Forum - View topicHard subs on retail DVDs?
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ZodiacBeast
Posts: 142 |
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Back in the day I bought the Strawberry Panic! slimpak (Japanese with subs only, no dub) and was suprised that I couldn't turn the subtitles off. Are hard subs the norm when a release only contains the Japanese audio track? It's going to be rather annoying after I actually learn Japanese and still have to stare at words running across the bottom of the screen...
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zgripţuroicǎ
 Posts: 140 Location: Newburgh, NY |
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For domestic releases, yeah, that's normal. Not many people have the time, money or desire to learn Japanese, and you sort of need all three. Okay, arguably, you could do it for free. There's still not many who have the time and desire to learn Japanese. R1 licensors aren't going to cater to the minority of their audience when the vast majority likely needs those subtitles. Yes, it's likely not difficult to add the option to turn them off, but it's extra effort for a tiny return.
And as someone who knows enough French that I can watch a a good chunk of movies without subtitles, trust me, if you're that good in the future you won't care. I've watched films with the subs on for my mother who doesn't speak any French, and I had no problem ignoring them. You'll survive, and if it's a sub only release, they've got no reason to not hard sub it. |
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John Casey
 Posts: 1853 Location: In My Angry Center |
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I see absolutely no problem for domestic sub-only DVDs to have hardsubs.
Honestly, when it comes to this debate as a whole, I find dubtitles to be the worst. Ever seen hard dubtitles? Pray that you never do. |
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Shawn Shaolin
 Posts: 111 Location: New Jersey |
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Now I do believe that hard dubs are bad, and hard subs are fine, but in all DVDs there should be a selection to turn them off and on.
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dewlwieldthedarpachief
 Posts: 751 Location: Canada |
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If you took five minutes to think about the topic it may have occurred to you that English isn't the only language in North America. Canada has plenty of French native-speakers and legally recognizes the language as an official language of the country in addition to English. That notwithstanding, many Canadian and American immigrants are also not native speakers of English and would be delighted to follow Japanese programming in their languages. Ever seen a hard subbed Taiwan DVD with English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles all at once? It's ridiculous. Instead of that nonsense, make some subtitle files. Even if for whatever reason only English subs are available, why should the laziness on the part of the distributor mandate I have to watch the show with their subtitles? Some Americans are Japanese speakers or are interested in learning - there's another audience soft subs can appeal to. I'm sure you could have thought of at least one of those on your own and there are doubtless other reasons to want clean video. |
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Mr Adventure
 Posts: 1598 |
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Are Hard Subtitles the ones where if you play the Japanese Audio, you must have sub-titles on?
Have you tried using your DVD player remote to toggle the sub-titles off? Usually you can change both the language and the subs independently that way. I can't think of any releases I own that are Sub-Only and the subtitles are actually part of the video, I can always at least turn them off using the remote. |
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ZodiacBeast
Posts: 142 |
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Yeah, I just thought of that too. I'm getting used to my new blu-ray player so I didn't have time to skim over the remote. Of course, the subtitle button is the solution to my problem. Now if only everything in life were that simple...
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dewlwieldthedarpachief
Posts: 751 Location: Canada |
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Hard subs are a part of the video, soft subs are a separate file. Some DVD menus might not offer the means to remove them but most players include buttons on the remote to cycle through soft subs. You can't have that option with ones that are burned in.
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Mr Adventure
Posts: 1598 |
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How common are 'hard subs'? Like I said I've yet to encounter any real 'hard subs' in all the anime on DVD I've ever purchased*. Is it more an issue with older releases in the early days of Anime on DVD? *well, unless you count things like translating scrolling text or opening and closing credits without leaving the original Japanese text intact. I've seen quite a bit of that sort of thing around. |
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the Rancorous
 Posts: 2248 Location: Hunting the Dragon in Gransys |
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That's what I was thinking. The only title in my own collection that has anything remotely close to hard-subs is Vandread. And even then, the only sub-titles that can't be turned off are the very few and sparse snippets of onscreen Kanji that needs an English translation. Even my collections of both Venus Wars and Armitage III carry the option of completely turning off the sub-titles. I'm going to try this with Strawberry Panic since I currently have this disc at my pad from Netflix, because this definitely perplexes me... EDIT: Okay, so I just checked the Strawberry Panic disc and... lo and behold, the English subs can indeed be turned off completely with the flick of the usual button. Therefore... I really don't know where the topic poster is coming from... are you watching bootlegs? |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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He thought it was Hard Sub, but Mr Adventure asked him if he tried the button that changes subtitles, and Zodiac Beast found that it worked (he was using his new bluray player and didn't know what button was the one for subtitles until he checked it out) |
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dewlwieldthedarpachief
Posts: 751 Location: Canada |
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I've yet to encounter an anime DVD with hard subs but my previous example of Taiwan DVDs is still what comes to mind as the ultimate in graphic buggery. I also recall one of the Chushingura films had a release with hard subs - I reckon this has to do with the film prints used having the subtitles.
On a side note, anyone ever seen 4 sets of hard subs at once? |
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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Ranma 1/2 has hard subs on the OP and ED. I don't care though, because I'd have them on anyways.
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hissatsu01
 Posts: 963 Location: NYC |
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I once saw a Chinese movie with Korean, Chinese (simplified and traditional), and English subs all at once. On VHS of course, to make it better. That was somewhat distracting. The subs are almost the only thing I remember about the movie. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6897 Location: Kazune City |
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Hardsubs were mainly used on DVDs released before 2002, back when simultaneous VHS releases were being done. Companies would often use the same video production process they used with the dub VHS tapes, which had hardsubs. That allowed for one subtitle track for the Japanese audio to be used, with the hardsubs accommodating watchers of both audio tracks for songs and text. After VHS was phased out, most companies started doing secondary subtitle tracks that would be on by default when listening to the English audio. Check the AoD reviews for I My Me Strawberry Eggs for an early example. Unfortunately, there was a short transitional period when companies did away with hardsubs, but didn't have a secondary track, leaving dub watchers out in the cold on songs&signs unless they wanted to have the main subs on all the time. (Hand Maid May, Vandread, Ceres, X, and Snow Fairy Sugar, to name a few.)
These are some DVDs that I know to have at least some hardsubs. Most of these are for songs & text only; they're not completely hardsubbed unless otherwise noted. Martian Successor Nadesico (original release only, included really bad overlays for the show's massive blocks of text) Vandread (Geneon release, a few signs in the first season, as the Rancorous mentioned. I've been trying to find out if the Funi re-release has them too, with no success. Songs are only included in the main subtitle tracks.) Please Save My Earth Video Girl Ai Hand Maid May (episode titles only) El Hazard Magnificent and Alternative World NieA_7 Serial Experiments Lain Generator Gawl Orphen (1st season, don't know if the recent collection has them) Lost Universe (ADV release, Nozomi's is softsubbed) Magic Knight Rayearth (old release, don't know about the remaster) Berserk (old release, titles only) Gokudo Magic Users' Club (OVA & TV) Trouble Chocolate Honey & Clover (modern example; Viz still won't get with the program) Bleach (same deal) Gasaraki Bubblegum Crisis 2040 (old release only) Neon Genesis Evangelion (old release) Slayers (CPM release) Revolutionary Girl Utena (mainly the first season) Irresponsible Captain Tylor (non-remastered version) Armored Trooper Votoms (original NuTech release was completely hardsubbed) Fushigi Yuugi (OP and some text) Macross Plus the Movie (100% hardsubbed) ...and probably some other old CPM DVDs of random forgotten OVAs. As you can see, most of these were 90s anime that had VHS releases and were released on DVD in the late 90s or early 00s. Of the recent sub-only DVD releases I have, none of them are hardsubbed. Like Strawberry Panic, they might not include a menu option to disable subtitles, but the remote will still do the trick. |
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