I have recently joined Anchor Bay's Discussion Forum. Anchor Bay is a small UK DVD company that releases those cult classics, especially the 80's horror ones such Evil Dead, Hellraiser, Evilspeak, Dead and Buried, etc. They have just started putting in English HoH subtitles in their titles which is great and should be priased for their efforts being a small company which is unlike those "big boys" can do.

Also, as far as I am aware, the Anchor Bay discussion forum is the only one that enables both those working there and the customers/fans "actually talk to each other" – an example other DVD companies should be following.

However, as you will see the link below in which I had started a thread about the Evilspeak DVD in which I had bought yesterday. It is all self explantory (this Marc Morris is, I believe, a MD of Anchor Bay).

Click here to view the thread and would appreciate your support in providing your feedback as I don't want to show them that I'm the only Deafie in there!

Hi Nick,

Yes, I discovered this when I saw your post on deaf-uk. I have joined and contributed already. It is very good that they have started subtitling their titles - however it is quite important that we remind them to subtitle all their content - ie. commentaries and extra features as well.

Cheers,
Mat.

You can take it back as say misleading information on coversheet - they should either take it back give your money back or swap it for other. I agreed with you to pay half as that is reasonable.


I am annoyed with Marc as I know Anchor Bay for while now as they know what the problem is. Marc don't seem to reply to my questions several times as I am pain in the neck for him I think! But at same time - forum is accessible whereabout other don't. I want fully accessible DVD where other hearing people enjoy whereabout we don't - that is ******* discrimating but yet no law will stand up for us (sigh)

Just keep pushing Anchor Bay as hopefully they will bow to the pressure as I love some of Anchor Bay DVD but I am not wasting my money on film you can get on television - when they get in the head we love extra features too!

Look at House I, II, III + IV collection - only III + IV seem to have subtitle and other don't!!! HA HA HA Are they fool or what or I am wrong on this?

DVDwarrior

Oh GreeNick - don't forget to add those titles to dvd-subtitles.com

Cheers

In the favoured DVD list or the Shamed list?

You just look up the DVD (easiest way is to type the barcode into the "Title Search" box) and then add a comment for it. You give it a rating according to how well subtitled it is, and if you give it a "not subtitled" rating then if I approve it, it goes straight into the Hall Of Shame list.

PS. you really must confirm the barcode/cat number. If you can't then put in info about where you saw the DVD etc. - as much information as possible to help identify the exact release.

Quite simple really

Mat

Sounds dead simple

Will watch Evilspeak first (the subtitled one) and then the unsubtitled uncit one after to see how both compare. The extras defo aren't subtitled in any way which is a shame.

As for the thread above, yes I will continue to make a presence in Anchor Bay Forum and so should everyone here – as far as I know, this is probably the only kind that we customers can communicate with a DVD company. Wish others could do likewise, especially the worst of the bunch – EiV.

Actually, although EiV have been notoriously bad with VHS in the past, they're quite a lot better on DVD, far from great though.
See this link - it shows all the EIV titles that have been rated on the website. Most notably, the excellent Lord Of The Rings series are by EiV and extremely well subtitled.

I agree with you re. the Anchor Bay forum, we should be voicing our concerns on DVD subtitling there.

Cheers,
Mat

The debate in Anchor Bay over the subtitles in Evilspeak is still going on and I've got support from a few hearies on this issue. I have a question to ask here so that I can use the answer to Marc's point as he continues being defensive claiming it costs "several thousands" of pounds to subtitle a single film:

Does anyone know what is the average cost of subtitling a feature film, or possibly a whole DVD package? I know subtitling companies such as ECI, IMS, etc offer different rates, but what is the usual average?

I agreed I would like to know how much to provide English subtitles and how many subtitle you can fit in on DVD? I have seen around 16 subtitle track on 1 DVD?

Also I am interesting to see the difference cost of closed caption on VHS and DVD. Which is cheaper. Damn you can do it for free by downloading software on the internet to add yourself but I am deaf so bugger!

Will adding several subtitle affect the picture/sound?

What is the maximum you can fit subtitle for how long? Like 90 mins film track - you can fit 20 subtitle tracks but if 200 mins longcan you do the same with 20 subtitle tracks?

Can we add colour? What colour can we add? I have seen yellow subtitle on Wild Thing R1 DVD and closed caption on Terminator 3 DVD and so on?

Mat...it would be cool to have subtitle "FACT" so DVD companies know we know what we know about subtitle.

Cheers

DVDwarrior

I email Adobe company who does DVD software like adding menu, add subtitle and so on.

I had reply from them about subtitle.

Thank you for contacting Adobe Technical Support.

Regarding your query about subtitle tracks in Encore DVD, the limit is indeed 32 subtitle tracks. Although this shouldn't affect the running time of the DVD, the number of subtitles will affect overall file size. Having said that however, and given the 4.5+ GB capacity of the average DVD disc, subtitle files, being no more than a few kilo/mega bytes in size, should not affect overall performance.

Interesting you can use up to 32 subtitle tracks! and use up small size.

Now I need to find out how much it will cost to provide professional subtitle - what you all reckon? 1000 pounds per subtitle track or what?

DVDwarrior