icie
11-22-2006, 06:01 AM
pireze (hf-sub)
+
hongfire.com/#hf-network@rizon
(doing what they do best: hunting the elusive and bringing it to you)
presents
Swan Lake
(Hakucho no Mizumi, 1981 Toei Animation)
[Technical data]
Ripped from DVD (h.264, 720x544, 1:14:25)
Original Japanese audio (mp3, 320 VBR)
Hard subtitles for karaoke
Soft English subtitles for dialogue (SRT)
Optional extra: English dub track (see section [OPTIONAL]) (mp3, 320 VBR)
Rarity value: Extremely rare
[Information]
This animated rendering of Tchaikovsky's ballet classic was of astounding quality back when it was released as a theatrical feature. It was extremely faithful to the original, with the background music almost entirely composed of the original Swan Lake score, rendered by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. The insert song and the outro are also Jpop-ized versions of the Swan Lake theme songs.
Many would have watched this Swan Lake anime in the early days of their youth, in the English dubbed form. Some have attempted to track it down after so many years, and found it extremely difficult. They have sought VHS-transferred DVDs on ebay, they have tried buying ex-rental VHS's for a hundred bucks...but ever wondered what the original Japanese sounded like? Ever wanted to be able to watch it without having to dust off an old VHS? Ever wanted a version of the anime without the deteriorating effects of ageing?
Although the video quality in this release is not remastered (its age is immediately apparent), it represents the best quality of this film available on the market today. Until such time that Toei Animation decides to remaster and re-release this film, this is IT. More detail is visible, there is better colour fidelity, and lines are noticeably sharper than the alternative VHS rips. In terms of audio, the quality is similarly superior to VHS transfers. Prior to this, it was almost impossible to find the original Japanese sound.
[Subtitles]
Timed to the Japanese audio, the soft-subs (SRT) are very flexible. Their appearance may be customised according to your needs -- you only have to tweak DirectVobSub options to modify how they look. They may also be opened in notepad for any editing or correction needed. Please note that the subtitles are released under copyleft licensing. They may not be used for commercial purposes or profit. Modification and re-release and redistribution is allowed, but only under the condition that the copyleft licensing remains intact, and the original credits (to pireze) are left untouched.
The subtitles are an original translation, although it should be noted that the English dubs stuck surprisingly close to the original Japanese script. A dubtitle could have easily passed for subtitles, but in this case, I did translations separately from the dubbed translation.
Karaoke effects were made using simple modifications to existing Automation examples in Aegisub.
[Karaoke]
Transliteration and translation of the lyrics of the insert and outro songs are not precise. Could not source the original Japanese lyrics, so had to transliterate by ear and translate from there. The songs are "Kagayaku Haru no Hi" (The Brilliant Spring Day) and "Ai no Mizuumi" (Lake of Love).
The insert song and outro have been released as a single on LP, but have also found their way into at least two compilation CDs, one of which is the "1981 Bokutachi no Anime" (ASIN: B00005EMZR) CD. These CDs are out of print now.
[To replicate this release]
1) Buy the DVD (R3)
2) Rip VOB and IFO files to hard disk
3) Subrip Chinese subtitles (timing on the Chinese subtitles are not precise)
4) Rip the audio track of the film to WAV as a temporary subbing solution
5) Using Aegisub, replace Chinese subtitles with English translations of the Japanese
6) Retime subtitles in accordance to WAV in Aegisub. QC, typeset, etc.
7) Time karaoke sequences (again, in Aegisub).
8) Play around with the Automation options to create effects for karaoke.
9) Separate subtitles into two files: portion of subtitles to be hard-encoded, and portion of subtitles to be soft-displayed.
10) [Shortcut] Create mp3 and AVS files by using AutoGordianKnot and letting it run, aborting the operation when it reaches the main encoding stage.
11) Open AVS file in VirtualDub, use the TextSub VDF filter for karaoke hard-subbing.
12) Calculate bitrate for h.264 using MeGUI.
13) Modify video compression options in VirtualDub for multi-pass h.264 encoding.
14) First run. Second run. Nth run.
15) Mux on audio (either use the MKV container, or just directly copy it into the AVI using VirtualDub)
16) Name the soft subtitle file the same as the resultant video file, and test.
17) Release.
[Optional]
I tried to include the English dub as a second soundtrack in the MKV, but alas, it seems that the dub contains multiple points of timeshift, and so it is not possible to perfectly synchronise the dub to the video without substantially more work. I have included the mp3 file of the dub track, should anyone be interested in trying to fit it to the video.
(Note that there were two versions of the dubs. I am most familiar with this dub, and IMO the voices and the translations of this dub are closer to the original Japanese script.)
The dub track was taken from a VHS transfer, then filtered to remove some of the noise. The quality of the audio is therefore inferior to the Japanese audio.
[More to come?]
The following related artifacts may be yet to be released:
The OST on LP (can't be bothered with an LP-to-digital transfer: it's just the classic symphonic Swan Lake songs anyway)
Scans of selected cels from the anime (I have two)
The insert/outro songs from CD (yet to find)
+
hongfire.com/#hf-network@rizon
(doing what they do best: hunting the elusive and bringing it to you)
presents
Swan Lake
(Hakucho no Mizumi, 1981 Toei Animation)
[Technical data]
Ripped from DVD (h.264, 720x544, 1:14:25)
Original Japanese audio (mp3, 320 VBR)
Hard subtitles for karaoke
Soft English subtitles for dialogue (SRT)
Optional extra: English dub track (see section [OPTIONAL]) (mp3, 320 VBR)
Rarity value: Extremely rare
[Information]
This animated rendering of Tchaikovsky's ballet classic was of astounding quality back when it was released as a theatrical feature. It was extremely faithful to the original, with the background music almost entirely composed of the original Swan Lake score, rendered by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. The insert song and the outro are also Jpop-ized versions of the Swan Lake theme songs.
Many would have watched this Swan Lake anime in the early days of their youth, in the English dubbed form. Some have attempted to track it down after so many years, and found it extremely difficult. They have sought VHS-transferred DVDs on ebay, they have tried buying ex-rental VHS's for a hundred bucks...but ever wondered what the original Japanese sounded like? Ever wanted to be able to watch it without having to dust off an old VHS? Ever wanted a version of the anime without the deteriorating effects of ageing?
Although the video quality in this release is not remastered (its age is immediately apparent), it represents the best quality of this film available on the market today. Until such time that Toei Animation decides to remaster and re-release this film, this is IT. More detail is visible, there is better colour fidelity, and lines are noticeably sharper than the alternative VHS rips. In terms of audio, the quality is similarly superior to VHS transfers. Prior to this, it was almost impossible to find the original Japanese sound.
[Subtitles]
Timed to the Japanese audio, the soft-subs (SRT) are very flexible. Their appearance may be customised according to your needs -- you only have to tweak DirectVobSub options to modify how they look. They may also be opened in notepad for any editing or correction needed. Please note that the subtitles are released under copyleft licensing. They may not be used for commercial purposes or profit. Modification and re-release and redistribution is allowed, but only under the condition that the copyleft licensing remains intact, and the original credits (to pireze) are left untouched.
The subtitles are an original translation, although it should be noted that the English dubs stuck surprisingly close to the original Japanese script. A dubtitle could have easily passed for subtitles, but in this case, I did translations separately from the dubbed translation.
Karaoke effects were made using simple modifications to existing Automation examples in Aegisub.
[Karaoke]
Transliteration and translation of the lyrics of the insert and outro songs are not precise. Could not source the original Japanese lyrics, so had to transliterate by ear and translate from there. The songs are "Kagayaku Haru no Hi" (The Brilliant Spring Day) and "Ai no Mizuumi" (Lake of Love).
The insert song and outro have been released as a single on LP, but have also found their way into at least two compilation CDs, one of which is the "1981 Bokutachi no Anime" (ASIN: B00005EMZR) CD. These CDs are out of print now.
[To replicate this release]
1) Buy the DVD (R3)
2) Rip VOB and IFO files to hard disk
3) Subrip Chinese subtitles (timing on the Chinese subtitles are not precise)
4) Rip the audio track of the film to WAV as a temporary subbing solution
5) Using Aegisub, replace Chinese subtitles with English translations of the Japanese
6) Retime subtitles in accordance to WAV in Aegisub. QC, typeset, etc.
7) Time karaoke sequences (again, in Aegisub).
8) Play around with the Automation options to create effects for karaoke.
9) Separate subtitles into two files: portion of subtitles to be hard-encoded, and portion of subtitles to be soft-displayed.
10) [Shortcut] Create mp3 and AVS files by using AutoGordianKnot and letting it run, aborting the operation when it reaches the main encoding stage.
11) Open AVS file in VirtualDub, use the TextSub VDF filter for karaoke hard-subbing.
12) Calculate bitrate for h.264 using MeGUI.
13) Modify video compression options in VirtualDub for multi-pass h.264 encoding.
14) First run. Second run. Nth run.
15) Mux on audio (either use the MKV container, or just directly copy it into the AVI using VirtualDub)
16) Name the soft subtitle file the same as the resultant video file, and test.
17) Release.
[Optional]
I tried to include the English dub as a second soundtrack in the MKV, but alas, it seems that the dub contains multiple points of timeshift, and so it is not possible to perfectly synchronise the dub to the video without substantially more work. I have included the mp3 file of the dub track, should anyone be interested in trying to fit it to the video.
(Note that there were two versions of the dubs. I am most familiar with this dub, and IMO the voices and the translations of this dub are closer to the original Japanese script.)
The dub track was taken from a VHS transfer, then filtered to remove some of the noise. The quality of the audio is therefore inferior to the Japanese audio.
[More to come?]
The following related artifacts may be yet to be released:
The OST on LP (can't be bothered with an LP-to-digital transfer: it's just the classic symphonic Swan Lake songs anyway)
Scans of selected cels from the anime (I have two)
The insert/outro songs from CD (yet to find)