A lengthy ramble about viikii
Jan. 6th, 2010 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieViikii is clearly turning into another Crunchyroll (have not been back to the latter since their 'change'). Oh well, I existed fine without it. Psssst:
(A) Turning your site N.American only is stupid - most viewers/subbers are from elsewhere - you are going to lose subbers like water which will affect what you'll be able to have on your site. Not to mention you'll lose most viewers, obviously.
(B) The new policy of waiting months and weeks after the episode airs to "allow" it to be shown = viikii is dead. The main selling point of viikii was not vid quality (streaming and crappy) or sub quality (uneven at best). The main quality was speed - you could get subs within days, and sometimes hours, of airing. If someone has to wait that long, they'll just download the subbing groups' subs - not only will the video/sub quality be miles better, but more likely they will be faster, too! I mean - it does not usually take a subbing group a month for an ep. Heck, even if someone doesn't want to dl, they can stream on many 'pirated' sites - video quality would be no worse than on viikii, there would be no territorial restriction, and subs would be better/faster because they just steal them from subbing groups. And all the completed dramas? You can dl subs or stream on legit sites like dramafever with better quality (if you are in N.America) or pirated sites anywhere.
(C) This would leave viikii a viewing place of choice only for dramas you can't find subbed elsewhere - which usually means rather obscure ones many people don't care much for. Combine this with the territorial restriction and lag, and viikii audience goes way down.
So, buh-bye viikii! You were good while you lasted. Hope The Reputable Family escapes the licensing block for 7 more weeks - so far it has - that's the joy of liking an obscure (to fandom, apparently its ratings are fine) drama. But even if not, I know KBSW will be showing it with English subs in a month so I'll get my hands on it.
Honestly, I am not too put out as far as Korean dramas go. All the dramas I watch/plan to watch etc are either have been/will be subbed by official groups, were/are going to be on KBSW with subs, or have/are going to have boxsets. I prefer to watch on dvd/dl/stream on dramafever, in any event. It will, however, probably affect the amount of currently airing kdramas I follow as before viikii I never really followed any (Hong Gil Dong and Powerful Opponents were it, I believe) but waited until they were done. If there is no certainty of the fast and on-regular-schedule release of subs, I can't follow an airing drama - I forget and move on (to come back when it's done). I used to go to viikii when I couldn't wait for legit subs any more and thus never drifted off but if viikii is unavailable, I am sure I'll go back to my old patterns of forgetting.
Japanese dramas are not affected at all as I watch them elsewhere (does viikii even have any?) Taiwanese dramas are my biggest concern - they are often hard to find subbed elsewhere, but they don't seem to be affected by the kdrama licensing insanity.
Oh, and for those who are interested in following Chuno on viikii as opposed to elsewhere - because of this licensing thing, it's not being uploaded for days, at a minimum (and as it's uncertain, possibly not even then). Ehhh, this was one drama I was always prepared to watch raw and I would have been driven crazy with what streaming does to the visuals, so I'll live.
So as this post is not entirely grumpy, have Chuno's opening credits - are they gorgeous, or what? Like manhwa art.
Courtesy of o-cha at soompi.
(A) Turning your site N.American only is stupid - most viewers/subbers are from elsewhere - you are going to lose subbers like water which will affect what you'll be able to have on your site. Not to mention you'll lose most viewers, obviously.
(B) The new policy of waiting months and weeks after the episode airs to "allow" it to be shown = viikii is dead. The main selling point of viikii was not vid quality (streaming and crappy) or sub quality (uneven at best). The main quality was speed - you could get subs within days, and sometimes hours, of airing. If someone has to wait that long, they'll just download the subbing groups' subs - not only will the video/sub quality be miles better, but more likely they will be faster, too! I mean - it does not usually take a subbing group a month for an ep. Heck, even if someone doesn't want to dl, they can stream on many 'pirated' sites - video quality would be no worse than on viikii, there would be no territorial restriction, and subs would be better/faster because they just steal them from subbing groups. And all the completed dramas? You can dl subs or stream on legit sites like dramafever with better quality (if you are in N.America) or pirated sites anywhere.
(C) This would leave viikii a viewing place of choice only for dramas you can't find subbed elsewhere - which usually means rather obscure ones many people don't care much for. Combine this with the territorial restriction and lag, and viikii audience goes way down.
So, buh-bye viikii! You were good while you lasted. Hope The Reputable Family escapes the licensing block for 7 more weeks - so far it has - that's the joy of liking an obscure (to fandom, apparently its ratings are fine) drama. But even if not, I know KBSW will be showing it with English subs in a month so I'll get my hands on it.
Honestly, I am not too put out as far as Korean dramas go. All the dramas I watch/plan to watch etc are either have been/will be subbed by official groups, were/are going to be on KBSW with subs, or have/are going to have boxsets. I prefer to watch on dvd/dl/stream on dramafever, in any event. It will, however, probably affect the amount of currently airing kdramas I follow as before viikii I never really followed any (Hong Gil Dong and Powerful Opponents were it, I believe) but waited until they were done. If there is no certainty of the fast and on-regular-schedule release of subs, I can't follow an airing drama - I forget and move on (to come back when it's done). I used to go to viikii when I couldn't wait for legit subs any more and thus never drifted off but if viikii is unavailable, I am sure I'll go back to my old patterns of forgetting.
Japanese dramas are not affected at all as I watch them elsewhere (does viikii even have any?) Taiwanese dramas are my biggest concern - they are often hard to find subbed elsewhere, but they don't seem to be affected by the kdrama licensing insanity.
Oh, and for those who are interested in following Chuno on viikii as opposed to elsewhere - because of this licensing thing, it's not being uploaded for days, at a minimum (and as it's uncertain, possibly not even then). Ehhh, this was one drama I was always prepared to watch raw and I would have been driven crazy with what streaming does to the visuals, so I'll live.
So as this post is not entirely grumpy, have Chuno's opening credits - are they gorgeous, or what? Like manhwa art.
Courtesy of o-cha at soompi.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 11:20 pm (UTC)Oh, and I forgot to ask you. :D D'you watch K-variety shows by any chance? ;)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 11:28 pm (UTC)http://www.dramacrazy.net (or .com, I can never remember) and http://www.mysoju.com are your best bet for streaming :)
The only one I've seen is We've got married - it was adorable :)
*waves* - It's awesome to meet you!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 11:56 pm (UTC):D Thanks a bunch for the sites! Will definitely keep them in mind; MUST SPREAD K-DRAMA LOVE! :D
Oooh that was really really cute :D I recommend you watch some of the variety shows they have on KBSW! Some of them are just as good as the dramas xD
no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 08:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 08:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 08:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 10:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 11:40 pm (UTC)It's not fast, but then nothing is online in NZ.
I'm not sure the difference between pirated sites and otherwise, I think everything counts as pirated if I'm in NZ and nobody will license shows here.
At a guess 10% of the population is Asian or of Asian extraction. Maybe things will change once the pop. stats shift. It only took forever for Maori TV to happen and Maori are the indigenous peoples, so maybe there's hope.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 11:48 pm (UTC)I adored B&W - one of my all-time faves.
Yeah - the more audience there is for this, the more hopefull they'd bring it over. Hope hope hope.
other places to watch
Date: 2010-01-06 11:45 pm (UTC)Re: other places to watch
Date: 2010-01-06 11:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 11:47 pm (UTC)But it sucks that they are going the way of Crunchyroll - in my opinion, it will make the site obsolete. I'm European and have great download speed and no download restrictions at all, but I know of people from Australia and New Zealand who do, and for them this is sucky news.
If they think that people will wait until February 2nd to watch Pasta, good luck! WITHS2 already has the first episode in QC - I am guessing it will be released tomorrow on VIA. As I said - they are making themselves obsolete to the majority of their viewers.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 11:52 pm (UTC)That's my point exactly. The only way people would wait for a month is if there is no other way to watch it. I mean, many people don't even wait for withs2 etc and they are way faster and have much better subs (and you don't watch nasty grainy images - I agree, I never stream if I can help it).
Apparently they are trying to get permissions with no hold time but I doubt it would happen (even with things like Chuno, where they are hoping a hold is less than a week (and that's presumably a week + time for subbers to segment/sub), nobody is going to bother - it won't be any faster than withs2 and quality is going to not be as good (heck, it will probably be on mysoju first!)
I used to watch Tamra and Princess Ja Myung Go, because nobody else was doing subs (ditto for Reputable Family now) but if I can, I avoid.
But it sucks that they are going the way of Crunchyroll - in my opinion, it will make the site obsolete.
I literally have not been back to crunchyroll in years. I wonder if it's still functional.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 01:14 am (UTC)chuno credits are so pretty. *clutches*
no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 03:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 01:58 am (UTC)Lee Da Hae is so gorgeous... *girl crush* Oh Ji Ho's not bad either...
Oh God, I'm a gerontophile.
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Date: 2010-01-07 03:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 11:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 03:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 05:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 05:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 09:17 pm (UTC)I don't like the quality of the vids on Viikii and I prefer to download Raw and watch with subs but there are quite a few dramas that haven't been subbed (and probably never will be) by subbing teams and that are only available on Viikii.
I'm thinking of Tamra, The Island, for exemple (the subbing team stopped after episode 5). The DVD with English subs comes out in a couple of months but it's still frustrating. I wonder if I shouldn't quickly type the subs I don't already have before the videos are blocked. I already did Eps 11, 12, 13 and 14. I live in France and the videos are still online but I'm guessing it'll be another story once they upload the 1hr HQ videos they talked about. But that still won't give me Episode 9 whose links are broken and not likely to be fixed before the change. :( I'm glad I stopped by your LJ today and saw this because I was going to take my time and type the subs little by little.
And, like mentioned above, the real advantage of Viikii was being able to watch dramas "live" with subs only hours after they aired in Korea. I remember how it was for Boys Before Flowers or You're Beautiful. You got to watch the drama barely 24 hours after its diffusion. It was a nice way to wait for the release of the softsubs. That was really priceless...and too good to be true apparently.
By the way, doesn't mysoju take most of its videos from viikii? The change might after that site too.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-12 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-12 04:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-12 04:50 pm (UTC)aja aja?
Date: 2010-01-13 11:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-15 06:58 am (UTC)I'm from Australia, the land of shitty internet and terrible bandwidth limits, so this Viikii Meets Crunchyroll issue pretty much wipes out 70% of my potential drama watching! It's super frustrating that Viikii decided to go this route - not because they were really trying to find a solution to streaming links constantly dying, but because their popularity went to their heads and became an awesome potential to make money while they sat on their fat behinds twiddling their thumbs.
As one of those odd people who tend to prefer rare/under-the-radar dramas over the hit ones, Viikii was pretty much the go-to place to find people willing to provide subs for them. If it wasn't for the Viikii subbers, I'd never have found the wonderful Family's Honor, for example, since no subbing group would have picked it up. Bah. Funny you mentioned The Reputable Family, actually. I was all ready to watch it last night because I love Han Go Eun, and whaddya know, it's been hit with the license block! Fingers crossed someone will provide KBSW rips on D-addicts XD
What dramas are becoming N.American only, by the way? I've had a look through their new rules and guidelines, but it's like a mess of utter confusion. You've got to wonder what went through their heads and possessed them to "go official" like Crunchyroll, when you can see how much fail that idea was for CR - they only have maybe 9 dramas left, and the only people still using the site are N.American anime fanboys/girls.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-15 07:08 pm (UTC)I think they all may be NAm if they are licenced (at least that is how crunchyroll and dramafever operate and it's really hard to get different licenses for diff territories). That pretty much sucks.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-16 11:01 am (UTC)Note that "qualified contributors" get special access. Essentially, they need the slave labour and since most of it actually comes from outside of N. America, they're willing to trade for it! Americans get to watch it for free, non-Americans get to work their butts off before they get to work it for free. How kind of Viikii to keep that option open for people who make the unfortunate mistake of choosing to be born or to reside outside of America.
Sorry about ranting on your post (and probably spamming your inbox with this!), but golly I needed to get that off my chest XD Now Viikii's pretty much useless for me except for Wish Upon A Star and Jejoongwon.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-18 02:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 09:59 am (UTC)Anyway, yep, i agree about viikii. Wish Upon A Star, which is just brilliant isnt hit by the new policy, yet... but essentially, i've given up on viikii and just use tudou now. sure, my chinese isnt the best but it still works for me.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 02:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-28 09:33 am (UTC)That means that we're poor( indebted) as a nation, and besides japanese manga( very few) you can't buy shit on any language let alone yours.And itf you can the prices are well made for only well off ppl( yay for social unequality
And by shit I mean Asian shit.
Scuse my cursing but it tends to be highly frustrating when everyone online seems to discard me like a filthy rag just because I don't have a credit card to make online payments, do not want to be anyone's premium or v.i.p memeber(crunchyroll) and like it isn't enough that I have to suffer this social unequality( cause really it's not my fawlt that Americans can buy clothes and an apartment for 5 $ which is nothing to them, and here where I live you need to give your entire salary( or close to it)and the same goes for buying anything).
And now I can't watch stuff because I don't live in North America*is trying very hard to understand why would that be important to anyone unless we're at war with North America*
**is checking are we at war with North AMerica**
***surprised cause we're not***
****are we going feudal in a way that North America&Korea&Japan are masters and the rest of su slaves?****
*****Why is google saying no to all these wuestiones*****
******gives up on trying make out the sense out of these idiotic behaviour******
Good thing I can read and write on Croatian, English, German and Spanish.
Cause otherwise I would think this world is a flat surface called North America.
chuno
Date: 2010-02-10 02:54 pm (UTC)Re: chuno
Date: 2010-02-10 04:00 pm (UTC)Oh well. viikii will either work or not. We'll find out.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-10 03:54 pm (UTC)thankfully a kind soul is releasing softsubs for the kdrama "Pasta" on viikii so i kinda hoped that subbers would do the same for "Chuno" but apparently is not going to happen
i think i have move to N. America or Canada to watch my dramas XD
Chuno opening credits are really gorgeous, like everything on the drama ^_^
no subject
Date: 2010-02-10 04:22 pm (UTC)withs2 is doing chuno softsubs. You can dl raws at am-addiction.com (you have to join but it's painless).
Just a heads up :)
no subject
Date: 2010-02-10 06:14 pm (UTC)thanks for the info, i'll join! :D