Fansubbing the expanded Macross saga (not Robotech!)

Hi guys!

I'm currently doing something that is probably a bit different from what you're doing with editing and preserving ;)

If anyone knows the Macross anime legal situation outside Japan, you're probably aware that there was a legal dispute between Studio Nue and Big West some time ago about the distribution rights of Macross and all sequels/prequels.

Even though the legal issues about the original series was enventually resolved, the situation about the sequels and prequels is still unclear and it is very doubtful that I'll ever going to be able to purchase Macross 7, Zero, Frontier or any of the recently remastered editions with english subs.

However, being not too stupid myself, I ordered the Macross DVDs from Japan starting with Zero and subbing them myself using already available fansubs. Of course I don't want to recode the DVDs leaving only the option to softsub them.

Thus far it worked pretty well but the thing is, even that I used the option "forced" with MuxMan (and I double checked with IfoEdit), my HD-EP10, Xbox360 and all the software player still seem to take this as a suggestion rather than an mandatory setting, not showing the subs when I pop in the DVD (I don't use menus yet, the Macross Zero discs have only one Episode per DVD anyway) until I press the subtitle button.

What do I have to do to make them really forced?

PS.
I tried to watch the US release of Macross Plus last night. What a bummer, I've never seen such a dark and bad looking transfer for ages. The only thing that is probably salvageble from that release are the subs. Hopefully they sync up with the Japan remastered box (no frame cuts etc).

BTW is it just me or did fansubs get worse over the last 10-15 years? Man they put like 3 subs at the same time in the frame during songs (romanized karaoke subs, kanji, english translation, sometimes another sub with dialog from charakter when they speak during the song etc) or additional information that could probably be better delivered in a text file rather that obstructing me from the episode/movie while watching it.

It's always a pain in the neck to edit them into a watchable version and correct all the bad grammar and -san -kun etc. That coming from someone who's not even a native english speaker....

satanika said:

Well it is still up to the players software/firmware to honor the 'forced' flag I think, similar to region codes etc.

Another option might be in the players settings where you can often set the default subtitle language and whether it is on or off by default.

That's not the problem. If I pop in one of the old german Kinowelt DVD releases I get the forced german subs while watching original english language all the time and I can't deactivate the subs. Neither the Xbox 360 nor the HD-EP10 can deactivate the user prohibitions. I think the real forced subs work differently than the muxman/ifoedit setting.

Okay that was amazingly easy. It worked.

I'll probably have to redo that some day with the Blu-Ray version :D

Just burned the disc. Looks great on my HDTV. All 30 minutes of it. Only the japanese can get away with only putting one episode on the DVD hehe