Mr. Salty

As you probably already know, many of the burned-in subtitles in "Fargo" have been replaced by player-generated subtitles on the new special edition DVD.

Although I don't particularly like the look of player-generated subtitles, I was prepared to deal with them on the new SE, except I'm experiencing an irritating problem with one of the subtitles.

With the subtitle towards the end of the movie, "Outside Bismarck, North Dakota," the subtitle appears at the top of the screen (the roof of the hotel) instead of across the bottom (on the highway) as it did theatrically andon the previous DVD.

Is everyone experiencing this, or is a player-compatability issue? I have a second-generation Sony DVP-S300 DVD player.

Bleddyn Williams

I watched this just last night, and funnily enough, got NO subtitles at all - no TRUE STORY or location marker near the end.

I turned my player on and off when I'd finished, and tried again, and there they were!

bboisvert

What would an MGM release be without crappy subtitle issues. I seriously would love to have an extended "heart-to-heart" conversation with the individual there who thinks this is such a nifty-keen idea.

(And with the costs associated with replacing the defective Spinal Tap and Bond DVDs, the issues with Rocky IV, etc. etc... you'd think they'd just give up by now.)

timmy o'toole

I did not have any issues with subtitles, but I did have an issue with the disk freezing up in chapter 26 then starting the movie over. I tried to view the disk in 2 different players and got similar results. Has anyone else had this problem?

Coral

I didn't have any subtitle issue or freezing problems.

I was very pleased with the overall DVD with regards to audio/video and extras.

Mr. Salty

I'll also add that that the opening "This is a true story" subtitle doesn't come up at all on my PC using Power DVD.

Other than that, the picture quality is very good and the extras are entertaining.

Still, I wish I had picked up the old MGM DVD. I have the original non-anamorphic Polygram DVD and I'm debating whether to keep it and ditch the new version with the crappy subtitles.

Tracer Bullet

This is something I've never heard of. Why exactly do studios do this? Is there some benefit to replacing the original captions with player-generated ones?

Mr. Salty

Apparently it's cheaper for the studio because they can use the same transfer for non-English-speaking countries. But I wish MGM would do what other studios do: Use the original burned-in English subtitles, then provide player-generated subtitles to translate the text to other languages.

What I really don't understand with "Fargo" is that some of the subtitles are burned in and some are player-generated. There's no rhyme or reason to it.

tycho55

Only those subtitles that need translation for others to understand them are player-generated. (i.e. For the opening paragraph "This is a true story..." as well as "Near Bismark, North Dakota" towards the end.) Those subtitles which are just city and state names, and can be understood by anyone, remain burned in.

calale5

I did in my Sony 755v. I tried it in my $40.00 Govideo and it played fine