First of all, I'm new to DVD Profiler, so hi!  Looking forward to getting involved with the software and community, and to doing my best to help add to the database.  In that spirit, I've just submitted my first profile contribution, and it's clear from the comments that several people see this issue differently to how I do, so I wanted to get into it a little further.

Most of my Region 2 DVDs have a subtitle track labelled "English for the hearing impaired".  Some of them have other language "hearing impaired" subtitles as well.  These are on top of the standard "English" (or whatever) subtitles, and from researching and looking at them, I can see that they serve much the same purpose as Closed Captioning.  As far as I can tell (and I don't claim to be any kind of expert on this), Closed Captioning itself is only used on American discs; that certainly ties up with my experience with Region 1 and 2 DVDs.

Anyway, the problem is this: there is no way of including "...for the hearing impaired" subtitle tracks in the subtitling section of profiles.  There is also no checkbox for this in the Features section, but there is a checkbox for Closed Captioning.  It seems to me that since Closed Captioning is seemingly only used on US discs, and "...for the hearing impaired" subtitles offer a similar solution to the same problem, the best workaround for now is to use the Closed Captioning checkbox for "...for the hard of hearing" subtitles, perhaps noting the languages in the free text box.  (Of course, it would be better still if there was another checkbox, or provision in the Subtitles section for these kind of subtitles, but that's not the case at the moment.)  That way, it would be possible to both see and filter for discs that have assistance for those with hearing difficulties, and the difference between Closed Captions and "...for the hearing impaired" subtitles could be inferred from the country of origin of the disc in question.

So, that is what I've done for the two profiles that I've submitted so far (High Fidelity and GoodFellas).  However, the following excerpt from the Contribution Rules has been pointed out to me:

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Closed Captioned Closed Captioned identified by the logos:

If none of these logos is present, and you are unable to verify directly that the disc is Closed Captioned, then Closed Caption should not be checked. Note: Subtitles are not the same as Closed Captioning.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------end quote------

My reading of this quote (or at the very least, the intention behind it) seems to be different to others'.  I think it's saying that just because a disc has, say, "English" subtitles, that is not equivalent to Closed Captioning and the checkbox should be left unchecked.  However, "English for the hearing impaired" subtitles are not the same thing as "English" ones (High Fidelity for example has both) and is in fact doing the same thing as Closed Captioning is - namely, both transcribing speech and describing sound effects/music/tone of voice etc. in order to assist people who are hard of hearing.  Therefore, it seems to me that the quote is referring to ordinary, non-hearing-impaired subtitles.

I am reluctant to simply leave the information out, because it seems to me that it is a really important feature for people who do have hearing difficulties.  It also seems a bit arbitrary to include one 'brand' of subtitles for those with hearing difficulties (Closed Captioning) but not another ("... for the hearing impaired").  I don't really like the solution of putting the information in the "Other Details" free-format text box, because that renders it unfilterable.  In the event that, say, someone with hearing difficulties visited for the weekend and we decided to watch a film together, being able to filter my DVD Profiler catalogue to only show those titles that were suitable for him/her to watch would be really useful, and exactly the sort of thing that a database of this sort is good at.

So, bearing all of that in mind, I'd be grateful to hear what other people think about the issue and how to overcome it.  Thanks for reading, and sorry the post ended up so long.

Quoting GSyren:

Quote:
It's not Closed Captioning, so CC should not be checked.
If there is a regular subtitle for the same language - do nothing.
If there is only this subtitle for that language, check the language as subtitle, the same as if it had been an ordinary subtitle.

It's not what you want, but that's how it has always been done...

^^ This! ^^

Quoting Silence_of_Lambs:

Quote:
Quoting GSyren:

Quote:
It's not Closed Captioning, so CC should not be checked.
If there is a regular subtitle for the same language - do nothing.
If there is only this subtitle for that language, check the language as subtitle, the same as if it had been an ordinary subtitle.

It's not what you want, but that's how it has always been done...

^^ This! ^^

+1.

Quoting Silence_of_Lambs:

Quote:
Quoting GSyren:

Quote:
It's not Closed Captioning, so CC should not be checked.
If there is a regular subtitle for the same language - do nothing.
If there is only this subtitle for that language, check the language as subtitle, the same as if it had been an ordinary subtitle.

It's not what you want, but that's how it has always been done...

^^ This! ^^

Indeed.

Quoting Addicted2DVD:

Quote:
Quoting T!M:

Quote:
Quoting Silence_of_Lambs:

Quote:
Quoting GSyren:

Quote:
It's not Closed Captioning, so CC should not be checked.
If there is a regular subtitle for the same language - do nothing.
If there is only this subtitle for that language, check the language as subtitle, the same as if it had been an ordinary subtitle.

It's not what you want, but that's how it has always been done...

^^ This! ^^

Indeed.

Agree

Me too

A subtitle is a subtitle, no matter who it is intended for. That extra information cannot be stored at this moment, except locally.

Many thanks for all the replies.  (I'll think you'll find that's "seventhed" by the way, bigdaddyhorse. )  Clearly I'm overwhelmingly in the minority in my view about how this type of captioning should be noted, so I'll defer to the majority and leave it out entirely, at least for public contributions.

Quoting JeroenX:

Quote:
Quoting Addicted2DVD:

Quote:
Quoting T!M:

Quote:
Quoting Silence_of_Lambs:

Quote:
Quoting GSyren:

Quote:
It's not Closed Captioning, so CC should not be checked.
If there is a regular subtitle for the same language - do nothing.
If there is only this subtitle for that language, check the language as subtitle, the same as if it had been an ordinary subtitle.

It's not what you want, but that's how it has always been done...

^^ This! ^^

Indeed.

Agree

Me too

I think that makes me "eigthed" it

Charlie