What do I do with a .smi file? Some kind of subtitle thing?

[LordJezo]

Anyone?

 

[konakona]

whoa, diggin it outta its grave.....
.smi is a text file that contains special tags and text (think html) for subtitles. I am not sure how it is done in other asian communities, but in korea each and every fansub is distributed in .smi

to be able to use it, you would need a subtitle filter like divxG400 or directVobSub. otherwise there are media players like WMP Classic, KMP and GOMPlayer that come with built-in subtitle support. name it identical to a video file in question with the extension of .smi and place it in the same folder.

time and again I keep telling people around me how much easier it is than embedded fansubs both for the developer and the audience. just to list a few :

1) easy to fix typos or mistranslations
2) clean screenshots sans unnecessary letters on it
3) possible to switch between different fansub groups with great ease
4) freedom of downloading raw video files without waiting and searching for a particular fansub
5) no need to worry about a series or an ova getting licensed, no legal issues involved in publishing .smi files alone

being curious why they woudlnt use smi's among fansub teams in the states, i asked a friend of mine who happens to work for baka-updates. his response was some people are too dumb to fiddle with seperate subs so they are forced to do it the way it is done now... not sure if he was serious about it tho...