Using BD Live to download subtitles?

[OddOne]

Why can't they do this? This way people can have more options. You can download the language you want that's not already on the disc. Is this even possible though. Anyone care to explain?

[ChiIL]

It's 2018, so many people have international marriages / households... and yet regions are deactivated still decades after films are released as if we still need wagons and steamships to get around. Velocity exists, international situations occur regularly, and I want to watch my wife's and my visiting in law's movie collection! We bought it, yet the industry still wants to own it! Stop making me pay twice and worse yet: making it so that we can't watch movies from either region with the audio/subtitle combinations we need! This is why industries are 'disrupted' because they ossify and try to control people unnaturally for their myopic profit motive.

BD disks should be able to do this since movies are often released around the world in many languages, yet only one or two languages appear in the subtitle options.

They want you to connect your player to the internet for "special features such as additional subtitles" but I can't find any movies where this is possible: instead they use the internet connection exclusively to FORCE trailers on your home theater that you don't even want to watch and can't skip at the beginning of a BluRay! If they had additional subtitle downloads compatible with any BD Live player this would be a HUGE advantage over streaming and much preferable to going through other byzantine processes to play BluRays with additional subtitles.

This, for me, is the biggest failure of BluRay and the film industry, a failure of arrogance and obstinance, unfortunately a death knell for the industry.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

I’ve been saying that this should be a possibility for a very long time. I’ve been with my Japanese wife for over 8 years now and NOTHING I buy in North america comes with Japanese subtitles.

If a BD player is connected to the internet, it should be able to timestamp live stream ANY language subtitles as you watch. Downloading wouldn’t even be necessary. It’s not like the text would be bandwidth heavy either.

[8traxrule]

Many Warner titles have Japanese on them, but they show up ONLY when you set the Disc Menu Language on the player to Japanese.

[TripleHBK]

The technology exists for this no problem. The reason it doesn't exist is because it costs money to create translations/subs and with such a small demand for subs in general it's just not a priority for studios. There are entire resources online that folks can use if they need this function. It requires ripping the movie file but outside of that otherwise only involves putting the sub text file in the same folder.

The question of course folks will ask then is why not just point BD-Live to these online resources or allow user submissions? The answer to that is simple. Studios aren't willing to give up that control/take the chance that anonymous folks online will get things right. It's incredibly easy to change subs (It is just a text file with a few pieces of qualifying content to tell the software when to display the text). Turning over the ability to create subs to the internet at large would result undoubtedly in incorrect translations/subs/time codes, but also very likely some hilariously offensive content being put into it the text as well. Proof reading millions of entries wouldn't be any more feasible/time saving then hiring someone to create them in the first place.

Bottom line, if you need subs, rip the movies and look to the many online resources to add them to your own discs or digital file streaming software (like VLC or Plex).

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

The technology exists for this no problem. The reason it doesn't exist is because it costs money to create translations/subs and with such a small demand for subs in general it's just not a priority for studios.

[Show spoiler]There are entire resources online that folks can use if they need this function. It requires ripping the movie file but outside of that otherwise only involves putting the sub text file in the same folder.

The question of course folks will ask then is why not just point BD-Live to these online resources or allow user submissions? The answer to that is simple. Studios aren't willing to give up that control/take the chance that anonymous folks online will get things right. It's incredibly easy to change subs (It is just a text file with a few pieces of qualifying content to tell the software when to display the text). Turning over the ability to create subs to the internet at large would result undoubtedly in incorrect translations/subs/time codes, but also very likely some hilariously offensive content being put into it the text as well. Proof reading millions of entries wouldn't be any more feasible/time saving then hiring someone to create them in the first place.

Bottom line, if you need subs, rip the movies and look to the many online resources to add them to your own discs or digital file streaming software (like VLC or Plex).

But... almost every country gets a release of most films. And they almost all have native language subtitles included (especially if there is no audio dub for that language). So, it would just be a matter of co-ordinating a database where each studio can dump all of those subtitle tracks for international use. It shouldn’t be THAT resource intensive to pull off.

[filmtech]

Be careful what you wish for. It would not be a good thing to have the rights to all movies centralized in a few global studios.

[AlexIlDottore]

obviously rights and money are the hurdles here.

[NLScavenger]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

Bottom line, if you need subs, rip the movies and look to the many online resources to add them to your own discs or digital file streaming software (like VLC or Plex).

Alternatively, the Oppo UDP-203/205 can load SRT subtitles from an USB stick while watching disc media, but Oppo is leaving the BD player market soon.

[MrVorhees]

I'm glad i'm not the only one who prefers various language tracks and subtitles on blu-rays. That's a main factor why i buy them in the first place.

Universal, WB and paramount usually have (had) tons of audio/subtitles options on their discs.

It would be absolutely fantastic if there was an option to download addition subtitles or language tracks via BD live.

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

Alternatively, the Oppo UDP-203/205 can load SRT subtitles from an USB stick while watching disc media, but Oppo is leaving the BD player market soon.

I wasn't aware of that. That's a fantastic resource to have and one that more players should incorporate.

[HD Goofnut]

It takes time, but one can always add subtitles to a BD if you know what the lines are.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by filmtech

Be careful what you wish for. It would not be a good thing to have the rights to all movies centralized in a few global studios.

Not the films themselves being centralized to a few global studios... just subtitle “overlay tracks.” Then anyone on the planet can make their viewing experience more accessible.

I know plenty of people who can’t get their native language in subtitles who avoid physical media at all costs because they wouldn’t understand it. They pirate content instead because importing is usually more expensive AND is usually region locked too. It’s a massive missed opportunity for studios. By making local released content more accessible to EVERYONE, there will be more people willing to pay for it.

[shinobipopcorn]

The problem with "making your own" frankendiscs with internet subtitles is the technology to do so is not free and not sanctioned. I won't get into it beyond that because we all know why.

Besides, why do I have to jump through ten different hoops and remake my discs because Sony totally has Japanese for The Dark Crystal but won't put it on the damn US blu-ray? (Hello, Japanese company, not to mention Japan loves the damn film more than the US does? Luckily for me I happened to be in the country and could buy a copy while there.)

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by shinobipopcorn

The problem with "making your own" frankendiscs with internet subtitles is the technology to do so is not free and not sanctioned. I won't get into it beyond that because we all know why.

Besides, why do I have to jump through ten different hoops and remake my discs because Sony totally has Japanese for The Dark Crystal but won't put it on the damn US blu-ray? (Hello, Japanese company, not to mention Japan loves the damn film more than the US does? Luckily for me I happened to be in the country and could buy a copy while there.)

It's all about disc space and demand. This is why most region A BDs have English, Spanish, and French subtitles. These three languages are used much more widely than other languages in North and South America. Now, UHDs generally carry many more subtitle options because there is no region locking.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

It's all about disc space and demand. This is why most region A BDs have English, Spanish, and French subtitles. These three languages are used much more widely than other languages in North and South America. Now, UHDs generally carry many more subtitle options because there is no region locking.

Uuuuuummmm... thread topic = subtitles via BD-Live, not on disc... which does not require much in the way of disc space. As for demand? nobody knows what the demand is because nobody has tried it.

Personally, I work in an establishment that employs over 1500 people. I’d say that 90% of them are not native English speakers. I’d also say that 70% are considered “weak” in the English language. EVERYONE I try to talk to at work about film says that they never go to the theatre because of no subtitles and that they wouldn’t understand. Most also say that they download all of their entertainment with their native language subtitled burned onto it so that they CAN understand what they are watching.

There is definitely a bigger opportunity to grow the market share if they just pulled their heads out of their collective asses to actually try and service the ever expanding international demographics around the entire planet with this BD-Live subtitle access functionality.

[grrrarg]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

It's all about disc space and demand.

Text subtitles are around 100KB, and blu-ray format subtitles are around 15MB. No one is hurting for storage for either of those per language - either on disc, or streaming.

[HD Goofnut]

What I meant by demand is that most people North and South America speak either English, French, or Spanish. You think the studios are worried about other languages when such a small percentage speaks them?

[DvdClon]

Perhaps someday players could be built to include voice to text translation, kind of like YouTube's captioning services. YouTube's translation is apparently not real-time, but I've thought about uploading the audio track from a disc to YouTube (keeping it private), having YT create the captions and then converting the resultant transcript to an .srt file. At that point, I could put it on a flash drive and use it with my Oppo player.