AniDB

Is there a way I can tell if a release has subtitles or audio which I can switch or toggle? For subtitles, this means not hard-encoded onto the video. This is either by using .ogm and having the subtitles muxed, or an .avi that comes with a separate .sub/.srt/etc file.

Actually, files with switchable audio streams are easy to tell because they have more than one audio lang icon in the listing. I haven't figured out how to tell for subtitles, if they're hard-encoded or not, though. Files being .ogm (I don't know how to look this up either) or being DVD sourced is a fair indication but not absolute.

I've noticed all Zhentarim DivX (zx)'s and Anime-Xtreme (A-X)'s releases have switchable everything. Do any other groups do things this way? Any fansubbing groups?

Cheers,

Anonymous wrote:I've noticed all Zhentarim DivX (zx)'s and Anime-Xtreme (A-X)'s releases have switchable everything. Do any other groups do things this way?

Off the top of my head:
In 99.9% of all cases, dual-audio-releases have softsubs. Probably more than 99% of all single-audio-releases have hardsubs.

Anonymous wrote:Any fansubbing groups?

Very very very few - and mainly in cases of multi-language-subs like TWHE2 (h-b) or Scrapped Princess (kraze/popgo). Some groups publish their scripts later on, but I guess that's not exactly what you look for ^^.
The vast majority of fansubs is hardsubbed, both to "protect the scripts" and due to practical considerations.

From what I understand of mkv's subtitle formats (forget what they're called off hand.. srt, sst, something something, please correct me), you can somehow have soft coded subs that offer color/style/etc. formatting of the type (or similar) that are possible with hardsubbing? I've only got a handful of files with .mkv, and I've yet to run into anything such as this; the subtitles are all just plaintext. Out of curiosity, does anyone know of any series/files that utilize the specially formatted subtitles? I'd be interested in seeing how they work out in actual use. I remember seeing a page pimping out Matroska's advantages that showed this is in action, but I can't seem to find the page anymore, don't know if it was an official page or an independent or what.

To clarify it:
In theory, it isn't really a matter of the container-format, but rather a matter of the decoder/filter-capabilities.
Both avi and ogm are theoretically suited for ssa-subs, all you'd need is a decoder that can split the subs from the file (the current ogm-splitter doesn't support ssa) and something that renders them (in most cases directvobsub/vsfilter).

azntimm wrote:Out of curiosity, does anyone know of any series/files that utilize the specially formatted subtitles?

I think Gambit's corrected and extended subtitles for Neko no Ongaeshi did - those were external ssa-files, IIRC - you can (hopefully ^^) find them in the AR-forum.

azntimm wrote:I'd be interested in seeing how they work out in actual use. I remember seeing a page pimping out Matroska's advantages that showed this is in action, but I can't seem to find the page anymore, don't know if it was an official page or an independent or what.

http://ld-anime.faireal.net/guide/matroska-en
That one?

That's it exactly, thanks for the link. So can I assume there's no reason that the subs need to be external files just like with 'regular' softsubs in OGM? And I'm a bit confused about the acronym soup going on. SSA are the pretty ones that the Matroska splitter can do, and the page mentions ASS (teehee) as another matroska supported format... Is ASS the 'regular' style subs that are usually included in DVD-ripped dual-audio releases?

azntimm wrote:So can I assume there's no reason that the subs need to be external files just like with 'regular' softsubs in OGM?

Indeed.
If there was a filter for .zip-files, you could "play" those aswell.

ssa and ass are both "fancy" subs and contain a lot of info about fonts, sizes, colors, placements, languages and effects. The downside is that at least dvobsub/vsfilter doesn't support changing these settings on the fly.

The usually used "simple" format is srt. It just contains the start- and end-times of a line and the line itself - there is not even any information on fonts, colors and placement, which is also the reason why you can (or rather "have to") modify these settings in dvobsub/vsfilter.

Ah ok, I knew there were the 'simple' plain-text style subs and the 'purdy' subs, and I just assumed the only two acronyms mentioned (ssa, ass) were for one or the other. Thanks for the clarification.