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Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

CatBus

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Current status as of November 13th, 2023: Project files updated to version 15.0

Supported Languages:

English, English SDH, Mandarin (Simplified & Traditional), Cantonese, Hindi*, Urdu*, Spanish (American & Castilian), Arabic, Metropolitan French, Canadian French*, Indonesian, Malaysian, Russian, Bengali, Portuguese (Brazilian & European), German, Japanese, Iranian Persian, Afghan Persian (Dari)*, Tajik (Cyrillic)*, Swahili*, Turkish, Korean, Vietnamese, Italian, Thai, Polish, Ukrainian, Uzbek (Latin)*, Burmese, Romanian, Dutch, Azerbaijani (Latin)*, Serbian (Latin & Cyrillic), Croatian, Bosnian*, Greek, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Bulgarian, Hebrew, Albanian*, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Slovak, Catalan, Georgian*, Lithuanian, Slovenian, Macedonian, Latvian, Basque, Estonian, and Icelandic.

Subtitles for languages marked with an asterisk (*) are partially or completely based on machine translation

If you want to get the subtitles, check MySpleen or thestarwarstrilogy.com.

The goal of Project Threepio is to provide high-quality subtitle options for preservations of the Star Wars "Original Original Trilogy" -- Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi in their unaltered forms -- and to provide a framework with which anyone can add or change subtitles as needed for any other purpose. I hope that this will broaden the appeal of our preservation efforts beyond the English-speaking world.

Project Threepio's subtitles work best with audio and video that have the following characteristics:
  • All films synced to the full theatrical releases of the trilogy, or within a few frames of that
  • For all films, English opening crawl text, English audio, and burnt-in theatrical English subtitles for alien dialogue
  • Video format: 2160p(4K)@23.976fps, 1080p@23.976fps, or 720p@23.976fps
  • Aspect ratio: approximately 2.37:1 (35mm) or 2.2:1 (70mm), letterboxed in a 1.78:1 frame
Examples: Harmy’s Despecialized Editions, 4K77–4K83 35mm Preservations, D+77–OTD83 Theatrical Reconstructions, SW Silver Screen Edition v1.6, ESB 16mm Duplication Print, Harmy’s ROTJ Grindhouse 35mm LPP

Utilities and detailed instructions are included for modifying the subtitles to work better with audio and video sources that have different characteristics, such as non-theatrically-synced film scans, international versions, cropped video, DVD video, etc.

More details at the Project Threepio discussion thread at originaltrilogy.com
 
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CatBus

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In case you're wondering, "Isn't there already a thread like this over at OT.com?"

Yes, yes there is.  However, this project is my baby and OT.com may be going through a rough period, and I want to ensure project continuity.  I will be responding in both threads, and updating both as the project develops.
 

lapis molari

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I'm always in favor of more subtitle support to make films more accessible to a wider audience. Nice work! :) 

What software do you use to edit your SUP files? I like the placement control of SUPs, e.g. in split-screen situations. I use Subtitle Edit to make SRTs.
 

CatBus

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Oh, I am awfully particular about my SUPs.  I started out with easySUP to generate, then using BDSup2Sub to shift positions, but once I started adding a million international scripts, the wheels kind of came off that (plus it was all manual, so the workload kept going up).

Now, I have a purpose-made Python script, which uses ImageMagick, Pango, and BDSup2Sub to generate the SUPs.  The good thing is it does exactly what I want, and I can kick off the process, walk away for a while, and come back to all of the subtitles being generated.  The bad thing is it's not terribly applicable to any other subtitling purpose.
 

CatBus

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Does Project Threepio go to eleven?  Why, yes, yes it does...

Project files have been updated to version 11.0 (codename: “Leggo My Eggo!”), and the first post has been updated.  Please PM me for temporary download links until the files are available at some more permanent locations.

Quite a few new languages have been added in this iteration, in addition to translation improvements for several existing languages.

Rough summary of changes from 10.1 to 11.0:
  • Added new languages: Bengali, Serbian (Latin & Cyrillic), Lithuanian, Macedonian, Latvian (all previous thanks to schorman13), and Burmese.
  • Improved translations for Arabic (thanks to RashadShehadeh)
  • Improved translations for Finnish (thanks to LexX)
  • Improved translations for Traditional Mandarin (thanks to kylefan)
  • Improved translations for Swedish (SW and ESB only, thanks to Rondan)
  • Improved translations for several other languages: Indonesian, Malay, Persian/Farsi, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, and Estonian (again, thanks to schorman13)
  • Changed language code for Malay from MSA to ZSM (to better distinguish it from the Malay/MSA macrolanguage that includes both Indonesian/IND and Standard Malay/ZSM)
  • resync_subs script now supports Return of the Pug (Puggo's 16mm ROTJ preservation)
  • Alien 35mm subtitles (in English) are now available in 2160p (4K) resolution, and are also available downscaled to 1080p and 720p -- these are the 35mm theatrical Greedo/Jabba subs for subtitle-free preservations (thanks to the 4K77 and 4K83 projects, Faithwyn and ChainsawAsh)
  • The README now allows you to more intelligently filter down Project Threepio's somewhat unwieldy list of available subtitles to just those that would be most applicable to a particular region of the world (using Blu-ray and DVD regions as an example).  Since disc-based formats and some media players are limited to 32 subtitle tracks, this is often necessary.
  • Added a new dual_subs script, which can be used to merge two subtitle files into a single new file, so that you can watch the trilogy with subtitles in two different languages simultaneously, using normal playback hardware/software.  If you use this script with graphical subtitles, the first subtitle is displayed within the frame of the film exactly as before, and the second subtitle is added in the letterboxing below the film's frame (see example image in first post).  However, this does break CIH compatibility, and may extend outside title-safe and even action-safe areas, depending on which settings you choose.  This was a user-requested feature from a long time ago, but the difficulty of handling graphical subtitles that didn't have 100% matching timing kept me from being able to provide it until now.
  • All precompiled Windows executables are now built using Python 3.7 and PyInstaller (instead of Python 3.4 and py2exe).
  • To help anyone looking into the project's scripting code, I've modified all code to better comply with various scripting style guidelines (e.g. PEP8 for Python).  This doesn't necessarily mean the code is actually well-written or even usefully commented, but it's a start.  I've also added clearer instructions in the README about exactly where edits should be made to the scripts in order to add new functionality, such as when you need to add support for a new language or preservation.

The new Serbian (Cyrillic) and Macedonian subtitles provide even more reason to use graphical subtitles whenever possible -- to italicize text correctly in these languages, you need to use both a font and software that are capable of displaying the text correctly using the OpenType "localized forms" feature, _and_ that software must also be aware of the language of the text it's presenting.  In much the same way RTL subtitles tend to avoid end punctuation, subtitles in these languages usually avoid italics.  Project Threepio does not avoid italics in these languages, but as with RTL subtitles, provides "-compat" files without the formatting that may look bad in some players.  But if you use the graphical subtitles, you don't need to worry about any of this, and they are certain to display exactly as they are supposed to appear.

I'm very excited about the new Bengali and Burmese support.  South Asia represents one of Project Threepio's largest remaining areas for future growth, and I hope to be able to build on what we have.  Since there are Hindi and Tamil dubs, I think it's reasonable to assume Hindi, Tamil, and Urdu subtitles should all be within reach.
 

CatBus

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Project files have been updated to version 12.0 (codename: “Time of Your Life”), and the first post has been updated.  Please PM me for temporary download links until the files are available at some more permanent locations.

Rough summary of changes from 11.0 to 12.0:
  • New languages: Catalan, Basque (both thanks to laozi), and Slovak
  • New Japanese translation (thanks to schorman13)
  • New Korean translation for Star Wars (thanks to Kaz47)
  • Included titles-only subtitles to go with the Galician dub (again, thanks to laozi)
  • Improvements to the Castilian Spanish subtitles (yet again, thanks to laozi!)
  • Improved Finnish translations (thanks to LexX)
  • Improved Swedish translations (thanks to Rondan)
  • Finally adding this much-requested feature, every official pre-1997 version of the trilogy is now fully supported in all supported languages.  This includes four subtitle variations for Star Wars, and two for Empire.  Multiply that by a lot of languages, and that's just a ton of subtitles.  I was able to do this without driving myself crazy by making the whole process automated, using "fragment files", which are a sort of multi-target subtitle diff file I created for this purpose. The fragment files include translations for all of the subtitle-worthy differences for all of the pre-1997 versions of the films. Using a script, you can quickly assemble subtitles (in SUP or SRT format) for any pre-1997 version of the films using the original stereo/surround subtitles as a baseline, then adding the appropriate portions of the fragment file, and making various timing adjustments. Any new languages added to the project will need to include fragment files in addition to the regular stereo/surround SRT files. Script-generated SRT files are included in all supported languages for every pre-1997 mix, but to conserve space, only the original stereo/surround versions are provided in SUP format. You can, however, easily assemble SUP files for any version you prefer. To avoid the confusion of so many different versions, each subtitle variation has its own subfolder (thanks to laozi, RashadShehadeh, Feallan, ccfilms, LexX, ZIPC, Leoj, Rondan, Harmy, daboka, Mavimao, Kaz47, and schorman13).
  • Created a new subtitle rendering script, no longer relying on ImageMagick+Pango, and instead simply rendering subtitles in a Chromium-based web browser.  The advantage of the new script is that it no longer relies on running outdated versions of ImageMagick and Pango, and its cross-platform behavior is also much improved (there are no longer any scripts that can't be rendered on Windows, for example). ImageMagick is still heavily used, just without the Pango integration. Many minor bugs in the old script were fixed during the rewrite, and it's quite likely some new ones were also created!  One known issue is that Chromium-based browsers tend to create stray processes that over time bog down a machine, so if you do run this script, I recommend rebooting your computer afterward, just to be safe.
  • Bulgarian and Macedonian got better localized Cyrillic text than the current released versions of the Noto Sans fonts can provide out-of-the-box.
  • Most languages got some very minor changes, typically just timing improvements
  • Pre-rendered graphical NTSC DVD subtitles are no longer included with the project files. DVD subtitles are still supported and can be created using the provided instructions.
  • The cyrl-compat script was removed. It turns out it was not really necessary after all.
  • Pre-built Windows utilities are now 64-bit executables
  • Python scripts now require Python 3.4 or later
  • As part of some general language code housekeeping, the language codes for Mandarin and Cantonese have been changed for consistency with the rest of the project.  The "zho-" prefix has been dropped, and now these languages use the plain ISO-639-3 language code (cmn and yue, respectively).
  • Most files that are not actually usable subtitles have been moved into the resources folder, and the resources folder is now better-organized
  • Most folder names have been lowercased, to make things a little easier on people working with case-sensitive filesystems
  • Some dubs currently have missing sections (due to damaged tapes or other factors).  "Titles" subtitles for those languages now also subtitle those missing lines, whenever a text translation is available (currently only for Cantonese and Galician).  If the missing sections in those dubs are ever restored, Project Threepio will update the "titles" subtitles to remove the redundant translations.
  • Project Threepio's extensive readme.html file has been given a visual overhaul to be less overwhelming to newcomers. It now uses expanding sections to display only the information you choose to see, rather than jumping to sections in one huge wall of text.  It also now includes some command-builder scripts, so that you don't have to hand-edit the commands to customize them for your needs.  Displaying the file also now does not rely on any files from Project Threepio's resources folder (i.e. images). This should help when Project Threepio is distributed in an incomplete form, which is a fairly common scenario -- although you may still need some of those resource files to actually perform the tasks described in the documentation.
  • The bidi-compat script has been improved to no longer require any text-specific workarounds for any existing Project Threepio subtitles.  This increases the chances that it will produce good results out of the box with any future BiDi text.
  • Potentially slow bulk image manipulation scripts now include progress indicators and spinner animations
  • The project now includes a changelog (changes.html), including changes for every past release (thanks to pmc3)
 

CatBus

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Project files have been updated to version 12.1 (codename: “Gigawatt”), and the first post has been updated. Please PM me for temporary download links until the files are available at some more permanent locations.

Rough summary of changes from 12.0 to 12.1:
  • Improvements to Turkish subtitles (thanks to ArdaYlcn)
  • Turkish titles-only subtitles updated to accompany new Turkish dub
  • Improvements to Korean subtitles (thanks to Kaz47)
  • Czech titles-only subtitles included to accompany new Czech dub
  • Persian/Farsi titles-only subtitles included to accompany incomplete Persian/Farsi dub
  • Project Threepio is now theatrically synced rather than GOUT synced, because all major Star Wars preservations now plan to move to theatrical sync -- while having theatrical sync doesn't break subtitle compatibility with the existing versions. In practical terms, this makes no difference at all, since a difference of a few frames means nothing for subtitles.
  • Added support for the 70mm cut of Empire. I don't currently know of any restored 70mm prints or full-film 70mm reconstructions for Empire, but if/when one exists, the whole world should be able to watch it (thanks to morgands1)
  • Updated Noto fonts to more current versions. Most significant changes: Arabic available in semibold weight, Hong Kong CJK variant available. Lots of minor fixes included as well.
  • Graphical Italian alien subtitles for Star Wars (in the style of the original theatrical 35mm Italian prints) are now based on 35mm scans, rather than approximated with a custom font (thanks to williarob)
  • Project Threepio now includes more Windows binaries for portability, allowing most operations to work on the Windows platform without installing any software at all
  • Fixed several multithreading-related bugs in the scripts
  • Fixed some posterization that would result from subtitle colors being reduced for the indexed PNG format required for subtitles. This was most noticeable in the 35mm alien subtitles, which included lots of subtle color variations. Everything is now properly dithered, and the unmodified PNG32 files are now included for use by preservation projects.
  • Some scripts now support a -yuv flag to compensate for expected color shifts from an RGB-YCbCr-RGB round trip (i.e. they make the colors a little wrong, so that after they're encoded as a BD-SUP and displayed during playback, they're approximately right again). All included BD-SUP files have been created this way. These color shifts are extremely small and typically unnoticeable for a single round trip, but since Project Threepio's instructions for some tasks can include multiple RGB-YCbCr-RGB round trips, they can add up to something noticeable unless compensated for.
  • Python scripts now require Python 3.6 or later
 

CatBus

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Project files have been updated to version 12.2 (codename: “Doce monos”), and the first post has been updated. Please PM me for temporary download links until the files are available at some more permanent locations.

Rough summary of changes from 12.1 to 12.2:
  • Added Canadian French titles-only subtitles (thanks to schorman13)
  • Lots of fixes for Star Wars mono mix subtitles, and SDH improvments (thanks to CAL0901)
  • Resync script supports the 4K77-based _Star Wars_ Technicolor Grindhouse Edition (thanks to CAL0901 and alexp120)
  • Added resync option for 24.000fps preservations (I do not know of any preservations using this framerate)
  • Fixed more multithreading-related bugs in the render script
  • Precompiled Windows executables are now built using PyInstaller 4.5, which should reduce antivirus false positive detections
 

CatBus

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Project files have been updated to version 12.3 (codename: “Mind the Gap”), and the first post has been updated. Please PM me for temporary download links until the files are available at some more permanent locations.

Rough summary of changes from 12.2 to 12.3:
  • Added/changed titles-only subtitles to accompany new Mandarin, Indonesian, Malaysian, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, and Ukrainian dubs
  • Improved American Spanish subtitles (thanks to CAL0901)
  • Fixed a problem where generating EPIV or 1985 subtitles would add an "Episode IV/A NEW HOPE" subtitle to titles-only subtitles even when the crawl was dubbed
  • Thai font switched to Noto Looped Thai
  • Improved support for hypothetical 24.000fps preservations
  • Included Java binaries updated to OpenJDK 17
  • Most scripts now process images faster if Python's Pillow module (or compatible) is installed (the render-subs script is the notable exception)
  • Windows utilities are built including the Pillow-SIMD module for improved performance, and also use a custom-compiled PyInstaller bootloader to further reduce antivirus false positives
 

CatBus

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Project files have been updated to version 13.0 (codename: “Endurance”), and the first post has been updated.

Project Threepio has now been providing subtitles for the Star Wars Original Unaltered Trilogy for more than ten years!

Rough summary of changes from 12.3 to 13.0:

- Added new language: Afghan Persian (Dari)
- Changed language code for Iranian Persian from fas to pes, to better distinguish between various forms of Persian
- Added Canadian French subtitles for ROTJ (thanks to schorman13). Under normal circumstances, I don't add subtitles that aren't trilogy-complete to Project Threepio, but it appears at the moment that there are official Canadian French subtitles available only for ROTJ, and I prefer for there not to be any reason for anyone to feel obligated to ever watch a Special Edition, if I can help it.
- Improved Dutch subtitles (thanks to frater)
- Added Urdu and Polish titles-only subtitles to accompany dubs (the Urdu subtitles are to accompany the Hindi dubs)
- Modified Indonesian titles-only subtitles to accompany complete dubs
- PGS subtitles now have limited support for cropped video (i.e. video where the black bars have been removed). Some background: graphical subtitles are designed to work only with a 1.78:1 video frame, and their behavior with video cropped to a different aspect ratio is not defined. Playback software can deal with the aspect ratio mismatch in different ways, potentially resulting in a variety of non-optimal results. Project Threepio's scripts now allow you to alter subtitles so that they look normal during playback with cropped video, but that process works only for specific playback software. The best solution for cropped video is still to re-encode the video with black bars, expanding the aspect ratio to the expected 1.78:1.
- Hypothetical 24.000fps preservations are now fully supported in all included scripts and documentation, although all included subtitles are 23.976fps, as always
- The render script can now use Python's Pillow module for improved speed (but it is still extremely slow by any reasonable measure)
- Improved cross-platform compatibility for all scripts (this was so badly broken before that it could be considered a new feature)
- Fixed some bugs in the render script, and re-rendered all subtitles
- Improved the algorithm that estimates the position of "unshifted" subtitles in various scripts
- Reorganized some files (most noticeably, the sup folder has been renamed the pgs folder, and native subtitles have been renamed localized subtitles)
- Pre-rendered PGS subtitles are now included for all pre-1997 film variations except the 70mm cut of Empire (if needed, 70mm subtitles can be created using the provided instructions). Be warned, this means the total size of Project Threepio is much larger than earlier versions.
- Pre-rendered 720p subtitles are no longer included with the project files. 720p subtitles are still supported and can be created using the provided instructions.
 
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CatBus

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Project files have been updated to version 15.0 (codename: “Rohini”), and the first post has been updated. Please PM me for temporary download links until the files/ are available at some more permanent locations.

Rough summary of changes from 14.0 to 15.0:
  • Added new machine-translated languages: Hindi, Urdu, Swahili, Uzbek, Azerbaijani, Albanian, and Georgian, including titles-only subtitles to accompany dubs and voiceovers, wherever applicable
  • The synchronization script supports more targets: 35mm Guerre Stellari Italian Preview, ESB 35mm German Print Grindhouse, ESB Super-8 Scope, ESB Fuji 2 Preview, and the ESB and ROTJ 70mm grindhouse releases (thanks to hot noodles). Popular print scans that don't require any special synchronization are now mentioned by name in the compatibility guide.
  • The synchronization script now supports changing PGS subtitles from one aspect ratio to another (repositioning within the frame). When synchronizing to pre-defined targets, this conversion is automatic.
  • For preservations available both with and without a brief intro clip, the synchronization script now targets the version without the intro clip, and the sync offset for the version with the intro clip is included in readme.html
  • Added Tajik titles-only subtitles (machine-translated), to accompany Persian dubs
  • Improved Dutch subtitles for ESB (thanks to frater)
 

CatBus

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The project really didn't jump from version 13 to 15, but problems accessing the forum kept me from keeping this thread current for a while.
 
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