The Door in the Floor

[McCrutchy]

Tod Williams' The Door in the Floor (2004) starring Kim Basinger and Jeff Bridges, has become available in Germany. Courtesy of Universum Film.

[Bruce Morrison]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

Tod Williams' The Door in the Floor (2004) starring Kim Basinger and Jeff Bridges, has become available in Germany. Courtesy of Universum Film.

I just got this. It's a very nice transfer, but one thing slightly annoys me. Although the German subtitles can be switched off, subtitles still appear to translate what Eddie writes on the sheets of paper in the photography shop when he collects the repaired photo. If subtitles are switched off, they shouldn't appear at all. For this reason, I'll regard the German BD as a stop-gap until the film is eventually released on BD in the UK or the US - although goodness knows when that might be.

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by Bruce Morrison

I just got this. It's a very nice transfer, but one thing slightly annoys me. Although the German subtitles can be switched off, subtitles still appear to translate what Eddie writes on the sheets of paper in the photography shop when he collects the repaired photo. If subtitles are switched off, they shouldn't appear at all. For this reason, I'll regard the German BD as a stop-gap until the film is eventually released on BD in the UK or the US - although goodness knows when that might be.

This is coming to me presently. It seems from what you describe that those subs would be burned into the image, since you cannot have two subtitle tracks playing at one time (unless they are encoded together in a separate track as an alternate option) I will check my copy when it arrives as well.

Do note however, that this title is from Focus Features (Universal) in the USA and Momentum in the UK, so I would not anticipate a release there soon.

EDIT: Bruce, I just remembered I had a similar issue with my Universum Grinshouse release and I was able to bypass all German subs. I will dig it out and post an update ASAP.

[Clark Kent]

Stranger things have happened, but I do not foresee Universal ever releasing this movie on BD.

[Bruce Morrison]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

EDIT: Bruce, I just remembered I had a similar issue with my Universum Grinshouse release and I was able to bypass all German subs. I will dig it out and post an update ASAP.

Thanks, I'll be very interested to hear how you did that!

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by Bruce Morrison

Thanks, I'll be very interested to hear how you did that!

Bruce, I have not yet received The Door in the Floor, but I have just received Elegy.

Note that when I played the disc, it defaulted to the German audio track, and I first opted simply to change the audio track to English using my player. Even though my player said all subtitles were off, German subs for text still appeared, because it seems simply switching the audio track does not eliminate the German subs for text stream that would play with the DUB audio. Perhaps this is the issue you are seeing?

With Elegy, I found two ways around these German for text subtitles.

Firstly, from the main menu, did you try selecting the English audio track and then specifically selecting no subtitles ("Aus")? This allowed Elegy to play completely unsubtitled.

If that doesn't work, then this method should. I believe The Door in the Floor should have English SDH subtitles as well. Set the disc to play with the English SDH subtitles and then turn them off with your player remote. Since the German subtitling for text would not be embedded with this track, all subtitling should now disappear.

If these methods are all unsuccessful, then the subtitles you reference for The Door in the Floor must be burned-in to the source.

[Bruce Morrison]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

Bruce, I have not yet received The Door in the Floor, but I have just received Elegy.

Note that when I played the disc, it defaulted to the German audio track, and I first opted simply to change the audio track to English using my player. Even though my player said all subtitles were off, German subs for text still appeared, because it seems simply switching the audio track does not eliminate the German subs for text stream that would play with the DUB audio. Perhaps this is the issue you are seeing?

With Elegy, I found two ways around these German for text subtitles.

Firstly, from the main menu, did you try selecting the English audio track and then specifically selecting no subtitles ("Aus")? This allowed Elegy to play completely unsubtitled.

If that doesn't work, then this method should. I believe The Door in the Floor should have English SDH subtitles as well. Set the disc to play with the English SDH subtitles and then turn them off with your player remote. Since the German subtitling for text would not be embedded with this track, all subtitling should now disappear.

If these methods are all unsuccessful, then the subtitles you reference for The Door in the Floor must be burned-in to the source.

Hi, thanks for looking at this. Yes I did select the English track and "Aus" for no subtitles. That didn't affect the German subtitles displayed in that scene I mentioned.

However, I haven't tried your second suggestion and that does sound promising. I'll try it tomorrow (I'm just about to go to bed now!) and let you know the outcome. (I'd be surprised if those subtitles are actually burned-in on the source.)

Thanks again!

[Bruce Morrison]

I tried your idea of selecting the English SDH subs and then turning them off - unfortunately the German subtitles stilll appear in that scene, so they are obviously burned in on the source print. It's somewhat annoying that they would have done that.

Anyway, thanks again for your help. I'll still keep the German BD, although I hope the movie will eventually be released on Blu in a completely English-friendly edition.