Why is BD audio/subtitles like this?

[dbzlotrfan]

Probably seems like a redundant question but I wonder:

Why do some titles (like Dr. Strangelove) have subtitle option of like Arabic or Dutch? Or 2001: A Space Odyssey Blu-ray has audio options for: German & Italian yet subtitle options for: Portuguese, German, Italian, Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish.

It seems rather abribtrary to me to have options for subtitles (or audio) for some languages but not the other, Portuguese, Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish audio (2001) . . . . . . . . .

[Jeff Kleist]

To ship one disc to as many regions as possible. One master, one pressing. If you have worldwide rights then you stuff as many languages as possible on.

Subtitle languages take up virtually zero space and are easily created from existing assetts. Audio tracks take up space and bandwidth. German people as a rule are almost as stubborn as Americans when it comes to insisting things are dubbed, so it often is first up to get audio priority

[dbzlotrfan]

Yet why have arabic subtitles for something like Dr. Strangelove. Or cantonese & Korean for 2001?

[Carlos2992]

Originally Posted by dbzlotrfan

Yet why have arabic subtitles for something like Dr. Strangelove. Or cantonese & Korean for 2001?

What I can't understand is why some A region titles don't come with Spanish or Portuguese subtitles for example, but they do have arabic, italian, islandic, hebrew, danish...

[Jarfa]

Originally Posted by Carlos2992

What I can't understand is why some A region titles don't come with Spanish or Portuguese subtitles for example, but they do have arabic, italian, islandic, hebrew, danish...

Because editors don't know how many people speak, and can do fast reading of those 2 languages in the world

Much cheaper than dubbing audio in a movie, that i don't personnaly listen too, even if it is my own language. I do prefer some subs, just to catch up with some fast talking, even if it is spanish (castillian)

[viezure]

Originally Posted by dbzlotrfan

Yet why have arabic subtitles for something like Dr. Strangelove. Or cantonese & Korean for 2001?

I'm missing the point. Why not?

[dbzlotrfan]

Would you really want to watch a movie with Arabic subtitles and like English or French audio? Just seems a bit random too me.

[Rizor]

As far as I'm concerned, releases should have as many subtitles as possible. They're certainly not hard to include. I don't care much about audio as I'll only ever watch a title in its original language, not to mention they take up more space. But including many subtitles can open a film up to a larger audience. It's something that kinda bugs me about Criterion's titles - they're only produced for English speakers.

[Mermen79]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Subtitle languages take up virtually zero space and are easily created from existing assetts. Audio tracks take up space and bandwidth. German people as a rule are almost as stubborn as Americans when it comes to insisting things are dubbed, so it often is first up to get audio priority

OMG I LOVE German dubs! I think that in general they are the highest quality in the world. I've been buying only the German releases of Disney re-releases for this reason (sans Fantasia). I'm bummed out that studios rarely include German audio in NA releases. Most of them own the rights to it anyway. Euro versions of everything is so expensive.

[svenge]

Authoring and checking BD discs can be costly and time-consuming. It saves the studios money to do just 1 disc version worldwide when at all possible. However, if they don't have territorial rights in certain places for a given movie then that may not be true. Also, as djepic112 pointed out, if a given studio has a more aggressive regional-pricing policy, then the decision to include/exclude certain langauges from certain releases can be more profitable in the region with higher MSRPs.

[GeorgeP12]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Subtitle languages take up virtually zero space and are easily created from existing assetts.

Right! And the question is why the subtitles can't be added online similar to BD-Live feature? Technically it's quit easy. Buy disc anywhere no matter what languages it contains and watch it with subtitles that you can choose from Internet db, what could be easier?

[HDMe]

In addition to the regions... it also sometimes depends on who the original producers/investors were.

You might find times, for instance, where a wealthy Saudi Oil guy invests in a movie and that affects the subtitles or audio tracks when a release comes out differently than if a guy from another country is a big investor in the production.

[Jeff Kleist]

Right! And the question is why the subtitles can't be added online similar to BD-Live feature? Technically it's quit easy. Buy disc anywhere no matter what languages it contains and watch it with subtitles that you can choose from Internet db, what could be easier?

If they don't own the rights for a region, they probably can't even contractually provide those subs

[dbzlotrfan]

Delete this post, pease mods.

[Bluyoda]

Originally Posted by djepic112

OMG I LOVE German dubs! I think that in general they are the highest quality in the world. I've been buying only the German releases of Disney re-releases for this reason (sans Fantasia). I'm bummed out that studios rarely include German audio in NA releases. Most of them own the rights to it anyway. Euro versions of everything is so expensive.

I HATE them! German dubs, and most of all the insulting titles they give the films (Liar Liar= Der Dummschwaetzer (The Nonsense talker)???? Monsters versus Aliens= Moster und (AND)Aliens???) are the reasons why I exclusively import from the U.S.
I did so with DVDs and am continuing to do so with BDs.
I won't have a single German BD in my collection.

I can't take a movie seriously when it's dubbed. It's utterly ridiculous, and a complete abomination, let alone the fact that it's bad for the general German-speaking public, who don't get to see the films in their native languages, so miss out a golden opportunity to learn spoken English.

To each his own, but I personally despise them, and I only ever listen to the native language track (with subtitles, if it's a language I do not understand), as I respect the artists.
I am a musician/composer, and to me it's like as if they would re-record your composition with different instruments (say electric guitar becomes a Sitar in India), because it's more accessible this way for the people.

[HD Goofnut]

IMHO every film where English is the original language spoken there should be at least English, Spanish, and French subtitles. This is becoming more common, but there are still many releases that have English only.