Movie subtitles ?

This is controlled by the content/media owners - not the iTS. The iTS can only sell the content provided to them.

MJ

I second that request: the ability to add whatever language subtitles to movies should be available.

Guido

This is the wrong place to request that option. It is not up to the iTS.

Go ask the media/copyright holders to add the movie/TV Show.

These are user to user forums.

MJ

I disagree. IMHO Apple could add srt file support to iTunes.

Guido

Apple does not own the content. No one here knows what Apple supports.

You can give feed back to Apple at http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

MJ

Hi Pascal, thanks for posting this topic. I'm also in Switzerland, and I would also pay money to Apple and the content owners if they could just achieve a near approximation of what can be found for free elsewhere.

Some of the comments on the tread are well out of line. "Apple doesn't own the content."

So???? So what? Why the reflex defense of Apple? It is weird.

It took ten years for Apple to be able to sell films in Switzerland. And they still can't do it properly.

Yes, that says incredible things about the utter corruption of the "Free trade" principles in Europe. And it speaks volumes about what a technological backwater Switzerland is because of cartels.

But it also says Apple have failed, as well.

No subtitles is inexcusable. It just means the people negotiating and delivering on the project were second rate folks who are not very good at their jobs.

What happened to universal access? How many close captioned films are available on itunes? In Switzerland, the answer in ZERO. Even elsewhere the number is pitifully small.

And yet, Steve Jobs demoed that feature specifically in his stage presentation many years ago.

And yet, on the free internet these things get done FOR FREE as a matter of course.

Stop making excuses for Apple. In my experience, the quality of Apple employees and service has deteriorated markedly over the past decade. And I have a lot of experience working with this company.

We're not defending Apple, we're explaining the situation.

The movie owners have absolute say over distribution. If they say, "Switzerland only gets dubbed movies but Austria gets subtitled" then Apple cannot tell them they, Apple, are going to distribute a subtitled version. Apple may not even have anything other than a dubbed version.

Solution: Don't buy dubbed movies (which you have to realise means you'll probably miss a lot of movies). Write the movie owners and Apple about this (feedback link above) and tell them you aren't buying. It's the content owners who are ultimately responsible for what they allow Apple to sell, but if Apple hears from enough of you then maybe they will also go to the movie owners and say, "Nobody in Switzerland is buying your dubbed movies, we're both losing money here."

All the material supplied by contents providers nearly always do have subtitles already from TV and DVD broadcasts.

That these content providers are unable to supply this from iTunes 99% of the time, suggests that Apple's *own system* is the blocking point and they need to address this pretty soon or lose their market position.

There are nearly 5 million hits on Google about Apple's failure to provide this so the demand is clearly there. I hope they dont ignore it.

FWIW, you can add subtitles using Submerge or iSubtitle.

J GG

Why would I want to add spanish subtitles to an American Movie dubbed in Spanish? The problem stated here is to be able to watch movies in their original language with the possibility of watching them with subtitles. I personally like to watch them in English with english subtitles in case I miss a word.

But where would I get a subtitles file for, say, 'Toy Story 3'?

Thanks in advance,
Steve = : ^ )

Oh, it's irrelevant any way. From Bitfield's support site for Submerge:

How can I add subtitles to a movie purchased or rented in the iTunes Store?

The short answer is, you can't. Apple has protected their movies with a DRM system called FairPlay. As a third party developer you have no access to those frameworks.

This discriminates badly against hearing-disabled people such as myself. Even if it's legal, it's bad form on Apple's part. The vast majority of movies in the iTunes store are available on DVD with Subtitles; I can watch TV eps. on my local TV Channels' websites and enable/disable subtitles. The technology exists. Apple has taken the trouble to enable it, and, for me, this means the iTunes store truly *****.

Steve = : ^ (