The EU Benelux disaster

[Stef Nighthawk]

Aaaargh I hate the benelux distributors for the Benelux (Belgium - Netherlands - Luxembourg). The available titles with dutch subtitles is really small compared to the neighbouring countries. Fox doesn't even have a blu-ray section on the belgium and netherlands site. They do have it on the UK and German site.
I was almost tempted to order X-Men 3 with a german cover because that one does have dutch subtitles. Luckily a few weeks later one with a French/Dutch cover was released.

I am still waiting for releases like 'Night at the Museum', 'Pirates 1 & 2', 'Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy', 'Saw 3' and many many others that are already available in English on play.com.

How dare they call the EU economically strong when companies still can't supply all the members the same content on the same time (albeit localised).

We dutch speaking members only need the subtitles. We don't want dubs (and hence don't get them), so why does it take like forever to get those titles in the shops?

Just compare www.mediadis.com (Belgian releases) with play.com

PS. The list of HD DVD is even smaller :-)

[GreenMotion]

Stef, why are you so set in watching movies with Dutch subtitles. I myself am dutch, but I hate subtitled movies. Sometimes you're more focused on reading the subtitles than on the actual movie.

Also, a lot of subtitles don't closely match the dialog and often funny jokes etc. get butchered in translation.

[Banjo]

Originally Posted by GreenMotion

Stef, why are you so set in watching movies with Dutch subtitles. I myself am dutch, but I hate subtitled movies. Sometimes you're more focused on reading the subtitles than on the actual movie.

Also, a lot of subtitles don't closely match the dialog and often funny jokes etc. get butchered in translation.

Most people prefer subtitled movies compared to dubbed movies.

Plus, I'm deaf and reading the subtitles certainly don't distract me. I watch the movie and read at the same time. You just have to master the skill to do so.

[HD-Greek]

Originally Posted by Stef Nighthawk

Aaaargh I hate the benelux distributors for the Benelux (Belgium - Netherlands - Luxembourg). The available titles with dutch subtitles is really small compared to the neighbouring countries. Fox doesn't even have a blu-ray section on the belgium and netherlands site. They do have it on the UK and German site.

My friend we have the same problem here in Greece......neither Fox nor Buena Vista, nor Warner have blu-ray section in Greece.......the only studio that releases blu-ray movies with Greek subtitles is Sony Pictures..........personally i buy blu-ray movies from Play.com...........and some of them they even have subtitles in any language(Fantastic Four)....

[mainman]

Originally Posted by GreenMotion

Stef, why are you so set in watching movies with Dutch subtitles. I myself am dutch, but I hate subtitled movies. Sometimes you're more focused on reading the subtitles than on the actual movie.

Also, a lot of subtitles don't closely match the dialog and often funny jokes etc. get butchered in translation.

I am Dutch too, but my heart wont break if a disc doensnt have Dutch subtitles.

Almost every disc has English subtitles, and that is enough for me, and that is if I even choose to select subtitles.

I usually select subtitles when I watch a movie for the first time (in case they use fancy words or weird accents), or if I dont understand the language (logicaly).

But, I have no problems with subtitles, and I have no problems if it doesnt have any subtitles at all (unless it is a language that I dont understand).

[Jonalan34]

Originally Posted by Banjo

Most people prefer subtitled movies compared to dubbed movies.

Plus, I'm deaf and reading the subtitles certainly don't distract me. I watch the movie and read at the same time. You just have to master the skill to do so.

Yes, Banjo is correct about it. I am also profound deaf and I do same thing as he stated.

[Stef Nighthawk]

Originally Posted by mainman

I am Dutch too, but my heart wont break if a disc doensnt have Dutch subtitles.
..
..
But, I have no problems with subtitles, and I have no problems if it doesnt have any subtitles at all (unless it is a language that I dont understand).

But isn't that an attitude that makes the distributors say "They don't mind that we don't release a Benelux version. They like to order the UK version without subtitles at all, so let's not put an effort into it".

The problem is not whether individuals can live without the subtitles in their language. The problem is that the HD market is not treated in the same way in every EU country. The catalogue in Greece and Benelux is way behind compared to UK and Germany. The easy way is to get releases from other countries but that would be ignorant as the EU should be a big economical entity.
Doesn't Blu-ray have the storage capacity to release only 1 version with all EU subtitles? Still they have the same amount of subtitles as their DVD versions.

[stofferdk]

I am danish, and while I often use English subtitles the first or second time I watch a movie - I simply HATE the localized subtitles.

Now, I do understand why many fancies localized subtitles, and there is nothing wrong in that, however - I do not, and will never understand why people buy movies with localized covers. Localized coverlanguage should be forbidden by law.

[minimoke]

Coming from Belgium, speaking Dutch, And not being deaf, I like to watch movies WITH dutch subtitles.

And I know, if I would watch a movie withouth the subs, I wouldn't miss alot, but some of the fine details in (American) English are made understandable through subs.

And indeed, sometimes expressions in English are sometimes translated word by word and loose the content of the expression. But than I think it's nice as a viewer that you can detect those differences.

Listening to English and reading dutch does not pose any problem.

By the way, why do Dutchspeaking people think English is so EASY? Just because they are used watching English series and films on tv with subs.

In France, where they dubb all movies, It's hard to find many French speaking English as it should be spoken.

PS : I hope I didn't make to many mistakes here... because then my theory falls to pieces...

[WriteSimply]

For smaller countries, it is too expensive to make discs to be tailor made for it. Until BD gets a wide adoption, all you can do is wait.

Or wait for a BD-Live player and its features to be online. With BD-Live, you can download subtitles you want once they are done. The thing is about waiting for it to be done.


fuad

[GreenMotion]

Originally Posted by minimoke

By the way, why do Dutchspeaking people think English is so EASY? Just because they are used watching English series and films on tv with subs.

Hey, English is not easy, but if you make it too easy on yourself, you will never learn. As I mentioned, I am dutch, and I've lived in the United States for 10 years now. Even now, I sometimes encounter a movie that's giving me some trouble, especially if the characters talks with a heavy accent of sorts. (british etc). Even today I am learning something new at least once a week.

But with that said, I have always hated, and do still hate subtitles. Now, don't get me wrong, Dubbed movies are REALLY terrible. While still living in the Netherlands, I would often watch German Television. Most of their movies were dubbed and hearing the Terminator say in a high pitch voice "Ich Werde Zuruk kommen" is just WRONG! Everytime I am visiting relatives in the Netherlands now, the subtitles bother the crap out of me.

And while on the subject, I notice more and more words in the Dutch language are migrating to english now. That is really weird. I can't give you an example from the top of my head right now, but I've experienced this several times. I am in conversation with my parents, and suddently they say something in English.

Ooh, I just remembered one. I was talking to my dad about his job, and he mentioned the particular location he works in was given the "Center of Excellence" prijs (award).

WTF?

If you ask me, the Dutch will be speaking English in a hundred years from now

But anyway, this post is getting way toooo long.