Quoting northbloke:

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No, I think what Wombat is trying to say is that in the West the name can be either Francois or François - but it can't be both for the same person at the same time.
However with romanisation of Kanji - the different variants you get for the same name are all correct - which makes it much harder to pick the best variant.

How dare you presume to know what it mean! ... and be right. Spot on there northbloke. 

Quoting Gemini76:

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Yes, I do understand. But I still think, and I think that's also what you're saying, that all names should be written using the Latin alphabet. So I common name should be able to be determined, as the credits sometimes are written using the Latin Alphabet.

But when the credits are in Asian writing, wouldn't someone be able to translate them into something that can be searched in the CLT, just skipping the credited as.

But if the CLT would work similar to the IMDB, we should be more able to get a common name, or spelling. But today there's no way I'm able to search the CLT for a common name as these can be very different from what's credited.

And the problem is that in some cases, the CLT is ringing up a lot of hits that are from IMDB (at least as far as Asian titles go).  As I've stated in those previous threads, the early days of DVDProfiler lacked any rules, so it was the Wild West and many profiles were filled with IMDB clones -- and I know, since I was one of those culprits.  In particular, the Asian titles were cloned since few were doing the actual work.  A majority of those profiles are still present today.

Some problems can solved with a simple program fix.  Either a single name field or the ability to checkbox a field for sorting name (for those that are concerned with entering the names that are reversed with family name/given name in Asian cultures).  But some require using a standard that is unique to those regions.  I know that it won't be popular with some of the hardcore rules fans around here, but they would likely be unaffected by the change anyway.

For example, we have a problem with common names in that the names aren't always common.  I mentioned the Ryoo=Ryu example above.  Should the credit be Ryoo Seung-beom, Ryoo Seung-bum, Ryu Seung-beom or Ryu Seung-bum. Nothing is wrong with those names, since any of them could likely be found in the actor's films, but which one should we use?  Many of the time, the name isn't listed at all in Western characters.  Using a reference database like HanCinema.net (or HKMDB for HK films), we could decided a standard and stick with it (much like Taro is suggesting regarding romanization of Japanese names).  Unfortunately, without an available standard, we can't have an accurate database.

Quoting marcelb7:

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My proposal is to drop the "^" in the common names, and only use it in the credited name (if it's credited that way, ofcourse).

Wouldn't that ruin the entire version of the name. Like with the "ç".

Yes, and I can see what you mean when the credits are in any asian language, but when the credits are in Roman letters I would think it's better to write it as it is credited, even with the ^. With no knowledge of these names people wouldn't know to substitute the "^" with an "u".

But of course when you translate the credits, you'll have to have some knowledge, and I don't see any reason for adding special signs when you're allready translating.

Is "JSL's ou" just your pronouncement, or is this the actual credit?

If this is the credit I would rather just add this directly to the credits. If not as I understand this thread is all about, I fully understand, and do not see the problem with this symbol.

Quoting tas314:

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All this boils down to...

For an R1 DVD (or a very few R2 Japanese) with English credits use the spelling as credited (as per the rules) don't try and standardize the name. Different spellings can be handled just like Bob = Robert for an English actor.

For an R2 (or R1 with no English credits) you can't use just the Japanese credits, even if you can read Japanese.
Easy - Use the credits from another release of the same film that has English credits (include source in the notes).
If that's not available you may be able to find the reading (English spelling) for famous people but it will be next to impossible for less well known people, cast or crew.

OK, useful suggestion. I can certainly follow you up to this point.

- If there are western credits: use those
- If not, check if that person is already in the DB and use that name
So far, I can follow.

The only problem left is for people who are credited in Japanese and aren't in the DB yet. Are we then free to choose the transcription method of our liking? I think about 80% of discs I have will fall into that category. Here's an example from my old dbase before I switched to DVD Profiler:
Kamen Rider Blade vol 1
Kyojyuu tokusou Jaspion vol 1
as you can see, I put the Japanese credits in, with my own romanisation of the names. Some names don't have a romanisation because I wasn't sure of the correct pronunciation.

So ... I guess for those cases, I'll just have to try my best putting in as much accurate info as possible 

Quoting Gemini76:

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But how would a normal person knwo what name to look for when all you see is squares and lines?

Squares and lines probably mean you don't have Japanese text support installed on your computer, but your point still stands.

Quoting Danae Cassandra:

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Quoting tas314:

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shôjo, shôjô, and shojo are three different words ( girl, Letter of invitation or certificate, virgin) so you can't just drop the ^.

Ahh, thank you!  The only definition I was familiar with was the manga/anime genre shôjo.  But is it correct to also romanize it shoujo?  I see that romanization a lot in various anime/manga settings, as well as shôjo.

Yes both are correct, they are just different systems. ou is an older system (from the days of the typewriter) and is often used online because it's easier to type and works on forms that only support ASCII, ô became popular with computers and word processors.

In English you may see Shojo (DVD covers etc.) because like anime and manga it has become an English word. In English it no longer has the meaning of Girl, it's only used as the manga/anime genre. Just like the way Japanese borrow English words and change the meaning along the way (Manshon is Japanese for a large western style apartment/condo building for example).