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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?

#421

Post by dijit »

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.

That used to be the problem.

It became less of a problem because 5.1 became a lot more common and TVs are smarter about muxing 5.1 into 2.1 than they used to be.

But something changed in the last ten years and having a real 5.1 setup (like I have) isn’t helping anymore.

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

#422

Post by qwertox »

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…

This is why I sometimes choose the German-dubbed version of a movie, even though I prefer the original one in English. They either mumble that it's hard to understand, or have an accent, or it's just a bad mix there the dialog is disturbed by noises. Dubbing reduces those noises ans removes the mumbling and the accents.

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

#423

Post by pnut »

zzo38computer wrote: post #388

I use captions too, even though I can (usually) hear the TV. There are many reasons for this: - I think it makes it somewhat easier to understand than audio only, for one thing. - If you do not know what they said, because you have missed it, possibly due to other noise in the room (telephone, other people speaking, etc). - Sometimes the speech of the movie is difficult due to e.g. you do not understand the accent of…

Those worthless captions are audio description for the hearing impaired.

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

#424

Post by knorker »

being on the wrong side of 40 the CC was to me always available. I always hated them.

So now I hate it double. Either can't understand dialog, or need obnoxious un-immersive subtitles turned on.

So most of the time watching I have to have make an effort to my eyes stay away from the bottom part of the screen, only to "check the cheat sheet" when they start mumbling or ruin the movie with terrible mixing.

It's not the viewer. It's the content.

It seems like most content now. Tenet is just the parody of it, ironically parodying before most of the phenomenon had bloomed.

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

#425

Post by shever73 »

bscphil wrote: post #83
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…

> [CC] complements the audio & visual nicely. I don't have any evidence for this but I'd wager that plot synthesis and comprehension of television shows is greatly improved by CC As you say, you don't have any evidence for this, so I'll just add that my subjective impression is the absolute opposite. I find it impossible to concentrate on what is happening visually on screen in a film when closed captions are on. I a…

I am exactly the same. Even with the audio on, I can’t focus on what’s happening on the screen when captions are on.

My 26 year-old son watches everything with captions, so there’s always a battle because I switch them off and he switches them back on again.

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

#426

Post by whywhywhywhy »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #368
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'…

A little off topic but it’s really surprising how so few of the shows and movies these days give off any vibe of sincerity. From the acting to the writing to the CGI, everything seems to be winking at the audience and trying to tell them that they are all actors and its all make believe. The perfect example is Lord of the Rings vs The Rings of Power. I had no problems believing that Aragorn really lived in Middle Ear…

With something like that new LOTR show, the budgets are so astronomical but where’s the auteur? It’s a series so presumably directors are not consistent.

Might be an issue that there isn’t a single person pushing the world, aesthetic, vibe and vision making the actors immersed in their roles. In the end getting all dressed up and standing against a green screen probably feels a bit silly without someone selling it to you.

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

#427

Post by sprkwd »

ninkendo wrote: post #131
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 wish there was a CC mode for “I’m not deaf, I just don’t catch the quiet mumbly dialog sometimes so give me captions only of the dialog.” Bonus if it’s delayed by exactly 2 seconds, so that it doesn’t spoil jokes, and I can quickly reference it if I missed something someone said (helping me avoid fixating on the captions.) Because it’s the CC descriptions of music swells and things like “[laughs] and “[crying]”, et…

[whooshing intensifies]

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

#428

Post by zimpenfish »

dmitriid wrote: post #365
Godel_unicode wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What part of “seems like a problem for the producers of bad screens to solve” makes it seem like this is blaming the people who buy the screens and not the people that make the screens. Don’t make the art worse, hold the manufacturers accountable for selling terrible products.

Art is worse though. From intangible sludge https://www.vox.com/culture/22840526/colors-movies-tv-gray-d... to modern DPs and directors not being able to film a dark scene competently https://twitter.com/nikitonsky/status/1564633641828884483

James Stephanie Sterling did a video a long time ago (which I currently cannot find) about "the best game for your HD TV" and concluded (IIRC) that it was Viva Pinata because of the ludicrous colourfulness of the game which really showed off the power of HD TVs. Contrasted with the "intangible sludge" of the Dooms, Quakes, etc.

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

#429

Post by knorker »

snowwrestler wrote: post #256
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 whole framing is bull. People who grew up without closed captions are just used to watching a show without it. For them, it’s distracting to constantly have words to look down and read when they are trying to pay attention to what is happening on the screen. Like trying to read the words on every single road sign when you drive somewhere. You may notice that in movie theaters—the most focused and immersive watch…

No, that's not it. I grew up with literally everything in English being subtitled. Always hated it, but all I can do is make an effort to not have my eyes there.

Even some DVDs did not have the option to turn off subtitles. I never had subtitles on for anything that gave me the option. (I even bought DVDs from overseas occasionally to not get subtitles)

But now every other show is frequently incomprehensible.

Either they've put lead in the drinking water, making us all not understand the spoken word, or they've made dialog audio shit.

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

#430

Post by d3ckard »

snowwrestler wrote: post #256
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 whole framing is bull. People who grew up without closed captions are just used to watching a show without it. For them, it’s distracting to constantly have words to look down and read when they are trying to pay attention to what is happening on the screen. Like trying to read the words on every single road sign when you drive somewhere. You may notice that in movie theaters—the most focused and immersive watch…

> You may notice that in movie theaters—the most focused and immersive watching experience there is—they don’t show captions except maybe when translating foreign language.

Well, it just tells you come from the English speaking country. For the rest of us, subtitles in a movie theatre are among most normal things in the world.

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