Subtitle and Language Complaint

[cal_tony]

Just rented the movie Doppleganger from Hollywood Video. By looking at their web site, I already knew that the movie would be in Japanese language only but would include English subtitles. Knowing this in advance, is not going to stop me from complaining about the DVD process itself. This DVD is for rent and for sale in the USA. Granted I was under no illusion that English as a language would be found within the disk. But,..the packaging was written in English, the disk itself was written in English and although the packaging indicated that 3 audio formats would be included within the disk( 5.1;DTS and 2.0) nowhere on the packing was there any indication of what these languages would be. Specifically, my complaint is that the US distributer produced a product for the English reading market. Only English written everywhere. The movie, itself, had only a few characters so anyone whose ever made a personal DVD knows how easy it would have been to stick another 2.0 dubbed language on the disk. With the help of 1/2 doz. of my friends and with the subtitles showing on the screen, we could have dubbed and reproduced the disk in the space of half an afternoon. So why not do it?
Another complaint extends to all those companies that produce Dvds. This medium lends itself to multiple subtitles so use them. Nothing worse than watching a non subtitled movie with poorly spaced mikes and overly loud background noises and trying to figure out what a mumbling actor said. Lots of times a movie may sound fine in a theater, but when being authored to a DVD the sound just doesn't reproduce well. Under those circumstances having a subtitle should be required.

Dvds are no longer a new and novel medium. Movie Studios that rely on Dvd sales to bolster their bottom line should try to put out the best product they can. The quality of a movie is usually constrained by costs. The quality of a DVD generally requires nothing more than some thouthtful effort. Some Dvds are great. Others are just a misuse of the medium.

[BJ_M]

it costs about $40,000 grand to add an lang. dub to a movie ... and that can be on the low side in some cases ..