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    Invelos Forums->DVD Profiler: Contribution Discussion Page: 1 2  Previous   Next
Canada, Quebec and their respective ratings
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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorbob9000
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Registered: March 13, 2007
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Ok here is a minor issue that just occured to me:

All DVDs/BDs/HD DVDs purchased in Canada have a Canada-wide rating, however Quebec uses their own rating system that necessitates any disc bought there to have an external rating sticker outside the packaging. You are expected to keep this sticker if you ever want to re-sell the disc within Quebec. Annoying, but whatever.

My question relates to what rating should be used when contributing a disc. Although I live in Quebec up unitl now I have been using the Canada-wide rating when contributing a Canada locality profile and the Quebec-only rating when contributing a French title to Canada(Quebec). It just occured to me this morning that there are a lot of Francophones living outside of Quebec who, when they purchase a title with a bilingual cover (most of which are released Canada-wide) may wish to contribute a French profile instead of an English one. No problem right? Just use the Canada(Quebec) locality for French like we have all been told. Except being outside Quebec they do not have access to the (hated and hateful) Quebec rating sticker and so cannot contribute the rating as the Quebec ones are different than the Canada ones. Even for people who live in Quebec will not receive a sticker if they order from an online retailer such as amazon.ca, chapters.ca, futureshop.ca, hmv.com, inetvideo.com or bestbuy.ca.

What are we supposed to do in regards to the rating in these cases? Any thoughts?

Maybe its not a big deal to Non-Canadians, but I found that I was quite irrated to realize that a significant chunk of French-speaking Canadians (about 15%) do not have access to accurate profiles in their primary language and cannot even create them when it comes to the rating. The program will not let you use a Canada rating in a Canada(Quebec) profile. And don't just say keep it local, that is not helpful to the community at large.

For the record, way back in the days of Intervocative when a second locality for Canada was only just talked about I argued against calling them Canada and Canada(Quebec) because of the fact that not all French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, and not all people living in Quebec are French. My preference would have been Canada (English) and Canada (Français), but I was ignored. Not that I am bitter or anything.   
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar ContributorDJ Doena
Registered: May 1, 2002
Registered: March 14, 2007
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Question: Does the rating (read: age-limit) for all-Canada differ from that for Quebec-Canada?

If not, where's the harm in using the all-Canada rating?
Karsten
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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorbob9000
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There would be no harm, but they are dfferent.


Canada      Quebec
G                  G
PG                13+
14A              16+
18A              18+
R

The Canadian R rating is not really in use any more in theatres, but you can still find it on the odd DVD.

Ratings tend to be more lenient in Quebec as well... PG usually ends up as G here, and 18A is almost always 16+ (if not 13+). Its has to be be pretty much hard core sex to get an 18+. For example Watchmen which is R rated in the US and 18A in the rest of Canada is 13+ here.
 Last edited: by bob9000
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorMerrik
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Quoting bob9000:
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Ratings tend to be more lenient in Quebec as well... PG usually ends up as G here, and 18A is almost always 16+ (if not 13+). Its has to be be pretty much hard core sex to get an 18+. For example Watchmen which is R rated in the US and 18A in the rest of Canada is 13+ here.


Really? Didn't know that. I just always chuckle when I see a DVD that's rated R in the U.S. and it gets a 14A rating or less in Canada. Quebec is like, super lenient! 

As for the actual rating, I'm not sure. Haven't run into it myself, but at this point, I would probably just enter it with the Canada wide rating that's actually printed on the DVD Cover and not just an attached sticker (don't know if that would be correct though).

I think the Canadian rating system needs an overhaul anyway at this point. The Television Ratings rarely, if ever really (unless it's NR or PG) correspond to the actual rating printed on the cover. Maybe a thread could be started in the features forum (or whichever forum is applicable for the next update).
The night is calling. And it whispers to me soflty come and play.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorbob9000
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Registered: March 13, 2007
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Well the problem is that if you want a French profile then you have to use the Canada (Quebec) locality, but if you do you cannot use the Canada-wide rating as the program won`t allow it.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantRossRoy
Registered: March 13, 2007
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Actually the Canada-wide rating is not necessarily the actual rating of the movie in whatever province you happen to be. The Canada-wide rating that is printed on the DVD case is an average among all individual province's ratings.

http://www.cmpda.ca/jsp/video.jsp

and

from http://www.media-awareness.ca

And, of course, as is always the case, Quebec has to do things differently than anyone else. But let's not get into that endless and stale debate.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorbob9000
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Quoting RossRoy:
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Actually the Canada-wide rating is not necessarily the actual rating of the movie in whatever province you happen to be. The Canada-wide rating that is printed on the DVD case is an average among all individual province's ratings.


That is true, but I didn't want to get into it, and is not really relevant to the issue at hand. My preference would be to scrap the Quebec sticker rating and just use what is actually printed on the DVD case. Meaning both regions would use the same ratings and ratings format. Even DVDs released exclusively in Quebec have the Canada-wide rating printed on the packaging. Ideally I would also like to see the regions renamed to Canada (English) and Canada (Français). But that is for another day and does not addess how to deal with French profiles for Discs purchased outside of Quebec.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantRossRoy
Registered: March 13, 2007
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Quoting bob9000:
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That is true, but I didn't want to get into it, and is not really relevant to the issue at hand.


That's true. I just always thought it to be insanely funny.

Quote:
My preference would be to scrap the Quebec sticker rating and just use what is actually printed on the DVD case. Meaning both regions would use the same ratings and ratings format. Even DVDs released exclusively in Quebec have the Canada-wide rating printed on the packaging.


That's actually what I do if I profile something myself. I even go as far as throwing away the Quebec rating sticker.

Yeah I know, heresy, it's illegal, blah blah blah. It's not like I have any intention to re-sell them, and if I ever do, I'll just make sure the person I sell it to lives in Ontario!  (or anywhere else in the world actually)
 Last edited: by RossRoy
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorbob9000
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I've resold a number of discs over the years, but I buy so many outside of the province and country that the majority of my titles never came with the Quebec sticker. I do keep the dratted thing however, usually sticking it somewhere inside the case where I never have to look at it. I certainly never attach it to the disc itself as it was designed to be.

In any case I have found over the last year that with the advent of HD formats it is harder to sell any discs anymore...too many people discarding their double-dips. Mostly I just give them away to friends and family now.

Back to the matter at hand, maybe this needs to move to the feature-request forum...if we can get enough Quebec-based Canadians on board to agree to replacing the Quebec rating with the Canada-wide one in profiler for French profiles. Then we would not be excluding the 1.5 million or so French-Canadians who live outside of Quebec.

or maybe nobody else gives a crap....   
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorJimmy S
Registered: March 15, 2007
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Quoting bob9000:
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Back to the matter at hand, maybe this needs to move to the feature-request forum...if we can get enough Quebec-based Canadians on board to agree to replacing the Quebec rating with the Canada-wide one in profiler for French profiles. Then we would not be excluding the 1.5 million or so French-Canadians who live outside of Quebec.

Since you had ask the oppinion from the few French Canadian here and it happens that I'm one. I don't agree at all with the idea, sorry but we have a distinct rating board from the ROC (like all the other provinces, except that they aren't used in DVDP). We have enough problem with the rating in the online presentation, we don't need to create a new one by using false rating that are more restrictive that the one we had. The French Canadian living in the ROC aren't exclude they just had to use the Canada(Quebec) locality like we do.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributornorthbloke
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Wouldn't it be better if the Canada and Canada (Quebec) localities had access to both sets of ratings? That way wherever the DVD came from, you could still add the actual rating.
Either that or a different way of recording the dual-language profiles separate from locality.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorbob9000
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Quoting northbloke:
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Wouldn't it be better if the Canada and Canada (Quebec) localities had access to both sets of ratings? That way wherever the DVD came from, you could still add the actual rating.

That is the best idea yet.

Although it occurs to me that this could result in ping-ponging contributions as people from outside and inside Quebec keeps updating the same profiles... sigh
 Last edited: by bob9000
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorbob9000
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Quoting AESP_pres:
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The French Canadian living in the ROC aren't exclude they just had to use the Canada(Quebec) locality like we do.

The problem with that of course is that they do not have access to the correct Quebec rating, nor do people living in Quebec who order online. What further complicates matters is that the DVD rating is not always the same as the Theatrical one...especially when it comes to uncut, director's cut, or unrated (which in Canada are never actually unrated LOL) editions. But I understand where you are coming from.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributornorthbloke
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Quoting bob9000:
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Although it occurs to me that this could result in ping-ponging contributions as people from outside and inside Quebec keeps updating the same profiles... sigh

That's why I think it would be better if the dual-language issue could be dealt with separately from the locality. That way the rating system would work properly.

Edit: I mean, as far as I'm aware the only things that would change would the the title and the overview. The actual contents of the disc don't change. So if a way could be found of storing both titles and overviews on the same profile, it'd be much better than the current situation I think.
 Last edited: by northbloke
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorJimmy S
Registered: March 15, 2007
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Quoting bob9000:
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The problem with that of course is that they do not have access to the correct Quebec rating, nor do people living in Quebec who order online.

The province rating board doesn't rate what is sale outside of its province and most of the websellers aren't locate in The Province of Quebec (in those case the Canada rating is the only one and the dvd locality is Canada). Really don't see what his the problem for those poor French Canadian living in the ROC...
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorbob9000
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Quoting AESP_pres:
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Really don't see what his the problem for those poor French Canadian living in the ROC...

I don't apreciate the sarcasm, and if you had actually read the first post then you would understand that if someone wants to create a French profile of a given title they are required to use the Canada(Quebec) locality, which does not allow them to use the rating for the region they are living in. And if you as a Quebecois purchase a disc from amazon.ca and want to create a profile for that title (assuming it has a French or Bilingual cover) you cannot use the rating from the packaging either and since it did not come with the Quebec rating sticker you may not know what the proper rating for that title is.

Northbloke is correct, we must disconnect language from region if we wish to preserve both the the language and rating options for a Canadian consumer.
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