced subtitles coming soon, prepare to pause". I don't know, however, if this is possible or if it's feasible. Audio commentary would be a nice touch to some videos. However, not everyone is fluent in speaking english nor talking interesting things... :)
Posted: 3/25/2004 11:40 AM
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Unknown_User
Joined: 1/1/2022
Posts: 1716
One thing that you could do, which to me seemes much less complicated, is have a txt file with logs of the video. Kinda like: ... 01:43; I attempt to jump over a gap 01:44; I failed jumping over a gap 01:45; (Out of picture) I make obscene gesture towards the screen ... Of course logging things/actions of more significant value. Then the user can easily pause or go back or fast forward on his player to the given time.
Posted: 3/25/2004 11:07 PM
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Michael_Fried
Former player
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 1107
Warp wrote:
after watching some Zelda (I think it was for playstation) video with audio commentary.
Are you talking about TSA's OoT Deku Tree speed run? If so, that's for Nintendo 64, not playstation.
Posted: 4/6/2004 4:27 AM
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Boco
Former player
Joined: 3/30/2004
Posts: 1354
Location: Heather's imagination
I have a subtitled video of Gradius being completed in one life, killing all but 16 enemies, etc., etc., and which was originally recorded off a real console before being digitised & edited. It's pretty good, and there's no problems reading the subs while the action is going on. In a slower game (like Zelda 2, especially the Japanese version which has load screens), the subtitles wouldn't interrupt the action at all. Subtitles allow the player to explain why certain actions were taken, allow timestamps to be put on key events (I have a few Halo videos that timestamp events), give little-known facts about the game or glitches you exploit or why what you did is the best way, etc.. It adds a lot to the experience. At the very least, a text file distributed with each movie giving the game name, region, player name and contact info, and a short description of the run / commentary by the player or other players, etc., would be nice.
someone is out there who will like you. take off your mask so they can find you faster. I support the new Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun.
Posted: 4/6/2004 4:46 AM
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Phil
Active player (411)
Joined: 3/16/2004
Posts: 2623
Location: America, Québec
A good idea but only at some specific places during the game. Otherwise it's pretty frustrating not able to watch a movie cause of some stupid subtitle.
Posted: 4/6/2004 8:01 AM
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Paulygon
Joined: 4/6/2004
Posts: 74
Location: California
I think I know the Gradius video you're talking about, Boco. I downloaded such a video recently at this website, for those interested in seeing how the text commentary is worked into the video: http://www.vortiginous.com