OK, now I haven't watched a SW movie in years (Ep1 sucked so bad I have avoided all things SW since seeing it in theatres), but I picked up the DVDs yesterday. Watch Ep 4 and 5 already (rushing through them because I have hear on other forums of people having more than a few defective discs) and am watching RotJ right now. I have never seen the RotJ SE, but I have the old widescreen VHS release of the original cut. On the VHS there are subtitles for what Jabba says in his palace, but on the DVD there are no subtitles. Should there be subtitles and I got a bad disc, or were they removed for the SE/DVD?

well, it appears to be a problem with my players (yes, that is plural). I tried it in 2 stand alone players without luck, but when I popped it into my PC, the subtitles were there as I remember them being. Must be a firmware conflict with old Toshiba player (hell, the thing is 6 years old about), and my dad's JVC player (about 3 years old).

haven't got there yet, but I'll let you know...

I'm never buying a Toshiba player again, always seems to have problems.

Aren't you referring to the burned-in subtitles? Those are gone and now are seen via the player's subtitle thingy.

If that's the case, why did they use burned in titles for the Jabba scene in ANH?

FYI - I far prefer them that way to the chunky player created titles.

I hate when they do that. It's just asking for problems with certain players.

I was wondering the same thing. I just watched Return of the Jedi last night and there weren't any subtitles when Jabba was talking.

OK, after trying several times, I finally got my Toshiba SD-2409 (I'm pretty sure that is the model) to show the subtitles. Why it didn't the first few times I don't know. Lucas should have just left the burned in subtitles instead of making them player created.

As for Toshiba being problems, I have had this player for about six years (bought it when I was in college, and I graduated 5 years ago), andin that time I have only had problems with ONE other disc (Spy Game will not let the subtitles be turned off).

I didnt have any subtitles for Jabba in ANH or in ROTJ!

Why do you need subtitles? I can understand Jabba perfectly.

I agree - bantha poodoo is bantha poodoo in any language.

worked fine on Power DVD.

Has it ever been established what the hell "Bo Shudda" means exactly?

Actually, I has a similar problem with Jabba's subtitles on ROTJ on the R2 version. I had particularly remembered Jabba's "This bounty hunter is my kind of scum" line, and there were no subtitles. I went to the menu and turned the English subtitles on, and when I played it again Jabba's dialogue appeared along with the other subtitles.

But...when I turned the English subtitles off and played the scene again, Jabba's subtitles now appeared.

I have not played it since, so not sure if it's something I have to do every time.

And yes, I am using a Toshiba player, had it about 3 years now and it's usually pretty reliable.

On my DVD player, the LG DV7832, all subtitles were off by default. I had to press the subtitle button on my remote a couple of times until it was changed to the "ENG2" setting. Then I had subtitles for Jabba.

As with Eps i & II, the alien subtitles are player generated rather than burned in (presumably to allow for them to be translated into other languages). How well your player handles them depends on how the player reads the flags on the DVD.

My Panasonic XP-30 displays them correctly by default if I load the disc normally. If I load the disc using one of the bypass options (to skip the warnings and intro) by pressing a number while loading (each number gives a different entry point into the disc, as with the previous SW DVDs) I get English subtitles for all the dialog by default. To avoid that, when accessing the DVD directly, I have to go to "Options" and turn subtitles off. But the alien dialog subtitles continue to be on by default.

By the way, Van Ling enabled the skip function so that you can skip through the warning and intro screens (try it!). So, it really isn't necessary to use the direct access function.

On my machine, I can select alien subtitles (ENG 2) with the subtitle button and turn them on or off as desired. Don't most players do this by remote button or menu?

To me, with my Panasonic player, this is an exceptionally well designed set of DVDs.

Very happy with my JVC, no subtitle problems. Sometimes I have to clean the DVDs to make them play correctly, but that is the only problem I have.

You have to cycle through the subtitle options on your DVD player. Here's how they work:

1. English subtitles of the whole movie. When jabba or greedo speaks their lines are preceeded by "[speaking huttese]:"

2. English subtitles of the alien language(s) (I think only the Huttese lines [and even then not all of them, just the ones from the OOT] are translated). You don't get the [speaking huttese] part, just the line. These are the same translations you see in the VHS copes, only their larger and easier to read. No subtitles for the english dialogue, just the translations of Jabba and Greedo (and Bib).

3. Spanish subs for alien language

4. French subs for alien language.

5. Audio commentary subs. Not what they're actually saying, but whenever a new person starts to speak their name is displayed on the screen so you know who you're listening to.

I had subtitles for Jabba in ANH. Haven't watched Jedi yet.

It means "tap that ass."

OK, so then what does "Boska" mean? Jabba says it each time he hits the button to release the trap door to the Rancor pit.