Code Geass Ep. 15 subs problems on a Mac? Read this.

[Defiant00]

Oh, and thanks for the specs there silverfire, I intend to start taking a look at properly implementing them now.

[TheFluff]

The ASS specs are extremely terse, and the situation isn't made better by the fact that there are frequently two ways of rendering things, the theoretically correct way and the VSFilter-like way.

If you are serious about trying to fix VLC's sub rendering, I suggest you start hanging out in #aegisub on irc.chatsociety.net - that channel has become one of the de-facto centers of fansubbing technology development.

You may also want to have a look a Asa (whose developer also can be found in #aegisub), and the Common Subtitle Renderer Interface.

[silverfire]

At least it's nice to see that someone's going to attempt to make VLC compliant now, but if I don't see any progress, I'll still continue development of the exploit. After all, it's merely text obfuscation to create a buffer overflow while conforming with format specifications.

[liamroy]

Originally Posted by silverfire

At least it's nice to see that someone's going to attempt to make VLC compliant now, but if I don't see any progress, I'll still continue development of the exploit. After all, it's merely text obfuscation to create a buffer overflow while conforming with format specifications.

Okay Mom, we'll do our homework before we watch tv. You do realise that no matter how much text you add to the sub file we can always just delete it, right? Anyone who knows how to use grep and regex, much less perl, will be able to do this search-and-replace. Even if we had to do it line by line by hand we would, because if there are two words that describe anime fans, it's bored and obsessive.

I think the real uphill battle is against the internet. But by all means, keep trying.

[rataime]

Actually, no. You didn't create a buffer overflow (no crash, no corrupted memory), merely forced freetype's library to not display the sub because the word was too long, thus uncutable.
Oh, and we don't care about your petty threats. We are able to read your releases anyway (Stripping comments, or patched VLC) anyway. As far as I'm concerned, I just want to help the VLC devs.

EDIT : Damn, liamroy got me.

[silverfire]

Meh whatever :P 'buffer overflow' sounds so much better than 'some lame vulnerability with freetype' and takes a lot less time to type.

Additionally, the main point isn't to make it so technically-saavy people aren't able to play it. The whole point is to make it so the average Joe wouldn't be able to do anything about it and make it a lot more of a pain to go about fixing it than changing their player. The side effect was raising awareness of the issue, which was most definitely successful.

[iamtetsuo]

So I finally got around to downloading and checking out episode Ep. 15. You shouldn't have any problems playing this episode if you follow the Mplayer set up as I have outlined in the How to Watch Fansubs with Your Mac thread.

[Dystopianday]

Am I the only person who takes great exception to being told which media player to use?
Yes, I use VLC - for the reasons stated previously. It plays anything, ever. I don't have time to screw around with 3 different players and constantly download codecs.
And I just spend 20 minutes trying to figure out just why the hell the new Geass eps weren't displaying subs at all.

I'd like to know just what, exactly, VLC did to GG subs to make them intentionally sabotage the program - whose mother was insulted? Whose house was dishonored?

Yes, you're quite correct that as volunteers, GG isn't responsible for not being morons. But that doesn't excuse the fact that they're apparently being morons, which usually demands an explanation no matter the situation. Continuing the Public Library example, if someone tries to check out a book I don't like, do I, as a volunteer, have the right to curse at them?

Sure I do. And they have the right to demand an explanation for my retarded behavior.

[Arimfe]

Originally Posted by Dystopianday

Yes, I use VLC - for the reasons stated previously. It plays anything, ever. I don't have time to screw around with 3 different players and constantly download codecs.
And I just spend 20 minutes trying to figure out just why the hell the new Geass eps weren't displaying subs at all.

You fail hard....right there.

Your argument is basically:

VLC IS PERFECTION!!!1111 IT PLAYS ANYTHING!!!1 EVARRR!!

AND IF A FILE DOESN'T PLAY, IT'S THE FILES FAULT!!! NOT VLC EVARR!!!!!111


I'm curious does VLC project have staff dedicated to brainwash people like scientology? People seem to be under this crazy illusion that it can play everything, which is actually a fat lie. And when they encounter files it can't play, they blame everything else than VLC itself...

I'm telling you, you are angry at the wrong people. VLC is the thing that fails in this situation. VLC devs are the ones you should be pointing at.

I'm not part of this fansubber group so I can't give you the true reason for their actions. But I can understand their perspective. VLC IS MISREPRESENTING THEIR SUBS. Get it?
Every time VLC butchers a softsub, there's a typesetter out there somewhere crying... and Haruhi kills a kitten...

Maybe they have their reputation to think about? Maybe they hold pride in their typesetters' skills? Who knows?
Fact is VLC fails for softsubs.
VLC misrepresents their work. They have the right to boycott VLC, even if it means breaking playback completely.

From your viewpoint I can admit that there could have been nicer ways to go around this issue (if the typesetting truly is the issue). They could have put a text file along the torrent or tagged something onto the filename, so even newbies somehow was informed that VLC isn't showing the file the way it was meant to be shown. This way people like you could still use VLC under your own choices, and this thread wouldn't exist.

But anyway, bottom line is, they have their reasons(which has already been explained in previous posts btw), and they have the right to do this, they aren't breaking any subtitle law, they are complying to standards. So until VLC gets its arse fixed, you'll just have to deal with muxing the srt files the others put up yourself.

[rataime]

Whatever, they stopped adding garbage to their subs (which weren't working under other players as well, by the way).

[cyth]

I'm curious, does gg have staff dedicated to brainwash people, like scientology? Those people seem to be under this crazy illusion that gg has a right to police the internet with a DRM-like device in their subs, which is actually a fat lie. And when they encounter newbie users that can't make the file play on their favorite player, they point fingers and laugh, thinking how cool it is to rebel against the internets.

I'm glad they stopped adding garbage to their subs. Hopefully it stays that way.

[Nicholi]

Lol...Scientology and #gg in the same sentence?

Sorry you didn't understand but there was no illusion about the results of what happened. They made a spec compliant ASS script, but VLC has a very bad and incomplete subtitle parser/renderer. So it broke. They did it on purpose, there is no illusion though about what was happening in VLC. It had (still has) incomplete ASS/SSA functionality. As obviously showed by the fact that someone showed up to fix the code in VLC, whether that has actually been done I have no idea. There was no DRM schemes intended whatsoever, thats just you being an idiot n_n. You can always extract subtitles from Matroska files.

Why don't you go harass the groups that actually do not release their scripts whatsoever, and talk about DRM and policing za internets. Lawl gg hf.

[cyth]

lul, VLC and scientology in the same sentence? Learn to read posts previous to mine, Nicholi.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Digital Rights Management (generally abbreviated to DRM) is an umbrella term that refers to any of several technologies used by publishers or copyright owners to control access to and usage of digital data or hardware, and to restrictions associated with a specific instance of a digital work or device.

This is exactly what gg's been doing; they're trying to control usage of digital data. They put an effort into making a technical protection measure in order to disable subtitle playback on a specific player. The only difference is they own no rights to anything, so i put in the suffix "-like". Now, you might argue that fansubbers using H.264 video and distributing that results in disabling playback on several devices that are not prepared for it, but unlike H.264 encoded video streams these "exploits" were unnecessary features. Just like in IT, you don't go breaking Internet Explorer if you don't have to; if the site looks good in all major browsers, you just don't do it. Doing that results in you getting fired from your company, or if it's entirely your site, you get kicks and screams from users and your popularity drops.

OFFTOPIC: Speaking of ze internets, gg should really fix their site/blog as the W3C validator reports too many errors. This is not like a group that tries to follow standards, both in their encodes and subtitles. n_n

[Nicholi]

lol, copy pasta newb? Is that how you start all your posts? Nothing original coming out of that peabrain of yours?

I guess it is no fault of your own that you are completely ignorant as to what DRM actually is, and how #gg has in fact no control (or restrictions) over their files whatsoever once you download them. This probably stems from being dropped on your head one too many times as a child. Please explain how you have no control whatsoever over the #gg episode in question. If you can, go into juicy details which liken #gg to other companies usage of DRM which currently restrict you from using files you purchased as you please.

Though I suppose this once again goes back to most people's inability to understand that VLC is in fact not parsing the subtitles correctly. Which could be viewed normally if VLC had correct support for the SSA/ASS standard, as the other software which works with SSA/ASS does. Yes the file was intentionally made to do this, however this can hardly be called DRM. Unless of course you are a complete imbecile with a keyboard and internet connection, or maybe just an incredibly lazy leech who chooses to stay stupid. You might not be able to play the files in your shitty player, but this in no way stops you from converting it to anything else. Which is what real DRM would actually prevent you from doing. The only way this even barely resembles DRM is in how you need a "DRM-compliant" player to view DRM media. However the only thing required to view the #gg file is software which correctly supports SSA. This is not a question of control or restriction. This is a software problem which has incomplete support for a format. Get a clue...you giant newb.

[Arimfe]

Originally Posted by Toua

Those people seem to be under this crazy illusion that gg has a right to police the internet with a DRM-like device in their subs

And this is where you fail. What ever type of sub they put into those files, they have the right to, just as much right as any other fansubbers putting hardsubs on their files.

This DRM accusation is totally irony though. As Nicholi said, those who use hardsubs are the ones actually doing it to "prevent" copying of their subs.
With softsubs, you are free to extract it, and change it however you want, GG even put up instructions for how to do it...

Originally Posted by Toua

Just like in IT, you don't go breaking Internet Explorer if you don't have to; if the site looks good in all major browsers, you just don't do it.

Sure you can. If for some reason a person hates IE and it's possible for him to make it fail for his homepage, it's entirely his right to do so. That's completely within the creators freedom. The pissed off users is still free to not use the site, they are free to go complain at microsoft, they are free to make their own copy site or seek other alternatives.

Originally Posted by rataime

Whatever, they stopped adding garbage to their subs (which weren't working under other players as well, by the way).

I guess this means VLC doesn't need to have its subtitle rendering improved?

By the way, which other players?

[cyth]

Originally Posted by Nicholi

Please explain how you have no control whatsoever over the #gg episode in question.

The retardedness of DRM and similar constructs comes from the fact that their technical protection measures are not efficient, because they can be cracked. As I understand, this was already achieved with HD movies on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD media, at least to some extent, and we're not that far from having applications available to us such as DVD Decyrpter.
The retardedness of gg's anti-VLC measure is, just like DRM, in the long run a non-efficient, futile and unnecessary attempt. But this was already said far too many times.

@Arimfe: I don't care what you think gg's "rights" are. We're just going to continue to rip their subs out, fix their blunders, and possibly prep their mkv for a re-release if need be. It takes less than 5 minutes to remove the garbage by hand, and an extra 10 to release to the internet. Ahh, Matroska technology... n_n

[Harukalover]

Such blasphemy!

VLC Player is godly and it never shall be defeated by these evil gg hosars. For even when it is weakened by it's own shortcomings, it's worshipers always unite to complain on thy internets.

Thy complaints are like thy sword and shield. Thou armaments shall always overcome these "lol Mplayer people" who believe their player can save us from thy weaknesses.

Even if the gg devils will not stop with their evil VLC-breaking subtitle hosaring. Continue thou fight. Keep on complaining, for complaints always get what thee wants. Never stop thy complaints to try and find other ways to solve playback. For this is just a trick of the devil.

But when you do find yourself feeling weakened by these hosars. Always know that:

[Navel]

Originally Posted by Toua

Those people seem to be under this crazy illusion that gg has a right to police the internet with a DRM-like device in their subs, which is actually a fat lie.

Oh, I see... DRM !!!!

Originally Posted by Toua

I don't care what you think gg's "rights" are. We're just going to continue to rip their subs out, fix their blunders, and possibly prep their mkv for a re-release if need be. It takes less than 5 minutes to remove the garbage by hand, and an extra 10 to release to the internet. Ahh, Matroska technology... n_n

Wait... what DRM ?!?


Now, before this goes into an even more interesting cycle of affirmations and then denial of such affirmations:

[TheFluff]

What the christ? "Rights" here and "DRM" there? Is someone threatening your constitutional freedom, citizen?

Seriously Toua, get a clue and shut up. This is not "policing the internet". This is not "DRM". This is not about "rights" (what).

gg doesn't like VLC. I don't like VLC either, for that matter, but that's beside the point. Anyway, gg knows that VLC's SSA parser has some serious flaws, and exploits them so that the subtitles will no longer show up in VLC (or indeed any player with similiar flaws). Now please explain to me how the heck this is DRM. Nothing stops you from modifying the subtitles; gg even gives you instructions on how to do it on their webpage.

Please, also explain how you think it's not gg's "right" to do what they want with their subtitles, especially when you can extract and modify them in a few minutes. When answering that, please skip the "right" of fansubbing and that stuff, because I can see from your comments here and your retarded blog that you're most likely one of those people who like to go all "HURRRRR PIRACY" etc., and that discussion always ends up with you people calling people like me unethical criminals and so on.

Anyway the point is that gg made the subs. They can do whatever the fuck they want with them. Noone is forcing you to download them. It's free. gg has exactly zero obligations towards you, or any other downloader for that matter. You are certainly free to criticise gg, complain on the internet etc., but that doesn't mean gg has to care. Actually, they don't. If you don't like that, you are free to create your own subs, or even take gg's subs, modify them and re-release them. There is absolutely nothing stopping you from doing just that, except your own stupid sense of morale. gg doesn't really care as long as you don't mark it "gg" like the previous stupid person did.


On a side notice, gg is aware that their website doesn't work properly in Internet Explorer. They find this funny and has no intention of fixing it. You might take this as a hint about what they think of VLC whiners.

[beculet]

Fuckkk you GG, I stop watching Code Geass, I'm not gonna waste my time installing Mkplayer or any other codec just because you want me too, I'm going back to Bleach and Naruto.

You Nazi's can kisss my asss