Page 1 of Subtitles on DVDs

Alright, this is one of my pet peeves at the moment. As a matter of fact, if you look at my only review of Ali(which I thought was fair in general) my main complaint was the lack of subtitles.

The main reason why its bothering me is that I am deaf and so have to wear hearing aids. Now usually they are quite good but I have noticed that with subtitles in films(and on TV sometimes) there will be things I have missed(like someone saying something off screen or some sound).

First complaint: Entertainment in Video. This company has got to be the most anti-deaf publisher ever. Several of their films have no subtitles whatsoever. Most of their films(apart from LOTR) have no subtitles for special features. This makes it so difficult to watch them. Unfortunately I don`t know how to contact them otherwise I would complain(a google search finds nothing useful). I have not yet found another publisher that doesn`t include subtitles of some sort on the film and the extras.

Second complaint: Not so much related to my deafness but more the fact that I now have dutch relatives(thanks to my mother deciding to get remarried last summer). She wants me to get films which have dutch subtitles so they have something to watch when said relatives visit.
I have noticed two of my boxsets(X-men 1.5+2 and the indiana jones trilogy) have dutch subtitles on one or more of the DVDs and then none on the other.

X-men 1.5 has dutch, english and a bunch of others whilst X-men 2 has english for the hearing impaired. Why not make them all the same?

The same goes for Indiana Jones. Bizzarely, the first and third films have multiple subtitles including Dutch(and audio tracks in German, Czech and something else), whilst the middle one has english for the hearing impaired.

I was looking at the Subtitles for the Futurama boxsets(not that they would watch them anyway) and S1+S3 have dutch on them, wheras S2 and S4 have scandanavian languages listed. Crazy.

I agree with you on subtitles on DVD especially when it comes to special features. I for one finds that some American version of DVDs have subtitles on their special features while the UK version only get the film. One film that springs to mind is the Finding Nemo DVD. It got subtitles on nearly all its special features while we only get it for the film. That means that I missed out on what is going on. It is so annoying and unfair not forget discriminating.

Here is a good website for dvd subtitles and here it www.dvd-subtitles.com. I must warn you it is not very comprehensive but it does let you know if the film have subtitles.

This item was edited on Monday, 15th March 2004, 11:57

It is a shame that companies seem to overlook the importance of subtitles; from watching foreign films myself I`m aware that certain things are left out of sentences, or things they say come across as meaning something different - just due to the way things have been edited to fit the text on screen.

Something I can recommend, if you have a good enough internet connecton, is to download DivX films, as they nearly always have subtitles (in different languages). Not only that but you can edit the subtitles yourself with a text editor if there are any major mistakes. I know it`s not the same as watching a DVD, but I suppose at least it is another option (especially if the DVD doesn`t have any subs).

That site is good!

Divx Movies, as well as being illegal(actually I could argue discrimination) are often too big to even fit on a CD. Also they won`t play in the DVD player.

I have access to broadband but not at home, so its a bit of a no go anyway.

This item was edited on Monday, 15th March 2004, 12:35

Quote:
The same goes for Indiana Jones. Bizzarely, the first and third films have multiple subtitles including Dutch(and audio tracks in German, Czech and something else), whilst the middle one has english for the hearing impaired.

That`s because of the special censorship issue over the second movie. The first and third discs are identical for all European territories, so they`re done with alternative languages and subtitles. The UK has to have a unique BBFC-cut version of "Temple Of Doom", hence the English-only audio and HOH subtitles.

I`m personally all for subtitles - you notice I always complain in my reviews if there aren`t subs. I think they should be the very minimum specification for DVDs. There are a lot of people who are hard of hearing - or simply want to follow what`s going on without turning the sound up and being blown out by the effects track.

The worst offenders for subtitle abuse are easily Warners, especially if they`re putting out anything from StudioCanal (who don`t believe in subtitles at all). I know for smaller companies like Network that subtitling is expensive, but with subtitling being so widespread these days you think they`d make the effort.

J Mark Oates

Er DivX movies are not actually illegal per se - it`s a recognised form of video compression. It`s just that most pirates available on P2P use DivX these days ;)

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Clayts, Moderator, DVD Reviewer
UK webmaster for Area 450 the independent Sampo/Maxent DVD site

Quote:
Divx Movies, as well as being illegal(actually I could argue discrimination) are often too big to even fit on a CD. Also they won`t play in the DVD player.Actually, DivX movies are nearly always compressed to the size of a standard CDR, it`s unusual to find them over that size. You can play them, with subs on a PC though, or a DivX compatible DVD player. Like I said, it was just a suggestion.

Someone mentioned studio canal and the subs.. well in france some of their releases, example, we we soldiers/gosford park, has french sub titles burned onto the movie. There is no OFF option.. Watch it in french with no subs, or watch it in english with frog subs.. Thats all you get!! Why did they ignore DVD standards when creating these dics`? I`ll stick with play.com in future...

This item was edited on Tuesday, 16th March 2004, 10:57