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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?

#301

Post by 41b696ef1113 »

asdff wrote: post #257
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…

To be fair the consumer audio stack is crap in the average home. I bet a CRT TV would be a big improvement in audio quality compared to most flat screens on the market.

But shouldn't the product be created for the typical end user and not the 1% of cinemaphiles with a blessed setup?

A pretty common complaint is that developers only test things on their latest generation i9, with unlimited ram, and 8k displays.

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

#302

Post by sph »

UpstandingUser wrote: post #219
boltzmann-brain wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Eh, I've seen worse films from him, and worse acclaimed films this past couple years. In fact, 2 of the 6 movies I've watched the past couple years have been with Nicholas Cage, and I'm not even a fan of his.

I don't know if it's just me but cinema has become really shit, unless you're into superhero movies. It's like nothing matters any more to executives and moviegoers of all ages than superheroes. Are we living in Idiocracy?

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

#303

Post by sph »

lawkwok wrote: post #166
pvarangot wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the same issue but instead of using subtitles I've embraced not knowing what's going on with the show. If it was important that I know for my enjoyment then I'm probably not watching the show anymore. Like if what the actor said was unintelligible I'm going to go with that's part of the plot, a puzzle for me to figure out on the show subreddit or something, but I'm not going to deal with the shitty blinding su…

That’s how I watch movies in general. Maybe it’s a symptom of ADHD or lack of interest but I find it hard to remember people’s names and plot reveals that require me to remember to specific locations or details. I just watch movies and enjoy them “generally”.

I hate that feeling. Not knowing if the name they just mentioned is someone important I forgot about or the director is going for a convoluted timeline and they are talking about someone we haven't seen yet.

I have better things to do than watch movies with the risk of not understanding them. It's like saying to read a book "generally." What a waste of time.

But it also depends on the genre. If you're a fan of blockbuster action movies, most dialogue is unimportant anyway. If you enjoy drama or more artsy movies, you probably need to follow what's going on.

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

#304

Post by kelnos »

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…

My old AV receiver had a "night mode" (I believe it was called) that did some really great, natural-sounding dynamic range compression. I ended up just keeping it on all the time, for the reasons the parent lists. Alas, the entire unit stopped working several years ago, and I learned it would cost more to repair it than replace it... and I didn't do great research when buying its replacement, so "night mode" is no more.

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

#306

Post by jader201 »

IgorPartola wrote: post #249
Klonoar wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an article that's been floating around that notes this phenomenon started after Nolan's movies became the style to emulate, and there are various sound engineers who state they would like to do what you want but they have to produce what the paying entity asks for. Someone should feel free to link it here - I'm mobile at the moment so can't dig it up. But anyway, I just wanted to jump in and say... all the ti…

Wait it isn’t because 5.1 became the norm for recording movies bust most people have a 2.0 or a 2.1 setup at most? I thought that was the conventional wisedom.

> most people have a 2.0 or a 2.1 setup at most

Wait, is this true? I’ve always thought I was in the minority for “still” having “just” 2.0. I’ve been needing to upgrade my receiver for a while, but mostly putting it off since I can’t find a decent 2.0 one with a good number of inputs. Almost every receiver is (5+2n).1 these days (where n >= 0).

I feel so behind the times in my simple 2.0 system, even though I think it sounds better than almost any other setup I’ve heard — and my speakers are probably 30 years old!

So I really don’t care if I’m behind the times, but would still be nice to find someone produce a first-class 2.0 receiver.

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

#307

Post by fleventynine »

AlbertCory wrote: post #273
fleventynine wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Admittedly I haven't tried this so probably misguided, but if you can stick that box in front of the TV, could you not put a computer instead?

Yes, a computer with a good low-noise ad/da converter can be an excellent compressor. But it's likely to be much more expensive than a used RNC.

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

#308

Post by joshka »

Words per minute spoken - 120-150

Words per minute read - 220-350

When doing some other task side by side with consuming a movie with captions, the combination of reading and hearing allow a better comprehension than just one or the other. E.g. side tasks like reading twitter, playing a game, sending a text message. When captions replace the aural mode, this allows enough time to interleave attention (e.g. watching a movie while browsing TikTok on mute).

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

#309

Post by [deleted] »

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...

[deleted]

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

#310

Post by sph »

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...

This is an insightful observation but also feels incomplete and outdated. They use hot and cold to distinguish between "one sense" and "all senses", for some reason, which doesn't quite match modern media.

But I definitely agree that there is something to it, and video games occupy a different niche of entertainment than movies for me. Video games are a pastime and a hobby, movies and shows are not unlike books: I don't want to miss a single piece of the action.

When I have dinner I watch something off Youtube. Movie time is after dinner when I can give my full attention to it.

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