SD PROJECT:// NEWS AND UPDATES

Comments

pytro // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 07:59 AM
 
Thank You, no problem with lateness, i saw DB release.. but for my dvd backup collection, SD release is my n1 choice. :)

SD Fan // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 08:25 AM
 
Ep 6-7 :D
thnx for the sub.

Abu Siddek // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 09:12 AM
 
U rock SD. I prefer u guys to DB

Itachi97 // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 09:22 AM
 
Thx guys it was worth waiting.

Sal // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 10:17 AM
 
Your guys are way better than db.

Hiroshi-K // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 12:33 PM
 
You guys don't know what you're talking about!

I'll admit that SD does a good job of subbing and has adequate video quality but after viewing both SD and DB encodes, I have to say that there is no comparison. DB is better on both video and subbing.

Pro for SD - good op/ed karaoke effects.

Con for SD - subs are too literal and akward in places. Sometimes they're completely off!


Pro for DB - subs are in a totally different league, faster releases. Video quality is better as well PLUS their file size is much smaller than SD. What's going on?!

The subs in this episode are atrocious and you guys still have not fixed the wacked OP translations. Is SD still using the google babelfish service to translate episodes? ;)

The video quality that people are bragging about isn't there. SD is blurring everything! Don't believe me? Check out the sky at the beginning of the episode after the OP and sponsors. There should be stars shining there. Compare it to DB. SD blurs the episodes and their file sizes are still larger.

NEWAYS, just want to keep it objective. I really don't care one way or the other but as a native Japanese living in the US most of my life, I prefer the DB translations.

Much luv to SD for their efforts but they're not up to DB standards...yet. Good luck with future releases.

Hiroshi-K // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 12:36 PM
 
NB- no offense is intended in my comment so don't feel like I'm attacking you guys. I just want the best releases and if SD improves, I'm all for it!

awesome // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 12:43 PM
 
I know this is off-topic but any news on D.Gray-man?

d.gray-man // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 12:54 PM
 
This comment has been removed by a staff member

sangofe // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 01:45 PM
 
It's not that DB's better, you're just more used to their subbing style than SD. DB are actual MORE LITERAL than SD is... so... what the heck are you talking about, Hiroshi-K?
As for encoding, what if it gets more sharpened, it looks better!
Timing DB probably had a bit better this time, since I didn't time :P

Hiroshi-K // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 02:59 PM
 
Hi sangoofe,

You're right. It is true that I am more used to DB subbing style but that's not what I meant. SD unnecessarily translates word-for-word more often than DB. It reminds me of AOne style, which I prefer over DB, but it's definitely not as clean. The problem is that sometimes SD adds details that are unnecessary and it makes the phrases akward. DB style makes it sound more like a regular conversation. They don't do a word-for-word translation on things that are obvious just from watching the anime. I guess it depends on what you prefer.

With encoding, the blurring causes a loss of information so if you sharpen it afterwards, you won't get back all that lost information. You get something that looks even worse.

It is better to not use as much blur (and not use as much gain in saturation/color) so the details are preserved. I'm just comparing SD/DB/Raws on my HDTV and SD looks worse than the others because of it. If you want screenshots comparisons, I can post it.

Hope I cleared any confusion from my previous comment.

ReFeGiUm // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 03:59 PM
 
Well about encoding, as an encoder I can assure you there's no insane blurring or whatsoever in our encodes, as for the fact that I'm the person that wrote the filtering up. Please keep in mind that there a lot of different raw caps out there, and DB uses a different raw than we do. We decided to go with one that suits our taste. As for the actual encode, our encodes are actually better in my opinion, since it has a lot less quantisation, and a lot less noise. The reason some episodes can be smaller is because of the dark scenes. XVID has a high compression on dark scenes, and a less good compression on bright scenes. However if you compress it more even though it has a lot of dark scenes, you will see for yourself that this will generate blocking, as what I mentioned earlier, Quantisation. As for the star you mentioned that didn't show up too well, I will check out the raw we're using atm. However keep in mind that we're sticking to 1 specific capper because of the fact we use After Effects, so that they're in synch and don't have to be redone every damned week. (Which is hell, and boring.)
But another reason besides us liking the raw because of the colors/etc, is also that it's one of the best caps that are released on Winny, that don't take a day or two. But like I said before, I will check out the thing you mentioned. Also please keep in mind, 640x480 isn't really optimal for a HDTV. :P

narutofan // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 05:57 PM
 
well i think its way better than [DB] but i dont like how you translate word-for-word, it sucks and [db] is easy to understand but yours is good but id kinda wish u would put in swear words

narutofan // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 06:00 PM
 
i mean the quality is way better than [db]

dark // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 06:46 PM
 
Well I don't know why every one says they prefer DB over SD, SD is very good. In this vid there quality is better than DB, and at least SD took the time to add the new changes to the opening un like DB. In any case keep it up SD staff.

Hiroshi-K // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 06:51 PM
 
One awesome thing about SD over DB is "customer-service". The team actually listen to their fans and respond to the feedback.

ReFeGiUm, I totally forgot about the quality of the RAW. If that's the case, then you can't do much about it. And, the blurring is only obvious in dark scenes. In brighter scenes, there is virtually no difference between the encodes (SD/DB/TVJ-raw/SM-raw). I do agree that there is more noise in DB encodes (but a little blurring does the trick! ;))

So far, the best encodes for my TV have been TVJapan raws, imo.

Actually, for my archives, I just use a mix of your subs and DB subs and write my own SRT to go with the TVJ raws, but it is a lot of work...

NB - I have to say that I love the OP effects!

Also, 50" HDTV is better than my 17" LCD, hehe. :p

dark // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 07:00 PM
 
hay one question,is there anyway SD can release a raw OP with no credits or subs? Not that SD OP dosen't rock, but I would like a good clean OP. Oh and by the way SD OP is way better than DB

Hiroshi-K // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 07:26 PM
 
Hey dark,
Just get the raws from TVJapan or SM.

ReFeGiUm, here are the screenshot comparisons for the different encodes I was talking about. Maybe it will help you fix your filtering parameters. I have to say that I do like your color level/saturation settings the most. Hopefully, you can fix the blurring problems in future episodes.

Just look at the stars in the sky and the details on the surrounding objects.

TVJapan:
http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i410746_1tvj.png
http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i410761_2tvj.png
http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i410767_4tvj.png

DB:
http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i410743_1db.png
http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i410764_4db.png

SM:
http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i410745_1sm.png http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i410760_2sm.png
http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i410766_4sm.png

SD:
http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i410744_1sd.png
http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i410759_2sd.png
http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i410765_4sd.png

Uska // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 09:31 PM
 
I would like to say to anyone who complains about translation accuracy or word-for-word literate or whatever, please learn Japanese and then tell us what the problem is. Or better yet, learn it and translate for us. That'll be all.

narutofan // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 09:43 PM
 
hiroshi is right look at the screenshots and [sd] has worst quality of all if you compare the powerlines, clouds and stars in the screens and they look bad compared to [db] and others too

[b]Uska // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 09:59 PM
 
Uska I think the commenters are being harsh but its only because they want [SD] to be the best fansub group for Naruto. You're doing an amazing job. You have better typesetting and better fonts and noone else has your special effects. We all support you and we want you to be the best. That's why we offer our suggestions even if sometimes it sounds harsh!

Uska // Sat 31st of March 2007 at 10:11 PM
 
It's not about being harsh, it's that not knowing about what you're talking about makes your comments rather moot.

NecroButcher // Sun 1st of April 2007 at 01:03 AM
 
Well said Uska...jebus christ people lets try to spare the high and mighty nerding over translations and which looks better. Pick the one you like and stick with it. Constructive criticism is great but the majority of this is petty bickering with no point.

Stop this stupid [sd] vs. [db] crap. It makes you all sound retarded.

pytro // Sun 1st of April 2007 at 04:11 AM
 
Nice info, thanks all.

ReFeGiUm // Sun 1st of April 2007 at 06:54 AM
 
Hiroshi-K,
You were right, lol.
I made a booboo in the script I think. I just changed it all and I'll give it to the encoder. My apologies for that. ^^; Also that TV Japan raw looks better then the source we use.
As for Narutofan, the encode isn't the worst at all, it just has... a bit less stars, I apologise once again. ^^;
But hey, I'll take care of it for you guys so this won't happen again. Besides be glad it isn't sharpened up insanely with warpsharp, that would make it more horrid. Imagine Naruto looking all deformed. o.O;

Anyway, thanks for pointing this out to me Hiroshi, I'll fix it all up today. :)

juUnior // Sun 1st of April 2007 at 10:00 AM
 
thx SD for awesome sub xD

Mr_Zero // Sun 1st of April 2007 at 11:08 AM
 
Would you guys ever consider releasing softsubs? Have one text file with all the dialog and another text file with all the extra jutsu and cultural translations?

Keep up the excellent work. I prefer your subs over DB b/c it helps me with my Japanese!

And I kept telling my friends that there was something wrong with SD encodes and all the details were washed out due to over-smoothing/quantisation-reduction but they didn't believe me. Finally I have proof thanks to Hiroshi.

kebrus // Sun 1st of April 2007 at 12:58 PM
 
thank you SD ^^

just wanted to ask, since you did some changes to the encode, are u going to release a second version of this episode, or are you going to use that encode from the 008-009 on?

PS: like Hiroshi-K said, nice "customer-service" ;)

me // Mon 2nd of April 2007 at 01:36 AM
 
yeah, basically they're (SD're) not asses

Uska // Mon 2nd of April 2007 at 07:21 PM
 
No v2.

animecanada // Mon 2nd of April 2007 at 09:34 PM
 
You guys do great sub work. Like the guy above said, you remind me of AOne (that's a compliment.)

Have you guys thought about encoding with H.264/AAC? It would be higher quality + smaller size, but it is slower and more cpu intensive. I could provide encoding settings if you're not familiar with the codecs. Thx! :)

nintendo // Tue 3rd of April 2007 at 08:05 AM
 
no please do not encode with H.264 ,it doesnot work in all DVDplayers

D.Gray-manFan // Tue 3rd of April 2007 at 08:55 AM
 
Has D. Gray-man been dropped?

Mystie // Tue 3rd of April 2007 at 09:47 AM
 
Not as far as I know.
Must be just very very late :P

ReFeGiUm // Tue 3rd of April 2007 at 01:35 PM
 
I'm familiair with H.264 as well and also ran encodes with it. But in my opinion it ain't optimal for TV rips, unless it's HD material. Like you said it's CPU-intensive. Most people still run a little older or a less heavy machine, with XVID they can enjoy the subs without having to buy a new CPU/System just to watch the releases. I will encode the D.Gray-man DVD's in H.264 though.

Gonzoe // Tue 3rd of April 2007 at 04:39 PM
 
Sup guys

Good work with the subs. I was a long time DB fan and i was wishing for another gruop to sub for eyars and finally someone came out. I just hate the way DB treats their customers from the YHBT to the banning (They are complete Aholes) regardless of the dispute over your qualitiy or whatnot you have definitl won me over with customer service. I guess the only problem with SD is getting yourselves heard, not nmany people know that their is another gruop that subs Naruto, even NarutoFan.com seems to have been bought buy DB.

Pls keep up the great work and never turn into the staff at DB you guys are doing a terrific job.

Gonzoe // Tue 3rd of April 2007 at 04:41 PM
 
OH, one more thing i dont have a registered nick so i cant get into your IRC channel. I was just wondering on the status of gray-man. I dont know how else to find out whether its been dropped, or postponed maybe?

moof // Tue 3rd of April 2007 at 05:47 PM
 
Regarding the status of D.Gray-man, the project page accurately reflects the status of the project. As you may see from the project list there is a "dropped" status, as well as there being a "stalled" status. So, look to see what DGM's status is on the project page.

Gonzoe // Wed 4th of April 2007 at 12:45 AM
 
Oh thanx i didnt click around the site sorry

a // Thu 5th of April 2007 at 01:54 AM
 
Gonzoe:
Since when were you a customer of DB lol? I don't they sell their fansubs... Anyways SD ROCKS!!! XDDDD

Mystie // Thu 5th of April 2007 at 05:20 AM
 
A library doesn't charge you to borrow their books, but people are still their customers no? ;)

Ryuk // Fri 6th of April 2007 at 08:35 AM
 
Great work, keep it up!

GrtAndPwrflTrtl // Fri 6th of April 2007 at 03:17 PM
 
you should release .subs or .srts, No english grp I know of does and they'd be really handy.

kebrus // Sat 7th of April 2007 at 04:18 PM
 
can i make a suggestion? well i really liked the opening theme, the black bars seem to match a lot better, but there were two things that i believe you shouldn't do, the fireworks look good but they have the same color of the letters which confuses me a lot when reading the lyrics, because the frenetic fireworks distracts me from the letters, if they had two different colors probably would solve it...
the second thing is that you made the lyrics fade out which for someone interested in reading/singing/whatever them makes it harder, personally i'm having Japanese classes and instead of reading the phrase as a whole i have to read it word by word, because they disappear, which is a lot harder to understand it's meaning

i don't mean to be picky but if there are lyrics, and you guys sub them, they shouldn't be so hard to read, right?

keep up the good work, that this a constructive critic ^^

kebrus // Sat 7th of April 2007 at 04:21 PM
 
error: "take this as a constructive critic"

sorry for the bad english :P

Subi // Sun 8th of April 2007 at 05:24 PM
 
SD project all the way, i mean for christ sake the guy even admitted he was wrong, if you criticised a member of DB like that theyd ban/flame you or you could do something really stupid and actually download from them only to find they repay your custom with fake downloads. thanks for so many great episodes guys and keep it up.

GrtAndPwrflTrtl // Sun 8th of April 2007 at 11:56 PM
 
I appreciate the effort that went into them; but some ppl find the fireworks extremely distracting. Some ppl it's the only thing stopping them from switching from db. And ya I'm one of em but I know theres others. I doubt the opposite is true; i.e. that the fireworks are the only thing keeping some of your viewers. Yer probly sick of hearing about it; but those are my two cents.

kirby // Tue 10th of April 2007 at 12:03 PM
 
I personally thought SD's release was spectacular. The fireworks don't bother me at all, but that's probably because I've been watching fansubs for many years. I can see how it would be hard for others since DB tends to take a minimalistic approach, and switching from that to the fireworks could be somewhat steep. I really think the fireworks preference is up to opinion, and I wouldn't be surprised if people who liked the fireworks come and post that they want it to return to the subs, if the fireworks are removed. Anyway, thanks SD!

Also... on the bottom of the torrent page it tells you to ask someone for the complete file if a torrent has 0 seeds, so I was wondering if anyone had a copy of:

[Mognet & SD] Haruka Naru Toki no Naka de - Promo

There's a couple of peers, and I'm pretty sure that they want it too. I know it's a dropped project, but I personally like this promo. I'd really appreciate it if anyone would be kind enough to seed...

Looking forward to your HC 008-009 release this week!

D-boi // Tue 10th of April 2007 at 05:26 PM
 
well the fire works are a problem the only thing holding me back are those sponsors and while they are shown on many fansubs its da fact that dattebayo's doesnt and even has a little extra with that bonus segment at the end of their eps . You dont have to change it im just stating my opinion

Uska // Tue 10th of April 2007 at 07:58 PM
 
Why would the sponsor message bother anyone? First off, if you saw it in Japan, you'd see it with those sponsor messages, and a lot of (naruto related)commercials. Be thankful you don't have to sit through those(though some are rather interesting). Second of all, sponsor messages are what keeps the show airing so that you don't pay for it, else it'd be a PPV. The sponsors are the reason you see Naruto on air in the first place, they only take up like 10 or 15 seconds anyway.

K-boy // Tue 10th of April 2007 at 11:45 PM
 
What commercials do they show btw? That would be interesting to see :)

kirby // Wed 11th of April 2007 at 10:28 AM
 
Basically what K-boy is asking is if there is a RAW available of Naruto - commercials and all.

The sponsor message doesn't bother me since I can easily just skip over it, but any reason why the Academy Special Lectures and the Konoha Tourism Association aren't included?

Uska // Wed 11th of April 2007 at 11:41 AM
 
http://www.sendspace.com/file/3zifbq <-- there's the Happy Set CMs, I got these from the HC ep1. Kirby- those are still being worked on, we have most done just not released lol well get them in batches soon tho.

someone... // Wed 11th of April 2007 at 04:06 PM
 
Going out of topic since i already got bored of the naruto anime since the manga is way better.

What exactly happened with D.Grayman?? No more realeses?? is sd dropping the anime?

Gonzoe // Wed 11th of April 2007 at 07:53 PM
 
Some of you guys are really picky about the subs. Hell, the only thing i noticed different from DB was the font and a little different opening credits. I even read about someone who posted a complaint about 1 sentence he didnt like in a Naruto EP.
All i have to say is
O M G ur gunna drive SD nuts!!

Gonzoe // Wed 11th of April 2007 at 07:54 PM
 
This comment has been removed by a staff member

ReFeGiUm // Wed 11th of April 2007 at 08:21 PM
 
Euhm, we didn't drop D.Gray-man at all. It was licensed to start with. We're working on it as well atm. Be patient, we'll catch up soon enough. :)

Uska // Wed 11th of April 2007 at 09:20 PM
 
What? D.Gray-man isn't licensed. And I wish people would READ. This has been asked on EVERY news post, and has been emailed to me a ton of times. D.Gray-man isn't dropped.

someone.else // Wed 11th of April 2007 at 09:40 PM
 
Gonzoe, that guy who complained about that one line was an idiot but I understand where he was comin' from.. I agree that it would have been better if SD didn't translate stuff like "mouth on my palm" when it's obvious from watching the anime that Deidara is literally using the mouth on his hands. It would be better to leave that string of literals out of anime and just use them for manga. (but it helps with my japanese...so it doesn't matter to me.)

SD rocks. Can't wait to see the new-updated-high-quality encodes tomorrow!

Jarnar // Thu 12th of April 2007 at 03:29 AM
 
[quote="Usaka"]What? D.Gray-man isn't licensed. And I wish people would READ. This has been asked on EVERY news post, and has been emailed to me a ton of times. D.Gray-man isn't dropped.[/quote]

I wouldn't wonder about this...
"Project status: Ongoing"
And no news about D.Gray since the 10th of march when you released ep21, 16 and 17...
Now D.Gray is at ep26 and still nobody knows why you're late.
In January (when your site was down) you said that your translator had some RL-issues - I suppose that's the case again but probably a lot of people think that those issues shouldn't be a problem any longer as you released some episodes after that.

Uska // Thu 12th of April 2007 at 03:41 AM
 
If it's dropped, we're gonna say so. That's what the site is for, and if the site is down for whatever reason, that's what the IRC channel is for too.