So, what's the title of this DVD? There's currently a contribution up for voting that changes the title from 'I Spy' to 'I Spy'. Personally, I don't believe there's a hyphen there. As far as I'm concerned, it's the "dot" symbol that's also seen between the letters in 'Friends'. Per Gerri Cole, we don't enter that:

Quoting Gerri Cole:

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For the purposes of special characters in the titles, if you can type it on a normal keyboard without using an upper ASCII character, then you can use it. So in this case, M*A*S*H would work, but the dots in between the letters in FRIENDS would not be appropriate.

So it all depends on what we see on the cover: do we see a hyphen, or do we see that "dot"-symbol? My belief that it's the latter is further cemented by the credits block. Because when in doubt on exactly these issues, the rules point us to the credits block on the back cover:

Quoting the contribution rules:

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For titles which include periods, dashes, or other symbols, check the credit block on the back of the case if included. If not, check the film credits or opening sequence. Use these to determine whether to exclude or convert the symbol to a standard character such as ".", "-", or "*"

Well, the credits block on the cover state the title as 'I Spy' with a space - no hyphen or any other symbol. If it was a hyphen, it would have been repeated in the credits block. It's not, so it must be one of those symbols that, per Gerri, we don't enter. Right...?

Looks more like a square dot to me as well. Like Martian said... it would be more rectangular if it was a hyphen.

I would enter "I-Spy" as title and "I Spy" as original title. According to IMDb "I-Spy" was the promotional title. For me it looks like it is supposed to be "I-Spy" on the cover.

Quoting TomGaines:

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According to IMDb "I-Spy" was the promotional title. For me it looks like it is supposed to be "I-Spy" on the cover.

But surely this isn't about what IMDb lists as a "promotional title", or about what you or I think it's supposed to look like? No, there needs to be sure-fire way to determine the title for DVD Profiler purposes, and as it happens, the rules actually include that sure-fire method:

Quoting the contribution rules:

Quote:
For titles which include periods, dashes, or other symbols, check the credit block on the back of the case if included. If not, check the film credits or opening sequence. Use these to determine whether to exclude or convert the symbol to a standard character such as ".", "-", or "*"

How can you take into account that rule and still arrive at 'I-Spy'? That rule isn't optional or anything. It simply tells us what to do when we encounter a title with "periods, dashes, or other symbols". Well, that's clearly the case here, so we have to follow these directions. Which definitely lead to 'I Spy' as the title. Or am I missing something?

I-Spy, without any doubt, in my opinion.

Quoting T!M:

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Quoting Corne:

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That 'definitely no hyphen' isn't so definitely for everyone otherwise a poll won't be needed in the first place 

Again, it is is for the original title (which is why there's no poll for that).

With the definitely part you were referring to the cover title -> Title field. So that's what I was referring to in my last reply.

In my opinion:
Title: I-Spy
Original Title: I Spy

Quoting T!M:

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Quoting Corne:

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That 'definitely no hyphen' isn't so definitely for everyone otherwise a poll won't be needed in the first place 

And as far as I can see, the rules are pretty definite about that. They flat out tell us what to do when we encounter a title with "periods, dashes, or other symbols". Well, this is one of those, so we have to follow those rules. Right? So how can anyone possibly arrive at 'I- Spy' then?

The rules also tell us: "For titles which include periods, dashes, or other symbols, check the credit block on the back of the case if included. If not, check the film credits or opening sequence. Use these to determine whether to exclude or convert the symbol to a standard character such as ".", "-", or "*"."

So for Invelos purposes a hyphen is a standard character and not a period, dash or other symbol. And you quoted Gerri Cole: "For the purposes of special characters in the titles, if you can type it on a normal keyboard without using an upper ASCII character, then you can use it. So in this case, M*A*S*H would work, but the dots in between the letters in FRIENDS would not be appropriate."

A hyphen can be typed on a normal keyboard. The only problem is that some users see a hyphen in the cover title and some don't...

Quoting Corne:

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Quoting T!M:

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Quoting Corne:

Quote:
That 'definitely no hyphen' isn't so definitely for everyone otherwise a poll won't be needed in the first place 

And as far as I can see, the rules are pretty definite about that. They flat out tell us what to do when we encounter a title with "periods, dashes, or other symbols". Well, this is one of those, so we have to follow those rules. Right? So how can anyone possibly arrive at 'I- Spy' then?

The rules also tells us: "For titles which include periods, dashes, or other symbols, check the credit block on the back of the case if included. If not, check the film credits or opening sequence. Use these to determine whether to exclude or convert the symbol to a standard character such as ".", "-", or "*"."

Yes, that's what the rules tell us. They tell us to check the credit block on the back of the case, the film credits or opening sequence to determine whether to exclude or convert the symbol. And neither the credits block, film credits nor the opening sequence show any kind of hyphen or other symbol. None of them. The rules direct us to look at these sources to determine whether to exclude it or to convert it to a standard character, and all those sources tell us to exclude it - not to convert it to a standard character. So how do you arrive at 'I-Spy' regardless of that?