Thursday, February 4, 2010

Broken product

5:50 PM / Blu-ray / Comments6 Comments

Blu-ray

I've returned my copy of Broken Embraces to Amazon. Today I discovered that the UK release by Pathé features English subtitles burned into the image itself (they're not just a forced subtitle stream: they're actually part of the encoded image itself). They're large and ugly, covering the letterboxing (it's a 2.39:1 movie) for single lines and both the letterboxing and the image itself for double lines. To add insult to injury, they're also interlaced. I feel more inclined to trust them to get it right. Beforehand, I never thought a reasonably large label like Pathé, whose distribution is handled by 20th Century Fox, would do something like this, but it just goes to show.

No thanks, Pathé. I'll bide my time and wait for the Sony Pictures US release in March.

No Penélope until March. Ah well.

 
6 Comments

1. Dirk Diggler said:

Shame about the subs issue, as the transfer is quite sumptuous.

(Posted on Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 9:30 PM)

2. Author Profile Page Michael said:

I agree, although I don't doubt that Sony's effort will at the very least equal it.

(Posted on Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 10:17 PM)

3. Steini said:

Does the Inglourious Basterds BD have forced subtitles on the non-english sections?

(Posted on Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 9:19 AM)

4. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Steini:

Yes, it does, although I don't have a problem with that as (a) they're part of the original intended presentation and (b) they're sensibly sized and placed within the image itself rather than overlapping on to the letterbox bars.

I believe the mainland European releases come without the burned-in subs. Unfortunately, I believe this also means that any location type is player generated too.

(Posted on Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 2:09 PM)

5. Bleddyn Williams said:

The Sony won't have that ugly blu arch that seems to blight UK releases, either.

(Posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at 12:23 AM)

6. Author Profile Page Michael said:

That blue arch is a Fox staple for their European releases, as far as I can tell. I don't honestly mind it - the censor logos slapped all over the packaging are a far greater eyesore, in my opinion.

(Posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 1:37 PM)

 
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