Author Prototyping subtitled Drama CD support - feedback wanted!
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And of course the first ever drama would be of a genderbent onii-chan loli, exquisite choices!

Personally I'd prefer English dub over sub for this one so that I can just listen in without eyes like a podcast. That's what I expected too when I saw "CD drama" and was surprised that TLers can voice act. Welp this works too I guess but I think I'll pass since it's not like a podcast.
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Wow I'm all for this idea, Drama CDs are awesome
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I'd absolutely peruse a drama section/site like this.
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Love the idea... definitely going to use it if it is implemented.
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Really looking forward to this. Drama CDs are highly underrated. Hell, the Rokujouma Drama CDs are pretty much full adaptations of two entire volumes. (That's like 5 episodes of dialogue.) There are also a bunch of translated KonoSuba Drama CDs.
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Definitely something I would use frequently. There's already a ton of translated Steins;Gate drama CD's (hint hint) but youtube tends to be a bit of a mess in terms of keeping track of what's in a franchise and so forth
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Wow, this looks great!
I feel like you rarely ever see drama CDs translated so it would be amazing to see this realized and expanded.
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Feedback

  • The subtitle text should always be visible while scrolling around the page (think a floating footer)

  • There should be an easier way to navigate through the player especially on mobile (for example, tap + backwards drag to go back a few seconds depending on the drag distance, same with tap + forward drag)

  • The subtitle sometimes gets out of sync when jumping around the audio
Last edited 6 mo ago by sprite-1.
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This is cool as hell, and not something I'd ever seen before, but I'm not sure I'd actually use it. Personally, they just read so slow vs straight up text, and not being dubbed makes it impossible to listen to eyes closed. I still really appreciate that you're doing this though.
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mka (mkv) container with just subs and audio?

Maybe some images hosted normally, as sometimes they come with images.
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Wew, this is great XD!!! The subtitles are placed really nicely too... it's like watching anime without the actually anime but having subtitles XD!!!! thumbs up for me :)
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This is cool. Drama CDs have always been something that I wanted to enjoy but couldn't. (I can die happy if Aria drama CDs get translated).

Really it works exactly as it should right now. Perhaps you might want to include quality of life changes - the ability to change fonts and font sizes seem like a high priority for usability. Other things like a pop up box option, or someway to view subtitles while you're browsing the rest of mangadex (or even other websites).
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I've started working on a drama CD translation. The way I've been doing it has been to use Ren'Py to create a sort of VN visualization that people can watch while they listen to it.
I just put it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cNHaIdgGPs
But I wonder if a DramaDex could support that kind of video embedding?
Either way I'm certainly interested in the concept since I've already done some work in the area.
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+1 from me!
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Wow, I've never viewed a drama cd, yeah I gotta say, its pretty good. :)
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Maybe have an Opus encoded option? Since it's mandatory for WebRTC, browser support should be broad.
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It would probably increase interest in both the reader and translator side to have a convenient, centralized hosting platform for drama CDs. Just judging from download numbers for drama CD torrents vs. chapter views for that series, a very small percentage of people go out of their way to search and download what usually amount to a bit of bonus content and common streaming sources may not be well cataloged and easily searchable in this area. There may not be much interest in browsing for audio dramas themselves, but convenient links from the series page would be useful, as would feeds to alert people to new releases.

What will it look like from the uploader's side? Will it ask for a muxed audio/sub file or will it want separate .mp3/.FLAC/etc. and .ass/.srt files? Will it strip any styling out to show the player's default text or will it allow for some visual flair? Will there be a way to support accompanying images?

As far as the player goes, it would be good to define where the subs are going to show up visually since there are often significant periods of silence in these. Two-line parts should also expand up from the baseline, not down.
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I would definitely be interested, though I know a lot of drama CD "distributor" sites frequently get C&D's.
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The drama cd looks pretty interesting. I could combine the drama cd and read the same manga and feels like I'm watching a still anime...
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Amazing feature, please keep it up!