How Much Would You Pay for Fast Kdrama English Sub?

It's sometimes frustrating for us fans to view Kdrama because we have to wait for subtitles. Yet, we should only wait since fansubs are volunteering to do this for free.

I would be willing to pay (like .99 cents per episode like on iTunes) for the service if it were available? I want to know how many of you will also feel the same way.

I would like to hear all your comments. This may potentially change the way we view dramas!

Thanks! cheers

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 9:01 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

@asianbuzz

When i read your post, i can only think of those 3 explanations to your querry/question/curiosity :

- you are thinking of creating your own website on wich you would "sell"/"make available" korean (/asian ?) dramas with subtiles but you are not sure of the price of your "service(s)"

- you are a member (/chef-edidor ? ;-) of a fansub team and you would like to earn some money if possible

- you are thinking of creating your own fansub team and earn some money by the process.

If i'm totally mistaken about your intentions - and of course i am... - can you forgive me and give me your *real* reason for your post and explain why/how you came up with your "pay-for-your-subs-of-each-episode" theory ?

By the way, i think i'm almost pretty sure that it would be TOTALLY illegal for fansub teams to be paid in exchange for their subs...but i can be wrong, again...
And of course it would also be TOTALLY ilegal for ANYONE to sell (asian RAW) Dramas with/or fansubs' subtiles without the proper consent of author(s)/copyright owner(s)....but i can be wrong, again...

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 9:30 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 9:42 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Hi asianbuzz

My bad, it seems that i had completely mistaken your intentions.

I suppose that there are asian dramas fans who would pay some money to have their subtitles fix more rapidly.

But again, i am pretty confident that none of d-addicts fansub teams would take the risk to be paid for their subtitles, but i can't be sure of anything. (the only sure thing is death...and taxes)

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 9:58 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I think your intentions are good, but it is stupid.
I don't think this type of service can ever be profitable because of the napster effect.
The first person who paid for the subs could share it with everyone else through sendspace, torrents, and megaupload.
It would be impossible to keep track of who got it for free or who paid for the subs.

The subbers can't do anything about it because fansubbing is illegal.
It's like a crack-dealer reporting to the cops that someone stole his crack.

The studio heads who have control over drama media don't care about us because we're not in their demographic. We could one day, but for the time being we're too small in size for them to care about.

I posted this also on soompi to get my point across.

I don't mind the wait because it's free and WithS2 is pretty fast.

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:16 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I would be willing to pay $5-20USD for a certain series translated. but not pay .99 cents a episode to download.

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:32 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:40 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

If this weren't a completely unrealistic question (listed with my sister's "What would you do if you could get a real Pegasus?"), I would pay to get a series of drama all at once, without the delay, as they do on YAE's released.

HOWEVER, there are several reasons why this is a useless question.

1.) Fansubs are never going to charge money. That is against all the spirit and ethics of fansubbing. We do it because we like doing and because we want to share drama. We don't care about the money, and any good fansub group would refuse donations even if it were offered. Money complicates our obligations (none) and makes it (more of) a legal mess. While we can get sent letters from official companies asking us to cease subtitle and distribution of certain dramas, we can be MUCH easier sued and found guilty if we charged for the drama. The nature of the lawsuits change.

2.) In order for anybody to LEGALLY charge for dramas, they have to first get the license for the drama, which is very pricey. Ever wondered why anime DVDs are so expensive? The subtitles would be much more expensive than just $1 or 2/episode, because who ever buys the license would have to make up for the cost of buying the license. Then, there's the time commitment. If you get a group to work on it, with a schedule, then you'd have to pay people. And everything will actually have to be perfect because you ARE charging people. It would be like starting your own entertainment company. Only, you wouldn't be making money.

Hence, I do not see a legal option to get subbed drama for less than YAE price. Nor do I see anything like this happening anytime soon. I can tell you that as a (Taiwanese drama) fansubber that I COULD translate, time, and encode a 70-minute episode all in 24 hours, but I would burn out very quickly and it's not worth the stress and the headache and the dizziness. (Trust me, I did it. Several times.)

Fansubs are fansubs. If you are impatient, wait until all the episodes are subbed before watching it. As a fansubber, I love it when viewers enjoy our work. However, I do not fansub for any PARTICULAR person (read: leechers) and honestly, it's not that big of a deal to wait a few extra weeks for the next episode. Sometimes, I have to wait, too, because I have too much school work.

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:47 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:04 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Okay. what is your idea because I don't know.
If you're not talking about fansubs that what subs are you talking about.
Corporate media heads don't really care about us at the moment.

Please explain. How are you gonna improve the viewship experience?
How are you gonna export subs to your customers?
How are you gonna prevent leeching?
These are the questions I'm asking.

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:08 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

well if it isn't fansubbed how can you pay for subtitles other than official companies?

Well, personally, there are only a few reasons why I go for fansubs. One, DVD prices are high, I don't have much money to spare. Two, it is quicker than official english subtitles since they take forever to release DVDs. and finally i find fansubbed works to be "better". *rolls eyes @ official Rurouni Kenshin subs*

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:11 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:37 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:40 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I would love to work as a translator, but I think I would ask for at least $10-12/hour, and that amounts to about $40-50 an episode, assuming that they can buy the timing of the scripts with the license.

However, I think even that is much more expensive than the people they hire, because the translators they hire are obviously not native English speakers--if they can be considered English speakers at all. YAE's subs don't make sense half the time, and sometimes they do, but are still missing verbs or articles. It's very distracting to try to decipher what closely resembles English but isn't really. But yeah, my point being, hiring ANY native English speaker will probably push them over their budget...

And as fansubs, we do try to improve "viewership experience". We provide hardsubs as well as instructions on how to play them and which model of DVD players to buy if you want to watch them on TV. There are endless walkthrough pages if you really want to re-encode into DVD. However, we also want to make things simple for encoding and distributing. If we uploaded things encoded in mpeg2 (standard DVD format), the files would be 5-10 times bigger and you wouldn't be able to enjoy as much drama.

No, not feeling testy... just a bit on guard because I don't want yet MORE people to get into their minds that selling fansubs is an easy way to make money. It's UNETHICAL, ILLEGAL, and the fastest way you can get people to stop fansubbing.

Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:05 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

asianbuzz is essentially asking about the legality of paying for softsubs. In other words, you find whatever way *wink wink nudge nudge* to DL the raw video, but you pay for the ASS/SRT files.