fan made subtitles: "pop up commentary"
Posted: Dec 7th 2002, 11:58 am
Okay, we have already custom dvd covers, now let's take it to the next level: self-made subtitles.
The main idea is not new: Some members of the german MSCL mailing-list have already started to translate the english dvd-subtitles into german. You can watch the DVDs with a PC (and a DVD-ROM player of course) and special software like DVDSubber without having to re-burn the DVDs. And you can always modify the subtitles if you find an error - it's just an ASCII text file. (The ugly disadvantage is that you have to watch the episodes on your PC).
Like many of you, I was disappointed about the lack of bonus stuff on the discs: So I decided to make my own. I called it the "pop up commentary" (thanks, VH-1 ). Basically its just based on simple text-subtitles getting displayed on various timestamps during watching the DVD on your PC.
I made a "proof of concept" test with the first 20 minutes of the Pilot-Episode. You get lots of behind-the-scenes information like comparisons with earlier script versions, informations about goofs and much more.
How to use it:
1) Download and install DVDSubber
2) Download the DVDSubber configuration file for MSCL disc 1 here.
3) Download the DVDSubber popup subtitle file for MSCL episode 1 here.
4) Put the first DVD in your PC, start DVDSubber and select "open profile" in the navigation. Select the mscl1.zds file.
5) Start watching the first episode.
6) If it doesn't work, hit the key "H".
7) If it still doesn't work then I don't know It's just an early beta test, remember And I had quite some trouble to get it to work too
I don't have much time, so there won't be many updates to the "pop-up" file, but if anybody else is interested in creating more subtitle files, then I can provide instructions how it can be done (and of course, we can make them available for download at mscl.com)
Tell me if it works for you.
The main idea is not new: Some members of the german MSCL mailing-list have already started to translate the english dvd-subtitles into german. You can watch the DVDs with a PC (and a DVD-ROM player of course) and special software like DVDSubber without having to re-burn the DVDs. And you can always modify the subtitles if you find an error - it's just an ASCII text file. (The ugly disadvantage is that you have to watch the episodes on your PC).
Like many of you, I was disappointed about the lack of bonus stuff on the discs: So I decided to make my own. I called it the "pop up commentary" (thanks, VH-1 ). Basically its just based on simple text-subtitles getting displayed on various timestamps during watching the DVD on your PC.
I made a "proof of concept" test with the first 20 minutes of the Pilot-Episode. You get lots of behind-the-scenes information like comparisons with earlier script versions, informations about goofs and much more.
How to use it:
1) Download and install DVDSubber
2) Download the DVDSubber configuration file for MSCL disc 1 here.
3) Download the DVDSubber popup subtitle file for MSCL episode 1 here.
4) Put the first DVD in your PC, start DVDSubber and select "open profile" in the navigation. Select the mscl1.zds file.
5) Start watching the first episode.
6) If it doesn't work, hit the key "H".
7) If it still doesn't work then I don't know It's just an early beta test, remember And I had quite some trouble to get it to work too
I don't have much time, so there won't be many updates to the "pop-up" file, but if anybody else is interested in creating more subtitle files, then I can provide instructions how it can be done (and of course, we can make them available for download at mscl.com)
Tell me if it works for you.