A free screening of the 2006 movie “The Queen” aimed at the deaf in Ryde, Australia, left many baffled by the subtitles for the film — which revolves around the aftermath of the death of Britain’s Princess Diana.

Mistaken lines included dialogue about former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s having been “educated at Fettes” being translated at the bottom of the screen as “educated the fattest.” Additionally, “Did you vote?” became “Dead in a boat?” and “every newspaper proprietor has blood on his hands today” was printed as “every newspaper proprietor has blown in his hands today.”

It was not revealed where the delinquent DVD came from, only that it was swapped at the last minute when a previous DVD was also found to have problems with its captioning.

Tags: DVD, film, free screening, subtitles, The Queen

I enjoy watching a good movie and listening to multichannel music on my home theater system, but I’m more interested in and passionate about two-channel sound. Maybe it’s the fact that I grew up in a stereo world, but I think there are other, more significant reasons.

A good two-channel system makes it easy to visualize the musical performance in the soundstage, to place the vocalists and instruments in space, and to feel as is I’m in the best seat in the house listening to my favorite musician. I can see the performance with my ears when I listen to a good stereo recording.

Multichannel music and movies in surround sound get all of the attention these days, but stereo sound is alive and well judging by the breadth of high-quality two-channel components and speakers available today.

And a good stereo system doesn’t have to cost a fortune – a moderately priced receiver or amp, a disc player or turntable and a good pair of stereo speakers specifically picked from a wide range of speaker mount colors and styles can make a great two-channel system.

Tags: disc player, good movie, good stereo recording, home theater system, multichannel music, speakers, vocalists