Japanese Dragon Box Question.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Hey guys, I am currently in the midst of saving up for the JPN Dboxes (Z for now) since it seems like it will be considerably cheaper then buying the N.A release and Japan are region 2 too so I will be able to upscale it via PS3/4. Anyway I have a question to anyone who has the Japanese Dboxes who doesn't speak Japanese, how did you go about adding subtitles to the disc, is it possible to add subtitles to the discs as is? (I suspect no but thought I'd ask) I presume you have rip the discs and then burn them on a set of blank ones with subtitles/dub track but is there a way you could keep the menu's etc the same?

Also does anyone have an experience with Japanese Middlemen sites to buy things from Amazon JP market place or Yahoo auctions, if so who do you recommend? I have checked out quite a few but obviously haven't used them so do not know if they're reliable or not but I am thinking of ordering something small like V-jump back issues and see how that pans out.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[TheGreatness25]

I have no idea about adding subtitles. Something tells me it would take FOREVER. I started ripping subtitles from the U.S. releases and thank god you can rip them because it takes like half an hour to type up each episode. I'm also assuming that you have to then line them up to the video on the Dragon Boxes (time codes from ripped subtitles don't work since it would never sync up). Just sounds like a giant pain in the ass. Personally, I ripped the subtitles and kind of have them on-hand when watching (I read ahead and then just picture that's what they're saying as I watch, not going back and forth between the subtitles and video).

I might be wrong, it just sounds like a giant painful project. Just doing the subtitle rips is a giant pain in the ass.

[LuckyCat]

There are media players out there that handle closed caption files (Even on the Apple Store) which is basically the same as subtitles. However, it might be tricky to find public domain English captions, and then you'd probably need to retime them.

It might be easier to wait for FUNi to do a Black Friday sale, but what you're asking is totally doable if you have the time.

[TheGreatness25]

I'd be more than happy to provide you with the subtitles for all of the series and movies if you'd like (Steve Simmons' subtitles).

[thejeremymenace]

I've posted about this subject before, but it's a decent chunk of work.

The workflow goes something like this:

• Demux video and audio streams from R2 DVD (Dragon Box) using PGCdemux or similar
• Demux subtitles from R1 DVD (Funimation) using VSrip or similar
• Retime subtitles to fit the R2 DVDs -- the hardest and most tedious part

From here, it depends how you want to proceed:
If your goal is to insert the subtitles back into the DVD, with menus and all, that's quite a bit of work itself, especially for the amount of episodes and discs DB has"

• Remux to DVD structure in Muxman or similar -- in a somewhat obtuse way because of the way the original DVDs are organized
• Rearrange the DVD structure in your output folder to match the original DVD exactly -- this includes fixing cells/chapters and moving a lot of stuff around
• Run the rearranged DVD through VobBlanker to trim unreferenced video files
• Patch the original DVD with your new IFO/VOB
• Fix subtitle colors because the palette of the R2s does not match that of the R1s

The most tedious part is rearranging the DVD structure itself after muxing -- since the Dragon Box uses the same OP video for each episode on each disc, you have to go in and manually edit the IFO/VOB structure a little bit, and then remove the extra video, since it won't fit on a DVD if each episode has its own OP.

On the other hand, if you just want MKVs of the episodes on your hard drive, then it's as simple as muxing everything to a single file.

I plan on doing a detailed guide of this exact process someday, since I've done this all already. Most of it can be automated with scripts and programs, and I have a fairly comprehensive list of the frame differences between the R2 and R1 DVDs, so the subtitle retiming is a cinch as well.

There is a third option, actually, which I've been going about recently. You can fit about 15 dual-audio (w/ no re-encoding) DBox episodes with subtitles to a single-layer Blu-ray. I've written a handful of programs to do most of the work automatically, which involves concatenating the video and audio to a single .m2ts file, and generating the properly formatted chapter times & stuff compatible with multiAVCHD. The MKV option is still the simplest for most people though.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Yikes! I had no idea it was going to be this daunting! Luckily I finally finish Uni in May so I will be indefinitely free until I decide what to do with my life, so this will certainly kill the time while I search for jobs etc.

I'd be more than happy to provide you with the subtitles for all of the series and movies if you'd like (Steve Simmons' subtitles).

That would be greatly appreciated, thanks! Saves me ripping them myself!

[Thedoctor2016]

What I am planning to do is the very expensive option I am going to buy all US DB (though there R1) to watch and then buy the JP Dragon boxes too look at and say i own them ( I want the GT one most as it looks so nice for a medicore series)

[JackyBoi99]

Evening friends. I own the japanese dragon boxes, if i were to send them to someone... Could they possibly apply english subtitles to them for me?

Cheers

[jumpshot22]

Also does anyone have an experience with Japanese Middlemen sites to buy things from Amazon JP market place or Yahoo auctions, if so who do you recommend? I have checked out quite a few but obviously haven't used them so do not know if they're reliable or not but I am thinking of ordering something small like V-jump back issues and see how that pans out.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

I purchased the GT and Movie Dragon Boxes, as well as Battle of Gods Limited Edition from Amazon JP. I used a site called Tenso as a middleman service. It takes a little bit to get set up with them but using them is pretty seamless and straightforward. I definitely recommend using them because you end up saving a lot of money. I think I paid $300 total (including shipping) for the GT and Movie Dragon Boxes, which is about half the going price for them on eBay.

In my opinion, I would just keep my eye on eBay for a set of ENG Dragon Boxes. It might be slightly more expensive but you are saving yourself the hassle of doing all this work. But if you really enjoy doing a project like this, then have at it. VejituhTheWarriorGuy just recently posted a full set of ENG Dragon Boxes in the Buy/Sell thread that he is wanting to sell so there is a start.

[thejeremymenace]

Here is my script for retiming subtitles. It takes VobSubs (*.idx, *.sub) as input, and will adjust from the R1 Dragon Box timings to the R2 Dragon Box timings.
Requires Python 2: https://www.python.org/download/releases/2.7.2/

Code: Select all

import json
import sys
import time

seriesName = sys.argv[3]
beginEp = int(sys.argv[1])
endEp = int(sys.argv[2])+1
inPath = '.\\' + seriesName + '\\in'
outPath = '.\\' + seriesName + '\\out'
jsonPath = ".\DB.json"


def adjustTimings(time, epOffsets, opOffset):
    timeParts = time.split(":")
    h = int(timeParts[0])
    m = int(timeParts[1])
    s = int(timeParts[2])
    ms = int(timeParts[3])
    if seriesName == "DBM":
        frame = (3600*h) + (60*m) + s + float(ms)/1000
        totalOffset = 0
        print frame
        for o in epOffsets:
            if frame > float(o['frame']*1001)/30000:
                totalOffset += float(o['offset']*1001)/30000
    else:
        plgFrm = float(epOffsets["prologue"]["frame"]*1001)/30000
        plgOff = float(epOffsets["prologue"]["offset"]*1001)/30000
        if seriesName == "DB":
            ptAFrm = float(epOffsets["partA"]["frame"]*1001)/30000
            ptAOff = float(epOffsets["partA"]["offset"]*1001)/30000
        ptBFrm = float(epOffsets["partB"]["frame"]*1001)/30000
        ptBOff = float(epOffsets["partB"]["offset"]*1001)/30000
        endFrm = float(epOffsets["ED"]["frame"]*1001)/30000
        endOff = float(epOffsets["ED"]["offset"]*1001)/30000
        if seriesName == "DBZ":
            nepFrm = float(epOffsets["NEP"]["frame"]*1001)/30000
            nepOff = float(epOffsets["NEP"]["offset"]*1001)/30000
        frame = float((h*3600)+(m*60)+(s))+float(ms)/1000
        totalOffset = float(int(opOffset)*1001)/30000
        if frame >= plgFrm:
            totalOffset += plgOff
        if seriesName == "DB":
            if frame >= ptAFrm:
                totalOffset += ptAOff
        if frame >= ptBFrm:
            totalOffset += ptBOff
        if frame >= endFrm:
            totalOffset += endOff
        if seriesName == "DBZ":
            if frame >= nepFrm:
                totalOffset += nepOff
    frame -= totalOffset
    roundedTime = '%.3f' % round(frame, 3)
    totalSecs = int(float(roundedTime))
    frames = roundedTime.split(".")[1]
    seconds = totalSecs % 60
    minutes = (totalSecs / 60) % 60
    hours = (totalSecs / 60) / 60
    timeCode = str(hours).zfill(2) + ":" + str(minutes).zfill(2) + ":" + \
        str(seconds).zfill(2) + ":" + str(frames).zfill(3)
    return timeCode

for ep in range(beginEp, endEp):
    jsonFile = open(jsonPath)
    jsonData = json.load(jsonFile)
    leadingZeros = 3
    if seriesName == "DBM" or seriesName == "DBGT":
        leadingZeros = 2
    epOffsets = jsonData[seriesName][str(ep).zfill(leadingZeros)]
    if seriesName == "DBZ":
        if ep == 25:
            op = "OP25"
        elif ep > 36 and ep < 43:
            op = "OP37TO42"
        elif ep > 177 and ep < 184:
            op = "OP178TO183"
        elif ep > 199:
            op = "OP2"
        else:
            op = "OP1"
    elif seriesName == "DBGT":
        if ep > 34:
            op = 'op2'
        else:
            op = 'op'
    else:
        op = "op"
    if seriesName != "DBM":
        opOffset = jsonData[seriesName][op]["offset"]
    else:
        opOffset = None
    with \
            open(outPath+"\\"+str(ep).zfill(leadingZeros)+".idx", "w") \
            as outFile, \
            open(inPath+"\\"+str(ep).zfill(leadingZeros)+".idx", "r") \
            as inFile:

        for line in inFile:
            if 'timestamp:' in line:
                subParts = line.split(",")
                subTime = subParts[0]
                theTime = subTime.split("timestamp:")[1].strip()
                convTime = adjustTimings(theTime, epOffsets, opOffset)
                subParts[0] = "timestamp: " + convTime
                outFile.write(",".join(subParts))
            else:
                outFile.write(line)
        print 'Subs for ' + seriesName + ' ' + str(ep).zfill(leadingZeros) + \
            ' retimed!'

Copy all that, save it to a text file called 'dragon-radar.py'. Make sure it has the .py extension.

You will also needs this file, linking because it's a lot of text:
http://pastebin.com/tQCKnv6i
Download that, rename it to 'DB.json.'

Create a new folder somewhere. Place dragon-radar.py and DB.json in that folder. Inside the folder, make another folder called 'DBZ' (all caps). Inside the 'DBZ' folder, make a folder called 'in'.

Place all your .idx and .sub files in the 'in' folder.

Make a copy of the 'in' folder, and rename it 'out'. Don't make any changes to the files inside 'out'.

So now, your folder should look like:

<some folder>/dragon-radar.py
<some folder>/DB.json
<some folder>/DBZ/in
<some folder>/DBZ/out

Open a command window in your folder. On windows, this can be done by either opening Command Prompt and navigating to the folder, or shift-clicking in the folder and selecting 'Open a command window here.'

In the command prompt, type the following:

Code: Select all

python dragon-radar.py 1 291 DBZ

The script's arguments are, in order:
-the episode to start with
-the episode to end with
-the series name abbreviated (DB, DBZ, DBGT, DBM)

So, if you don't want to do every episode all at once, you can do it in chunks.

Anyway, once you run the command, all the .idx files in the 'out' folder will be retimed for the R2 Dragon Box, and you can use them however you like.

In addition, that .json file also has retimings for the DB blue bricks, DBGT green bricks, and remastered movies, so if you want to retime any of those to sync with the Dragon Box, make another folder for that series with the same in/out format and run the command for that series.