Little Women II - Jo's Boys Episode 14 released!

Mrs. Bhaer lost her patience with him half a dozen times a day, yet never gave him up, and always insisted that there was something good in the lad, after all; for he was kinder to animals than to people, he liked to rove about in the woods, and, best of all, little Ted was fond of him. What the secret was no one could discover, but Baby took to him at once gabbled and crowed whenever he saw him preferred his strong back to ride on to any of the others and called him "My Danny" out of his own little head. Teddy was the only creature to whom Dan showed an affection, and this was only manifested when he thought no one else would see it; but mothers' eyes are quick, and motherly hearts instinctively divine who love their babies. So Mrs. Jo soon saw and felt that there was a soft spot in rough Dan, and bided her time to touch and win him.

- Little Men, Chapter 6

In this episode, Dan shows a side of himself which Nat saw ages ago when he met him for the first time.  Does that prove Jo correct on how Dan really is?

You can obtain this episode from your standard anime torrent indexing sites.

FYI, we should have episode 15 out really soon as well; my timer currently has it and is working on it.

A little update

1.  Little Women II episode 14 is about to go through my pre-encode checks.  I've got the script for episode 15 and I'm about to do a translation check on the script later today so I can pass it on to my timer.

2.  I've already translated the first of the three WMT series that everyone will be choosing from, and that has been sent to my timer.  I am running behind a bit on the other two series (partially due to having to work longer shifts this week).

3.  I should have a script back from the Wasurenai folks for MMMPP Pure episode 8.  That will go into encoding as soon as I get it.

4.  I've put two offers for Happy Kappi on BakaBT.

So, a few encoding benchmarks: Phenom II X3 710 (2.6GHz) versus overclocked FX-8120 (4.0GHz)

I finally got my new computer in a state where I could do some encoding, so it was the perfect time for some quick (and non-authoritative) benchmarks comparing my old encoding computer to my new encoding computer.

(Incidentally, this MacBook is not a valid encoding computer.)

For those of you who don't know how I do encodes, my basic procedure is to do a master lossless raw with most of the preprocessing and filtering done, and from there use that to encode the hardsubbed final encode.   I am benchmarking the final encode step.  All my encodes are two-pass encodes to a target bitrate.

Basically, I loaded two-pass encodes for the following episodes into MeGUI, which I use for the frontend:

1. Pollyanna episode 10: This one had an uncompressed YV12 master raw.  The resolution is 640x480, at 29.97fps.
2. Pollyanna episode 51: This one had a YV12 master raw that was compressed with Lagarith.  The resolution is 640x480, at 29.97fps.
3. Les Miserables episode 52: This one had an uncompressed YV12 master raw.  The resolution is 1280x720, at 23.976fps.

They were all encoded with the 32-bit version of 10-bit x264, release 2074r2 from JEEB's site.

First, let me show you the results from my old encoding computer.

If you were wondering, I was not able to unlock the 4th core on the processor. The 4th core simply would not work at all.

Now for my new encoding computer. CPU-Z gives an erroneous reading on the processor. The processor is a AMD FX-8120, overclocked to 4.0GHz.

Basically, we can draw a few conclusions:

1. x264 is capable of utilizing all 8 of the FX-8120's cores on the second pass of the encodes.
2. The IPC of the FX processor is lower than the Phenom II processor. However, the number of cores and the overclock I applied to that easily erases the difference.
3. With this setup, I'm able to encode 720p at twice the speed of real-time.
4. Notice how the first pass for Les Miserables 52 is not all that much faster on the FX versus on the Phenom II. One of the things I noted was that during the Pollyanna first passes, each of the 8 cores was evenly loaded about 20%. With Les Miserables' first pass, only three of the 8 cores was loaded. I do not know right off the bat why this is the case.

So, this is the performance of my encoding computer. I hope it will last me a really long time and allow me to encode more releases in a shorter amount of time.

We will be back from hiatus next Sunday; I will begin the translation of the first of the three selections for our next WMT project then.

(Edit: Yes, I know about the performance of Intel's processors based on Sandy Bridge.  However, I choose this option because the nature of the encoding done here requires more cores over IPC.)

Hiatus

As previously mentioned, we are now on hiatus.  I just moved the water cooling system from the old computer to the new computer.  Right now, I'm burning in the computer and getting a couple more parts so I can migrate all the hard drives to the new computer.

We will try to be back up ASAP.

Edit: The cooling system has been moved over, and I've got enough of it up to do some benchmarking right now.

Batch torrents for Pollyanna

Batch torrents for Pollyanna are now available, including the Hi10P batch with the episodes that were not released before now.

There is someone offering the h.264 version on BakaBT, and I will probably follow up with an offer for the Hi10P version.

Pollyanna Episode 51 released!

"Why, Jimmy, I'm glad, GLAD, GLAD for—everything, now!"

- Pollyanna Grows Up, Chapter 32

The last episode shows how Mr. Pendleton uses a rather unorthodox stratagem to explain what happened at the end of episode 50.  By doing that, a potential problem was solved before it would have caused serious problems.

As Pollyanna would say, "I'm glad... glad for everything now!"

This concludes our work on Pollyanna.  I would like to conclude this with a few personal remarks.

Even though Pollyanna is one of the lesser known World Masterpiece Theater series, it was a pleasure for us to work on and it was no less of a series than all the other WMT series out there.  I don't know of very many series that gave me so much gladness while translating each episode.

I personally hope that everyone feels a bit gladder and to see the true meaning of what it takes to be a Pollyanna.  This series was about as emotional as A Little Princess Sara, but in a more positive way.  We hope you enjoyed watching it as we did subbing it.

On a more logistical note, I do have all the Hi10P encodes done; they will be released as part of the batch torrents that should be coming out within the next couple of days or so.  Be sure to vote when we have our next three choices for our next WMT series to sub ready!

Pollyanna Episode 50 released!

After opening the envelope in the previous episode, Jimmy goes out to think about the whole situation.  After Pollyanna finds him, they went home and decide to tell Mrs. Carew what was in the envelope.

The only problem is that the one person they did not want to know about the envelope happens to come into the parlor right when Jimmy was in Mrs. Carew's arms....

We've got one more episode left to go!

Pollyanna Episode 49 released!

In this episode, Mrs. Carew suspects Jimmy to be Jamie Kent.  However, she has no proof.  Pollyanna hears about this, and after telling Aunt Polly, they end up at Mr. Pendleton's mansion with the envelope that Jimmy was not supposed to open until he was thirty.

You can obtain this episode from your standard anime torrent indexing sites.

Some more news

1.  I just finished translating the last episode of Pollyanna just a few minutes ago, and it's been handed off to my timer.  I expect that to be done reasonably soon.  We'll probably release episodes 49, 50, and 51 together because you pretty much have to watch them together.

2.  Hi10P encodes for Pollyanna are running a bit behind, but I'm going to try to make up the slack today, for reasons which I will explain next.

3.  We will be on hiatus starting around Tuesday or Wednesday.  I'm going to be assembling a new encoding computer, and the bulk of the parts are arriving on Monday.  I will try my best to keep my old encoding computer up as long as possible, but I will need to move my watercooling system between the computers, which will prevent me from doing encodes until the new computer is set up.  I believe I can get the last episodes of Pollyanna and the remaining Hi10P encodes done before this happens.  This new computer will allow us to be better equipped to do encodes from HD or Blu-Ray sources.  It will also allow us to get more encodes out in a faster period of time.

New banners

We now have a new banner on the site, courtesy of MarshmallowCat from Wasurenai Fansubs.  If I can figure out how to rotate the banners, I'll put more of his banners here.

Pollyanna Episode 48 released!

This episode continues the adventures of Pollyanna, Jamie, Jimmy, and Sadie.  The notable (and amusing) part of this episode is in the third screenshot, where Jimmy was rather nonplussed why his horse would not move when Sadie was sitting on it sidesaddle.

Sadie would make a really good matchmaker.

You can obtain this episode from your standard anime torrent indexing sites.

This is a reminder that Licca Fansubs is recruiting translators, timers, and editors.  Please contact us if you wish to contribute your skills.

Pollyanna Episode 47 released!

Mrs. Carew and Jimmy get along really well, which makes for wonderful times with Jimmy, Jamie, Pollyanna, and Sadie, who shows up in the middle of this episodes.

You can obtain this episode from your standard anime torrent indexing sites.

This is a reminder that Licca Fansubs is recruiting translators, timers, and editors.  Please contact us if you wish to contribute your skills.

Pollyanna Episode 46 released!

In this episode, we get a glimpse of what Jamie's thinking in terms of his role in the grand scheme of things.  In addition, there's a big hint to what happens in the last episode, if you can find it.

You can obtain this episode from your standard anime torrent indexing sites.

This is a reminder that Licca Fansubs is recruiting translators, timers, and editors.  Please contact us if you wish to contribute your skills.

Some news

We apologize for the current delay in releasing the next few episodes of Pollyanna.

Due to health reasons and the fact that the weather has not been stable around where I live (I typically have my encoding computer turned off and unplugged during heavy rainstorms), I have not been able to initiate the pre-encode checks before encoding the final encodes.

We will release them as soon I can get them encoded when the weather stabilizes.

Batch torrents for Happy Kappi

Batch torrents of Happy Kappi have been released.  Please help in seeding if you have the files.

The Hi10P torrent has all the remaining episodes that we did not have Hi10P encodes before.

Happy Kappi Episode 25 and 1v2 released!

Kappi is back to stay!

We have also released a version 2 of episode 1 of Happy Kappi.  This addresses some translation errors that we made.

With this, this concludes most of our work on Happy Kappi (I still have to encode the Hi10P versions for episodes 2-19).  As usual, I would like to conclude with a few remarks.

As most people know, choosing to sub this series was mostly an impulse decision, and I am very aware that most people shunned it or ignored it for the most part.  I would like to personally say that this series is probably one of the crown jewels from the Spring 2011 season.  This series was able to hook me better than just about any other series in the entire Spring 2011 lineup.  Each episode was a joy to work on, and translating each episode gave me a sense of euphoria.

I personally hope that everyone at least give this series a chance (and not just watch an episode and base your opinions on that).

This also marks the first entire anime series that has been subbed and released in the VP8/WebM format.

We will be releasing batch torrents for Happy Kappi as soon as I get the Hi10P encodes done.  This should be within the next few days.  We may be releasing more version 2s as I go through each encode.

Happy Kappi Episode 25 is the last episode

We just got the transport stream for this episode a few minutes ago (which is why we aren't releasing the episode tonight, as it is very late), and it appears that it is the last episode.

We should have episode 25 out sometime late Wednesday.

EDIT: The Fall 2011 series we were planning to do has been licensed by Crunchyroll.  Therefore, with the end of Happy Kappi, we will use the slot Happy Kappi occupied to throw more translation resources into finishing either Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure or Pollyanna.

Little Women II - Jo's Boys Episode 13 released!

Mr. Bhaer did not approve of fighting, and did not think it a proof of either manliness or courage for two lads to pommel one another for the amusement of the rest. All sorts of hardy games and exercises were encouraged, and the boys were expected to take hard knocks and tumbles without whining; but black eyes and bloody noses given for the fun of it were forbidden as a foolish and a brutal play.

Dan laughed at this rule, and told such exciting tales of his own valor, and the many frays that he had been in, that some of the lads were fired with a desire to have a regular good "mill."

- Little Men, Chapter 6

In this episode, Dan continues his mistrust towards various residents of Plumfield.  However, when he claimed that Jo had ulterior motives for being kind, Emil takes exception and calls Dan out to a fight, contrary to the school rules. (Granted, Emil is probably one of the few people living there who could probably break that rule and get away with it.)

Pollyanna Episode 45 released!

 

 

In this episode, Mrs. Carew and Jamie arrive in Beldingsville.  When Pollyanna takes Jamie around to the rose gardens, they find that the roses are wilted and Tom hasn't been himself.