[fhennig]

I recently rented a movie on amazon, and then I didn't have the option to get english subtitles, only subtitles in my native language.

I wonder why that is, and I'm assuming it is because of some cumbersome contractual relations.

On a DVD I'm pretty certain I could have gotten English subtitles.

So now I'm paying, but I still get sub-par content?

I ended up using a plugin to add the subtitles back in, but that plugin works on pirate streams too. Could've pirated it in the first place.

[fragmede]

Go to a different country, and Netflix offers a different set of subtitles for a given title. Why can't I get Swedish subtitles in the US, for titles Neflix has the subtitles? I know this is to simplify the UI, but just offer it as an advances option, like they do for non-apathy mode (ie, stop playing at the end of one episode so I don't lose a day sitting on the couch).

[partialrecall]

> "I know this is to simplify the UI"

Why is that even necessary? Youtube offers you the full list to choose from and I don't see users writhing on the ground clutching their skulls in agonizing confusion. Users can handle a list of languages just fine.

This industry thinks too little of users.

[tomc1985]

And designers, kings/queens of the "you think you want this feature, but our user tests show that you actually don't"

[fragmede]

That's the worst. For mature products, all that A/B testing does is test how close the old UI is to the new UI. Users are scared of change, to the point that when Ebay wanted to change the color of their banner, changing the color instantly was a travesty to their users so instead, Ebay transitioned the color slowly, over months, to yellow.[0]

[0] https://theuxblog.com/blog/redesigning-user-experience

[distances]

> Why can't I get Swedish subtitles in the US, for titles Neflix has the subtitles? I know this is to simplify the UI

Not true. I'm pretty sure it's licensing cost. In Germany most movies have subtitles only in German, while a handful also in English -- all Netflix originals and maybe some others. Meanwhile, basically all series have English subtitles for some arcane reason.

For me Netflix is a series-only service, I've given up on finding any movie worth watching that would have English subtitles.

[kjaftaedi]

This bothers me a lot as well.

For some reason I also get different subtitle options on my phone than I do my television despite both being on the same network (no vpn).

I also hate that they offer a show with audio in the original language, but no subtitles for the same language. So you have to be either mostly fluent or forced to watch the dubbed version.

[jaredklewis]

Are you truly certain it is just to simplify the UI? I am not sure for Swedish, but I do know that US films subtitled in Japanese often have different licensing arrangements than the unsubtitled version.

For the same inscrutable reasons that the film industry insists on schemes like DVD region locking, they are also generally against making a single version of a movie with all subtitles available.