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Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

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Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#171

Post by toast0 »

nick__m wrote: post #127
julianlam wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One wonders what the judging criteria are for sound mixing at the Academy Awards, since it certainly seems like "legible speech" isn't one of them.

Most production are not made with the passable quality of reproduction that a sound bar provides in mind. Mix are made for a THX compliant setup where the center speaker is responsible for over 50% of the dialog delivery. If you skimp on the center speaker quality and placement, the dialog mix gets muddy quite quickly.

I go to the local movie house a fair bit, and while it may not be THX certified or compliant, it's certainly not too bad. Some movies include speech that's easy to understand and others are kind of hard to hear.

Certainly, modern very thin TVs have a very uphill battle to fight, but a good center doesn't fix everything.

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#172

Post by nicolas_t »

bhj wrote: post #169
least wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple TV has a setting called "reduce loud sounds" which helps with this problem. I'm sure you can find it on other devices too. My Sony TV also has a sound setting for enhanced dialogue which might help as well. Can't really help with the actors thing, though I think I'd rather characters that are truer to life than sound like they're acting on stage, personally.

> The Apple TV has a setting called "reduce loud sounds" This does help, but at some point Apple increased the compressor’s release time so that it’s far too quiet even 10-15s after the loud transient. I wish they would make it behave more like a brickwall limiter.

I had noticed that it had changed but wasn't sure what exactly the change was. Yes, far too quiet 10-15s after the loud transient is exactly why I ended up having to disable it.

Before that it worked perfectly and better than my Denon receiver :(

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#173

Post by ericcholis »

hinkley wrote: post #135
Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #50

I always have subtitles on in games. Especially since I find it hard to focus on the words being spoken and video game cutscenes are almost always unable to be rewound. During gameplay it's harder to read and play at the same time though, although over the years it's gotten easier. Through my years of watching Anime it's also quite easy for me to watch and read at the same time. I think for watching movies they can b…

I had to buy a 3.1 bar just to get a center channel. Basically one of us couldn't make out voices without it, and there were a couple movies/shows where it was just unwatchable. I'm not sure why things like Apple TV can't do a more credible job remixing the audio for 2 speakers.

I think the speakers in most TV's these days are a big culprit.

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#174

Post by gloryjulio »

Because why not? It's far more often than not that for whatever reasons the dialog sounds are just terrible. They don't care about the audience hearing the dialog(see Tenet). A show which guarantees that you can hear every line clearly is the outlier now.

Might as well just set cc on to default

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#175

Post by hot_gril »

extragood wrote: post #17

> Captions can also facilitate multitasking I have a hard time believing this. Captions demand more attention if anything. I can passively "watch" a video by only listening to the audio, but I can't passively read. I think that the phenomenon described in the article may actually be a symptom of a much deeper social change. Listening and auditory comprehension were critical skills for communication and preservation o…

It's simpler than this. If you're watching a movie/show on a phone or laptop in a shared area, it'll probably be at low volume, so you can't hear the dialog. I've watched entire series with CC for exactly this reason.

With social media videos, CC is even more important cause nobody wants their phone making noise in public, and any wise app will mute by default anyway.

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#176

Post by leovander »

cronix wrote: post #160
ryandrake wrote: post #136

One more vote for terrible audio mixes and one for actors who mumble their dialog. Whenever I watch movies with my wife, we constantly have to fiddle with the remote control. The loud parts (including explosions and music) are too loud for her, so we have to turn the volume down during those parts, but the dialog is too quiet and mumbly for me to hear, so we turn the volume up during those parts. We now just keep the…

If you have a 5.1 system, boost the center channel. That's mainly dialog.

I'm going to guess that most folks now-a-days go with a single soundbar that acts as the whole sound system, maybe there is still a center channel in the bar? Whether that be for; price, small living space or a partner doesn't want speakers around the world, its a convenient space saver that sits under the TV, sight mostly unseen.

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#177

Post by Twirrim »

zach_garwood wrote: post #89
Twirrim wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article feels like the next generation of "Millennials are ruining...." much like "Gen Y is ruining..." etc. articles that came before those.

Millennials are Gen Y. Gen Z are the ones just now becoming adults. I think you meant Gen X. And yes, Boomers just love to complain about every subsequent generation. I, for one, will not miss them when they're gone.

It's not just boomers complaining, if you look at the ages of the journalists behind the articles, you'll generally find it's younger journalists, approaching 30s, maybe 40s, effectively taking the crap they got and passing it down the line.

In this article's case, a quick google search shows the journalist is in their mid 20s.

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#178

Post by jdofaz »

russellbeattie wrote: post #38
adwi wrote: post #26

Tangential: I’ve found subtitles to be a very useful tool for learning a language. In order of challenge, I’ll at least watch everything in English with Spanish subtitles, then Spanish SAP with English subtitles, then Spanish SAP with Spanish subtitles, then just in Spanish.

I discovered something amusing about this. When I was living in Spain 20 years ago, my Spanish (ex-) wife and I bought a DVD collection of Friends. At first we'd watch it in English with Spanish captions so my ex could get the subtleties, then as her English improved, we'd watch it with English captions which helped with words she was unfamiliar with. Then we started doing the reverse, Spanish overdub with English ca…

I see that a lot on Netflix, I like to watch with the captions on but not for the foreign stuff with English dubbing. Squid Games is one that comes to mind where I'd have to turn the captions off because the mismatch between the english audio and captions was too distracting for me.

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#179

Post by nicolas_t »

pedalpete wrote: post #68
perrygeo wrote: post #45

The fact that there's a claimed generational gap here speaks more to the values of the generations re: passive vs active entertainment. I could also ask: "Why do all these 60-Somethings have the TV on as background noise while doing other tasks?" To me it seems closed-caption usage is correlated with actually paying attention to television consumption. People who have their TV on at all hours, as background entertain…

I agree, but also find it surprising that younger generations are more focused on what they are watching. I'm a background watcher for sure, and this trend with CC suggests to me that the whole "2nd screen" thing isn't playing with the younger generation. Any insights as to why that may be? To give more context, I was always a "background media" person. Even as a kid I'd draw while in front of the TV, I was never a f…

I use CC even in my native language especially when I background watch. It's easy to work while watching a tv show (only works with relatively boring work) if I know I can quickly glance at the subtitles if I missed anything.

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#180

Post by nopenopenopeno »

rileyphone wrote: post #146
perrygeo wrote: post #45

The fact that there's a claimed generational gap here speaks more to the values of the generations re: passive vs active entertainment. I could also ask: "Why do all these 60-Somethings have the TV on as background noise while doing other tasks?" To me it seems closed-caption usage is correlated with actually paying attention to television consumption. People who have their TV on at all hours, as background entertain…

This aligns pretty well with McLuhan's concept of cool and hot media [0]. The younger generations prefer it cool - perhaps their hotness is found in newer forms like video games. [0] https://mediawiki.middlebury.edu/MIDDMedia/Hot_versus_cool_m...

Underrated comment. These are such critical concepts and really the way we should all be discussing out media consumption.
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