VHS Fansub Production

So how were anime fansubs made on VHS?

I've spent quite a bit of time researching this. It was apparently not something most anime fans in the 80s and early 90s knew about, judging from the responses of the older folks I've asked in places like the Laserdisc Database forums. The general idea I've gleaned is this:

• Fansubbers bought Japanese LDs of the show they were translating
• Translations were transcribed to subtitle files using a subtitle program and timed to the LD video
• Video output from the LD player was sent to the computer
• A piece of video equipment called a genlock was used to overlay the subtitles onto the video
• The resulting video was recorded from the computer onto a VHS or S-VHS master tape, which all other tapes were copied from

Fun fact: Some older anime fans still use this process (minus the recording to VHS) to watch Japanese LDs with subtitles! I have a relatively large collection of Japanese anime LDs myself, and I've always wanted to do this, but I've never been able to get the right equipment to do it (Especially the genlock - they were apparently used mostly by TV stations and other pro outfits, and were pretty expensive). Maybe someday...

Links and Resources

VHS Fansub Scripts

A neat collection of text files and subtitle scripts for VHS fansubs of various series, ordered by fansub group and by popular series. I found these while browsing the Nyaa torrent tracker recently, and figured I'd upload them here as well for anyone who's interested in them!

Laserdisc Database forums

A place to talk about Laserdiscs and other old, dead formats. The thread I made asking about VHS fansubs can be found here, and there's a lot of interesting information about the fansubbing process by those who were in the anime tape trading scene back in the day!