DVDFR.com
 

Last year I ordered a few movies from dvdfr.com.. LA Boite Noire was onre of those movies. It was listed as having english subtitles. When it arrived it did not have english subs. Has anyone else had this problem with this distributor.

did you try accessing the subs by the remote of the player? sometimes they are there but for rights issues they "take 'em off". if that's not the case it probably was the distributor providing the wrong info to the vendor and not correcting it afterwards. sorry I don't have a sugestion.

Hello James,

DRDFR are not a reliable source for the type of info you are looking for. Their site is littered with incorrect information. Also, they are not a distributor.

Ciao,
Pro-B

Sorry I didn't mean distributor but retailer. Thanks for the information because I was thinking of ordering from them again. Now I won't. They seem to have the largest collection of french movies with subtitles. Amazon fr is confusing. Sometimes their dvds have english subs but are not listed on their site. Can I order from the distributors (studio canal, gaumont, tf1, etc.) ?

Sometimes the best way of all is to come on a forum (such as this) and ask about a particular title - when a forum member actually owns the disc and can confirm specs it's more reliable than going with the often-conflicting info various sites have. And yes, as already noted Amazon are pretty scrappy with their info (and never worth relying on for subs info); DVDFr is quite good to have a look round, but as Pro-B says (and James' experience shows) their info on subs seems pretty random...

I would still recommend that you stay with the large vendors: Amazon.fr, FNAC, Alapage, etc. I must warn you however to look closely when you order as lately Amazon.fr for example has begun adding plenty of Benelux titles which for someone who isn't familiar with the Gallic market could spur plenty of issues (example: a lot of the TF1 titles that carry English subs are replaced by Dutch licensed replicas where the English subs are replaced with Dutch. Distribs to watch out for are Disco Service, Boomerang Pictures, etc).

So, Dazza is correct: I don't spend too much time on this forum anymore but you could always post here (you are also welcome to PM me if you wish should you have any doubts about a particular disc or...you simply need generic info).

Have a good weekend,

Pro-B

Just to echo Pro-B's opinion there; I've bought quite a few of these in-store (usually for 5€ or less), and even regardless of the fact that the subs situation is different, the discs themselves are often quite poor and haven't been authored very well. They're OK if you just want to see the movie (for example, I bought J'me sens pas belle for 5€ when the French edition was 20€, so was happy to save 75%), but are not so good for a 'keeper' for your collection. Sometimes the gap in price isn't so great, however: a couple of years or so back I nearly bought the Benelux release of Brice de Nice for 10€, but thankfully picked up the French edition at a shop around the corner for just 2/3€ more. So, I would definitely not pay more than 5€ for a Boomerang or Disco disc...

Dvdfr.com database is made from specs given by the distributors, that means you can find wrong specs on distributor's sites.
Before asking here, you could try to find some reviews at DVDrama or Filmsactu, if you can read french.
The best retailers for people living outside Europe are Alapage and Amazon.fr.