Smaller Labels - Film Fans need SDH! (1 Viewer)

[Moe Dickstein]

I have a good friend who is a young guy but still has hearing issues, he has good days and bad days with it.

But the only films he can be sure of being able to view are those that include English subtitles. He's started a petition to bring some light to this issue where often Blu-Rays have no subtitles in English and therefore, are off limits to him.

Take a couple seconds and sign it if you agree with the idea...

http://www.change.org/petitions/kino-lorber-tcm-olive-and-all-other-blu-ray-distributors-include-english-subtitles-or-sdh-subs-on-all-region-a-blu-ray-releases

 

[Charles Smith]

Done.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Signed!

 

[CobraVerde]

Thanks for posting this!

 

[Jari K]

Here here! There should be a law about this.

 

[cineMANIAC]

Subtitles aren't just a necessity for the hearing impaired - I use the subtitle track many times while I watch movies turned down low at night. They can also be useful if I'm watching something and there are kids running around and people going in and out - something that's a frequent annoyance where I live. I bet if studios got rid of a few useless things like slipcovers, advertising and DVD copies there would be some money for the creation of a subtitle track.

 

[Ray H]

It's never made sense to me why some smaller labels felt subtitles were too problematic to include for their English-language releases. I read an interview with an Olive films rep who stated they were too prohibitive from a QA perspective. As someone who has regularly created and synced my own subtitles for films that don't include them, it's actually rather easy. They want us to buy their product but can't be bothered to include such a standard and highly useful feature for the audience?

I'm largely directing this to Olive and Kino, but I've also noticed Criterion neglects SDH for their foreign language titles. A film like "Carlos" has so much heavily-accented English dialogue that some of the lines are nearly unintelligible, but these lines are not subtitled in any manner, I guess because it's assumed we'd be able to understand the English dialogue. I reckon I couldn't tell what the actors were saying about 25% of the time.

 

[Jari K]

"I use the subtitle track many times while I watch movies turned down low at night."I actually use subtitle track every time, even in the English language films. It's actually kinda rare that English/English HoH subs are not included. And when you see some release without, it feels like this company just doesn't care. CEO and owners doesn't have hearing problems, so why add them?

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Done.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Done

 

[CobraVerde]

Also, if any who has signed can SHARE to anyone else they think might be able to get behind this, it would be much appreciated.

 

[ROclockCK]

Moi aussi.

 

[bujaki]

Done. Ma femme aussi.

 

[Konstantinos]

Signed too.
The subtitles issue is a big issue for me too!

English not being my native language, I find it easier to read subtitles than trying to understand by ear only what they're saying.
There are so many Olive Blurays I would like to buy, but I haven't because they don't include subtitles!
I hope someday this policy stops..

 

[rayman1701]

Done. Plus the wife also signed.

 

[CobraVerde]

Awesome, thanks Pass it along to anyone else you think might be interested in signing.

 

[Persianimmortal]

Moi aussi.

Done. Ma femme aussi.

What a coincidence, I'm aussie too!

I signed the petition. Even though I've never used SDH, I imagine it really can't be that hard or expensive for these companies to add SDH to all of their upcoming releases.

 

[classicmovieguy]

Signed. I'm deaf in one ear and although my hearing is still good it'd be great to have subtitles, although you'd think they'd be standard by now.

 

[Steve...O]

Thanks, TR! My wife and I both signed. SDH absolutely should be SOP on premium products like BD (on all DVDs actually). I haven't purchased any Olive discs primarily because they don't have them and their owner turned me off with his (I thought) dismissive attitude when asked about them in an interview. Conversely, I'm willing to pay the premium prices of Twilight Time and Criterion because they do include them (and because their products are of much higher quality).

I have purchased some products from Warner Archive, but again, for the prices they charge, SDH should be standard on all their releases also. Consequently I haven't bought as many as I would have had SDH been included.

 

[Steve...O]

Additional thoughts....I may be mistaken, but I recall reading that the cost of subtitling a DVD/BD was $10k. Using the TT model of 3,000 units sales potential, that works out to be $3.33 per unit. Rounding up to $4 or even $5, would I be willing to pay an extra $5 to ensure the presence of English subtitles? Yes, I would. Other consumers may have differing opinions, but I think it's really poor of Olive and Kino to release some genuine A-list titles and not subtitle them.