# What's up with this Star Wars ep7 DVD? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 8, 2016, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-star-wars-ep7-dvd/751532 "2016-04-08T09:19:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-star-wars-ep7-dvd/751532/1 "2016-04-08T09:19:59Z")
In Australia Star Wars Episode 7 is officially released on Monday but my flatmate picked it up at Coles today (Friday) for $28. The intro is in some weird language. Firstly what language is it and why is it in another language? “A long time ago in a galaxy far away” [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/erVZWEq.jpeg "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/erVZWEq) “Episode VII” [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/61oHgsf.jpeg "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/61oHgsf) The story [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/0xA57O9.jpeg "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/0xA57O9) The menus and audio is in english. In the setup menu English is chosen as the language. I want to try it out on my computer but my flatmate wants to watch it first. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-star-wars-ep7-dvd/751532/2 "2016-04-08T09:52:24Z")
It is Romanian. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-star-wars-ep7-dvd/751532/3 "2016-04-08T11:45:50Z")
It’s a bootleg. Your friend got ripped off. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-star-wars-ep7-dvd/751532/4 "2016-04-08T11:46:19Z")
Well I tried it out on my computer. It looks like my flatmate chose “Romanian” in the initial language chooser screen before it got to the main menu. If I choose English it works properly. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-star-wars-ep7-dvd/751532/5 "2016-04-08T13:23:33Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > Well I tried it out on my computer. It looks like my flatmate chose “Romanian” in the initial language chooser screen before it got to the main menu. If I choose English it works properly. …huh. Very odd that an Australian DVD would include a separate title crawl for Romania. The two countries aren’t even in the same DVD region. How many other languages does it have? ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-star-wars-ep7-dvd/751532/6 "2016-04-09T01:53:41Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > …huh. Very odd that an Australian DVD would include a separate title crawl for Romania. The two countries aren’t even in the same DVD region. > > How many other languages does it have? This is the screen when you first put in the DVD: [![](https://i.imgur.com/OhyAw2g.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/OhyAw2g.png) It is a region 4 DVD and the 5.1 languages mentioned on the back are English, Hindi and Romanian. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-star-wars-ep7-dvd/751532/7 "2016-04-09T02:31:35Z")
Well, that should about cover it. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-star-wars-ep7-dvd/751532/8 "2016-04-09T06:44:24Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Well, that should about cover it. Covers that neighbourhood in Australia? Toss in Filipino as well and I think my neighbourhood in Canada would be covered too. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-star-wars-ep7-dvd/751532/9 "2016-04-09T10:00:16Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > This is the screen when you first put in the DVD: > [Imgur: The magic of the Internet](http://i.imgur.com/OhyAw2g.png) > It is a region 4 DVD and the 5.1 languages mentioned on the back are English, Hindi and Romanian. Far from being ripped off, it looks like your friend got two bonus languages (Slovenian and Croatian) for free! ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-star-wars-ep7-dvd/751532/10 "2016-04-09T13:21:28Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > This is the screen when you first put in the DVD: > [Imgur: The magic of the Internet](http://i.imgur.com/OhyAw2g.png) > It is a region 4 DVD and the 5.1 languages mentioned on the back are English, Hindi and Romanian. Is this common for Region 4 DVD’s? I thought Region 4 was Australia, PNG, the South Pacific, and Latin America, not areas that have huge numbers of Romanian speakers. Romania is in Region 2, and India is in region 5. Odd. Both in the past and in the present, Region 1 DVD’s (USA and Canada) rarely have had anything other than English, French, and Spanish. If the film was originally in some other language (e.g. if you are watching _Das Boot_), it will probably have that original language, but your chance of scoring a copy of, say _Starship Troopers_ in Hungarian or _Breakfast at Tiffany’s_ in Thai at a random video store in North America is very low. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-star-wars-ep7-dvd/751532/11 "2016-04-09T20:11:05Z")
Well, considering the story takes place long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, my guess Earth was Pangea and that just fucks up all the DVD region bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Debillw3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Debillw3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debillw3)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-star-wars-ep7-dvd/751532/12 "2016-04-10T20:22:30Z")
Aren’t Disney movies mostly (if not all) region free? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-star-wars-ep7-dvd/751532/13 "2016-04-10T21:27:09Z")
As is well known, the Galactic Republic was settled by descendants of English, Hindi, Romanian, Slovenian, and Croatian speakers.