Today I've submitted amendments and additions to the profiles for Spooks seasons 1 - 6. 

However, it's been bought to my attention today that "if these  [commentaries] are on separate discs they shouldn't be added".

The rules for "Audio Formats" clearly state:

"List each Commentary track as a separate entry."

Some of the child discs for spooks include 2 commentaries per disc.  So I've listed 10 audio commentaries on the parent title or 6 audio commentaries depending on the season, as none of these commentaries include the same cast or crew members.

Other seasons of Spooks include less commentaries per disc / season but I've followed the same rules and included multiple commentary audio tracks on the parent profile / child profiles, to represent multiple commentaries available on the parent profile.

This seems correct based on the rules but as the issue has been raised as feedback can I have some clarification on as it appears I may be interpreting the rules wrong.

Should the parent profile include just one entry for commentary as an audio track and the child profiles then list however many commentaries are on the individual disc? 

This doesn't seem correct based on the Audio Format rules quoted above but I'd appreciate the clarification.

Regards.

Quoting Grumpy Gandalf:

Quote:
The rules for "Audio Formats" clearly state:

"List each Commentary track as a separate entry."

I've always understood this to refer to multiple audio tracks for the same content. So, if a film has two different audio commentaries, we list two Commentary audio tracks.

So if a TV episode has two different audio commentaries, then I'd list two audio tracks. But I wouldn't use multiple commentary audio tracks if there wasn't a single episode on the set that had two commentary tracks for the same episode.

Example:


Personally I have never done it like this and I have never seen anyone else do it. Because by the same logic we would list Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 ten times, once for each disc. And we don't.

Since I have a Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series box set I should list English DD 5.1 143 times to parent profile? Really? Should we make a Feature Request for 250 Audio track entries so we could "follow the rules"? You (general) can't be serious.

I actually think there is some common sense depending on how you look at it. If I have a series set that has say 5 commentary tracks... I can see how, even after checking the rules as they are written, someone would add 5 commentary tracks. One for each commentary in the set.

While I can't say that is what Invelos intends.... reading the rules as they are written I can't say it don't make sense to believe it is the right way to do it.

Going by what the rules say... if it isn't meant to be done then there should be something in the box set and TV series rules to say otherwise. As the rules says all the box sets and TV series must follow the standard rules unless their sections says otherwise.

Thanks everyone for your help and comments.  I really appreciate everyone taking the time to comment and Addicted2DVD's advice.  Given your advice I won't amend the profiles I've submitted.

However, I agree the rule is quite ludicrous in a TV Box Set situation when there are multiple commentaries.  I read with interest the comment about box sets with large numbers of commentary tracks.  I haven't come across this personally.  I own a lot of TV series box sets but the TV series I own and I have submitted as profiles have only had a few audio commentaries per series so listing all the commentaries on the parent profile hasn't posed a problem.  This is the first time I've had to list 10 commentary tracks on the parent profile and clearly it has caused some controversy. 

I agree though, common sense should apply to this rule and if I do come across a box set with more than 10 episodes with commentaries (it will be interesting to see what TV series if any I find in my collection with such large numbers of commentaries, and I in no way doubt what your saying) I am going to draw a line at listing them all on the parent or indeed the child profiles.  If there are multiple commentaries I will not make any amendments to add additional commentary tracks and if I'm adding a new TV series I will only list one commentary track due to the high number of commentary tracks.  I hope given the comments in this discussion this is reasonable and acceptable.

I agree there isn't any point in duplicating other audio tracks such as 5.1 and 2.0 audio. I have to question why anyone would want to list such tracks multiple times when there's essentially no difference in their output? With TV episodes the commentaries are different, as each episode will invariably (but not always) have a discussion by different cast and crew about different subject matter. So I believe there is a valid reason to duplicate the different commentary tracks over and above the other audio tracks.  But to be fair the rule I quoted only makes reference to commentary tracks being duplicated, so there is no precedent in the rules for duplicating other audio tracks.

In the same vein if a commentary crossed two discs and it was the same commentary (which invariably it would be), I would only list the one commentary as it's the same cast or crew continuing their discussion.

Quoting tweeter:

Quote:
The few times i've run across this, or submitted, i've submitted the maximum number of commentary tracks found on any one disc in the set.

If 3 child discs had 1 commentary and 4 children had 2 commentaries i'd add 2 commentary tracks to the parent (and document it accordingly upon submission).  This has never been a problem.

The parent will never reflect ALL child discs but can be made to represent the best of any of the children.

I would treat it this way as well.

Quoting dee1959jay:

Quote:
To me that makes sense.

Yup