SilverWook said:

One thing I've wondered about, are different fonts and colors possible with DVD subtitles? Would be cool if they could somehow match the style of text used in the movie itself. The studios never seem to do much with subtitles beyond white, yellow, and kind of blocky.

Yes, it's possible to have different fonts and colors within the same stream. But as molly said there is a limitation when it comes to DVD subs and in the way they are stored, they are often quite ugly and blocky. But I have a pretty nice font I'm using that is easy to read, I can post a few samples later.

SilverWook said:

(And it's really annoying when they inexplicably replace burned in subs with them too.) Closed captions on an old 1980's tv set have more visual appeal. ;)

Yeah, I fully agree with you, I think that one of the reasons we see that so often nowadays is that the studios go back to the original negative more often (which is of course great) where the burned in subs aren't present, I guess. I think the other reason must have to do with making it easier for foreign releases.

erri_wan, I noticed than SEN is named JEN and OMM is named IMM in the Italian closing titles, are they pronounced that way in the film as well?