Foreign Languages/Subtitles on US Blu-Rays

[Nullpersona]

I have spent the last few months trying to find a way to get Japanese audio or subtitles on my Blu Ray movies, to almost no avail. Tonight I stumbled upon something that may be helpful to many others, so I *had* to register here to share it.

I bought Power DVD 8 Pro to use with my PC blu ray drive. I have a PS3, but since I was building a new PC anyway I decided to toss a BD drive in there to watch the many movies I have on another platform. I only knew of a couple discs that actually had Japanese language/subtitles (Harry Potter, Shinobi, etc.)

I watched 'The Matrix' earlier. I checked and it had no Japanese language or subtitles. This was no surprise to me. On a whim, I changed my interface language top Japanese and restarted the program. Suddenly, I now have 4 Japanese audio tracks and 4 Japanese subtitle tracks!

I am not sure how many movies this applies to, of any others than the Matrix Trilogy, but I know it works on those.

If this helps anyone, please post in here....more hits means it will pop up on google when someone else needs to know, even if you never do.

If I ave been of any assistance, you are welcome, and I am glad to help.

Have A Nice Day!

[EigeSan]

Nice find Nullpersona!

My PC doesn't have a Blu-ray drive so it won't work for me but I appreciate the thought. If some how that could work on a PS3 it would be great. I watch a lot of foreign content mainly Japanese so I love movies with subtitles. If there could be Japanese audio on English Blu-ray's with English subtitles it would help my learning Japanese .

[Kyo28]

Originally Posted by Nullpersona

I have spent the last few months trying to find a way to get Japanese audio or subtitles on my Blu Ray movies, to almost no avail. Tonight I stumbled upon something that may be helpful to many others, so I *had* to register here to share it.

I bought Power DVD 8 Pro to use with my PC blu ray drive. I have a PS3, but since I was building a new PC anyway I decided to toss a BD drive in there to watch the many movies I have on another platform. I only knew of a couple discs that actually had Japanese language/subtitles (Harry Potter, Shinobi, etc.)

I watched 'The Matrix' earlier. I checked and it had no Japanese language or subtitles. This was no surprise to me. On a whim, I changed my interface language top Japanese and restarted the program. Suddenly, I now have 4 Japanese audio tracks and 4 Japanese subtitle tracks!

I am not sure how many movies this applies to, of any others than the Matrix Trilogy, but I know it works on those.

If this helps anyone, please post in here....more hits means it will pop up on google when someone else needs to know, even if you never do.

If I ave been of any assistance, you are welcome, and I am glad to help.

Have A Nice Day!

Actually this is just for the Matrix and has been reported before.

A limited number of blu-rays include Japanese audio and subtitles, but won't show these as available, unless your player is set to Japanese locale (that includes also PS3's). However, this is just for a handful of blu's, including the Matrix box.

I've made a list of western released movies that have Japanese audio/subs in these very forums (a search should help you find the thread)

[Cinema Squid]

Here's a link to Kyo28's thread for the lazy or otherwise search-impaired:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=64555

This "hiding Japanese options when player is not set to Japan" phenomenon occurs fairly frequently on Warner discs. It's not entirely clear to me what the reasoning behind this is.

Tools like eac3to or BDInfo that analyze Blu-ray disc contents will always detect these if they are present, so following the Unofficial Blu-ray Audio and Video Specifications Thread @ AVS is a good place to find new titles with these "hidden" tracks by looking at the posted disc reports.

[kpkelley]

Originally Posted by Cinema Squid

This "hiding Japanese options when player is not set to Japan" phenomenon occurs fairly frequently on Warner discs. It's not entirely clear to me what the reasoning behind this is.

It's so that Warner doesn't have to press different discs for different countries/regions, it will just adapt to whatever the settings in the player are.

[Cinema Squid]

Originally Posted by kpkelley

It's so that Warner doesn't have to press different discs for different countries/regions, it will just adapt to whatever the settings in the player are.

I understand this point, but it doesn't explain why the Japanese audio/subtitles are not selectable when, for example, the player is set to USA. They don't do this for other dubbed/subbed languages.

[The TRUST]

Originally Posted by Cinema Squid

I understand this point, but it doesn't explain why the Japanese audio/subtitles are not selectable when, for example, the player is set to USA. They don't do this for other dubbed/subbed languages.

Because if they did then people in Japan would just go to Amazon and pay $15-$25 for a US disc that will work in their player. Warner obviously wants to "hide" it so they dont have to press a new disc. Just add a different art on the disc and a different case and they will sell it in Japan for $50-$70 a movie.

I'm just surprised that people in the UK don't buy more US BDs since they are cheaper here in the USA and most of our BDs are region free.

For example:

US version of Gattaca
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies.php?id=139

Japan version of Gattaca
http://www.yesasia.com/us/gattaca-ja...0-en/info.html


See how big a of a price difference it is?

[EigeSan]

Originally Posted by Kyo28

I've made a list of western released movies that have Japanese audio/subs in these very forums (a search should help you find the thread)

Cool, thanks Kyo28.