Prototyping subtitled Drama CD support - feedback wanted!

[WanderingWastrel]

I'm very much interested in this. I've always lamented that there was an entire area of storytelling that was very difficult for non-Japanese speakers to access. Hopefully having a central place for the genre will make finding translations easier, as well as spur more translations.

Since I know bugs are being worked on, I'll wait a few days to report the one I've seen if it's not fixed by then. 😇

 

[okita]

i'd be really excited for this if you guys decide to continue with it! i'd like it if va credits were there (as an optional thing of course)

 

[Makinami]

Would you be allowed to upload other's translations (crediting them when possible, of course)?

 

[Plykiya]

@Makinami It would function the same way normal manga uploads would. So yes.

 

[s1]

@Teasday posted:

The player and the subtitle rendering area in relation to the rest of the page is the biggest design question I have right now. A fixed footer did pop to my mind but that feels like it would have some problems of its own, with subtitles potentially rendering over other text especially on mobile and so on, so I went with the simple option for this introduction. I'll definitely try out new designs in the future.

You could maybe just add some additional buffer space at the bottom of the page so that the user can still read everything else on the page on mobile even if the player + subtitle is floating in a fixed footer.

@Teasday posted:

for now you'll have to direct your UI issues with the audio player to your browser vendor, lol.

Oh yeah, I knew it was using the browser's built in player lol, just thought I'd give some ideas on how to improve navigation since every browser's default player is pretty shit on mobile (have to drag the small timeline knob which is pretty imprecise/clunky even with average sized fingers)

@okita posted:

i'd be really excited for this if you guys decide to continue with it! i'd like it if va credits were there (as an optional thing of course)

I'd love this too, maybe link to the voice actor's MAL page

 

[SNSbu]

@Teasday
Converting a FLAC to other formats server-side is a good idea, but there are some issues to consider with using the same audio for every sub file, namely the timing. Ideally, the audio would just be a direct rip of the CD converted to FLAC, but it's well within the realm of possibility for there to be differences in them if the track was released in different formats/editions or the original ripper cut out silent parts or anything of that nature. There's certainly more wiggle room here than in anime subbing due to the lack of video to sync the subs to, but a significant difference would still make the reading experience anywhere from slightly annoying to completely unusable and uploaders wouldn't be able to effectively check for this until after they uploaded it. The obvious solution to this would be to ask everyone to work off of the version hosted here, but that means locking down the first audio file uploaded regardless of whether a better quality version appears later. It also means the site would be proactively offering raw Japanese files, which calls into question the scope of the site. So will you allow the raw audio to be uploaded before a translation appears to ensure consistent audio? Or will it always fall on the first translation uploader to provide one? Will it be user-editable or will all future changes have to go through a mod so that the other versions don't risk having their timing thrown off? Or will you just host several nearly identical audio files for each track so that everyone has their own?

As far as the visualization options, some limitations are to be expected and there's really no need to account for the full breadth of options available in video format. However, if commonly used features like character-color-coded lines aren't available here, then the incentive for creators to upload and readers to read here goes down. You should also consider that the original experience is purely audio, so just the fact that viewers here need to use their eyes to read it creates a fundamentally different experience. A little bit of eye candy, even if it's as simple as rendering the text over an image of the album cover, can help the experience feel more natural.

 

[vigorousjammer]

Interested in this!
I've always been mildly curious about these audio dramas included on anime soundtracks (mostly just the ones I heard on the FLCL and Panty & Stocking soundtracks). However, I never had any desire to actually look up a translation and read along...
That being said, with the translations being timed, it's different somehow... it makes it easier to follow along, I suppose?

By the way, how would uploading work if this got implemented?
I see there's multiple formats available for audio, but does that mean uploaders would have to upload multiple tracks, or would it be set up to automatically encode to other formats from a lossless file?
What format would subtitles have to be in, also?

Edit: Nevermind, just saw that the topic had more than one page and that all of these questions have already been answered, lol.

 

[eli]

Cool idea, tbh.

 

[kyoki]

i can see myself learning jap coz of this. listening that is, reading will take time.

 

[Kanami-chan]

It looks like you guys are desperate to get noticed and dmca'd by the labels

 

[_StackTracer]

Very cool idea. A good feature that separates mangadex from any other manga sites.
Suggestion. A button for a small pop up window for the player and subtitles.
We can then multitask something else while listening to the CD.

 

[stebsis]

This is great, and I hope you'll be doing more.

A pop-up window with just the player and subs would be a nice addition to get the window in a small space easily, of course I can just make the window smaller but pop-up is usually a lot more handy and cleaner looking.

I don't really see myself just sitting down and listening to these when I need to also read subtitles, same to read manga or watch anime unless the drama is something new and different, but I'd love to listen/read these while playing games or working, and having the window in the corner somewhere, without all the other stuff on the page, would help a lot.

 

[Baron]

Make posible to embed videos, but besides that this is heaven, I migth get exicted and try to translate some CDs!

 

[hhmiso]

This sounds like an Invitation to Cease and Desist Land. All these CDs and audio files for FREE and no one sees a problem with this????
Like Sure it Sounds Cool but manga and cds are very different beasts. 😓

 

[daniel11111222]

I'd love to listen to drama CDs. Even if they were silent videos/captions and you had to supply the audio yourself, I would get a lot of use out of this part of the site.

 

[MoonlightFairy]

D-frag drama CD would be a good challenge.

 

[Hoanghoiham]

New and interesting features aside, @ixlone is truly a man of culture. Good taste indeed.

Taste aside, I would be happy if there is a time-stamped / linked transcript, since scrolling to a specific sentence is kinda easier than clicking onto a point, wait for the sub to load, realizing that you are not there yet but not sure if you are behind or ahead, then rinse and repeat.

Also remembering the playback time when switching between languages / uploaders would be useful.

Also maybe italic / bold / symbols support?

 

[xyzzy]

It’s certainly a good concept. There are a few possible issues I can think of: not only would the larger file size of audio tracks cause a larger strain on Mangadex’s servers, but there’s the issue of legality as well. Obviously, MD walks a very thin tightrope in terms of what they present to others. While manga could be justified since only fan translations are posted and not the actual Japanese raws, drama CDs - which inherently include the original Japanese audio tracks, are a different beast altogether.

 

[dlt111]

I'm not a legal person so don't take this as legal advice, but if Mangadex followed a policy of only encouraging pieces to be uploaded if they are not available in a language/no official language translation and linked to where to buy these dramaCDs as a means of supporting them, it may help some? I think the increased exposure and increased demand for even just translations of it would help with sales. Especially since it seems there's still a good portion of the manga community that isn't aware that these exist.

 

[Choco_Pudding]

I'd love for something like this to exist. I don't know how many drama CD translators are actually out there currently, but I think more people would start trying if there were somewhere to put them where they actually might get seen.