Watching Anime on a Zune: Depends on the Subtitle Fonts
Posted on July 14th, 2007 by CalAggie in Anime
I got a Zune earlier this week through a Microsoft promotion so I’ve been messing around with it and decided to see how anime would look on it. I chose to use one fullscreen show (Manabi Straight) and a widescreen show (Victorian Romance Emma) as my test material. Because the sync software for the device only accepts .wmv, .mp4, and .mov file formats, I chose to use a program called Windows Media Encoder (a free download from Microsoft) to convert the AVI’s into something more useful. Being able to read the subtitles was my main concern but I was also looked at how the whole thing looked. More pictures after the jump.
Since Manabi has a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, the lower 320×240 resolution filled the screen. The subtitles were readable during the body of the episode (probably due to the colored text bordering) but the opening lyrics were harder because I think the letters were thinner.
By comparison, Emma looked slightly worse because it had to be downsized to 320×180 to maintain its 1.77:1 ratio. It took a little bit of work to read as the edges of the letters were rough and there were also a couple rough edges on the animation. I checked another widescreen anime (Lucky Star) and the subtitles had the same readability as Manabi’s since both sub groups used basically the same bolded font. I’m not suggesting that fansubbers start considering portable devices when choosing their fancy subtitle display choices as I believe it consists of a small portion of the total viewing community. But it wouldn’t hurt, right?
Overall I am enjoying the Zune because it has a built-in FM radio with RBDS support among other features but I do have a couple complaints. The device cannot display Japanese text it finds in ID3 tags, resulting in the boxes seen above. It took about an hour to transcode AVI fansubs so I don’t think it’s worth the time unless you are going on a long trip and run the program overnight. [Update: Saki in the comments recommended an converter by Cucosoft that works significantly faster with similar results.] The screen is VERY bright on its lowest setting (even brighter than the DS Lite!), something that you definitely notice if you’re using it late at night. Then again, that might be a plus if you need a light. All that luminary power obviously takes a hit to your battery life if you’re planning to watch video on it often.
I admit that I am anticipating an 80GB “true” video iPod next year so I can have a larger screen and more capacity. But until then, I am sure I’ll be happy that I have something to listen to when I travel to Germany next month.
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Take a look at the Zen Vision M. You don’t need to convert the avi (just drag and drop). I’ve got Lucky Star on it, and it looks great
There is another software out there, I’ve timed my anime conversion time– 5 minutes top. It’s something like Cuscosoft I think is the name of it. I’m currently not on my computer so I can’t look it up…
- Also, I love my Zune but my two complaints are:
.it doesn’t display the time
.there aren’t enough cute skins and other things to dress it up in. That’s the most difficult part when I went from an iPod to a Zune. I miss the accessories.
trinz: I’ve long been considering buying a Creative Vision player because of all the formats it supports - I just haven’t gotten around it yet. Thanks for reminding me.
Saki: I tried out Cucosoft’s program - it took about 15 minutes on my 3-year-old computer and looked about the same. Thanks for the tip.
The lack of a clock does bother me but the dearth of accessories not so much (not that concerned about style). All I need is a case that protects the screen and I’m set.
gotcha! I can’t help but be obsessed with accessories, for everything I own. Even my DS. =)
Hi, I found your review on the Zune useful, I’m looking to find a portable video player to watch video on, mostly anime with fan subs and I’m really fussy because I don’t want to a distorted aspect ratio or damaging bit rate, I can easily change the font and size of the subtitles. Would you perhaps be able to tell me if the Apple iPod Touch or Classic series are any better than the Zune 80 for watching videos on? Also what are the differences in screen size and file acceptability? I am hoping that when I make my decision I’ll be able to use my H.264 Quicktime Movie (.mov) videos as I’ve managed to get low file size, almost lossless picture quality videos this way.
I would be grateful for any further information on this, from anyone.
Thanks,