UK DVD set

[bee]

Yippieh! At long last! We can preorder! - Expected release date May 13th:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Foyles-War-Seri ... 040&sr=1-1

[bee]

According to the Acorn website the new DVD set will come with subtitles.

At long last! The lack of subtitles, quite unbelievable for such a popular series, has always annoyed me and is very disrespectful towards non native speakers and people with hearing problems (and who knows maybe some Americans too ) and in some cases seriously brought the Amazon ratings down. Now I hope there will be reissues for the previous seasons, too....

[bellis]

Before I bought the boxset last year, I emailed Acorn to ask the question and got this reply

"Thank you for your enquiry.
All new titles that Acorn Media UK release now include subtitles. However, not all of our back catalogue titles have subtitles which includes the Foyle's War set. Unfortunately there are no plans to re-release Foyle's War with subtitles at the moment."

As all the episodes are shown with subtitles when repeated on the tv, I can't see that it would be that much of a problem to include them on the dvds. Very annoying.

[jewell]

There are two different things going on here and I know just enough to be dangerous explaining it.

There is "closed captioning" which is what you're seeing when they replay the episodes on TV.

And then there are "subtitles" which are what are on newer movies - mostly 100% of US movies since the American Disabilities Act (ADA) - Daddy Bush era.

All of the FW discs I own have closed captioning on them. Usually it's marked with a little black box with "cc" in it. You have to turn cc "on" on your TV. Usually there's a cc button on your remote. The TV "reads" the closed captions.

Subtitles, on the other hand are an intregal part of the DVD. They are there even if somehow you were watching a DVD on a Fifties era TV. They're on the DVD and if you select "subtitles" on the DVD menu, you will have subtitles. Just as if you select "commentary" you will have commentary.

If you're playing the FW DVD's without subtitles (pre Russia House in my set) on a computer you may not be able to use the closed captions. I've never found where to turn them on on Power DVD. Or if you're using an older TV it may not be able to provide closed captioning.

Hope this helps.

Jewell
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The following is a ranty bit that I believe (hope) is an exception to most people's experience, I'm including it in the slim hope someone will know the fix to my problem and also to explain why I know so much about subtitles and closed captioning.

Then again, sometimes modern TV's give you fits. I have two TV's in my house, an older Sony downstairs and a newer Samsung upstairs. The upstairs Samsung is where we prefer to watch DVD's. The Samsung will play closed captions during a broadcast, it will even play closed captions off TV programs recorded on an old VCR. It refuses to play closed captions off of any DVD.

And it's not the DVD player. I have taken a DVD player happily playing our favorite dective with closed captioning working fine from downstairs - not opening the DVD player or anything - taken it upstairs to the reluctant Samsung and still had no captions.

Wrote Samsung to see if there was a software update. Their answer was basically, if it's on the DVD the TV will play it and, by the way, you're an idiot. Maybe some of that was implicit, not explicit.

Anyone have any answers?

J

[bellis]

Jewell, "closed captioning" seems to be a phrase which is only used in North America. There's a description under "Terminology" on this page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_captioning

In the UK, the word "subtitle" is used for both what you refer to as closed captioning as well as subtitles on dvds. When a programme is transmitted, the subtitles are turned on using the tv remote and when a dvd is being played, the subtitles (if available) are turned on using the dvd remote, they can't be turned on using the subtitle button on the tv remote. Unfortunately the Region 2 FW dvds don't have any sort of subtitling.

[jewell]

Jewell, "closed captioning" seems to be a phrase which is only used in North America. There's a description under "Terminology" on this page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_captioning

In the UK, the word "subtitle" is used for both what you refer to as closed captioning as well as subtitles on dvds. When a programme is transmitted, the subtitles are turned on using the tv remote and when a dvd is being played, the subtitles (if available) are turned on using the dvd remote, they can't be turned on using the subtitle button on the tv remote. Unfortunately the Region 2 FW dvds don't have any sort of subtitling.

The dirty dogs!

Not even "Russia House", "Killing Time" or "The Hide"? Those three have what I call subtitles on the DVD menu in my set.

I didn't take into consideration the features put on a DVD by Acorn would be different for different regions. I should have thought of it, the covers and such are different. Or does Acorn not put out the Region 2 DVD's?

Now I have little hope of anyone solving my problem, the techie types on this board all seem to inhabit Region 2. Darn.

Thanks for setting me straight. Told you I was dangerous. How can captions or subtitles appear when the episodes are shown on TV but not be there on the DVD? Why would they remove them? The system over there must work completely, completely differently.



Jewell

[Lynnedean]

I'm a bit puzzled by all this, Jewell. Are you saying that you want subtitles because there is so much in the dialogue in FW, and presumably other UK shows, that you can't follow? If so, I hadn't realised that more than the odd word or phrase here and there was very different on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

ETA: Looking at various message boards, it seems that a great many people have problems with subtitles, some complain that they can't turn them off! I found a post from someone who couldn't understand why discs he'd got from Netflix wouldn't play the subtitles. Lots of questions but, unfortunately, no answers as yet.

[amiga]

I don't have a problem with the meaning of the words or phrases, it's just that sometimes I can't understand what is being said. It depends on the accent and how fast they are talking. Or, another possibility is my hearing!

Amiga

[jewell]

I'm a bit puzzled by all this, Jewell. Are you saying that you want subtitles because there is so much in the dialogue in FW, and presumably other UK shows, that you can't follow?

Yes.

The accents are difficult for us to follow.

Plus, the SO and I both worked in aviation for many, many years and belong to that group mention with subtitles "deaf or hearing impaired."

I'm not a young chickie like you, Lynne.

We started with subtitles/captions on British and Australian movies and shows (the first I remember was "The Committments", those were some tough accents!) but now we're to the point that we turn them on for almost everything. It's a criteria I use when selecting DVD's from the library; subtitles, okay; no subtitles, guess we'll skip it.

It saves a lot of problems. The SO's hearing is worse than mine - he says I mumble, I don't mumble - so when we watched The Eternity Ring the other night I had to keep pausing it and telling him what had been said (if I knew).

Thanks for researching, I thought if anyone could help me it would be you.

Jewell

[hazeleyes57]

Just picked up my copy of the latest season a day early from ASDA for £18. I know it's slightly cheaper on Amazon, but hey, it's in my hand now!!

[Samfan]

My copy of the Region 2 FW 7 DVD has just been "dispatched" from Amazon.UK!! I'm supposed to get it some time next week. Can't wait!! Even though I watched the epidosdes through Brit-TV and YouTube, I'm excited to see the actual DVDs (better quality, extras-I have a multi-region DVD player). The only disappointment for me is that I still don't have the big 42 in (at least) HD flat-screen TV I've been wanting to get. Maybe this summer. A Birthday present for me in June.

Samfan

[amiga]

Just picked up my copy of the latest season a day early from ASDA for £18. I know it's slightly cheaper on Amazon, but hey, it's in my hand now!!

I hope the US price comes down as Amazon, US is currently pre-ordering at $34.99 (22.99 GBP ) vs Amazon, UK 16.56 GBP ($25.20)

Even though I've seen them, I'm anxious to see the DVDs too

Amiga

[bee]

Well I received the new set a couple of days ago and now I'm really, really enjoying rewatching the episodes on my TV and with subtitles. I notice lots of things that escaped me the first and second time around. I'm also having a great time taking screenshots, never getting tired of his facial expressions and in a way he looks more fascinating than ever.

By the way, there is about an hour's worth of extras on the DVDs, broken down on the three disks. The YouTube video is only one of them. You get one or two short appearances of MK, but nothing to get excited about. Apart from that I particularly liked the guy from the Imperial War Museum who talks about the historical background, I could listen to him for hours, very interesting. And it's also nice to "meet" the people in charge of hair, make-up, costumes, sets and CGI...