The Technogirls Site Map
	Our Projects
	Little Princess Sara
	Brother, Dear Brother
	The BlueGreen Years
	Romeo's Blue Skies
	Nightsong of Splendor
	Wedding Peach
	Kiko-chan's Smile
	The Darkness of the Sea, the Shadow of the Moon
	Zetsuai 89
	Memolu in the Pointed Hat
	The Song of the Wind and Trees
	Aim for the Ace!
	Sequence
	Christmas in January
	On Our Main Page
	Who are we? Why do we do this stuff?
	Are there sources of Techno-Girls fansubs?
	How NOT to obtain our fansubs.
	Naughty distros: Alert
	Are there official Technogirls Distributors? (No)
	What are we doing RIGHT NOW?
	Our So-called Schedule
	Fansub master tape Revision Summary
	Some Internet myths about us.
	Our Translators
	Featured Music in our fansubs.
	Our Equipment
	It Can Take a Long Time to Make a Fansub
	Techno-Girls FirsTS (
	The Techno-Girls ( Themselves )
	The Techno-Girls Logos
	Random Information
	The Shoujo Anime Club private website (members only)
	Other projecTS ( we intend to work on.
	Other projects we might work on.
	A page full of anime RARITIES
	This page has a few items For Sale.
	There's a little-known shounen anime, "Wild Knights Gulkeeva" being subbed by Barbara's son, Austin, under the logo " Kuposoft "
	An Editorial page for Barbara's outrageous opinions.
	Info about Subsonic , our subtitling program.
	A bit of outdated information on some anime fansubbed by others.
	Japanese Enka music -- We FINALLY finished constructing a new Enka page !
	"Karen" -- an introduction to another manga by Yuu Yabuuchi ("Mizuirojidai" aka "BlueGreen Years" aka "Aqua Age")

   Warning:  this page is viewable with Microsoft Internet Explorer.  However, we don't like the Microsoft Monopoly, and so we recommend Opera , a product created with the user's REAL needs in mind instead of the Microsoft mindset of designing bloated applications whose primary goal is to assist in maintaining an exploitative software hegemony.  Also, Netscape 6.x is excellent.

For anime on DVDR that you can play on your DVD player,, go directly to the request page at www.quixium.com/fan/anime_dvdrlist.htm or start at the main page at www.quixium.com/fan/. This is a new mini-distro which tests the idea of fansubs and J-drama on DVDR.   These disks are playable on most DVD players and are capable of high quality, as opposed to the digisubs and downloads available all over the Internet.   The cost is about the same as tapes, with disks going for about $6 each ($8.50 for some premium grade disks).   This may well be the amateur captioning medium of the future.   This is also the way to find obscure J-drama, K-drama, J-pop, K-pop, enka, and a variety of other rarely seen oddities.  

    There are still a few other alternatives...   We have a small "Shoujo Anime Club" whose members have access to fansubs, and if you are lucky enough to send me email when we have some membership openings available, I may be able to send you an invitation to join.  It doesn't hurt to try.  And, if you are librarian of a school anime club, you may get preference.  Also, if you are outside of the US/Canada/Mexico region, be sure to send me email directly and I will get you access to our fansubs.  There are other options as well -- it is best to write and inquire.  Finally, there are lists of a few people we have traded with below, and you can sometimes get copies from one of them. However, we've almost given up on magnetic tape as a medium. We'll be converting all our tape SVHS masters either directly to DVDR, or indirectly by remastering them to DVDR. This will take about 1 year to complete. However, all our new stuff will be immediately on DVDR for request at our request site.

List of Tapes and Probable Sources
    Below is a list of each fansub followed by a two-letter abbreviation for the source. In parentheses is either (m) for SVHS master tape (the best source available) or (s1) for 1st generation SVHS tape (nearly as good a source as a SVHS master tape.)  At this time we aren't listing sources which have lower-resolution tapes than (m) or (s1).
    We began mastering digitally, and that forced us to adapt our grading system. For new fansubs which are done as a high bitrate digital master (HBRDM) , resulting tapes are far better quality than a tape copy from a tape SVHS master. Therefore, the ratings here show that a svhs tape made from the HBRDM is equivalent to an SVHS master (m), and tapes made from that tape are equivalent to a SVHS-1 tape (s1). In this sense, the HBRDM is actually a "mother" tape, whose tape copies are "masters". Subjective evaluation of the watchability of the conventional "masters" versus the "from-HBRDM masters" confirms that this grading policy is appropriate. However, this only applies to cases where the source is a HBRDM. Low bitrate "digisubs" show too many artifacts and faults to qualify their tape copies as masters, by a large margin. (Digisubs are low resolution normally, 350x240 or worse, and you can't make a decent 640x480 video from a 350x240 source.)
    Note: multiple revisions of some tapes exist. See the revision history section for details of the differences between the revisions.
Aim for the Ace! 1-4, (rev. 1, tapes from HBRDM ):  KH (m), SA (m)
The BlueGreen Years 1-4, (rev. 3, commercials in show):  KH (s1), TS (s1)
The BlueGreen Years 1-4, (rev. 4, commercials at end only):  VG (s1), TS (s1)
The BlueGreen Years 5-8, (rev. 1): EG (s1)
The BlueGreen Years 5-8, (rev. 2): EG (s1), KH (m), NW (m), SW (m), TS (s1), VG (m)
The BlueGreen Years 9-12, (rev. 2): EG (s1), KH (m), TS (s1)
Brother, Dear Brother 1-4:   EG (s1), KH (s1), NW (s1), SW (m), TS (s1)
Brother, Dear Brother 5-8, (rev. 1):   EG (s1), KH (s1), NW (s1), SW (m), TS (s1)
Brother, Dear Brother 9-12:  EG (s1), KH (s1), NW (m), SW (m), TS (s1)
Brother, Dear Brother 13-16, (rev. 1):  EG (s1), KH (s1), TS (s1), VG (m)
Brother, Dear Brother 17-20, (rev. 2):  EG (s1), KH (m), TS (s1), VG (s1)
Brother, Dear Brother 21-24, (rev. 2):  EG (s1), KH (m), TS (s1)
Brother, Dear Brother 25-28, (rev. 1):  EG (s1)
Brother, Dear Brother 25-28, (rev. 2):  KH (m)
Brother, Dear Brother 29-32, (rev. 4, tapes from HBRDM ): KH (m)
Brother, Dear Brother 29-32, (rev. 5, tapes from HBRDM ): TS (m)
Brother, Dear Brother 33-35, (rev. 1, tapes from HBRDM ): KH (m)
Christmas in January & Sequence: EG (m), KH (m), TS (s1)
Enka Collection #1: KH (s1)
Enka Collection #2: KH (s1)
Five Star Stories Movie (rev. 1, tapes from HBRDM ):  KH (m)
Gestalt 1 and 2: Never traded or copied; not available.
Kiko-chan's Smile 1-4 (rev. 3):  KH (m)
Kiko-chan's Smile Ep. 1 (low bitrate digital fansub): for the Shoujo Anime Club only, not available elsewhere.
Memolu in the Pointed Hat: KH (m), TS (s1)
Romeo's Blue Skies 1-4:   KH (s1), KO (s1), SW (m), TS (s1), VG (s1)
Romeo's Blue Skies 5-8:    KH (s1), KO (s1), SW (m), TS (s1)
Romeo's Blue Skies 9-12:  KH (s1), KO (s1), SW (m), TS (s1), VG (s1)
Romeo's Blue Skies 13-16:  EG (s1), KH (m), KO (s1), TS (s1)
Romeo's Blue Skies 17-20:   KH (m), TS (s1)
Romeo's Blue Skies 21-24: KH (m), TS (s1)
Romeo's Blue Skies 25-28: KH (m), TS (s1)
Romeo's Blue Skies 29-33 [final]: KH (m), TS (s1)
The Song of the Wind and Trees  &  Zetsuai 1989:  KH (s1), NW (m), SW (m), TS (s1)
Wedding Peach 1-4:   KH (s1), NW (s1), SW (m), TS (s1)
Wedding Peach 5-8: (rev. 2):  KH (s1)
Wedding Peach 5-8: (rev. 3):  EG (s1)
Wedding Peach 9-12: KH (m), TS (s1)

List of Abbreviations

   Note: "SASE" means you send no money but you do send all tapes, postage, mailers, etc.  Rules vary; be sure you ask for complete instructions and follow them.  "Requests " means you send a note with some money to pay for tapes and costs. " Trades " means you send a copy of a tape they want to get a copy of a tape you want.

EG:  Elijah van der Giessen (Send email. Requests, SASE, & trades.  Based in Canada.)
HI: Hitokiri Anime Haven (Requests & trades)
KH: Ken Hardwick (Requests & trades) Note: Ken is not responding to email according to reports, so he may not be operational anymore, despite the website being active.
KO: Kodocha Anime (Requests & trades)
NW: NewType (Closed for requests: T-girls tapes maybe avail. by SASE, try sending email )
SA: Scorpion Anime (Requests & trades)
SW: Silverwynd Japanese Animation Club (club members only)
TS:  Tsunami Fansubs (Trades)
VG: Verge's Anime List (Trades)
We regret to see that Aquarian is no longer on the web.  They will be missed.

   (2)   Similarly, "CRT Anime Distribution And FanSub" may be a anime profiteering operation masquerading as a fansub distribution service.  We recommend that our friends avoid them.  Any experienced fansub collector would do so anyway, since their prices for a standard TDK-HiFi 3-tape US request is nearly $24, which is unreasonably high assuming they use the usual materials sources that other distros use.  They are also copying English-language commercial tapes, and subs of US-licensed anime, for profit.  Furthermore, they are recording anime onto CDrom in a digital video format and selling 3 CD's for $30 -- which again is about double what fan distros charge for the same thing.  They have some of our tapes listed there for distribution.  We requested that they remove our tapes from their list, and remove the commercial tapes from their list, and set their prices to a level consistent with other fan-run distros.  They replied that they would remove our tapes and the commercial tapes from the list.  However, they did not do so.  Their web page is torn down now.

   (3)  Members of our club have reported numerous problems with "White Cross " distributor.  This distributor seems to be an alias or an allied partner of "Kakyouin".  The problems include: non delivery of requests, failure to respond to email, failure to ship fansubs to people suspected of having their own distribution, and defective tapes.  "White Cross" often insists on releasing fansubs packaged as if they were commercial releases -- for instance, new programs are available only one-episode-per-tape, but the cost is no different from 4 eps. per tape.  They have other tactics which seem to be chosen to maximize their cash flow.  Members are advised to consider other distributors instead.

   (4)  We regret to report dishonest tape grading on the part of the new distro "Bikurisita Anime".  This person created a nice slick web site, then began spamming mailing lists with self-promoting messages intended to give the impression that they were written by someone else. Examining their website shows that they list an enormous number of "master" and "s-master" tapes.    In fact, it seems like any tape that they think looks good they described as a "master."   I wrote to the address given and was given a reply which explained that since the tapes had been digitized, they were better quality than the originals, and therefore deserved to be called "masters".    We know that they do not own any actual Technogirls masters, and probably don't have most of the rest of the tapes they labelled "master" either.   We asked them to either label their listings honestly or to remove all Technogirls tapes from their list.    They did neither.   Their web page is a Tripod page, and their email address is a Hotmail address (bikurishita@hotmail.com).    This is apparently a newbie distro who digitized his fansub collection and then made a website to try to make money by exaggerating the quality of their collection.   Members are advised to avoid this distributor, since it is likely that other parts of his practices will also be dishonest.

Warning:
    We are opposed to fraudulent or unethical fansub distribution and to bootlegging of pirated English-language commercial material.   We will not hesitate to cooperate with commercial US/UK/Can companies in copyright enforcement.   If you list our fansubs on the Internet, we will look at your site to try to determine whether to recommend you to our friends or to advise others to avoid dealing with you.   You may receive a request from us to "remove all TechnoGirls fansubs from your listings" if we feel your site is more of a bootlegging business than an underground fan resource.    Don't sell copies of English-language commercial tapes!   Doing so endangers us all, and we will try to encourage or pressure you to stop.   Please work with fansubbers, not against them.

How to become an official Techno-Girls Distributor
   We don't have any "official" distributors, nor do we want to be involved with any sort of "distribution arrangement."   If you have one of our tapes and make a copy for a friend, or you make 100 copies as requests via the Internet, it's all the same -- that's your business, not ours.  Please don't ask us to label you an "Official TechnoGirls Distributor" because there is no such thing.  The list of people above are just some people we've traded with -- that's why we know they have good quality tapes.  If we didn't trade with them, they aren't on the list.   That's how the whole thing works.  We subtitle tapes so that we can show them to our club here and trade them with other subtitlers.  Then we can watch what THEY subtitled.
    It's true that we once did offer copies to anyone who asked, but we don't do that anymore.  That was a long time ago.
    If you want to be on the list above, trade fansub master tapes or top quality SVHS tapes with us, and we'll put your name there too, if you like.   But you still won't be an "official" anything, just a person who has one of our tapes who says they might be willing to make copies for others.

Digital Mastering Techniques

   Our voluminous page of notes on analog (tape) equipment used in fansubbing has moved to this location in order to reduce the size of this document.

As of 4-30-2001, we are using digital mastering techniques.
   We did a lot of experiments attempting to master fansubs digitally. Now, finally, we've switched to this method for all future fansubs.
   Up to this point, results were poor. From what I hear, a lot of others were getting poor results too. But due to some new breakthroughs, it looks like semi-pro quality results can be achieved using affordable equipment. Please note that we are NOT "digisubbing" in the sense of making junk digital anime clips to distribute on the Internet. The term "digital master" (or HBRDM ) refers to a master recording of a fansub which has been subtitled at high bit rates and high resolution without ever recording on videotape. The digital master which results is a set of very large digital video files on hard disk which when played back show the fansub, allowing tapes to be made during the playback. Such tapes can be described as "master tapes" since they are the first tapes in the process and they are better quality than a copy of a from-analog master tape.
   The HBRDM is a set of files totalling about 4 to 5 gigabytes in size. This gives results nearly comparable with DVD quality. Since Windows 98 can't open any file over 2GB in size, a key part of the fansub master recording is a play method which can easily play several files in succession. The play method we're using now is Windows Media Player version 6.4, whose ".asx" playlist file can list the component files of any particular recording. This allows one to escape the 2GB file size limit because now the playback can be a list of several files. Below is an example of the format. This is the actual ASX file which Media Player follows in our computer to play the mpeg2 files which make up the "Aim for the Ace" 1-4 fansub:

<Asx Version = "3.0" >
<Entry><Ref href = "a01a-nus3db-f26.mpg"/> </Entry>
<Entry><Ref href = "a01b-t2-chop-nus-f29.mpg"/> </Entry>
<Entry><Ref href = "ace02a-f30.mpg"/> </Entry>
<Entry><Ref href = "ace02b-f30.mpg"/> </Entry>
<Entry><Ref href = "ace03a.mpg"/> </Entry>
<Entry><Ref href = "ace03bfix2.mpg"/> </Entry>
<Entry><Ref href = "ace04a-nus.mpg"/> </Entry>
<Entry><Ref href = "ace04b-nus.mpg"/> </Entry>
<Entry><Ref href = "\fansubs\video\bdb-v8\signoff.mpg"/> </Entry>
<Entry><Ref href = "\fansubs\video\bdb-v8\20-sec-black.avi"/> </Entry>
</Asx>

   Being able to use aggregates of files over 2GB was a key to making the process practical, because even though 2GB sounds like a lot of data, it caused motion artifacts to appear in recordings of a two-hour feature, degrading the picture. However, at the higher bit rate of 5GB per 2 hours, motion artifacts and pixellation are nearly undetectable even on very close examination. A by-product of splitting the files into small ones is that they can be under 650MB, so that they can fit on a CDR. For TV animation, the component files of the digital recording are about 300-650MB size per half of a typical anime episode (11-14 minutes). In addition, the typical Technogirls fansub has one or two "slideshow" style video segments containing additional credits, music, notes, commentary, cultural information, and anything else which seemed suitable to include. These custom segments are 200-500MB in size. A typical 4-episode fansub with one introductory sequence then can be stored on 9 CDr's. At $1.50 per CDr, this is about the same cost as mastering to a broadcast SVHS tape, but far higher quality and durability.
   The method we eventually decided to use for encoding involved using "TMPGENC", a fine encoding utility, to produce MPEG-2 files. This is the same encoding method used on DVD's, but instead of making DVD-style VOB files to be played using a DVD player, we are making a set of MPEG-2 files to be played in Media Player 6.4 using the PowerDVD codec.
   Another key is in the process itself. It turned out to be critical to allow lossy compression ONLY one time. Multiple compression significantly raised the noise level and created ugly artifacts which could not be removed. Acquiring video at about a 800MB per minute data rate (storing video in "Raw Indeo" format) requires a hard disk drive which can transport video data without interruption for at least 27 minutes. For that, I'm using an older model Seagate Cheetah hard drive, 36GB size. This is a LVD SCSI interface drive which operates with a 80MB/sec data rate from buffer, and sustained data rates at inner diameter (minimum sustained data transfer rate internal) of over 25MB/sec. Note: the latter specification is the critical one. Most disk drive manufacturers won't reveal that data rate because they cannot compete with fast drives made by Seagate (Cheetah), Quantum (Atlas 4) and now some drives by IBM. All these drives have a rotational speed of 10000 rpm or better. Also note: IDE drives, regardless of their "published specifications" are a poor choice or completely unusable for these applications. Large, cheap IDE drives should be purchased for bulk memory storage only.
   The computer is a 1000Mhz AMD Athlon-based PC (400Mhz Pentium 3 is NOT fast enough), with Adaptec scsi controller card, Turtle Beach Montego 2 sound card, 3com network card, ATI "All in One" 16M AGP video card, TView output video PCI card, 390 Meg DIMM memory (128 Meg is NOT enough memory), Cheetah 36G 10Krpm drive, Yamaha SCSI CDRW drive, and Hitachi 2050 SCSI DVD-RAM drive.
   Video is captured in 640x480 size, 29.97 frames per second, with sound in native 44Khz stereo PCM, in sequential files about 2GB in size, using AVI-IO and the ATI All-in-One video/capture card. Following acquisition of video from the original video source (LD, DVD, etc) the subtitles are combined with the source video using the VirtualDub program and Subtitler Plug-in. These breakthrough software applications make the process possible. After adding the subtitles, additional editing, overlays, fades, tags, and audio processing are done using the video editing utility Adobe Premiere in Video for Windows 640x480 mode. Intermediate video is saved using a "lossless codec" (HuffYUV) to prevent encoding artifacts from appearing later. Then, the subtitled video files are converted to MPEG-2 using TMPGenc, while also implementing an inverse telecine (in the case of anime) with deinterlace filtering as needed. A noise filter (50%, 1-wide, with 40% temporal smoothing) and a line sharpening filter (20%, low) are sometimes added. For anime, the inverse telecine converts the frame rate to a syncronized 23.98 frames per second, matching the underlying film frame rate. Inverse telecine is critical -- the DVD encoding requires that playback be done with a "pulldown" to 30fps, but all of the old 30fps artifacts have to be removed for the result to look natural. Experience seems to show that there are a hundred mistakes one can make doing inverse telecine which will ruin a project, so extreme patience and care is required.
   As a final step, the file names are saved in a "*.asx" playlist file (see above) so that Windows, on executing the file, calls Media Player, which plays the files in succession. There is about a half-second pause between files, and during that time the screen is normally black. This doesn't interrupt the program if the cut points are chosen carefully to be "fade-to-black" times.
   Playback is critical. The ATI card and most of the other capture cards currently available have poor playback capability. We do playback using the Videonics "TView Gold PCI". This card is the first one I've found which produces acceptable output video, though it certainly isn't a product without its own faults. First, its documentation is a joke -- it's a pdf file on a CD, and the pdf gives the hapless user no clue how to set up the card to produce the results so loudly advertised in the glossy sales literature. Furthermore, the control software is crudely and inappropriately designed, and isn't really usable either. It took many hours of experimentation to achieve results. This required making a test pattern to adjust the vertical size to result in a line-by-line transfer. Once the size exactly matched the critical one, vertical resolution was achieved without artifacting. Then, the horizontal size could be adjusted. Following that was a long series of tests of brightness, contrast, and color intensity to get a natural transfer. The "neutral" settings are not even close to the ones which produce a natural picture. As a final touch, the documentation fails to mention the critical fact that unless you set your monitor refresh rate to exactly 60Hz you cannot get a syncronized transfer of digital video at all. 60Hz is no longer a standard or default setting for video monitors, so thousands of users of the unit will be disappointed at the results when they try to make it work at other refresh rates. It was also important to use the native avi size -- that is, to show a 640x480 avi using that screen resolution.
   At any rate, our results are quite good. There are no significant playback artifacts. The result is indistinguishable, to my eye, from the LD source. Captured individual frames of the recording look clean and undistorted, and virtually without "blocky" pixellations or quantization error, except for some barely visible boundary noise near the overlaid captions.
   For others attempting to reproduce these results, let me offer a warning that the process is a technical "house of cards." That is, a single deviation from the optimum can ruin the whole video. (Just as removing a single card causes the "house" to collapse.) Other amateurs are cautioned about assuming that substituting other codecs, hardware, etc will work just as well. Only patient and time-consuming experimentation can guarantee good results. In my case, it took about 75 hours of experimentation to arrive at this method, along with many hours of critical study of output video -- a study which I and most other amateur video hobbyists are not used to doing. Developing the "eye" to see spacial and temporal faults in video is an important part of the amateur digital masterer's "tool box". Without it, you may make video which is disliked by others, and not until later will you actually perceive the problems which are bothering viewers. So my advice to others is to take it slow and be extremely critical. You can't set a system up to do this in a single weekend.
   All our fansubs will be mastered using this method in the future. This will result in improved tapes for everyone, and master tapes which are easy and reliable to make, almost as if they were taken directly from a DVD source. Of course, the video quality is limited by the source video still -- a "from broadcast" video source won't look like a DVD using this method, but at least it will look as good as possible and it will still enjoy the other benefits of being on a digital master.
   I'm sure that others will be trying this technique too. When done well (remember the "house of cards" effect) it's an advance in quality, but it suffers badly from mistakes. A frustrated fansubber, after redoing their video a dozen times, may be tempted to just say "that's good enough" and give up, even with poor results, and that isn't good. Furthermore, if this method becomes popular, I can see that "digitally mastered" will become a term on fansubber lists. To avoid confusing it with "copied to tape from downloaded digisubs" I want to propose that persons provide the overall bitrate for the source video. In the case of what we're doing, at 500 megabytes per 12 minutes, that equates to 4000 megabits per 12 minutes (1 megabyte = 8 megabits). 4000/720 gives 5.5 megabits per second bit rate. An average digisub is 80 megabytes per 25 minutes, which is 0.42 megabits per second. The bit rate we're using is over 10 times larger. (Note that the average fansub is small format too, 320x240, low resolution, and cannot be used to make an acceptable video tape.)
   I don't want people to be digitizing our fansubs and then downloading them and copying them to tape and calling that a tape from a "digital master". If I were to draw a line in the sand, I would say that a "digital master" should be 3 megabits per second minimum, and at 640x480 resolution minimum. Our own "HBRDM" fansubs will be at least 5MB/sec, 24fps, 640x480, 10-bit color. My intent is to separate the junk digisubs from true never-on-tape digital masters, and head off some of the fraud which is so widespread in the Internet's fansub lists, where the word "master" has come to mean nothing more than "a good tape" and the letter "A" could mean a tape that is only halfway watchable. The Internet is a place where one can sometimes cheat others with impunity, and so it is the perfect test of character. DON'T be someone whose personal integrity is worthless. Be exactingly honest with the fansubs you list. If you list our fansubs, we'll expect absolute honesty from you, otherwise you'll hear from us.
   We won't be "distributing" the HBRDM's. Since each fansub would take 9 CD's or so, it isn't really practical. We'll use this method to make "master tapes" instead, for our club. Hopefully, this will result in very high quality tapes, like the ones that Tomodachi made.

A summary of our method as of 10-12-2001:
  1. Acquire video by capture (Indeo Raw format, 640x480, 18GB per episode) or by DCSS (output from Flask in Huffyuv avi format, 640x480, about 12GB per episode.)
  2. Extract a sound file for timing.
  3. Time and edit the script using Subsonic.
  4. Convert the Subsonic script to SSA format using S2SSA.
  5. Imprint the subs on the source video using VirtualDub with the SSA-sub plugin. The output is saved as another set of Huffyuv 30fps Avi's, usually 6 files per episode totalling about 12GB.
  6. Load the avi files into Adobe Premiere 6, and add special titles, fades, effects, tags, warnings, etc. Save as 30fps Huffyuv avi's again, about the same size.
  7. Convert the subbed video to Mpeg-2 using the program TmpgEnc in constant-quality, 6000kbps max, 60%, with the GOP="IPP". Also used is an adaptive inverse telecine with deinterlace to convert the 30fps video to the native 24fps film form. Additional filtering: light anti-noise, plus a slight color correction (boosting red to fix a problem in the video out system.) The output files are essentially a DVD. The DVD is encoded for "3-2 pulldown" on playback.
  8. Save the DVD file set on a DVD-RAM, and create a suitable ".ASX" file listing the component files (see above for example.)
  9. Play the DVD using the PowerDVD codec while making the SVHS tape. Generally this can be done directly in Windows Media Player version 6.4. The display is set to 640x480, 60Hz refresh, 32-bit color.

Beginning with BDB volume 9, we make digital masters as standard DVD's.  Here is a summary of our method as of 4-30-2002:
      1. Acquire video by capture (YUV12 format, 720x480,  18GB per episode, sound 48kbps stereo).  I use a ATI Rage Expert AIW card for capture, and the program AVI_IO.EXE. This method is better than DV-type methods when the source is LD or a tape.  (When the source is DVD, I don't use capture, I rip the DVD stream and convert it into an AVI.)
      2. Save a sound file for timing.
      3. Time and edit the script using Subsonic. This is our own program.  For others, I recommend Substation Alpha.
      4. Convert the Subsonic script to SSA format using the S2SSA utility.  This is only needed if you did the original script in Subsonic, of course, so most people won't need this step. This only takes about 5 seconds.
      5. Imprint the subs on the source video  using VirtualDub with the SSA-sub plugin. The output is saved as a set of 30fps Avi's using the HuffYUV codec, a lossless codec.  There are usually 6 files per episode totalling about 12GB.
      6. Load the avi files into Adobe Premiere 6, and add special  titles, fades, effects, tags, warnings, etc.  Save as 30fps Huffyuv
avi's  again, about the same size. Again, since I do all my work in Windows 98, I'm limited to 4G file sizes, so the raw and semi-raw video has to be split into multiple files.
      7.   Load the files into Virtualdub again and activate the "frameserver" function in Vdub's file menu.   This is because we use multiple files per episode, and TMPGenc, the target program, doesn't support multiple file input (yet).
      8. Start Tmpgenc and using the frameserved video from Vdub, convert the subbed video to Mpeg-2.  I use the 24fps NTSC 3:2 pulldown mode for all animation, like the professionals use, which reduces noise and gives a higher bandwidth. [In Tmpgenc, set frame rate to "23.976", video format to "NTSC", encode mode to "3:2 pulldown in playback"] This requires using the "inverse telecine" function in Tmpgenc, NOT a function that is quick or simple to get skilled at using. (warning!)  But as a starter for others, I usually use the automatic method with these settings: threshold about "60", deinterlace as "odd field, adaptive".  I normally encode using the constant bitrate setting.  The bitrate can be figured this way: divide the number 617000 by the total number of minutes in your video. Subtract the bitrate of the sound (I use 256 kbps Dolby Digital), and that is the bitrate in kbits per second to set in Tmpgenc. (approximately) However if the bitrate exceeds 9600kbps using this calculation, you will probably need to limit it to that amount maximum.

    Here are some figures on what it takes to make a fansub for us.  This does NOT include any part of the translation, or networking time.

Initial research: 1 to 12 hours.
Editing and Timing, per 4 episodes.
        Timing only; no script editing: 9 hours. ("BlueGreen Years" 100% Anna Exter version)
        Timing with minimal editing: 18 hours ("Romeo's Blue Skies")
        Timing with detailed editing and some screenplay rewriting: 26 to 30 hours ("Wedding Peach")
        Timing with complete rescripting and "artistic" editing: 40 hours ("Brother, Dear Brother")
        Timing with detailed scripting and initial setup, with lots of initial research: 65-90 hours ("Song/Zetsuai")
Title design including introductory sequences:
        Minimal ("Romeo's Blue Skies" first 3 volumes) 1.5 hours.
        Typical  ("The BlueGreen Years"):  5 hours.
        Elaborate ("Brother, Dear Brother"): 9 hours.
Mastering and final editing: 4 to 15 hours.

All together:
        An easy tape: 27 hours ("Romeo's Blue Skies")
        A typical tape: 45 hours ("BlueGreen Years")
        A difficult tape: 75 hours ("Brother, Dear Brother")
        A first tape of a series: 65-125 hours ("Wedding Peach" vol. 1)

This tiny glossary is for some special terms used in this web site.  For other terms try the amazing encyclopedia at the Japanese Cultural Details in Anime and Manga site.

Anime Genres Glossary:

SHOUJO: Manga or Anime which was originally marketed to girls or ladies. The content is superfluous -- it is the marketing intent, not the content, which determines whether a feature is shoujo or shounen. All our features are shoujo anime except for the World Masterpiece Theatre features ("Romeo", "Sara") which do not fit any standard category.

SHOUNEN: Manga or anime which was originally marketed to boys or men. As above, only the marketing intent matters, not the content.  Examples: "Dragonball", "Video Girl Ai", "Maison Ikkoku".

CROSSOVER: Manga or anime which attempts to address both a shoujo and shounen market (at the SAME time) -- a relatively new development in Japan.  "Escaflowne" is an example.

YAOI: shounenai anime (or manga), always of the shoujo classification, in which there is little plot or action except for a sexual encounter between two males, one of which is usually bishounen.  Example: "Level C".

YURI: shoujo anime (or manga), which involves romance between two women.  This does NOT include "lesbian" scenes in shounen anime or manga which are intended to interest male viewers -- such anime is properly referred to as "hentai" not "yuri".  Yuri features are very uncommon.  In fact, true Yuri anime may not really exist at all.

SHOUNENAI: A shoujo feature in which the plot concerns a romance between two males, one of which is often, but not always, bishounen.  May have little or no sex at all.  Yaoi features are always shounenai, but not the reverse.  Example: "Zetsuai 89".

BISHOUJO: A pretty female character.  The term "bishoujo anime" has come to refer to "pretty girl" anime made for boys. Therefore, it is it is important to stress that "bishoujo anime" is NOT "shoujo anime". It is "shounen anime", made for a male audience. Some subtypes of "bishoujo anime" are "ideal girlfriend anime", in which there is a girl who is just so perfect in every way that boys can't help but fall for her, and "girl next door anime" about the girl that the boy grew up with, and has a special bond with even though many other girls are also available. Bishoujo anime is usually romantic, and may be pornographic sometimes too. Examples of "bishoujo anime" might be "To Heart" or "Video Girl Ai".

BISHOUNEN: A male character who appears to be feminine or androgynous or to have very very delicate, refined, cute features.  Mostly in shoujo anime ("Weathering Continent", "Fushigi Yuugi"), but can appear in Shounen anime too ("Mahou-tsukai Tai"), usually in a comic manner.  Can also appear in crossover anime ("Vision of Escaflowne", "Five Star Stories"). Bishounen characters may crossdress or behave in a feminine manner, or be portrayed as gay.  They are by no means always gay, but if a gay character is represented, they are usually bishounen.  (Rare exceptions -- the best one is "Video Girl Ai", a shounen feature, with a "probably gay" character who is not bishounen.  The author and producers are to be praised for their non-stereotypical treatment there.)

Additional Glossary:

Ed -- the ending song.
Dodging -- the practice of moving a caption away its usual spot at bottom center so that you can get a better view of the artwork.  Often this is needed during closeups when a caption would be on top of the speaker's mouth. Though we didn't originate this idea, we were the first to use it a lot in fansubs.
Henshin -- a transformation scene.
Kamishibai -- "sliding paper cinema."  A presentation of a story with pictures on sheets of paper or even in a little "portable theatre" like a slide show.
HBRDM -- "High Bit-Rate Digital Master" -- this is the term we're using on the website for the MPEG-2 DVD's which are used as the source for making master tapes. "High Bit-Rate" in this case means greater than 5000 kbps. An HBRDM is also always "full resolution" meaning that it is 720x480 or 640x480 (for NTSC video) or better. An HBRDM is very different from a "digisub", which is usually a Divx avi or Mpeg-1 file about 500kbps and usually 350x240 or less resolution. Masters cannot be made from digisubs, regardless of what some fansub "distributors" may say on their web sites.
Image Song -- a song meant to convey the personality of a character in the show -- it is sung by the actor who played the part, and it is meant to be sung "in character" -- that is, with the character's voice and inflection and personality.  Some seiyuu can do this.  Other seiyuu can't -- but try anyway!  Results can be pathetic and humiliating -- or surprisingly good.  Alternate definition: any song which appears on an album designated an "Image Album." Note that this use of the word "image" is really not the best choice -- the Japanese mean to convey the idea of "portrait" not "image".
Op - The opening song, or theme music.
Seiyuu -- voice actor.  An actor/actress who does the voices of anime characters or who overdubs voices in foreign films.

   Our new web page logo, the little girl with the paintbrush (at the top of the list ), was created by Barbara.  It was inspired by an unnamed character in the "Magic Handbook" monthly series by "Comic Studio" which appeared in Bonita Mystery manga magazine for girls.  The original drawing was very tiny and had a big dialog bubble (right), which we first used in 1995 to temporarily mark images that were missing.  The new drawing was made by a combination of tracing and freehand drawing, partly on computer and partly with pen and ink.  For a while she was animated -- but she just got redrawn a second time from scratch, and isn't "reanimated" yet.   Despite this drawing, it would be a mistake to assume that Barbara has any talent with graphic arts.

---- Barbara ----
Occupation: Electrical engineer (Instrumentation and magnetic recording.)
Blood Type: O-negative.
Zodiac: Capricorn
Status: unmarried, but "already taken."
Age: rumored to be over 150 years old, but acts more like 9.
Personality: introvert.  Easily spooked.  Opinionated and blunt at times.  Polite. Studious.
Hobbies (other than fansubbing): computers, piano, video
Favorite sports: dinghy sailing, downhill skiing
Looks like: Saint-Juste  ["Brother, Dear Brother"]
Acts like: Nanako  ["Brother, Dear Brother"]
----------------------------------------

---- Gloria ----
Occupation: visionary.
Blood type: A+ (of course!) but usually anemic.
Zodiac: Sagittarius
Status: has someone.
Age: doesn't admit to understanding the concept.
Personality: variable.  Whimsical, moody, philosophical, outrageous.
Hobbies: collecting everything.  Vampire fiction. Crochet and knitting.
Favorite sport: interior decorating.
Looks like: Key ["Key the Metal Idol"]
Acts like: Akemi ["Maison Ikkoku"]
----------------------------------------

---- Jennifer ----
Jennifer is Barbara's daughter.
Occupation: Corporate administration; college student.
Blood Type: O-negative
Zodiac: Pisces
Status: married
Age: 20
Personality: extrovert.  Enthusiastic, determined, positive.
Hobbies: acrylic painting, needlepoint, travel
Favorite sport: tennis
Looks like: Himeko ["Hime-chan's Ribbon"]
Acts like: Tomoko ["Brother, Dear Brother"]

    Barbara and son Austin (18) curled up on the couch, watching "Vampire Princess Miyu 1-4".

Left: Yoko Okamoto and friend Ken Koga, our star translation team for "Brother Dear Brother."

Right:  Benjamin Ettinger, talented translator of "Romeo" and "Memolu."
 

This page was designed in Netscape Composer 6.2 and checked in Explorer 5, Netscape 4, and Opera 5.  

Write us if you have any questions or comments!  The email address is here. However, it is written as a graphics file.     If you can't see the graphic, you can make the email address from these parts: send the email to "technogirls" _at_ "technogirls.org".   Don't forget the "@" sign. (Note that we have to do tricks like this to prevent automated programs from finding our email address in the web page and putting us on mailing lists for spam!)  Don't forget the "org" part -- don't make the mistake of using "com" there, because there is a "technogirls.com" domain which has NOTHING to do with us.      You too can fight spam.  If you have a list of bad email addresses, put them on your web page, so that the programs find them and send email to them.  Better yet, put up large lists of known spammers on your web page, and let them send spam to each other!
All original artwork, photographs, text, and translations at this site and in our fansubs are copyright (c) 1996-2015 Barbara Chambers.   Certain other scans and articles are owned by others and we have tried to attribute them properly, but cannot guarantee that we have properly listed all copyright holders. All other images and trade names are copyright their respective Japanese creators/holders to whom we would like to express our appreciation of their great talent and our gratitude for their kindness for never having sued us.