Prototyping subtitled Drama CD support - feedback wanted!

[Sogeking]

I would be really interested in this since Cd Dramas usually arent translated in any form so I miss out.

 

[Nick86]

I'm not a big fan of cd drama but you did a great job here, i like the basic interface and subtitles format, simplicity and minimalistic. Dunno about the overall success but keep it, is a very interesting project. <3

 

[otoshi-god]

i have download drama cds but since i don't speak JP, i never even play them :F

 

[riku_93]

Definitely interested in this. Can't provide anything but would like to listen to drama cds of series that I am reading that have them.

 

[Clover_Zero]

This is cool, I like it! I rarely listen to Drama CDs but I listened to a few (mostly yandere Drama CDs laughs) and fandom-wise (Nowayu, Fafner, for instance). I'd be happy to see them here. The prototype itself looks pretty good, and the "subtitles" are clear. It looks like Youtube's subtitles but I have no problem with it, though I agree with another user's comment about having options to style it, and showing who is speaking (perhaps through colors).

I am not the one who translated and subbed Nowayu Drama CDs, however I know the person, and if allowed, it might get hosted here. Their Youtube channel is apparently closed down right now (copyright strike, it seems), but they made the video looks like a visual novel by using Sony Vegas Pro.

 

[jkubed]

this is super exciting if there's interest from translators. plenty of shows/manga I love have drama CDs I've never been able to enjoy with my pleb-tier rudimentary understanding of the language.

 

[CoolOtamegane]

I, an editor 'Onii-chan is done for' manga VERY SUPPORTIVE to this.
Also LOLOLOL what a coincidence, Myself (and Nazdrovie) want to translating Drama CD 'Onii-chan is done for' in near next months, and offer an idea about DramaCD-Dex feature as well to Mangadex devs. But you guys outdone my idea LMAO!!!

@Teasday My Feedback :
- If this beta-testing is done soon. can we all user upload the translating drama CD as well. and can contributor rank or upper also edit the description as well in future?
- Add Linked to Manga/Vice-versa as well, For now I only use manual link on manga description. Also add Drama CD retail as well to support the publisher.
- The subtitle gets out of sync with audio when jumping around with time (same feedback with sprite-1)
- Support Colored text, other Font, bold, italic, underline text on subtitle (same feedback with Ghede)
- Support video format, if drama CD contains CG animation
- Add comment section and add Bookmark Section
- New library in bookmark to separate Manga and D-CD

 

[Rongmario]

yesyesyes.gif

 

[ixlone]

@CoolOtamegane

Most of the features that are available on manga pages would be available if we go ahead with this.

For the demo Teasday has just made it a hard-coded page as an example of what it would look like.

 

[Kurausukun]

I really like the idea. Nobody else that I'm aware of has a drama CD "listener," so I think it would be really cool to sort of "start the movement." The implementation itself seems good too. It's a little bare, but having said that, I don't really see what else there could be. The subtitles appear just fine with the audio, and it's really cool that you can choose the audio format to use for the listener. All in all, big thumbs up from me.

 

[qfbgabriel]

First come first (a kind of disclaimer maybe?): My apologies if i'm being crude, english isn't actually my birth language but spanish, so i'm not trying to bully or annoy you.

Although it sounds good and interesting, i'm not interested by the moment, because it is my fist time "listening" subbed drama CD's existed (i know, it isn't even funny now that i'm re-reading it).

That being said, my curiosity got me in and checked it both PC and phone. Both runs smoothly (at least OGG format, and i didn't even finished the track).

Maybe some time later i could be interested in some drama CD's depending on available titles (as it is for every service out there), who knows? Perhaps i' could give it a try having one title i like, and start obsessingly looking for more, as i do for manga and light novels.

🙂

 

[Varler]

+1 Would love to see(hear) more of these! I'd love to be able to just use these audio dramas while I drive.

 

[Wolvenworks]

Not interested in drama cds fyi so you do you. Ima just shut up and look at tits like a man of culture

 

[ipmanvsthemask]

Yes, please, MangaDex-senpai

 

[imAnoob]

this is indeed very interesting i wish to see more of it

 

[Fydun]

YES

 

[Teasday]

_{@betaflame posted:}

mka (mkv) container with just subs and audio?

mka doesn't have browser support, but that's not even the bigger issue. We want the various audio formats and the caption files to be completely separate, so that the user can choose any combination they like (or even can run, because audio format support is all over the place across different browsers). In our case it's counterproductive to embed subs to a specific audio file. There's no need to upload several copies of the exact same audio for each translation of the same, single track.

_{@Bloodnose posted:}

I've started working on a drama CD translation. The way I've been doing it has been to use Ren'Py to create a sort of VN visualization that people can watch while they listen to it.
But I wonder if a DramaDex could support that kind of video embedding?

We won't, I see no reason to. As fun as some kinds of visualizations or image slideshows may be, alternative translations of the same track wouldn't have the same content and more importantly it's not present in the original product. As a concept, I see this as little to no different from fan colored manga, and we separate those away from the "real" manga for a reason.

_{@SNSbu posted:}

What will it look like from the uploader's side? Will it ask for a muxed audio/sub file or will it want separate .mp3/.FLAC/etc. and .ass/.srt files? Will it strip any styling out to show the player's default text or will it allow for some visual flair? Will there be a way to support accompanying images?

As far as the player goes, it would be good to define where the subs are going to show up visually since there are often significant periods of silence in these. Two-line parts should also expand up from the baseline, not down.

Good questions. My plan is that first a user would create the drama collection much in the same way that a new manga is added to the site, inputting basic information, adding the cover etc. Additionally, all of the tracks should be added as separate entities - and by tracks, at this point I mean only the basic information, as in track number and the original title (probably in both the native script and romaji, but we'll see about that). Unlike with manga chapters, all of the tracks of a single collection are already known, so they can all be added no problem.

After a collection and its track info has been created, a user would choose a track and upload (an audio file if none exists for that track yet, and) a subtitle file along with the translated title and group information. This is why the track itself uses the native name – various translations in different languages have different titles. No muxed audio/sub file. Ideally, I'm envisioning having to only upload a FLAC while the server converts the rest of the format options however we configure it to, since that would allow us some quality control, but whether that's realistic we'd have to figure out.

As for the subs, the prototype is currently using the WebVTT (.vtt) format for reasons of combatibility and javascript library availability. ASS isn't an impossible option, but it's not quite as convenient. I have to remind that we're not dealing with a standalone video player here but a web browser. If we want to get fancy, we'll have to either rely on existing native technology, libraries or implement our own subtitle renderer.

_{@sprite-1 posted:}

The subtitle text should always be visible while scrolling around the page (think a floating footer)
There should be an easier way to navigate through the player especially on mobile (for example, tap + backwards drag to go back a few seconds depending on the drag distance, same with tap + forward drag)

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.

As mentioned in the OP, the actual audio player itself is your browser's own native implementation that I can't influence without designing and implementing a full replacement. It's most likely something I'll have to do eventually, but for now you'll have to direct your UI issues with the audio player to your browser vendor, lol.

_{@kaza_hesto posted:}

Maybe have an Opus encoded option? Since it's mandatory for WebRTC, browser support should be broad.

I figured Ogg Vorbis was good enough, it's got better support anyway.

_{@givemeabreak432 posted:}

Perhaps you might want to include quality of life changes - the ability to change fonts and font sizes seem like a high priority for usability. Other things like a pop up box option, or someway to view subtitles while you're browsing the rest of mangadex (or even other websites).

Subtitle size and style options are definitely something that I was going to add eventually, along with options like audio format preference. Due to the way the site currently works it's not possible to keep the player up while browsing the site, although that might not be completely impossible once we get far enough into the development of the site. With other websites, it's quite certainly never happening.

 

[MadeOfMagicAndWires]

What a series to show off your prototype with!

As far as feedback, quite a fun idea and I'd say there'd definitely be a demand, especially for adaptations of more well-known series.

As a less intensive alternative to @Bloodnose's Visual Novel idea it might be fun to flip through the sleeve and leaflet (doesn't need to be timed, really), either through the already existing image gallery functionality or in place of the cover image.

Secondly, adding metadata for the cast would be a nice addition too. bonus points if you add external links and internal search functionality based on them as well.

Thirdly, as I came across this on mobile, the captions sometimes jumped between two to three lines height, making the entire page move down when that happened.
Containing the captions to a max height of two and changing the font-size when more room is needed to avoid timing issues or giving the caption container more of a buffer margin should avoid the entire page from moving so much.

It also might be an idea to not load an entirely new page when switching between the captions and comments tabs on the page. I can't be entirely sure that this is actually the case since the comments tab of the prototype leads to this thread, but manga pages seem to do this as well. Better to an AJAX requests for the drama CD pages at least in order not to disturb the player until you've found a solution to the website-wide custom player 😉 (Bandcamp has a really good implementation of this by the way).

Lastly, I know you said no feedback on the player itself, but something that can be pretty easily implemented even with the built-in HTML player would be some backwards/forward buttons that seek, say, 10 seconds in either direction and would help a lot. Manually seeking that distance becomes a pain the longer a track is.

 

[AthK]

I like this! Please keep it up.

EDIT: It'll also make MD more better than any other site.

 

[intec]

Great idea. Do the tacks have japanese subtitles?