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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?

#211

Post by jedberg »

I'm the kind of person who concentrates when I watch TV -- if I can't give it my full attention I don't watch. I'm 45 BTW.

I used to hate subtitles -- found them super distracting. Then I met my wife, whose family always watched with them on. In part because English is their second language, and as I learned later, in part because some of the relatives are very loud and talk over everything.

Now I can't watch without them. Maybe between getting used to them and having kids and the crappy mixes with the dialogue too quiet, I need them now. I feel like I'm missing something without them.

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

#212

Post by bobbylarrybobby »

TakeBlaster16 wrote: post #207
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…

Whenever I'm watching a modern movie, sticking a compressor on the audio is a must. Open VLC settings, search for "compressor". It's programmer UI, but it does exactly what it says.

I assume "compressor" here means dynamic range compressor and not quality compressor?

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

#213

Post by fleventynine »

ryandrake wrote: post #142
balderdash wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s this, if you want to have the volume at a level where conversations are understandable, the action scenes or other “high tension” moments are way too loud, and you spend your evening ride the volume control…

Yea, this is our family too. Volume button up and down, up and down, for 3 hours. I don't recall this being a problem with older movies, either. I feel like maybe modern moviemakers have access to sound pipelines with crazy vast dynamic range, and audio engineers feel they have to use every setting from "mouse quiet" to "nuclear bomb" in order to do their jobs right.

The best thing I ever did for my den was put one of these between the TV and the speakers: https://www.fmraudio.com/rnc.html

Twiddle a few knobs and now everything is the same volume and I can keep it at a nice low level and not wake the kids, but still hear everything.

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

#214

Post by boltzmann-brain »

Somatochlora wrote: post #190
zach_garwood wrote: post #74

I like having CCs on for movies because the dialog is always so quiet compared to the music and sound effects. I can keep it at a reasonable volume and still catch what the characters are saying. Also, if I'm watching British shows, I like CCs because I'm really bad at accents. Edit: I'm coming up on 40 now, so I guess I'm not the people this article is complaining about.

I don't understand how the people making movies/TV still haven't figured this out. Do they all just have home theaters and never try to watch something on a phone with crappy audio or when somebody is sleeping in the house?

Do you think those people actually watch the stuff they make? If they did, half of it would never get released, and the next 49% would be way better than it is right now.

An example of this being the case (that movie creators don't watch their stuff) is that most of the Star Trek TNG actors freely admit they've never watched most of their episodes.

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

#216

Post by AlbertCory »

fleventynine wrote: post #213
ryandrake wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, this is our family too. Volume button up and down, up and down, for 3 hours. I don't recall this being a problem with older movies, either. I feel like maybe modern moviemakers have access to sound pipelines with crazy vast dynamic range, and audio engineers feel they have to use every setting from "mouse quiet" to "nuclear bomb" in order to do their jobs right.

The best thing I ever did for my den was put one of these between the TV and the speakers: https://www.fmraudio.com/rnc.html Twiddle a few knobs and now everything is the same volume and I can keep it at a nice low level and not wake the kids, but still hear everything.

Interesting. Audacity has various compression settings. Have you tried that?

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

#217

Post by ryandrake »

least wrote: post #150
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…

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.

> I think I'd rather characters that are truer to life than sound like they're acting on stage, personally.

You can have both though. A great example is Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. He’s never mumbled a line in his life and you can understand everything he says during quiet dialog. You can be true to life, quiet AND understandable.

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

#218

Post by fleventynine »

AlbertCory wrote: post #216
fleventynine wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best thing I ever did for my den was put one of these between the TV and the speakers: https://www.fmraudio.com/rnc.html Twiddle a few knobs and now everything is the same volume and I can keep it at a nice low level and not wake the kids, but still hear everything.

Interesting. Audacity has various compression settings. Have you tried that?

Sure, but my TV can't run Audacity :)

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

#219

Post by UpstandingUser »

boltzmann-brain wrote: post #197
Seanambers wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree. The sound mixes today are so far off a pleasant experience that the people who do make them should feel ashamed - How do many actually have a home cinema room with soundproofing and 20 speakers ? Most people watch movies with a headset / a TV / 2.1 / 5.1 surround system and they may even be limited by other factors like neighbours and you know real life.. And the the voice levels is obnoxiously low a…

The slurred dialog is obnoxious and a sign of laziness on everyone's part. The miking, the post processing, the overdubbing (if there's any at all - recent film makers don't seem to know that this is a thing). The actor's speech pattern, where they direct their speech while acting, even how they stand and where. The choice of location and additional preparation of the stage so the speech can be picked up clearly. It'…

> Pig

...was terrible, I wanted more screentime with that adorable pig...sorry Nic, you're in the shadow of a real star...

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

#220

Post by thelittleone »

jamesbfb wrote: post #198
mattnewton wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Christopher Nolan is one of the biggest offenders in this regard, often having barely audible dialog drowned out by music or background noise by stylistic choice. I understand the intent is to let it wash over you but I can’t help but struggle to understand and it ends up just making me feel frustrated and taking me out of the film.

I would have paid extra for subtitles when I saw Tenet at IMAX. The audio mix made it extremely difficult to follow.

All I wanted after seeing Tenet was my time back.
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