Viki - Bracketed English subtitles not being downloaded

[maineiac13]

I have noticed this problem for a while but did not investigate to find out what was happening until now. In watching Viki tv episodes from KOCOWA there are some issues with the subtitles. These problems do not occur when watching the episodes directly through my regular Windows browser (in my case Microsoft Edge) but only occur when watching after downloading via Streamfab. There are two problems:

1. There is always a roughly 3.1 second subtitle delay on each episode, a problem that occurs on all such tv series, not just within just one. This does not occur when actually watching the show directly from the Viki website. This problem is relatively a minor issue, since I can simply adjust the subtitle timing to reflect the delay...though it is a little irritating to have to do that on each episode of every such tv series.

2. The more significant problem, however, is that subtitles which are created with brackets are not being downloaded. Brackets are added to subtitles to reflect translation of words on the screen when there is not actually anyone speaking them. This typically occurs quite often when someone is looking at their cell phone as the name of the caller and the text of a message would be shown on the screen, but no words are actually being spoken. When watching the show at the Viki website, the subtitles appear properly. This problem occurs whether the subtitles are extracted to a SRT file or remuxed into the video. When looking at the subtitle file you can easily see where this is happening because the subtitle number and timing is there...but there are no words for the subtitle.

Here are some examples from episode 28 of Homemade Love Story. (remember that the timing is about 3 seconds off as noted above.)

227
00:16:53,399 --> 00:16:58,089
Why is it keep getting screwed! My goodness...

228
00:17:11,759 --> 00:17:14,259


229
00:17:19,639 --> 00:17:22,919
What did you tell Bit Chae Woon?

SUBTITLE 228 ABOVE SHOULD READ: [CHAIRWOMAN]
************************************************** **********
239
00:17:52,179 --> 00:17:56,179
- and make you leave!
- I'm not going to leave. I--

240
00:18:00,029 --> 00:18:02,289


241
00:18:05,929 --> 00:18:08,149
The person you're trying to reach is not available...

242
00:18:11,389 --> 00:18:16,139
What did she say to Chae Woon again?

243
00:18:17,599 --> 00:18:20,679


244
00:18:37,389 --> 00:18:39,509
It's nice!

SUBTITLE 240 SHOULD READ: [CHAIRWOMAN]
SUBTITLE 243 SHOULD READ: [My Dear Bit Chae Woon]
************************************************** ******************

I will include a log file and the entire SRT file for Homemade Love Story, episode 28. (Note that the system did not allow me to upload a file with an SRT extension, so I changed that to a TXT extension.)

[maineiac13]

Note that this problem occurs when watching/downloading tv series episodes from KOCOWA from within VIKI. I am not sure if this is an issue with other VIKI downloads as I have not downloaded any other types of shows from VIKI lately.

[Mona]

I will pass your report to the QA team first, if they need other info, I will let you know, thank you.

[maineiac13]

Just checked the with the new version (5.0.5.3) and the problem still remains. Any idea when/if this might be addressed? Thanks, Ken

[Mona]

There isn't a timetable available. I will bring it to the developer again.

[october262]

Just checked the with the new version (5.0.5.3) and the problem still remains. Any idea when/if this might be addressed? Thanks, Ken

according to google, Homemade Love Story is also available on the Roku channel and Amazon prime video
see if both of those services have the same subtitle issue as with KOCOWA

[maineiac13]

according to google, Homemade Love Story is also available on the Roku channel and Amazon prime video
see if both of those services have the same subtitle issue as with KOCOWA

Thanks for the suggestion, however, both those services require a subscription to KOCOWA to see that and other TV series. KOCOWA is part of the VIKI subscription (at not additional charge) so I would have to add another paid subscription to see those series on either ROKU or Amazon Prime even if that solved the problem. I looked into this idea for another series where it was available also on iQiyi (which I already subscribe to) but it turns out that the same issue occurred.

I was just watching another series on VIKI/KOCOWA where these kind of subtitles used parentheses instead of brackets and in those cases the subtitles downloaded properly. I suspect that the real problem is that there is something in the way Streamfab works that it automatically deletes subtitles with brackets.

[maineiac13]

The new version of 5.0.5.7 indicates that it fixes some problems with VIKI downloads. However, neither of the problems I reported in this thread have been fixed.

[madoka]

The delayed subtitles has made Viki useless to me for the past several months. I was hoping they'd finally fix it, but I guess not.

[maineiac13]

The delayed subtitles has made Viki useless to me for the past several months. I was hoping they'd finally fix it, but I guess not.

What app are you using to watch VIKI? Most apps have a way to easily adjust subtitles which are out of sync with the video. As I mentioned in the top post, the delay for KOCOWA titles in VIKI is almost always 3.1 seconds so I simply automatically adjust the subtitle timing every time I begin a new episode and then it plays fine. Of course, there is still the problem with no subtitles where the text is bracketed, and this continues to remain a problem with the latest StreamFab updates.

[maineiac13]

It has now been more than 3 months since I reported this problem. Although other issues affecting VIKI have been addressed, the ones described here have still not been dealt with. Again, the 3.1 second delay is a problem, but it is not crucial. What is crucial is the lack of subtitles appearing in many VIKI tv episodes (not just KOCOWA) when the text of the subtitles is either bracketed or also if it designed for italics as in "< i >". Is this issue being worked on or ignored?

[Mona]

What is crucial is the lack of subtitles appearing in many VIKI tv episodes (not just KOCOWA) when the text of the subtitles is either bracketed or also if it designed for italics as in "< i >".

I will have the developer double-check this part.