# Some DVD Complaints **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 25, 2002, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-dvd-complaints/129619 "2002-09-25T14:33:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-dvd-complaints/129619/61 "2002-09-27T17:05:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Caesar’s Ghost \* > \*\*I love my DVDs, but I hate it when there’s no option for subtitles. > > I’m not talking about foreign films here, and I don’t really care if foreign films are subbed or dubbed. I mean any English film that does not have the option for “subtitles for the hearing impaired”. Because I’m hearing impaired, and I like having the words on the screen anyway. > > _John Q_ doesn’t have this. Neither does another DVD I’ve seen, but it was a while ago so I can’t remember the name. I think the makers of JQ and the others who don’t include any subtitles, for the benefit of the deaf & people who just like having them there, are really letting the public down. And losing a lot of their audience. > > I know I never bothered to watch _JQ_. \*\* Check the back of the box and see if it has closed captions. I have several titles in my own collection that have no subtitles, but they _do_ have closed captions (_Cube_ springs to mind; it has subtitles, I believe, but not in English. For English, you have to turn on the captions). And I could swear that when I rented _John Q_, I turned them on once to figure out some indistinct dialogue. Now, why DVD makers would include closed captions but no subtitles…you’d have to ask them. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-dvd-complaints/129619/62 "2002-09-27T17:12:25Z")
> [@](#): > > And where the hell is the Letterbox edition of \*\*Singing In The Rain"??? **Singing in the Rain** wasn’t shot in widescreen, which didn’t become common in Hollywood releases until the later 50s-early 60s. The new 2-disc DVD (bought it, love it) was released in its original screen aspect ratio. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-dvd-complaints/129619/63 "2002-09-27T17:16:34Z")
Kewl! Is the print cleaned up from the craptacular earlier DVD release, which looked like it was taken from a 2nd generation video-tape which had been recorded from a bad TV station? Fenris ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-dvd-complaints/129619/64 "2002-09-27T18:15:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Kewl! Is the print cleaned up from the craptacular earlier DVD release, which looked like it was taken from a 2nd generation video-tape which had been recorded from a bad TV station. You will be amazed at the brightness and clarity of the Technicolor restoration. According to [DVD File.com](http://www.dvdfile.com/software/review/dvd-video_5/singinintherain.html): > [@](#): > > Wow! With this souped up, three-strip Technicolor marvel, Warner has a new trick up its sleeve, the already-controversial “Ultra Resolution” process. What, you ask, is that? Scanning in no less than 400,000-plus individual film frames from the original three-strip masters, the film is then “recomposited” digitally and adjusted for wear and misalignment. The result is clarity and sharpness unheard of in a Technicolor presentation, It also has two documentaries, a trivia track, a commentary track, trailer, and a series of scenes from old movies where the songs from SITR were first introduced. There’s also a feature on the first disc that discusses the evolution of film from silents to talkies, using clickable frames where you can see excerpts from the first talkies, like **The Jazz Singer**. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-dvd-complaints/129619/65 "2002-09-27T18:37:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zweisamkeit \*\*\* > And why do my Jackie Chan DVDs have English and French, but not Chinese?! God, I would love to watch a Jackie Chan movie and actually have the lips in synch with the dialogue! 😉 \*\* The usual practice in Hong Kong is to have everyone speak their own language - Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Russian, whatever. Then the whole thing gets re-dubbed into the appropriate language. Cantonese for local and SE Asia consumption, Mandarin for mainland China, etc. The dubbing is rather indifferently done and may not even be performed by the same actor. So even if you selected the Cantonese track to watch Jackie, the lips might still be out of synch, and it might not even be his own voice! ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-dvd-complaints/129619/66 "2002-09-27T19:09:15Z")
> [@](#): > > So even if you selected the Cantonese track to watch Jackie, the lips might still be out of synch, and it might not even be his own voice! Just to nitpick, Jackie Chan is from Hong Kong and his native language is Cantonese. Mandarin he might have a problem with. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-dvd-complaints/129619/67 "2002-09-27T19:48:57Z")
That’s the point, **gobear**. I know Jackie Chan speaks Cantonese. They’ll still dub Cantonese over the Cantonese. If Jackie isn’t available for the redubbing, they’ll use some other actor. Everyone knows that these things are dubbed over, anyway, so getting the voice exactly in synch with the lip movements isn’t a high priority. ---
**Author:** ![ElwoodCuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/edb3f5/32.png) [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2002, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-dvd-complaints/129619/68 "2002-09-28T05:01:42Z")
BTW: regarding the Goodfellas DVD, it’s two-sided because it’s a lazy-ass straight port of the LaserDisc (which are almost always two-sided). Here’s hoping that Scorsese will do this film right. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-dvd-complaints/129619.md?page=3)