Instructions for the Apple IIgs Subtitler

NOTE: After Shift-Booting to run this, make sure to reboot, not quit the
application. I remember there being data corruption with an earlier version,
and I make no promises as to what this will do. I did not code this, but
I was involved in the Project and with the idea of how to make it work in mind,
I was able to get it stable enough to use regularly. I just shift-boot to
load in the text file, lay down the first titling Job, do some editing,
and then can make the masters OR save the file to disk and send to others out
there and they can master their own tapes.

This current version is owned by myself, Kent Keltner. I wanted to release
it earlier, but I have so little free time on my hands (Doing Apple IIgs game
ports, Subtitling, working on Anime Expo, IRCing, helping where I can with the T
urboRez, the regular Job, have my own business, etc.) so as you might see,
that's why I've procrastinated in releasing this. not that I WANTED to wait
this long, it's just I haven't had FTP Access and things are nuts here at times.
 Add this to the fact that my good friend Jay Harvey (Gokuu on IRC) said
"Hey Kent, why don't you let me put you down on my fan Subbers list." and subseq
uently, get a LOT of requests for copies of stuff I can't even find, and
the stuff I HAVE subbed, I'm so busy, (I hate to say this), I've had friends'
tapes sitting at my place for about 6 months now (Thank god they're friends).
If you have the setup listed below, then you too can master these tapes by
just throwing in the Laserdisc, following the quick and easy steps (also listed
below) and you should be able to have a whole slew of new Master subs out there
for everyone to enjoy.

Actually, I like the Idea (on the Amiga) of everyone passing out their timing
files and we can all benefit from it. But this titler sucks. Written in Pascal
(I'd do it in C or Assembly, if I had the time, but I don't. :( ), I've also
included the source code for you to tinker with. you can try to make it more
stable, but there's another friend out there who's coded their own subtitling
software and I hope that he can release it too, as I'm dying to see it and
upgrade the setup. for $100 (VOC) and a Zip, you too can be subtitling almost
like the Pro's!

Anyway, enough with the rambling on, let's get down to business:

Here's my Hardware setup, recommended or required will be listed with an ***:

        -ROM 01 Apple IIgs
        -2 Parrallel Cards (Printer & Sluggo)
        -Zip 8/16 ***
        -Apple II Video Overlay Card ***
        -TurboRez
        -Apple DMA SCSI Card & Maxtor 130MB Drive
        -14.4 Intel Faxmodem

(You can run the subtitler from a ramdisk too... I don't know if the Hard drive
speed will differ the titles from the Ramdisk... I doubt it, though.)

All the included pre-timed files (which end in .SUB), are in Zip 8/16 format.
if you have a Zip 7/64, 8/16 or higher, these titles should hopefully work
just fine. If you have the Zip CDA, you can just try to get the speed as close a
s possible to the 8/16 setting. (one of the big problems, set to machine speed,
not real time, and I bet you can guess the fun we had with the Transwarp GS
(an hour long timing file subbed on a 6MHz TWGS had (if I remember correctly)
a 2-3 minute title difference near the end when remasted with a 8MHz TWGS. Fun.)
Here's the Patented Method for quick and easy Subtitling. If you follow this
exactly, you should be able to do titles quick and easily (the last thing I
subbed, Giant Robo 3, I used this method which I think works QUITE well, and in
fact I was able to not only subtitle Side 2 of the LD (20 minutes long) within
2 hours, I was able to almost completely copy the finish sub for one of my
friends. Another more popular Subtitling group subtitled something a lot easier
and it took them 3 hours to subtitle just 8 minutes of a certain TV Series
episode.

Now, here's the method used to subtitle any Anime you find via a Script you
find, such as on the net. First, take the Ascii Source Script and with a
program like ProTERM, use the editor and divide up the script by LD Sides.
Save each part with a name like "Robo3.Side1.txt"... and you must add three
Subtitles to the end of each text file. the first is a Blank one, the second
is something like "This is the Last Subtitle" and the third, which for some
odd reason, is eaten by the titler. So, since you always see the last line when
loading a new file into ProTERM, I make it easy and label the three lines
something like:

Giant Robo 3
LD Side 1 - 06/08/94
Subbed by Clearer Visions

You can look at the enclosed text files ready to be loaded into the subtitler,
and see how I have things set up. You also might want to print out a copy of
the script, just in case for editing.

Next, you edit each part of the script so it will fit on the screen. you can
experiment, loading in the files... doing sample runs to make sure it fits upon
the screen. The format is up to 3 lines, seperated by a return. if you have
a title which is one line, if you want to make it pretty and be at the bottom
of the screen, you must create two lines above it with a single space
(totalling 3). When you are done, save the files to the disk.

Now we get to the fun part, the titling itself. I have a separate Hard Drive
Partition solely for subtitling. Store the Applications, text files, whatever
in there, Shift Boot (Remember first to install the Avante Guarde 14pt font!)
and launch the Subtitler Application. You don't need the VOC init, just set
your background and border color to black, and you'll be fine.

First, you might want to set the title color (Most people prefer yellow, default
is white...), you do that by selecting #4: Special from the main Menu, the only
option on the screen, and when you get the list of options, select #5, title
Color. a Nice yellow is 3250... press return and then escape twice to the
main Menu.

Next, you'll want to load in your Ascii file for Conversion OR your pre-timed
subtitler file. Go to option #2: Disk and select either "Load Text file" or
"Load Subtitler File". Type in the name and watch it load. If the titler
freezes/locks up while loading the text file, you might have a control
character OR a double return in the text file. If this is the case, go back
to ProTERM and re-edit the file. when loaded, press escape then escape again
until you are at the Main Menu.

If you have just loaded/converted a text file, go to #3: Edit and the main
edit system. Select the option to edit the titles and Title #1 should appear
on the screen. Line 1 might be screwed up, so if it is, press the # (1, 2, or 3)
and edit the line accordingly (Just press clear and retype it from the script.)
You can press = and the title # to jump to any title in the list. You may exit
anytime you like by pressing escape until you return to the main menu.

If you are using a Pre-timed subtitler file, skip ahead 3 paragraphs, this
information is how to subtitle. Hook up your Source and Target machines (usually
a LaserDisc Player and a VCR or two VCRs), and begin. I usually use what I
call "Trash Tapes", tapes you would not consider High Quality (usually TDK HS
or Sony ES), usually on sale at Fry's Electronics for $1.29 or so.

You use this tape and begin recording from the Blue LD "PLAY" screen. From the
main menu, press #1: Subtitling Run and a bunch of options. For a new subtitle,
Press the "*" Key and the screen should go black (or whatever your source is).
The moment the first person speaks, you immediately press return. This starts
the counter (Upper right # on the screen) and you will see the # underneath
reset to "1". This holds your title number. Both easily laid out for editing
afterwards. to continue someone's speech (or someone else talking afterwards),
press return. If there is no one speaking after said person, clear the screen
by pressing space. Lay down and edit one side of titles at a time. When the
Side or Film ends, wait a few seconds for the counter, and then press escape.
Now onto editing the film.

When editing, all you need is your "Trash Tape" and your computer. Go back to
the main menu and select #3: Edit. When editing, you will use 3 main keys: +
to set the on time of the title, - to set the off time, and = to jump to another
title. Press "1", "2", or "3" to edit the according title. If a title has an
off time of 0, it means that the title goes off when the next one immediately
starts. The best editing method is to go in Order, title by title, and to place
the on and off times as close as you possibly can (You can repeat the titling
again as often as you like, after a few times, you will have very few
corrections to make, this way will be the fastest and easiest. To get as
accurate as possible on and off times for the titles, you will do a lot of
rewinding, fast forwarding (and if you want to have really cool title fade-in
matches), Freeze-Frame w/advances. You could wear the tape out quickly.

When you are finished, you may want to save your work. Go to the disk menu,
select the option to set the path name, and type in the absolute path name.
(I don't have Giant Robo 1's Timing files any more thanks to this little bug
where it locked up because I entered relative and not absolute path names.)
If you don't KNOW what this means, type in the Name, starting with the drive
Partition like:

/Subtitling/timed.files/Giant.Robo

and then select the "Save Subtitler File" and give it a name similar to it's
".txt" name, ending in the suffix ".SUB". When it is done, press escape and
go back to the main Menu.

You are now ready to make your master tape. Prepare your source (LaserDisc
or whatever), and your nice, high-grade tape. Press #1: Subtitling Run and
select the options for "Semi-Auto" and "Final". Press the "*" Key and the
screen should go black (or whatever your source is). Insert the Laserdisc,
start taping, and press return when the first person begins to speak. If you
have done everything correctly, you now have a Subtitled Master tape being
made as we speak.

That's it. You press escape after the LD side is finished, and you have
paused the tape, and if it's not the end, you just go to the menu, load in
the second Subtitler file, and go from there. Enjoy!
---
I certainly hope I covered all major aspects. It's been at least 3-4 months
since I've touched the Subtitler (Always planned on doing the Live Action
City Hunter Movie... one of these days...) and am typing this from work,
waiting till the last few hours (typed this in 2 hours) before the deadline
of the venice FTP site CD Rom pressing freeze.

If you have any problems with the enclosed files, please let me know. I'll try
to help you where I can. You can reach me at:

Clearer Visions
941 Di Giulio Ave.
Santa Clara, CA 95050-2803

IRC: prisoner
I-net: prisoner@tsoft.net or kkeltner@netcom.com

Special hello's to all my friends on #Anime! and #AppleIIgs on the
Internet Relay Chat, Lunatic, Anime Expo Staffers, Aaron Pom, Jennifer Au, Ruby
Wang, Toshi Morita, Sarah Clatterbuck, Albert Wong, Marijan Adam, Todd Whitesel,
Those cool guys in Arizona (you know who you are), Jupiter Systems, etc...

This software is all Freeware... titles subtitled with this program's rights are
held by their perspective owners... Titled for fun and to show a IIgs can
actually do it, quicker than an Amiga... now just to improve title quality
and have *Titler support/import (so we can use all those Amiga timing files)

Maybe we should create a directory to share timing files too... let me know.

06/08/94 - IIgs.Subtitler - Copyright (c) 1994 Kent Keltner