Hello,

Just been looking at the Hall of Shame for (no) subtitled DVDs. I note that Donnie Darko R2 and Secretary R2 does not have subtitles. R1's do have them and worth taking the trouble to get them. These movies are both excellent, and having the substitles makes all the difference! Secretary - the S-M scenario and the cover of a pair of shaply legs makes this appear/sound a somewhat dubious DVD, but actually its a very tender love story, and both the main characters were made for each other. "My coffee could be stronger" Watch Secretary R1 and you'll get the quote! Incidentially, the brother of Maggie Gyllenhaal, is Jake, who is the main character in Donnie Darko. Donnie Darko, is complex, I didn't get it first time round, you need to watch it again and again. One DVD that is not listed as having subtitles, actually does have subtitles, is Twin Peaks, you need to go through the main menu, then select an episode and there is the subtitled option that you can click on to activate.

A number of R1 DVDs are not listed as having english subtitles, but there is a clue - where it says 'closed captioned', then it will have english subtitles. This was the case when I bought Finding Nemo waaaay back last November, months before R2 came out here. This is very typical of Disney - they do not understand that customers will no longer put up with months in between R1 and R2 releases. Finding Nemo, well, prior to the R2 release, some 700,000 R1s were shipped over here. Go figure......Another criticism of Disney, eg with the Lion King, you have to endure the previews - there is simply no option to skip forward, you have to wait for it to end. This would be barely acceptable if this was only for 2 minutes, but no, these compulsory previews are something like 15 minutes. Presumely so that you can park the kids in front of the TV while getting a cup of tea, and allow them to be worked over by Disney so that when you are sitting down to watch the main feature proper, the kids are already asking, "Daaaaad, when can we get ......."

A R1 DVD that I am about to order is 'Fog of War' - not yet available as R2, R1 doesn't list having english subtitles BUT does mention the magic words 'closed-captioned'......

MPDN

I can see you have several R1 DVDs. It would be really great if you could add comments to the R2 versions on the website to say, for example...

"R1 version is fully subtitled - barcode no .... available from amazon.com " or something like that

Currently the database doesn't handle R1 DVDs, but this information is still extremely useful, especially where there are unsubtitled R2 releases which have subtitled versions in R1.

Note that Closed Captions are not particularly popular here as TVs and VCRs in the UK don't support them.

Cheers,
Mat

Hey Mat,

Cheers for the comments. I have to say that I got a little confused myself when i read 'closed captioned', like you, I automatically thought 'VCRs', but this is how Fog of War R1 was described - and this is a DVD we are talking about. Think there might be a cultural/linguistic difference between us Brits and our american cousins across the pond in describing what subtitles/closed captions(!?) are available. Am off soon for a quick surf for more info on Fog of War on

www.amazon.co.uk
www.amazon.com
www.play.com
www.playusa.com
www.cd-wow.co.uk
www.happyhunter.com
www.discemporium.com

I note that Kill Bill Vol 1 has been commented on elsewhere in this website - well, I got the R2 version, something like 106 minutes, the big fight towards the end is B&W. Well, amazon.co.jp has the Japanese R2 version, 113 minutes long, the big fight is in colour. You should read the japanese's contributers' comments on where japanese is spoken by darling Uma Thurman!! This is also available through www.cd-wow.co.uk at about £18.99. This is described as the 'japanese' version and the CD-wow blurb seems to be pretty thorough in describing what extras have english subtitles or not. Presumely it's considered that us Europeans are too squelmish for extended samurai sword fighting with hacking and chopping and buckets of blood ) But the reason why I mention the japanese version is that in posts elsewhere on the 'net have commented on the ability to switch subtitles off - sadly, there seems to be hearingos that have a silly aversion to subtitles in whatever format. More fool them I say. So, we need to be aware that although there are five regional DVD formats, there could be actually different distributions within each region. Kill Bill being a case in point.

Now I've had a trawl on amazon.com, pasted below:-

Technical Information
Release Information:
Studio: Columbia Tristar Hom
Theatrical Release Date: February 2004
DVD Release Date: May 11, 2004
Run Time: 107 minutes
Production Company: columbia
Package Type: Keep Case

Aspect Ratio(s):
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.78:1

Discographic Information:
DVD Encoding: Region 1
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Available subtitles: Spanish, French, Japanese, Portuguese

Edition Details:
• Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other countries.) Read more about DVD formats.
• Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby
• Theatrical trailer(s), TV spot(s)
• 24 never-before-released additional scenes
• Robert S. McNamara's 10 lessons from his life in politics
• Widescreen anamorphic format
• ASIN: B0001L3LUE

and this is www.playusa.com

Technical Details
Actors Robert McNamara
Director Errol Morris
Certificate Not Rated
Year 2003
Screen Widescreen 16:9 Anamorphic
Languages English - Dolby Digital (5.1)
Subtitles French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish
Closed Captions Yes
Duration 95 minutes (approx)

Incidentially it was through playusa.com that I got Finding Nemo. The 'closed captions' on the R1 DVD works just fine

This is definitely the case. Films are edited and cut differently for different markets and countries. You will find there are eg. French or spanish R2 releases which have English subtitles when the UK R2 release of the same DVD does not.

This is one of the reasons why I insist on people checking the barcodes before submitting comments.

I would love to be able to cover other versions and other regions in my database but unfortunately my data supplier only deals with UK releases

Mat

Please may I add to the hall of shame:

All British releases of Sherlock Holmes (Cinema Club)
starring Jeremy Brett.

All British releases of Poirot ( Granada Media)
starring David Suchet

All releases of The Avengers TV Series ( Kult TV)


None of these series can be enjoyed by the deaf or hard of
hearing because there are NO SUBTITLES! When shown on
television there are titles!

And may I also just add that the lack of information when
ordering DVDs regarding subtitling from stores such as
HMV is also infuriating.

Thats why you should be ordering from dvd-subtitles.com and not places like HMV

Yes, you can add these to the HoS by rating them as having no subtitles. It is best that you do it yourself, please PM me if you don't understand how to do it.

For what it's worth, the Region 1 version of The Princess Bride is subtitled as well.

I want to nominate Elephant, directed by Gus van Sant. This is based on the Columbine shootings - the one where these two guys in a high school in the good ol' USofA went amok shooting their classmates dead. Region 2 does not have subtitles. Region 1 does. Now gimme an Armalite and a Magnum, wanna shoot those responsible for failing to put on subtitles;) Seriously it has been very well reviewed indeed. Went to my local video shop, www.20thcenturyflicks.co.uk, checked it before renting it, no subs!! Grrrr

Region 1 of Princess Bride has subtitles?! I am SO pleased it's one of my favourite films, I hated being fobbed off with Region 2 dvds with NO subtitles, I shall write a letter to the UK distributor saying my money will go to the USA distributer since they don't subtitle their releases!

Oh, and with respect to "closed captions" on R1 DVDs...

As if things weren't confusing enough, Disney and Universal in R1 use the term "closed captions" to refer to DVD subtitles for the hard of hearing, while the other studios use the term to refer to the type decoded by an external decoder. And to make things even more confusing, Fox and DreamWorks use subtitles for the hard of hearing in addition to TV-decoded captions, while the other studios use dialogue-only subtitles.

And then, of course, there are some DVDs with only externally decoded captions and no DVD subtitles at all.