I just lost a long post from hitting the wrong key on my tablet ....

Anyway, it started by thanking GSyren for the thoughtful comments.

But I still wonder:

- is it really true that some of the encoded data is "inaccurate" or is that an old wives' tale? If it is wrong, than how do you know? I have chuckled a couple of times when when I saw a comment like "to be sure, I checked PowerDVD". Well DVDPca is decoding exactly the same information. If it has a bug, people should report it - but it is no less accurate.
- In what cases have you seen any assumption that DVDPca makes actually result in incorrect data in the profile? (Except for features, some of which are based on educated guesses, other data should be exact. There are no assumptions - just decoding, or maybe adding up track times to get total runnning time, which is dead accurate so far as I know).

Bottom line is I'm not clear whether inaccurate metadata is real or perceived and what method one would use to (in)validate an incorrect encoding?

In the example you gave, what actual Profile field is incorrectly filled in? Maybe it is something I can fix, if I was getting more error reports like this.

I have seen US (or UK) releases of foreign language films where the metadata says that the audio is English, when in reality it is not. I think there were only the one audio track, so there would not have been an audio menu. How do I know? Because PowerDVD or my BD player displays that metadata. Anyway, the menu doesn't rely on the metadata, does it?

I'm afraid I haven't kept track of the titles where I have seen this.

I don't recall if I have seen misidentified subtitle tracks. But presumably someone is entering the metadata manually during the mastering process, and thus it's possible that a mistake can be made.

By the way, when I said that it's a pity that the standards don't include better metadata, I actually meant more metadata. Wouldn't it be nice if for example production year and studios were mandatory metadata? And (although I realize that it's not realistic) cast and crew.

Quoting mediadogg:

Quote:
Ok, so you are confirming my point. First of all, the only way to confirm metadata errors is by a painstaking review of EVERYTHING, which I know is not happening. I am also guessing that most people that enter subtitles and audio tracks do not specifically listen to each one and do an analysis that the data stream (e.g. DTS Master Audio) is what is the metadata or menu claims to be. They will believe what the menu says, or what is on the cover, or what PowerDVD says. Am I wrong on that?

Nope, you are not wrong. Although, I sometimes play through all audio tracks just to see what type of data stream it is. I'm thinking that this is a kind of metadata that probably is encoded automatically. I might react if a language was obviously wrong, but that's it. For older films I would not enter 2-channel stereo even if that's what was encoded. It's all a matter of taking some data with a grain of salt and applying what you know about languages and audio.

But just so you know, I am in no way arguing against using DVDPca. I am only speculating on the possible reasons why DVD Profiler doesn't do what you do.

My response to this thread is as well  as there are not as many new titles being entered- new release(s) may run as high as in the $30+ $$  market  and six months later that price may come down as much as 75% .. therefore new titles take longer to profile ..  with that said -- my biggest beef over the years is  the fact (as Ken had stated)  there may be as many as 6 or more editions for a single title.. each title ( apart from regions) has Editions  such as Walmart ../ Blu Ray Standard / Special directors editions .. and  widescreen / pan and scan standard editons ..  With That said You know that if a title is i.e.  is '107 minutes'  the cast and crew should be and would be consistent between all editions ( & except for region 2 the run times will vary because of the speed of the PAL over NTSC )  ..  so would the year of release as well as many of the audio encoded .. If special editions are used the run times  will vary  and so will cast/ crew  . as well as the art covers will be different .. 

Saying all this therefore these  same editions 'should be caught'  by the filters for the Invelos Profiler software and these  submitted contributions should be 'spread out' an d spread over  to the these other same editions ..
I can't say how many times I will buy a title and find as many as 6 or 8 of the same title in data base and all the titles  of this same Movie is Vastly different in data and will stay like that for many many months to years as the odd ball editions  that are only sold in certain areas will stay without proper cast crew or running time because no one has bought that edition and by using grandfathered  copy and paste methods they can easily be updated .. and if there is question of that title ( i.e. being released from one year to another)  that owner should be entitled to update the new info him/herself  ....