Flicker

I may have posted about this before but if so, it needs repeated!

I'm getting hard-of-hearing and like the subtitles. Many releases either don't have any or else they are Spanish and/or French only.

Subtitle are also great for late-night viewing when you don't want to disturb other household members.

Hopefully if enough of us agree, the studios will take note.

DVD Guy ATL

Agreed. Criterion recently released "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" without hard-of-hearing subtitles, a first as far as I can remember. The disc does have subtitles for the foreign language segments but not the English portions.

EdTheRipper

I've got an 8 year old who insists on being loud all the time, so I've come to love subtitles and captioning.

MrSmearkase

This may be a stupid question, but could you access the closed captioning on your TV, instead of the subtitle options on the disc? I'm not even sure that it is an option, though.

EdTheRipper

Some discs are captioned, while a lot of others aren't. It's really hit or miss.

Mondo Kane

^A lot of Anchor Bay DVDs come with captioning, but no subtitles.

dom56

Shout! is the worst. While I'm happy that they're releasing Roger Corman's Cult Classic on dvd and blu-ray none of them offer any subtitles at all. Big disappointment and I'm hearing impaired. Also dvd that have closed captioning don't work now on hd-tv like my Samsung 26" hd-tv.

davidh777

I can hear OK and I still find English subtitles valuable for late hours or thick accents. Was tempted to turn them on for The Town.

Closed-captioning is an annoying alternative because I have to refigure it out when I'm watching on a different TV--never have for some of my players/TVs. Still better than nothing, though.

But like anything, it's a matter of $. With Shout!'s strategy of picking up lower-velocity titles (including a lot of TV shows that others have abandoned) and pricing them reasonably, they might figure they can't afford the expense and they won't lose enough sales to significantly affect their bottom line.

danwiz

I'm a bit hard-of-hearing too and always watch with subtitles on. Really irritates me when I buy a DVD and there are no English subtitles, especially if there are French & Spanish subtitles!!

kd5

My Dad was hard of hearing too. He ran earphones from the TV set so he could listen to the TV show or movie at his own volume comfort level. I hate having to read the dialog on my screen, it's a distracting annoyance that takes away from the movie. If my hearing ever gets bad enough where I would consider subtitles or closed-captioning, I hope I have the option of ear or headphones like my Dad did. -kd5-

Randy Miller III

As someone said earlier, some discs aren't even captioned...and to make matters worse, you can't use captions while playing DVDs in progressive (480p) mode. Blu-Ray may have solved this problem, but I'm not sure.

In any case, I've been a fan of captions and subtitles for a long time now and try to always mention their inclusion when reviewing discs. I'd like to think I've made a small difference in some cases, but I'd encourage folks to e-mail studios and voice their opinion. With enough complaining, they just might listen.

Flicker

No offense to our UK and foreign friends, but I also have problems with many accents.

GoldenWheels

This is what I have done as well. I tried subtitles but in most cases feel like you...having to read is distracting and it takes me out of the movie.

TexasDVDer

Is there a web site that will list CORRECTLY what subtitle/cc options are available on a certain disc? I know blu-ray.com lists blu-rays with this info but what about regular DVDs. I was thinking of ordering the series set of the Zorro TV show that is coming out 1/25 but I won't if thre aren't English subtitles or cc.

calhoun07

I like subtitles and I am not hard of hearing. I just like to have them on for the "what did they say?" moments when you don't quite understand what an actor said. And I really hate it when a DVD or blu-ray doesn't have subtitles.

Takeshi357

This.

I just wish more discs offered non-HoH english subs for this very reason, because I obviously can understand sound effects but not what is being said all the time. This is probably why I keep using subtitles in my native language whenever available, despite not necessarily offering the most accurate translation (any comedies using a lot of verbal humor being the worst offenders), but solely because I don't want to have every bloody music cue and sound effect described to me.

Greg MacGuffin

My hearing is fine, but I love subtitles. When I am watching a movie by myself, I always use them. I find that I usually notice a lot of things that I might otherwise miss if I didn't have them on.

davidh777

True. If not for watching ER with subtitles, I never would have known what an MVA or GSW is.

bmasters1981

I have both of the currently released seasons of "Marcus Welby, M.D.," and they neither have captioning nor subtitles.

matome

dvdempire.com has the subtitle and audio track listings for all DVD's, though not CC.

TimeandTide

I'm hearing impaired and can only watch films that are captioned. Frustrates me to no end when I get a disc, usually a doc, from Netflix only to discover that it isn't captioned.

More aggravating? That captioning isn't available for ANY title when streamed from Netflix. With speculation that Netflix is going completely disc-less within the next few years, they better get that shit figured out ASAP or they're going to lose quite a few customers who need captioning.

Flicker

Thanks! I'll check them out. Possibly influence my buying or not.

Flicker

According to DVDEmpire. it does have English subtitles.

dom56

I rented the disc from Netflix a month ago I and the subtitles is only when the Japanese speaking but not when the English actors are speaking.

danwiz

Here's an interesting one for you. I have been watching "The West Wing - The Complete Series" - all of the seasons so far have had English, French and Spanish subtitles. Then - lo and behold - I get to Season 6 (out of 7) and suddenly there are no English subtitles. I don't yet know about Season 7. This is disappointing - in this series they speak so fast and speak so much that subtitles are really essential for me. Why the heck did they suddenly get cheap at Season 6? What did they save in $ vs. customer satisfaction?