What is the policy befind multiple subtitles on movies?

[Anglik]

Hi,

Does anyone know why there are so little subtitle options on movies. I don't thinks that it's a problem with the space or availability. Since other countries have a realese with the native language, whats the harm in adding the subs of all the countries in which the blu-ray will be released..

[KrugerIndustrial]

2 reasons.

1. Money
2. Money + arrogance

[Anglik]

Originally Posted by KrugerIndustrial

2 reasons.

1. Money
2. Money + arrogance

More like ignorance, money couldn't be a problem, because since they have the subs already it's just a matter of porting...

[RBBrittain]

It's probably tied to the studio's policy on multiple pressings, which in turn is highly tied to their region-coding policy (since different region codes mean different pressings) and which trailers the studio includes on the disc (also highly country-specific). Studios that make as few pressings as possible and don't use region coding (i.e., WB) tend to have more subs on their discs than studios that tailor their pressings to fit the regions and/or release dates of each country (i.e., Disney).

[Anglik]

Originally Posted by RBBrittain

It's probably tied to the studio's policy on multiple pressings, which in turn is highly tied to their region-coding policy (since different region codes mean different pressings) and which trailers the studio includes on the disc (also highly country-specific). Studios that make as few pressings as possible and don't use region coding (i.e., WB) tend to have more subs on their discs than studios that tailor their pressings to fit the regions and/or release dates of each country (i.e., Disney).

Ok would agree with the statement..but looking at WB new LOTR EE Blu-ray, they have decided to include Polish subs with Tai, for the Hong Kong release, but the German edition contains no Polish subs..This I believe is one of the most stupid decisions I have ever seen, does the "bright" employee at WB who decides these king of things, even know where Poland is? Why the hell have it on the Hong-Kong release, thus this tells me two things..

1. The Audio/Sub Content Guys think this would be hilarious
2. They are complete morons, with no geographical knowledge and the last time they had contact with a MAP was in the 3rd Grade!

[ApolloOne]

From an end-user perspective, if I'm switching subtitles while the movie is running, I'd hate to have to hit a button 20 times to get to a particular language.

[mr. b]

Originally Posted by ApolloOne

From an end-user perspective, if I'm switching subtitles while the movie is running, I'd hate to have to hit a button 20 times to get to a particular language.

That's probably the main reason there aren't that many subs on US/Region A blu's, but there are tons of them on European blu's, generally speaking of course. What I find weird is that for some European blu's I have, they will include the original English lossless track, and they will not have any English subs. I understand that it might be a German release, and the desire to have German subs on there would be greater, but why not include English subs if you are going to include the English track?

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by mr. b

That's probably the main reason there aren't that many subs on US/Region A blu's, but there are tons of them on European blu's, generally speaking of course. What I find weird is that for some European blu's I have, they will include the original English lossless track, and they will not have any English subs. I understand that it might be a German release, and the desire to have German subs on there would be greater, but why not include English subs if you are going to include the English track?

Stuff like that bugs me too. Look at The Illusionist. Both the Canadian and U.S. versions have lossless audio in English, but no subtitles of any kind. If you want English subtitles you have to import the Italian version. That makes zero sense.

[Nissen]

Originally Posted by Anglik

Ok would agree with the statement..but looking at WB new LOTR EE Blu-ray, they have decided to include Polish subs with Tai, for the Hong Kong release, but the German edition contains no Polish subs..

Maybe I've just lost my faith in human kindness, but...

I believe this is done on purpose to prevent parallell importing from a neighbouring country.

Disney does the same thing with their animated movies here in Norway. The swedish release is much cheaper, but they don't put the norwegian dub on there so we're forced to buy a dearer version domestically.

If I didn't know any better I'd swear these companies were out to make money!

[Anglik]

And for a second I believed they wern't greedy money coorporations

[F-Man]

Originally Posted by Nissen

Maybe I've just lost my faith in human kindness, but...

I believe this is done on purpose to prevent parallell importing from a neighbouring country.

It is. It's also the reason that studios will sometimes not specify some or all of which subs (or even dubs) are available on the disc on the back of the case.

[Rik1138]

Originally Posted by Anglik

Ok would agree with the statement..but looking at WB new LOTR EE Blu-ray, they have decided to include Polish subs with Tai, for the Hong Kong release, but the German edition contains no Polish subs..This I believe is one of the most stupid decisions I have ever seen, does the "bright" employee at WB who decides these king of things, even know where Poland is? Why the hell have it on the Hong-Kong release, thus this tells me two things..

1. The Audio/Sub Content Guys think this would be hilarious
2. They are complete morons, with no geographical knowledge and the last time they had contact with a MAP was in the 3rd Grade!

Well, in some cases it is directly tied with where they are allowed to market the movie. Warner doesn't have the rights to LOTR in every region. They do have the rights for Germany specifically, so they released a German version. A version that's intended to distributed in Germany _ONLY_, per some licensing agreement...

The 'Hong Kong' release has actual menus in English, Czech and Polish, so I'm guessing that version is going to be sold in those countries, and that's why Polish is on that disc. Not sure why Germany gets it's own version, but licensing involves lawyers, so it's not meant to be understood by people like you and me.

For the same reason the US version of LOTR doesn't have French aud/subtitles on it. Warner isn't distributing it in Canada, so they didn't put the Canadian French language on it. Alliance has the distribution rights in Canada, so they get French, but they don't get Spanish since they aren't selling in the US... Normally, Warner puts both French (Canadian) and Spanish (Latin American) on the same disc for sale all over North America.

That's just one example, but you will probably never be able to make sense of the decision making process involved here...

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by Anglik

...whats the harm in adding the subs of all the countries in which the blu-ray will be released..

Rights.

Pro-B

[Ray_Rogers]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Rights.

Pro-B

Others get past this by importing whichever title they want since other companies in other countries have different rights in the area so they'll use different subtitles. Actually is on a per title basis.
Helps to do the research beforehand especially before importing a particular title. One of which the UK/Studio Canal/Optimum HIGHLANDER Blu-ray is leaps and bounds superior compared to the Lionsgate USA release. Sucks for those, not really they're complete idiots, who own the Lionsgate release and don't care to import whatsoever.
I have some imports which have a ton of subtitles. Always nice to have English SDH type since it's actually a habit now of having them on. I hear perfectly fine but also goes with "whisper dialogue" and LOUD ACTION is a perfect example as to when subtitles are utilised.

[captveg]

Germany often has its own rules that require its own disc. It's a legal thing.

[MorgolKing]

With as much disc space as there is on blu-ray why aren't we given all the subtitles that the company owns rights to? Clearly they're putting different subtitles based on region, but in today's society I don't understand why they just won't let us have access to all subtitles or at least download them.

[Thomas Guycott]

[Studio logic] "Why put EU languages on a NA disc since only three languages are spoken in North America?"

[blu-ray_girl_fan]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=175091

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=158836

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=73120

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=217508

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=167429

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=68967

[bsweetness]

Originally Posted by blu-ray_girl_fan

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=175091

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=158836

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=73120

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=217508

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=167429

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=68967

Only the first two are really relevant to what the OP is asking about, but yeah, it's all been covered in those two threads previously.

[blu-ray_girl_fan]

Originally Posted by bsweetness

Only the first two are really relevant to what the OP is asking about, but yeah, it's all been covered in those two threads previously.

I listed those just in case the OP is a polyglot.