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6. Viewing Media

lrorpilla edited this page May 7, 2023 · 27 revisions

This page is under construction. Certain sections are yet to be finalized and supplementary images are not yet included.


This section is dedicated to complete tutorials for using the app for various types of media.

Video and Audio

This is a dedicated section on using the video player of the application, and various media sources that users may use for video and audio.

Users are able to extract video and audio specific to the current position of the player along with current subtitles when exporting cards with the video player. The app automatically tracks the last position of played videos.

Media Sources

Local Media

Users may simply use files in their local device storage. The app generally supports video and audio files that VLC can play.

The app will also track the last directory that the user has picked a video file in, and mark which video files have been watched, for convenient use with any multi-episode series or similar.

When using local media, users may easily switch to another video in local storage with a button beside the video player's settings.

YouTube

The app allows you to search YouTube for video content. Browsing for YouTube videos will reveal each individual video's subtitle information, and what type and language of subtitles are available.

Closed captions and auto-generated captions are available when watching YouTube videos. Users are strongly advised not to use automatic captions if they cannot reliably discern their correctness.

If following a specific channels, users may long press on a video in their history and select Channel. This will show all recent videos for a channel. Users may also access the Trending videos appropriate to their target language's country of origin. In addition, users may share links from YouTube directly to the application instead of using search in the application. This will launch the application and start the YouTube video.

When viewing YouTube videos, you may also read and look-up words in YouTube comments and replies by using one of the exclusive icons that appear in the bottom bar when watching a YouTube video in the app.

Jellyfin

You may use the app as an external player for Jellyfin. This will allow you to stream video from a PC with organized an TV show and movie library with appropriate metadata, complete with external subtitles support that can be used with the app and with automatic progress tracking.

In order to use the app with Jellyfin, you will need a PC with Jellyfin for Desktop installed. You will then need to set up a media library for local files on your PC with appropriate folders, and provide same name subtitles for each video file.

Once this is set up on your PC, you may use the Jellyfin for Android app to access your PC media via your phone. By using jidoujisho as an external player, you can watch your videos with subtitles, all hosted on your PC, and make dictionary look-ups and make flashcards from subtitle and video content streamed from Jellyfin. Note that embedded subtitles are not supported over Jellyfin.

Alternatively, users may use Plex instead, but an advantage of Jellyfin is that external subtitles from a PC are supported, which Plex does not provide to the app when launched as an external player.

Network Stream

Users may enter a specific URL to stream network media from. Note that embedded subtitles are not supported over network streams, and video history is not tracked.

Using The Player

When using the video player, tapping in the general area will toggle the visibility of the bottom bar. You may play and pause the application by using the lower-right icon in the bottom bar of the screen, or by tapping on the center of the screen. In order to look up words, simply tap on specific words or characters in subtitles.

The following gestures are also available:

  • Play/Pause: Tap at the very center of the screen.
  • Seek Forward or Backward: Double-tap at the left or right of the screen.
  • Repeat Last Subtitle: Swipe left or right.
  • Open Transcript: Swipe up or down.

Tapping on the position and duration of the video in the bottom bar will toggle Shadowing Mode. When this is on, the position and duration will be red, and the player will repeat the current subtitle, which is useful for practicing listening and speaking.

When using the certain media sources, the following icons are available:

  • Local Media: Select Video File
  • YouTube: View Comments and Change Video Resolution

The icon before the right-most generally has subtitle or audio related options:

  • Select Audio Track - If available, allows a user to change tracks.
  • Select Subtitle Track - If available, allows a user to change subtitles.
  • Align Subtitle with Transcript - Can be used when the duration of the video is at the beginning of a selected subtitle to set the subtitle delay.
  • Subtitle Timing and Appearance - Can be used to set subtitle delay, audio allowance, font size and more.
  • Blur Widget Preferences - Allows the user to toggle or set preferences for a resizable and movable rectangle which blurs the video.
  • Load External Subtitle - Allows the user to easily pick an SRT, ASS or SSA subtitle file from local storage.

The right-most icon on the bottom bar has the following options:

  • Definition Focus Mode: Toggling this on and off affects whether or not the player will automatically pause and resume when showing and hidin dictionary definitions.
  • Listening Comprehension Mode: When on, subtitles will only show when paused or seeking back.
  • Change Player Orientation: Toggle between portrait and landscape.
  • Stretch to Fill Screen: Whether or not to use the full width of the device for video.
  • Share Current Subtitle: Opens a share menu which allows the user to copy or send the current subtitle to another application.
  • Create Card from Context: Opens the Card Creator with the current subtitle as the sentence.

Scrolling up and down the video player will reveal the Transcript, which a user can use to seek back or forward to a certain subtitle.

By default, the Transcript will pause the video player when opened, and will automatically return to playback if the video was playing when opened.

Users may select a single subtitle to export by long pressing the highlighted subtitle. Alternatively, they can export a range of multiple subtitles by long pressing above or below the selected subtitle.

The upper-right corner of the Transcript has the following options:

  • Play/Pause: Only visible when Transcript Playback Mode is on. Can be used to control playback from within the Transcript.
  • Toggle Transcript Background: This shows or hides the video from view, which is useful if all you want to do is listen.
  • Transcript Playback Mode: Also known as Audiobook Mode. When toggled on, this icon is red and the Transcript can play/pause and will scroll subtitles in sync with the playing video.

Novels

ッツ Ebook Reader

Users may use ッツ Ebook Reader to read books. Selecting words in this media source will also capture the sentence it was found in upon card export. In order to use this media source, the user will need to use an EPUB or HTMLZ file.

Different target languages will have different default settings, preferences and separate libraries. The app self-hosts ッツ Ebook Reader on the following addresses for each language:

  • Japanese: localhost:52059
  • English: localhost:52060

If you want to set up cloud sync, see this section.

If the ports for a respective language are in use, the user will not be able to use the media source. The app will list the latest books read with the media source, track current progress, as well as allow the user to customize a book's displayed name and image by long pressing the book in media history and selecting EDIT.

The following options are specific to jidoujisho's ッツ Ebook Reader:

  • Highlight text on tap - Whether or not the app highlights selected words as red in the reader.
  • Volume button page turning - On by default, allows the user to use volume buttons for page turning. The volume buttons can also be used to hide the dictionary pop-up if shown.
  • Invert volume buttons - Toggles the direction of volume button page turning.
  • Extend page beyond navigation bar - Whether or not the app utilizes the space of the status bar at the top of the device.
  • Adapt dictionary popup to theme - If on, the dictionary pop-up will follow the theme of ッツ Ebook Reader. Otherwise, app theme will be used.
  • Continuous scrolling speed - Controls how much the page will turn if the reader is set to continuous view mode.

ッツ Ebook Reader has its own settings, which are separate from jidoujisho's reader settings. Users may navigate a book by swiping. Users may save their progress in the reader by using the bookmark icon when the top bar of the reader is revealed. Alternatively, you may turn on auto-bookmark in the settings in order to save progress automatically.

More information specific to how to use and configure ッツ Ebook Reader can be found in its own project repository.

Manga

Mokuro

Mokuro is a format for displaying and distributing manga volumes pre-processed for optical character recognition via Manga OCR. jidoujisho allows reading of Mokuro HTML files found in local device storage or provide an online catalog. To use an online catalog, users will have to provide the catalog with a name and URL.

Catalogs are bookmarks for sites that host Mokuro volumes online. Opening a catalog allows a user to navigate through a site and select a Mokuro HTML. When the browser has navigated to a Mokuro HTML, the app will allow dictionary look-ups and save the media in history.

Users may tap on words in the Mokuro viewer, and get the current image and text.

The Mokuro viewer has its own settings, which are separate from jidoujisho's reader settings. Users may navigate a book by tapping in the left and right edges of the screen, and progress is tracked automatically.

The following options are specific to jidoujisho when viewing Mokuro manga:

  • Highlight text on tap - Whether or not the app highlights selected words as red in the reader.
  • Volume button page turning - On by default, allows the user to use volume buttons for page turning. The volume buttons can also be used to hide the dictionary pop-up if shown.
  • Invert volume buttons - Toggles the direction of volume button page turning.
  • Use dark theme - Whether the Mokuro viewer will have a dark theme or not.
  • Extend page beyond navigation bar - Whether or not the app utilizes the space of the status bar at the top of the device.

More information specific to how to use and configure Mokuro can be found in its own project repository.

Songs

Lyrics

Users may use their preferred music app alongside the app. Playing media with jidoujisho in the foreground will allow the app to capture title and artist information of current media. The app queries from Google and Uta-Net, and is generally guaranteed lyrics based on song popularity and may sometimes be incorrect compared to lyrics that the user's music app, or be unavailable.

The app will display lyrics if found, and you can tap on words and get dictionary definitions for the song you're currently listening to. If your app provides a title or an artist that makes song lyrics difficult to find, or if you want to perform a manual search, you can do so with a button on the media source bar.

Chatbot

ChatGPT

In order to use ChatGPT as a chat service within the app, the user will need an OpenAI account with usage quota. You need to generate an API key for ChatGPT, and paste and provide the key to the ChatGPT media source in jidoujisho.

You must have a usable allowance in order for the API calls to work. A pay-as-you-go plan may cost you less than $1 or $2 a month.

Token-less methods to being able to interact with an AI language model are being evaluated for consideration. The app previously did not require use of API keys, but unexpected downtimes and unreliability has made the app switch to using the official API.

Using ChatGPT within the app allows the user to get grammar information, example sentences, and general writing practice by chatting in the various languages supported by ChatGPT. Users are advised not to heavily rely on an AI language model if they cannot accurately distinguish its correctness and accuracy.

Visual Novels

WebSocket

Users may read visual novels and games and get text via a texthooker simply by providing a URL. Each received message will be displayed as selectable text which can be used to perform dictionary look-ups and export flashcards.

Miscellaneous

Clipboard

Users may use this media source to quickly paste any text they have in the clipboard. This will appear as selectable text which the user can tap on and quickly make dictionary look-ups for.