2017-08-15 20:46:08

So this is something I used to do often when I could still see.  I was just curious if anyone around here watches anime in Japanese, and if so, how.

I have seen there are ways of making media players read subtitles, but I never really tried it.  I am curious whether this can be done.

2017-08-15 21:56:30

Aprone has a program just for this purpose, called Wade Machine. It converts the video into mp3, then reads the subtitles when viewed (or, in this case, listened to).
There's also the old standby, KM Player, which I've never used.

“Can we be casual in the work of God — casual when the house is on fire, and people are in danger of being burned?” — Duncan Campbell
“There are four things that we ought to do with the Word of God – admit it as the Word of God, commit it to our hearts and minds, submit to it, and transmit it to the world.” — William Wilberforce

2017-08-16 00:54:39

Of course, there is always the long and totally not convaluted method of learning Japanese. What? You're telling me that that is a long and convaluted thing to do in the era of technology? Oh, I'll see myself out, then. LOL!!! That is one use of learning a foreign language, though. You can now fully enjoy media in that language. As for that thing by aprone, I may have to go grab that and see how well it works. And remember guys, People die when they are killed LOL!!! That last bit is why subbed stuff can get really interesting.

I have a website now.
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2017-08-16 15:47:23

KM player is probably your best bet. I speak Japanese so don't usuallyy watch dubbed anime... and even if you learn Japanese, without talking to native speakers you'll have a hard time learning all the nuances and subtleties that appear in anime you will never find in a textbook. lol But as others have said, the best way is to find one of the above mentioned programs that reads subtitles aloud.

Discord: clemchowder633

2017-08-16 21:24:24

definitely going to try and do this, I've wanted to watch dubs for ages.

2017-08-16 21:43:47 (edited by assault_freak 2017-08-16 21:44:15)

If you want to watch dubs, there's nothing special yu have to do.. just download the English anime of your choice. lol

Discord: clemchowder633

2017-08-17 15:59:53

I would also like to mention the nplayer for ios.
for me this turned out to be the perfect solution.

2017-08-17 17:46:53

Could you explain a bit more about it?

Discord: clemchowder633

2017-08-18 10:58:22

Nplayer is an app for ios that plays many formats on your phone. I myself have it connected to a network share so that I can stream my anime from an hard drive.
if you have mkv files with subs or seperated subs in srt or ssa format the player will read it to you.
I can highly recommend it as the media sollution for your phone because you can easely connect it to all kinds of clouds and transfer files via wifi to.
for more info look at: http://nplayer.tv/
I did not find areas yet where voiceover could not reach.

with kind regards, Mslion

2017-08-18 12:48:33

Yo folks! Well, it is possible to read subs on youtube videos and also Netflix is fairly accessible, despite not having many titles. As for Aprone's software, I usually have problems finding sub files, so it is not the best solution, at least for me.
Best regards, Haramir.

The true blind is the one who refuses to see.

2017-08-18 15:18:48

Watching anime on youtube is not always a great solution, and not all anime on youtube has subtitles that are accessible, unfortunately. The best bet for anyone who wants to watch undubbed anime sounds either like nplayer, netflicks which has fewer titles, or the MK player. And Nplayer sounds like it only works well if you take the time to set up a network or something similar. Unfortunate, but noone has developed a comprehensive solution for reading subtitles for the visually impaired... just not enough demand for that kind of program, I guess?

Discord: clemchowder633

2017-08-22 11:56:23

Hi! I myself tried to watch undubbed animes on netflix, but I didn't understand how to read subtitles. I usually stream via the iPhone app, could you explain me how to read subtitles on that? Thanks!

2017-08-22 14:50:44

Hi,

First a question for Mslion, are you saying mplayer can read integrated subs for MKV? That surprises me since to my knowledge, mkv files tend to use sub/idx files to place the subs near the person who's speaking visually, and to my knowledge those are images you'd have to OCR first. Maybe embedding .srt files within mkv is doable but I don't think it's very common, which is sad.

As for watching subbed anime, I've been tinkering with this for a while and have a solution now that sorta works. Here's a bit of a guide. Note that this only works for anime that are streamable from CrunchyRoll's free offerings (premium currently doesn't work).


Things you'll need:
- Youtube-dl , which can be downloaded for free. It needs Python to work, but for Windows there is also a version with Python baked in. You just need to put it somewhere, I tend to put it in my folder for the anime I'm about to watch.
- A CrunchyRoll link for the episode or playlist of the anime you would like to watch.
- The latest version of Aprone's WadeMachine program, which can be gotten from a link on the 3rd page of the 'hearing subtitles with your screen reader" topic. Sorry , don't have the link handy. It is important that you get the latest version, at the time of this version 0.8, otherwise the .srt files will not work properly.

What you do:
1. Open a command prompt in Windows, to easily do this press windows+r, type cmd and press enter.
2. You are usually in your home folder (the folder where Documents, Downloads, Favorites etc live). Go to the folder where youtube-dl.exe is, and where you want to put the anime. For this example, I made a folder called gx. You type :
cd gx
, where gx is your folder name.
3. Type the following command:
youtube-dl.exe http://crunchyroll.com/yu-gi-oh-gx --all-subs --sub-format "srt" --download-archive ARCHIVE

Obviously, you would use a different address if you want another anime or just one episode, both work with this format. The rest of the command should stay as it.
It is likely that, especially if you use it to grab an entire playlist, it dies now and again. That's what ths --download-archive part is for, it keeps track of what you already downloaded so you don't have to start from zero every time when that happens. To get it going again simply press up arrow until your screenreader reads the command from before and press enter.

4. Once your files are downloaded go to the first episode you want to watch in Windows Explorer. Currently, there appears to be a bug in WadeMachine that causes the mp3 conversion process to fail if there are certain characters or spaces in the file name, so rename the episode, as well as its srt file, to a one word thing. For example: episode4.mp4 and episode4.srt.
5. Open WadeMachine and select the bottom option to convert a movie to mp3. Find your file and select it, than answer "yes" to the prompt.

At this point, you should see a window open and a convertion being run, this takes a couple minutes or more depending on your PC's speed.
WadeMachine has closed at this point, so once it's done, press a key to close the conversion window and re-open wadeMachine.

Finally, select the 'load mp3" option, find your converted file and watch. If it says 'Loaded file"  and starts playing, you did it correctly.
If there are people who know of ways to speed this process up I'd love to hear it, but for now, this works well for me smile

Zersiax

2017-08-22 20:41:10

The KM player also reads embedded srt subtitles out of MKV's, but you don't have a lot of control over the tts and if it's internal subtitles, it tends to glitch at times and repeat things. But that's a faster solution than converting files and the like.

Discord: clemchowder633

2017-08-22 23:00:23

Right, and as I said srt is making way for idx/sub and I'm pretty sure KmPlayer won't read those, sadly ...

2017-08-23 05:40:24

Yes, it actually does. I've tried it. Basically, if there was one blind person working on the kmp team who know what they were talking about and was eager to help move this forward, KM player could very well be the comprehensive solution for foreign media.

Discord: clemchowder633

2017-08-23 16:23:25

Not calling you a liar, but are you sure that was an mkv file?
The reason I ask is what you are describing is borderline impossible. As for example shown by this thread:
http://forums.kmplayer.com/forums/showt … hp?t=61245

The format of subtitles used in mkv files uses a combination of an idx file, which tells the player when to show what sub, and a sub or vobsub file which is similar to a bitmap of the subtitles, so basically an image. You would need to OCR those images to get the text and I doubt KmPlayer has a built-in OCR engine, even if it did though the results wouldn't always be accurate.
Avi, mp4 etc. can also encode their subs this way but its less common, especially for avi. smile
I agree KmPlayer could be very good though, it does allow for reading subs without converting to mp3, I just wish it would let you use your own SR rather than SAPI smile

2017-08-23 17:15:00

I have the first three seasons of Jojo's Bizarre adventure all in MKV, with Japanese audio, and the subtitles read out loud very well. No srts.

Discord: clemchowder633

2017-08-23 17:34:24

problem i run into is a lot of animes like samurai jack are mostly  visual. not much dialog. but i love watching anime. I was unaware of aprone's  program. i have a site full of dubbed anime that i use to wawtch anime and while it probably detracts from the japanese version, I till love  it.

2017-08-23 17:52:49

@assault_freak could you somehow share me one episode so I can have a look at the file's makeup? I'd love to see how it works so I can maybe incorporate it into the workflow I use now smile If you'd rather not due to legality reasons that's fine , just say so smile

2017-08-23 17:54:32

Not sure what you mean by the file's makeup, unless you intend to dig into the mkv containers to see what's in it... and correct, I would rather not for legality reasons. But it shouldn't be hard to find them. Torrents are an awesome resource...

Discord: clemchowder633

2017-08-23 19:32:21

Exactly, I wanted to extract the mkv to see what is causing KmPlayer to be able to read the subs smile You might've gotten a rare upload where the mkv contains an srt or other textual format, and if not I'd like to do more testing to see what it can and cannot read. smile

2017-08-23 19:47:13 (edited by assault_freak 2017-08-23 20:02:36)

So far, I haven't come across an MKV it can't read yet. Unless I'm lucky and all the mkv files I have have srts embedded into them.

Discord: clemchowder633

2017-08-24 01:06:42

is this legal to do with crunchyroll?
I tried test downloading something, and it allowed me to do it with out asking in for log in info (I am assuming that you need to log in for free content all though I could be wrong). I think it was low quality because it was just 200 mb and I stopped it before completion and deleted it.

2017-08-24 01:47:57

Any download of copyrighted material without paying for it is technically illegal...

Discord: clemchowder633