Details: Kill Bill: Volume One (1 Viewer)

[chris -s]

that's all the extras -- what a waste, think how well the special edition would of went down, crammed with extras, can't belive that's it -- hope VOL.2 has more in way of features.

 

[Bill J]

I hate it when studios do this. :frowning: Hopefully this will be corrected on future DVD versions of the film.

 

[Peter Svensson]

Excuse me for asking a stupid question, but what is player-generated subtitles?

 

[Dannie]

wow the dvd has alot of subtitles! first theres there normal english subs and then the closed caption english subs and then theres the jap korean and other lang sub

 

[Alex Spindler]

Peter,
Those are subtitles that are completely generated by the player. They are limited by the fonts included by default in all DVD players.

They are often compared to 'burned in' subtitles, which are a part of the image on screen at all times. These are considered preferential by some if they are a part of the basic film. Such as with the bride being able to speak Japanese, her switch from english to well spoken japanese is important. Even if you were well versed in both Japanese and English, your understanding of it might differ from the english translation on screen, which might have very deliberate wording.

In this case, the preference would be to have burned in subtitles.

 

[GuruAskew]

This is completely false. Many DVD's feature illustrations as subtitles. The storyboards on the "Army of Darkness" director's cut disc are encoded as subtitles, as are InfiniFilm banners and "follow the white rabbit" style indicators of a branch point. Many text commentaries, such as the one on "Spider-Man" and "Fargo" utilize bubbles, colors and illustrations in addition to the text.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Hell, the sillouhettes in the MST3K style commentary on the Ghostbusters DVD are a subtitle stream.

 

[Alex Spindler]

You're right...didn't even remember all of the creative subtitle stuff I've seen, despite owning many specialized commentary discs.

*fixed*

 

[Peter Svensson]

Ok, thank you. But I still don´t understand all of it. What is the problem with player generated subtitles? Are they hard to read or is it the placement (in the middle of the picture) or are the like the hard of hearing subtitles?

 

[Kevin Porter]

The problem most movie nerds have with player generated subtitles is the fact that in the theaters, (in the case of Kill Bill) the same subtitles were "burned into" the picture meaning they were part of the actual film and not a separate element. So when watching it on DVD, the subtitles look a lot less like a film and a lot more like something your DVD player is generating.

 

[Alex K.]

I just think they look bad.

 

[Dominik Droscher]

In movies like Kill Bill where subtitles are necessary and part of the experience, the filmmakers spend a lot of time with them, choosing a font that fits the style of the movie, a size and position that fits the framing of the shot, the optimal colour, the timing, all those elements and their subtleties cannot (yet) be reproduced with player generated subtitles.

 

[DanR]

Count me in the group that's holding off for the Tarantino Special Edition. They better have the original subtitles on that edition...

Regards,
Dan

 

[Chris Parham]

Do player generated subtitles appear outside the frame? I just finished watching The Missing and was shocked that the many subtitles in this flick appeared not only to look terrible (yellow italics)but much more disturbingly half inside and half outside the frame. I employ a masking system for my front projector and this resulted in the subititles appearing below the bottom mask. Although not unreadable it was rather ugly and i would certainly feel cheated if this occured on a film that I actually liked and will keep in my collection. Can someone confirm that the subtitles appear fully in the frame and not within the "black bars". Is placement of the subtitles player dependant. I will buy a new player if this is the case!

 

[George_W_K]

The same thing happens with my player too. (Denon DVD-1600)

 

[Dan Rudolph]

placement of the subtitles can be inside or outside the movie frame. It has nothing to do with your player, it's how the DVD is authored.

 

[Dannie]

well u can turn off subtitles totally in the subtitle menu and there wont be any at all through the whole movie

 

[Bill J]

I believe most of the subtitles on Columbia's discs appear outside of the frame.

 

[Xenia Stathakopoulou]

Managed to get an early copy of this, the region 2 version Indeed the fight scene near the end of the movie is in color !I actually like it more than the black and white version.While the transfer is certainlly not no lord of the rings or attack of the clones, its still pretty damn good .Very bright colors and and a sharp picture.Much like what i saw at theatres in U.S.A and GREECE.I only listened to the 5.1 track and it really rocked the house.This disc will get used often.

 

[Nick T Robot]

Count me in the group that's buying every version of the DVDs for both films. I'll be there April 13th for the DVD and 16th for Vol 2.

How much space can be saved by using player generated subtitles?

Does anyone have some examples of DVDs that do use player generated subtitles? I have 8 devices* in my home that will play DVDs I'd like to compare player generated subtitles

*Stand Alone DVD players, PCs and a Mac with DVD drives, and a PS2