DBZ Westwood/Ocean dub UK/YTV/EU [ENGLISH SUBTITLES] collaboration thread.

[pickledradditz]

Finally, thanks to many kind and dedicated community members the 'Highest Quality' version of the Westwood/ Ocean/ Blue Water dub that aired on Cartoon Network/CNX in the UK and several other regions has been completed.
You can find it on all the usual sites, or the original TV broadcasts are available on the internet archive if you prefer the originals or the smaller file size.

To complement the set and for no more reason than why not, I have begun making English transcribed SUBTITLES for this version of the dub.
As far as I am aware, no subs exist for the Westwood/Ocean dub as no official release was produced.

The subs in the Ocean version are CLOSE to the Funi scripts, it seems Westwood used the scripts and sanitized them up a bit for kids, toned down references of killing and death, replaced some words here and there, however due to the sometimes completely RANDOM cuts in this version, the timing of the subs deviates through the episode and can be up to 20 seconds off by the end if using the Funi sub timings.
(is there even a Funi DVD release with ENGLISH transcripts? There are Japanese translated English subs, but I'm not sure if there is English scripts, lemme know)


And so the hope is that the community can all chip in and help out with making subtitles for this version of Dragonball Z that many of us grew up with.
There are 169 episodes of the dub, I have a fair bit of translating and subbing experience anyway and did an episode in about 2 hours, that includes the 20 mins of QC watching it back!

However please note you DO NOT have to transcribe from ZERO.

I have already created the .srt files with the filenames and around 50% of the lines are already transcribed, typeset and done.
How?

The method that I used was as follows;

Take the original files, split the audio using mkvmerge, rename the output .mka to .mp3, transcribe the files to .srt using Pytranscriber, a tool that uses Google to generate subs, the same as Youtube auto generation subtitle technology.
Depending on the quality of the audio and if there is BGM or not, some lines have very high accuracy.
https://github.com/raryelcostasouza/pyTranscriber

They where all batch processed in the Linux CLI and I have not really thoroughly looked at every file, I hope you can help

As the main work is just editing the timing and adding lines, and transcribing, anyone can jump in and help.

The recommended subbing software is Aegisub, a long used open source tool in the fansub community that is fairly easy to use and has many guides.

https://github.com/Aegisub/Aegisub/

Some tips for Aegisub,

Spoiler:

Set up hotkeys in the options and preferences!
Enable them globally active so they always work no matter what is selected on the software as they can be local to timeline, video, text areas and such.

I personally use `(key next to 1) for play stop
alt+1 for new line at current time
alt+3 for adjust start time to cursor position
alt+4 for set end of line at cursor position
Numpad 5 plays the selected line again and stops at the end of line
Mouse click on the audio line, left click is adjust start time, midle click is set cursor position, right click is set end time
Enable 'automatically commit all changes' button under the audio track
F2 to save regularly!

Here are some tutorials that came up top of Google;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1XSXbi_ai4
https://aegi.vmoe.info/docs/3.0/Main_Page/

To try and keep the work uniform across many people, here are some proposed guidelines;

Please use default Ariel font 30px outline 2.0 shadow 2.0 BOLD

No more than 3 lines on the screen at once

Separate speakers by beginning their sentence with - if there are 2 lines in the same scene
Also use - for speakers off screen
Use italics when someone is thinking or using telepathy
Use CAPITALS to emphasize but please use sparingly.
Subtitles are there to aid the viewer, not to add humor or nUaNsIsEs, please post that in the thread instead
You do not need to put a . punctuation at the end of every sentence unless is adds to the importance of the line.

Select 2 or more lines and right click, Join lines (concatenate) if they are very short lines
Try to time end of lines with scene cuts when possible unless the line is too short (in time)
However if the CPS is over 30 for the line (characters per second, red = fast reading required) consider prolonging the line

A default new line is 2 seconds

When start and end times overlap the subs will be placed on top of each other, please be careful of the timing
Shift + enter for a new line in the text box field, represented as \n use this to cleanly split sentences in the same scene

Spell check, and add names to dictionary using right click

Each episode has about 200 lines, as most people on the forums here are very good at typing, once you get used to Aegisub, it should only take a few hours to finish an episode,
there is no rush, do a few lines a day, just pick your favorite episode and give it a go!

If you need help, post here and we will try and work it out together, I'm very slow at responding and Google search will probably be faster I'm sorry.

I have uploaded the .zip file that contains a folder with the following sub folders

https://mega.nz/file/I4sx1JRb#-sTmo0tj2 ... tuZ_7mv364

Finished.
This is a finished ep that I did, please use it as an example or enjoy it.
Unfinished.
Contains the raw transcribed files that have not yet been touched and need to be worked on.
txt
contains the transcribed files without .srt file timings, someone may find it useful.


Please make a post if you are going to do an episode or saga as to not overlap with others if possible.
Also, please attach he finished .ass (aegisub default file type) in this thread once completed and I will try and keep the post updated.
Please ensure the sub filename is the same as the video filename so the media player detects it automagically.

Hopefully you can help! I make mistakes too so please check, as this is a free and open source project, feel free to change and make fixes yourself!

Episode Checklist.

Spoiler:

BABIDI SAGA
214 Done.

[eledoremassis02]

I don't have much experience in this but really look foward to this! I'm glad to hear a good quality of this version is available and the subtitles will be very welcomed

[TheGreatness25]

But no remastering for Dragon Ball Blue Water...? *Soul-crushing defeat*

Several years ago, I actually transcribed the original Ocean dub/Saban dub myself. I always meant to put it up against Funimation's closed captioning (thank you, Funimation Now for having them!) to clean it up a bit, but I never did. I assume it'll be a lot harder to get that than the rest of the series, considering there's no base for those original episodes. So, if you have any use for my transcriptions, I'd be more than happy to send them to you. They're obviously not time-stamped and they're in Word format (I only intended to use them for myself as (a) a reference point during discussions, and (b) pure nostalgia as a way to speed-read while using my memory and imagination than watching the whole thing... don't judge me). I do wish I put who the speaker was, but that would also take too much time and I know who said what like 90% of the time anyway. If you're at all interested, shoot me a PM.

... How about Dragon Ball and GT? Eh? Ehhh? I've actually been trying to use a software to transcribe them--it worked out as well as you could probably imagine. It is so jumbled and actually missing a lot of dialog, that it would be easier for me to just transcribe the thing myself.

[Gilby1385]

[Robo4900]

Finally, thanks to many kind and dedicated community members the 'Highest Quality' version of the Westwood/ Ocean/ Blue Water dub that aired on Cartoon Network/CNX in the UK and several other regions has been completed.

As far as I'm aware, some parts of the Boo sagas of Z remain only available in rather poor quality, as do large swathes of DB, and many episodes of GT as well, so we're far from all of it being available in the 'Highest Quality'

In fact, I know for a fact there are those out there with really nice captures of all of this stuff, but all they're interested in doing with that stuff is bragging that they have it.
Some time ago, I was told about the possibility of someone putting a bunch of their stuff online, but then the person who told me about this disappeared and I have no idea how realistic what they were saying was; it's possible they were just lied to, just as it's possible they lied to me.

To be honest, I see this situation as being akin to the Japanese broadcast audio; the few who have what's missing have either walked away from it to get away from trolls, or they themselves are trolls and are content to just brag about having this stuff. We average fans can do nothing, and there's no real chance of any of this material ending up on any official DVDs, so the kinda shitty lot we have right now is the best we'll ever have. :L

Still, props to all the people who've found/shared what's available so far. I'm very happy that I can at least watch these versions of Z and GT in their entirety. I just wish we had DB as well, and better captures on the whole! There's something to be said for the fact this is all piracy, but there's also something to be said for the fact that the official side of things has completely failed to cater to a significant audience that would like this stuff, and it's unlikely they ever will cater to us, so I'm grateful to all those who've stepped in to fix this situation as best as they can.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

But no remastering for Dragon Ball Blue Water...? *Soul-crushing defeat*

The Blue Water dub of Dragon Ball episode 71, at least the first half is still lost. I've heard mumblings about fans who claim to have a recording, but I have not heard about it circulating. I do hope it will be found and shared soon so we can have the complete collection of Canadian dubs for projects like this.

It's a small miracle the entire Blue Water dub of GT was found because over 10 years ago fans were searching for it, and it just so happened that someone in the community had received a DVD-R his parents paid for that came from a family friend, this DVD contained all of GT. The person in question probably wasn't aware of how valuable that dub was, but it allowed the person who received the disc to be able to contribute what was much of the missing content at the time.

[Robo4900]

The subs in the Ocean version are CLOSE to the Funi scripts, it seems Westwood used the scripts and sanitized them up a bit for kids, toned down references of killing and death, replaced some words here and there

The sanitisation is actually 99% from their scripts being based on Funi's TV edit, rather than Funi's uncut dub. Random other changes happened on top of these scripts they received, but nothing huge really.

(is there even a Funi DVD release with ENGLISH transcripts? There are Japanese translated English subs, but I'm not sure if there is English scripts, lemme know)

Yes, the original DVD singles have subtitles for the English dub.

[Gilby1385]

The Blue Water dub of Dragon Ball episode 71, at least the first half is still lost. I've heard mumblings about fans who claim to have a recording, but I have not heard about it circulating. I do hope it will be found and shared soon so we can have the complete collection of Canadian dubs for projects like this.

There is also a bit of missing dialogue from the beginning of episode 3, part of which can be found in one of the two rips of episode 2 found online, but still not the full thing. Also, on the copy of episode 56 currently available online (the copy I have, not sure if every copy online is like this), the audio cuts out completely about three-quarters or so into it.

[Robo4900]

The Blue Water dub of Dragon Ball episode 71, at least the first half is still lost. I've heard mumblings about fans who claim to have a recording, but I have not heard about it circulating. I do hope it will be found and shared soon so we can have the complete collection of Canadian dubs for projects like this.

There is also a bit of missing dialogue from the beginning of episode 3, part of which can be found in one of the two rips of episode 2 found online, but still not the full thing. Also, on the copy of episode 56 currently available online (the copy I have, not sure if every copy online is like this), the audio cuts out completely about three-quarters or so into it.

And the copies that circulate of DB episodes 102-153 (apart from maybe a handful in this range), the captures badly skip, sometimes missing entire words, but usually just being microskips, but they're so frequent they make the whole experience unbearable...

[TheGreatness25]

But you know, now that Funimation is no more an Crunchyroll is large and in charge, I'm sure they'll fire everyone from Funimation and make the perfect release complete with the Blue Water and Westwood dubs!

Dare to dream, huh?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

But you know, now that Funimation is no more an Crunchyroll is large and in charge, I'm sure they'll fire everyone from Funimation and make the perfect release complete with the Blue Water and Westwood dubs!

Dare to dream, huh?

People need to email/tweet Crunchyroll to make sure they know all the Canadian dubs could be easily acquired for a home release. All they would need to do is work out a deal with Ocean (as they owned both Westwood Media who produced Z and Blue Water) and get TOEI's approval (which they would have no reason not to give). The myth about AB Groupe producing those dubs (meaning red tape would be involved) is still out there, but it was confirmed by UK Dragon Ball and Ocean dub webmasters back in the day that this isn't true.

[ikaos]

(is there even a Funi DVD release with ENGLISH transcripts? There are Japanese translated English subs, but I'm not sure if there is English scripts, lemme know)

DBOX-synced dubtitles for the FUNi dub already exist for the entirety of DB/Z/GT, it would be far easier to start with those than to transcribe them all by hand. Not sure if providing those here is against the rules or not so just DM me for them.

[Robo4900]

But you know, now that Funimation is no more an Crunchyroll is large and in charge, I'm sure they'll fire everyone from Funimation and make the perfect release complete with the Blue Water and Westwood dubs!

Dare to dream, huh?

People need to email/tweet Crunchyroll to make sure they know all the Canadian dubs could be easily acquired for a home release. All they would need to do is work out a deal with Ocean (as they owned both Westwood Media who produced Z and Blue Water) and get TOEI's approval (which they would have no reason not to give). The myth about AB Groupe producing those dubs (meaning red tape would be involved) is still out there, but it was confirmed by UK Dragon Ball and Ocean dub webmasters back in the day that this isn't true.

I'm not sure Crunchyroll would even need to acquire any rights, for Westwood Z at least, I think they may be able to just acquire the masters from Ocean and they'd be good to go... Ocean could help them figure this out, since they've probably kept their paperwork better, but I think the way the deal worked back in 2000-2003 may mean CR could literally just get the masters and use them.

[Gilby1385]

But you know, now that Funimation is no more an Crunchyroll is large and in charge, I'm sure they'll fire everyone from Funimation and make the perfect release complete with the Blue Water and Westwood dubs!

(insert "maybe they'll finally release the Ocean dub of Kai" here)

[NitroEX]

This is a neat project. I hope to contribute to it at some point when I'm less busy.
I actually prefer a lot of line changes in the Westwood dub, minus any censorship to death of course. Some of them just sound more grammatically correct to me.

Regarding Ocean dubs ending up on Crunchyroll... I just don't see that as likely. Even if the problematic old guard at Funimation are thrown out (God I hope) there just isn't a precedent of Crunchyroll streaming an edited kids dub in this form.

A platform like Retrocrush would be a far more fitting home for Ocean DBZ as they also cater to a nostalgic audience rather than solely being a vanilla anime platform like Crunchyroll. But since they aren't under the Sony umbrella they'd presumably need to negotiate for some kind of sub license to stream DBZ and that would mean taking eyes away from Crunchyroll's own DB streaming lineup that just launched. There's very little incentive for Crunchy or Toei to do that nor stream it themselves so I think the dub is still stuck in limbo, unfortunately.