New Features: Force Ansi, Notes, Em Dash And Filter By Language

[dny238]

Fellow Addic7s!

Seasons greetings...

Here are a few notes about some new features we've been working on this month.

1) ForceANSI
Hate UTF8 files? Fear the future? This feature is for you!!! Seriously, some people are using software which doesn't like UTF8 as an encoding method for non ASCII characters. If you are one of these folks, then create yourself an account, then edit your user preferences via "My Panel/Edit Profile" and check the box by 'Force ANSI'. You shouldn't see another UTF8 file and all it's wonderful foreign character encoding goodness again!
Hopefully our upload team will be encouraged to produce high quality UTF8 files and this feature will allow people to 'down sample' them to the lower quality ANSI files as needed! (I'm not biased, am I?)

2) Replace Musical Notes & Em Dash
There are a few characters that throw people for a loop. The musical note symbol and the -- come to mind. Some people don't like the beautiful musical note character (maybe just the same ANSI people mentioned above, maybe others). We find people replacing the note with *, # and the paragraph symbol when they upload subtitles. Now this option allows people to leave the musical notes in, but set a preferences that say they'd rather see them as something else. Also, there are subtle meaning differences (http://www.answers.com/topic/emdash) which cause a straight forward substitution of -- into ... or the proper longer - character troublesome. With this edit, it's our hope that our people will leave the -- in the source files we store, then they can specify their choice in their preferences.

3) Filter by Language
For a long time, people have asked for the ability to only show the languages they care about. This feature is just the start of what we're working on. To get begin, we've enabled language filtering on the download page for the subtitles. Pick 'Filter language:' of your choice and only the subs you care about should show up! If it turns out that no 'Klingon' translations exist for this sub, then the system will default back to 'All' so you can see something. The ability to select multiple languages and have them saved in your account are coming soon.

4) Jump to line
Ever search for text in the 'View & Edit' page? Now you can click on the sequence number in the results and be taken back to the full subtitle 'focused' on that line. It's simple, but much nicer than trying to divide by 30 to figure out which page of the subtitle you can find sequence 182 on.

Please give us your feedback on these new features. Hopefully they'll be nice addons that make things easier to use and better for everyone!

[spyderspyder]

Good morning, and festive greetings.

Great changes - these will generally make Addic7ed.com so much more usable for many.

Specifically the ANSI/UTF choice...

Does this mean that, I can avoid the pretentious, irritating and distracting (yet surprisingly insignificant) quaver symbol?

And that my senses will not be assaulted by the brutal alternatives of, ♪, or ♪♪, or even, ♪♪ ♪♪?
(The latter examples occur because, apparently, it is thought by some that the occasional indication of "no-one is speaking, but here's some background music to listen to - oops, I mean, look at!" is an improvement on nothing.)

Will it also mean that the invariably uncorrected spelling mistakes in English subtitles of, e.g.,
garçon, fiancée, cañon, señorita, attaché...
shall no longer be rendered as,
garçon, fiancée, cañon, señorita, attaché... ?

If this be the case - thank you.


I speak not just for myself, whose favourite DVD burning software doesn't recognise UTF but, more importantly, the many millions of Windows users (i.e., 98% of Addic7ed users) most of whom use WMP and just want to watch videos with subtitles, but have no idea of even elementary geekery such as UTF or ANSI.

(My auntie Doris, for example, is 93, and is so happy to have subtitles, but wonders why they now have so many lines of gibberish.)

Cheers,
s.

[Alex1969]

Great work, guys!

Everything works fine for me, so far.
Thanks to whoever helped making these latest nifty little features available to us

Specifically the ANSI/UTF choice...
Does this mean that, I can avoid the pretentious, irritating and distracting (yet surprisingly insignificant) quaver symbol?
And that my senses will not be assaulted by the brutal alternatives of, ♪, or ♪♪, or even, ♪♪ ♪♪?

By enabling "Force ANSI" in your profile, yes, I do believe that you will avoid all 'strange' symbols.

Will it also mean that the invariably uncorrected spelling mistakes in English subtitles of, e.g.,
garçon, fiancée, cañon, señorita, attaché...
shall no longer be rendered as,
garçon, fiancée, cañon, señorita, attaché... ?

Saving srt files as ANSI makes all accented chars appear without any type of accents/symbols, i.e. garcon, fiancee, canon, senorita, attache...

[Kerensky]

And that my senses will not be assaulted by the brutal alternatives of, ♪, or ♪♪, or even, ♪♪ ♪♪?
(The latter examples occur because, apparently, it is thought by some that the occasional indication of "no-one is speaking, but here's some background music to listen to - oops, I mean, look at!" is an improvement on nothing.)

Will it also mean that the invariably uncorrected spelling mistakes in English subtitles of, e.g.,
garçon, fiancée, cañon, señorita, attaché...
shall no longer be rendered as,
garçon, fiancée, cañon, señorita, attaché... ?

If this be the case - thank you.

The answer is yes to both questions, spidy

However, I must say, that people who render the subtitles using VLC, Media Player Classic
or any other non-DirectVobSub based subtitle render (which is pretty old), can see the UTF-8 text perfectly.

A different case it's using a DVD-Player to see the videos... I know many of those only accept the old ANSI encoding.

[ilse]

There are a few characters that throw people for a loop. The musical note symbol and the -- come to mind. Some people don't like the beautiful musical note character (maybe just the same ANSI people mentioned above, maybe others). We find people replacing the note with *, # and the paragraph symbol when they upload subtitles. Now this option allows people to leave the musical notes in, but set a preferences that say they'd rather see them as something else. Also, there are subtle meaning differences (http://www.answers.com/topic/emdash) which cause a straight forward substitution of -- into ... or the proper longer - character troublesome. With this edit, it's our hope that our people will leave the -- in the source files we store, then they can specify their choice in their preferences.

I like the musical note character but my player doesn't

Thanks a lot for these features.

[spyderspyder]

"The answer is yes to both questions, spidy"
Yes, I know - by the time I posted the above, I had implemented the preference and tried it; there are often ulterior reasons for things that I do and say - and the manner in which I say them.

As for, "people who render the subtitles using VLC, Media Player Classic or any other non-DirectVobSub based subtitle render..."
As I suggested: I would guess (but with no evidence to back it) that this would describe but a minority of users.

However - and whatever - the innovations mean that all things are now available for all men for all seasons, and are a splendid addition to Addic7ed's facilities.

s.

PS: your gmail donations address is a waste of time... see PM.

[DrJackson]

[...]
Here are a few notes about some new features we've been working on this month.

[...]

[...]- the innovations mean that all things are now available for all men for all seasons,[...]

A necessary connection between new and not so new things.

Good work dny238, good work !

doc.

[buffer]

Thanks, great work !

I do love the ForceANSI for reason mentionned above, my ISP issued box doesn't support UTF8 srt files when played on TV,
and I often download French subs for my family (everybody does not speak english ), and those accentued character bugs were just irritating.

And the language filter is improving readability for very translated shows (though it's good to have such a variety).
Looking forward to be able to select more than one language

Thanks again

[dny238]

Thanks, great work !

I do love the ForceANSI for reason mentionned above, my ISP issued box doesn't support UTF8 srt files when played on TV,
and I often download French subs for my family (everybody does not speak english ), and those accentued character bugs were just irritating.

And the language filter is improving readability for very translated shows (though it's good to have such a variety).
Looking forward to be able to select more than one language

Thanks again

So many good ideas, so little time.

That said a little encouragement goes a long way. I'll see if I can't bump it up the list. It seemed smart, but since I only look for english subtitles, I wasn't sure if others would care.

I don't use forceAnsi, so let me know if there are any odd side effects!
Thanks,
dny

However - and whatever - the innovations mean that all things are now available for all men for all seasons, and are a splendid addition to Addic7ed's facilities.

We are here to please! Let me know if there are any side effects, or other ideas you have.

I honestly need to setup a rig running the directVOBSub related stuff to see why people won't move on. My XBMC install works so well I can't imagine what I'm missing.

Thanks for the feedback!
dny

[spyderspyder]

(Pssst... Can anyone tell me what an "XBMC install" is?)

[DrJackson]

(Pssst... [...])

(Pssst..., check HERE )

:lol:

doc.

[dny238]

(Pssst..., check HERE )

:lol:

doc.

You are nicer than me.

http://tinyurl.com/245nl2u

XBMC is a media center app which works on tons of hardware / operating systems.

It's pretty nice. Boxee is built upon it as a platform. Work a look see, if you are watching TV on a TV with a computer connected to it. Or have a girlfriend who isn't tolerant of using a mouse to watch TV.

[DrJackson]

You are nicer than me.
[...]

OFF TOPIC

It's good to have a little fun around !

doc.

[dny238]

OFF TOPIC

It's good to have a little fun around !

doc.

True. I just love http://lmgtfy.com/

[spyderspyder]

And there was I, guessing that it was something to do with X-Box (whatever that is - I heard my son talk about it...)

s.

[DrJackson]

back

[spyderspyder]

Back to the topic, please.

s.

[dny238]

And there was I, guessing that it was something to do with X-Box (whatever that is - I heard my son talk about it...)

s.

It started as a hacked xbox project originally. At $50 for a.used original xbox, it still works. But mkv files overwhelm the hardware of the original xbox, so it went multi platform.

The linux guys have really done a great job growing it. It runs on windows, linux, mac, apple tv to name a few. It is easy to download the app these days and see if it is worth dedicating a set top box to it, many people have.

My wife and kids love it

[zzz]

Okay, so this seems the only topic on Replace Em Dash setting.
It looks like the option was suddenly introduced by a coder without much discussion here.

So, since the setting works that way, why is it bad to change "..." and "--" to match the situation?
They are forced to be either "..." or "--" based on a user's choice, right?

The option is really a nice one if you only prefer "..." or "--" but for guys like me who prefer both "..." AND "--" at the same time, this option just sucks.
Why isn't there another choice "leave it alone" in there?
I really want that bad, because they both have different meaning.

[DrJackson]

They are forced to be either "..." or "--" based on a user's choice, right?

"--" it is used in American English to reproduce an unfinished expresion;

"..." it is used in Europe to reproduce an unfinished expresion.


doc