To all those from drama fever , Stop complaining in the Comment section About there not being subtitles. This isn’t DramaFever the subtitles are not professional people being paid. They are literally people who volunteer for it. It is so annoying to have you entitled people say you’re going to report a drama for not meeting your requirement. At Viki you wait for the subs and don’t complain like a child. There was people complaining since episode 1 about there not being subtitles who were still complaining at episode 10. you should be embarrassed for your lack of patience. someone spoiled you too much in your life if I suggest that you learn from this experience they are not the first priority when it comes to what you want honestly you guys are brats.
I’m afraid none of these people visit Discussions, so it’s unlikely they will read your post.
We’ve been explaining things in the Comments section of every single drama, but they don’t even bother to scroll and read those posts. Sometimes just the person we reply to may understand, but after that, the comment gets buried under the next ones.
I just can´t stand when they give bad rates to the drama just because It´s not with full subs
all i know is when a company charges you a monthly fee, subtitles should be there no matter what. what kind of excuse is volunteering have to do with waiting for volunteers to doi subtitles?. in america we call it a rip off! not to mention, why can’t we speak to a human being on phone
to fix our problems?
I though we were done trying to explain this issue, but it seems that no one ever read what they pay for.
Never has Viki advertised that with ViKI Pass you would obtain subtitles. It’s like a bonus, that WE provide.
They clearly state :
• No Ads
• HD (where available)*
• Cancel Anytime
• Chromecast
• Movies
• Early Access to select On-Air Shows
• Early Access to All On-Air Shows
When buying a book you read the back cover, why don’t you read what you pay for when suscribing, They don’t charge you because that’s a requirement and everyone in the society has to pay (water, fuel…) They charge you because you suscribed without reading the back cover. And now you’re accusing them of ripping you off. Ricidulous.
These are all screenshots from the Help Center. I’ve gathered them all here for your convenience. If somebody promised you subs, guaranteed 100%, then of course they tricked you and you should sue them.
Oh please, how can you not object when you’re from another country that does not understand language?? Should we just watch their lips move?
Why don’t Viki executives call Netflix to get a page out of their subtitle issues>>> no problems with foreign KPOP Dramas r movies ever!
Do you really think the audience is large enough that any Western company that is only interested in profit (plus wants to sell their own = US shows) would offer the large variety VIKI does in so many languages for so many Asian dramas?
How many dramas on VIKI - besides the just released new episodes - don’t have English subs?
You may post a list since it seems to be a severe problem for you while most viewers here are only suffering from regional restrictions and not from only Asian language available videos.
I have a thing called Patience. Maybe you should try that.
i really love people which always tell others they can´t understand the language…
that´s to…
Uhm Viki sells our subs to Netflix and some other legal services. Or at least it was that way in the past. MBC also once reached out to Viki for English subs on one of their Kdrama years ago.
Long story short I doubt Netflix can help with the subbing going faster…
I don’t agree with you about that, in the sense that Netflix subtitles in comparison to what I see here at viki now, are of much better quality. If viki like you say here is helping out Netflix/MBC, how come the subs on Netflix are of better quality than here at Rviki?
In fact, I watch Rakuten/Viki on my TV and some subtitles are so bad, I have a hard time making sense out of them (I have to say it mainly happens on Chinese/Japanese/ other dramas) Korean dramas have a lot of spelling errors, and it looks like the dramas are never edited. Also, they are using in English the wrong past tense over and over again in the dramas. Don’t get me started with the Spanish subs which are mainly done 100% by using translators.
I know that RAKUTEN?VIKI are working on fixing that now, and I’m so glad that by doing this, the quality of the subtitles will also improve. I just hope they realize the suggestion tool needs a lot, a lot of work to improve. It’s ridiculous that they continue using this suggestion tool that lacks so much for the Spanish subtitles. It angers me more that very little to none editing is done, leaving this mess of Spanish subtitles in the dramas.
Worse yet, when the English subs are terrible (which happens lately here too often) the suggestion tool subtitles in Spanish are horrible. .A TOTAL DISGRACE.
Drama Fever in my opinion had the best subtitles, and they were done so fast, and I wish I knew who was making these great subs (please don’t tell me it was viki bc I highly doubt that very, very much).
About the quality between Netflix’s and VIKI’s subs.
I watched Chinese! dramas on Netflix which had terrible subs (it was not possible to watch it with German subs, because of that. The English was also not great but since English is never so important to me like German I just ignored it (*it hurts me always more to see bad grammar, wrong verbs and terms in my native language than in a foreign language even though I do recognize both).
Last week I watched a new Chinese drama on Netflix which had mostly good German subs (just ~2 completely wrong verbs, but overall it was okay to watch it with German subs).
On the other hand I am watching many Chinese dramas on VIKI before they are edited and it’s mostly okay in the way that knowing it is unedited it is not that bad at all (even though the edited quality is of course higher but when I want to watch something asap I don’t care that much about edited English. The meaning of a scene is usually correct even when the sentences aren’t that nice at all).
The edited German subs on VIKI can have a higher quality than Netflix subs - if you are lucky enough to find a (long) Chinese show that is fully edited and still available 
There are actually around ~3 Chinese dramas on both pages - here and on Netflix - I started to compare both versions for the first episode in both languages. For the German version Netflix is the clear winner, the English versions are much closer together than the 2 German versions. One sentence makes only true sense in the Netflix version but on the other hand only VIKI provides more detailed subs like:
-
translated lyrics
-
translated names of buildings (Netflix only translates some but not all)
-
detailed background info, e.g. about historic events, authors of poems etc.
-
keeping origin terms for local atmosphere (I usually don’t see metaphors & expressions in commercial subs like Netflix)
It’s similar to the anime & manga fan scene. Hardcore fans do often prefer the fan versions due to more details while light fans prefer the mainstream publishers for an easier entertainment that’s more common to their daily life (e.g. Japanese names vs Western names. Many names in anime and manga used to be changed for Western audience. So often the deeper meaning got lost since it was not that rare that figure’s names had a certain meaning that was related to the story, especially for fantasy themed stories.).
When I have some time I may continue comparing the episodes on Netflix & VIKI to see if there is any change in their quality. (For now besides that one sentence the scenes’ meanings were the same even when the words were different in some cases).
I like the points you mentioned here, and I hope you do continue comparing the episodes and give us feedback again. Sometimes you may see things that others might not see, but others might see things that you won’t see.
Here at viki we have many subbers who claim to know English, and that they can translate from their original language to English when in reality they will use a translator for their English subs. We all know that translators lack so much and grammar is what they lack the most. The reason why you see (in your/my language) so much grammar errors bc they don’t know the grammar in that specific language, so they can’t do anything about it but gives us a half a*s done subtitle.
Overall, we both agree on one thing, the English subtitles need good editing, in order for the sub to make sense in (our own/ other’s)language. In regards to grammar, every language has rules on how words must be organize to construct a sentence, and every language has about as much syntax as any other language if we know the ‘‘how to’’ we will always be great subbers.
On that note, in order for the subs to have good grammar and translation in German and/or Spanish etc… the subber has to be proficient in both language which THAT, here at viki, is very rare. Many can claim they are proficient in both language but when you see the many mistakes and excuses they keep making up for their mistakes in their subs, you already know, where they are really coming from.
I’m glad this site is taking steps to correct that. PAYING $$$$ volunteers is not the issue here for viewers to have good subtitles, it’s more the honesty in each individuals/subbers, when they say they can translate well in English, from their original language. Many really need to come clean about that here at RakutenViki (Netflix too) bc those are the subbers, giving us crappy subtitles.
It’s a fact that in the past Viki subs where sold to sites like Netflix. And the project where MBC reached out to Viki (when it was still Viikii I believe) was the playful kiss YouTube version.
the subs at netlifx are definily not better then ours here.
they dont care what happens to du/ sie. they always do like they want. in historical dramas was not even the polite form Ihrzen. Siezen is to modern and they translate Oppa and all to the names, what I personally don´t like, then that is what makes dramas
wow everyone with an opinion. so y’ all have dissed all of them. like I said some time ago. all of them have their faults. yeah. now Viki is head of the class, sometimes have to wait for the subs. and I do understand about the volunteer crews and anymore I don’t mind waiting
I knew there was a catch about Netflix. ok ,so they buy the subs from Viki? that’s the way I understood it anyway. but a lot don’t have the right wording as well, I see someones name after the drama who subbed it. I do know a lot of them are not subbed right.
I do watch those other ones like (I hope this is ok?) Asian Crush, and they have a fine amount of all the dramas, and as far as I can see they seem ok,
got Amazon prime, got a lot of the Asian ones there too, and their subbing looks fine.
yes I do understand its frustrating to do those subs, wish I could, but I’d use google translate or others if I did this. Hats off to those volunteers subbers when they do a fine job, attempt to do a fine job etc etc etc. and us folks just don’t understand they have a life to, 500 shows to sub, wow thats lot! their time is valuable too.
I do wish I could help but… I didn’t mention Drama fever, I admit I loved the dramas, the subs were there when they were supposed to be. and was pleased with it. tthey did have
fine sub system
and very upset when they closed down. thats ok too.
like I said I go elsewhere to find the dramas I want to watch. one place I would love to download them, but I think its not right somehow, so I will stick with Viki, Netflix, Amazon prime and Asian Crush. faults and all, I can intrepert some of the “mistakes” that are being made,
Justine is absolutely right Patience is the key here.
yeah I may have to pay for this service, but going to those other(the pirate ones) Viki is much better
rate?
1.Viki
2Netflix
3Amazon prime
4Asian crush
5 the pirate ones
thats all I am going to say on this, if drama fever was around it would be #1
oh and people so I was a df fan, I am not griping or complaining, y’all just get over it, these volunteers are doing the best they can, lets see you do what they do
and when someone was kind enough to explain that to me I did understand, even though I pay for the service, it may take a feww days for the subs. it doesnt bother me, cause I find another drama on Viki to watch,
one was Irmar that did this and I apreciate it a lot!! thanks!!
Sorry to interfere, but it’s not true that Netflix in general doesn’t care and just randomly adds anything. It may be like that for certain shows but not for all.
Some screenshots as examples. As you can see, Netflix always differs between du/Ihr for historical/fantasy and du/Sie for modern dramas.
I also made a scene to scene comparison between Netflix and VIKI to show why I prefer Netflix’s German subs (in general; exceptions are always there) over VIKI’s.
The issue is (mostly) not about wrong meanings but about easy-to-read-while-watching sentences and literary wording (I use this term for a certain kind of writing style. If there’s a lack of it, I find it too exhausting to watch a drama with subs).
Examples for Ihr/Sie/du:
This drama has subbed and dubbed version. Both versions do care about the era and addressing with Ihr/Euch/du. The dubbed version uses even more Ihr/Euch because it’s faster to speak than to read so the subs are more a core essence instead of wasting too much time with ‘wordly talking stuff’ (and sentences that would be even longer than with modern addressing):
Here you see the a not explained term (that’s usually explained in VIKI’s subs):
Here the shouts from merchants with a typo…
while VIKI translates the name of a house (and mostly ignores the merchants’ shouts):
Netflix translates names plates too:
And uses italics for unseen speakers:
I’ll add the scene by scene comparison in a new post.
Yes, you are right about that I saw many of my subtitles on other sites many times too.