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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?

#491

Post by marginalia_nu »

samatman wrote: post #488
marginalia_nu wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do think Stewart's stage training shines through quite a lot. He does dial it back, but his performance is hardly realistic. (I'd also note how important recurring locations are even set up like a stage -- open with a clear unobstructed focus point for action to happen in; the bridge, ten forward and engineering especially notable). On the other hand, I'm not sure what hyper-realism would contribute to something li…

Wow I don't agree at all (haven't seen the latest series, talking about TNG and the movies). But, if I hadn't seen maybe two episodes, I might have the same impression. How often do you see Captain (!) Picard out of uniform? The character of Picard-as-officer is constantly on stage, he's the master and commander of an entire starship! Second most often, we see him on the Holodeck, where he's playing a captain playing…

I don't deny he has range, but at the same time, it's hard to get way from the fact he is a stage actor playing a character that sounds and acts like a stage actor in almost every scene. He fits the role like a glove, and the role makes a lot of sense in the show (his dignity and gravitas is something that is arguably missing in the reboots and new takes on the show).

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

#492

Post by Semaphor »

_dain_ wrote: post #490
bowsamic wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Germany and honestly it just seems to me from speaking to Germans that they have the worst mixture of a lack of sense of quality and also an uncaring-ness/sense of futility about it. I think it is kind of like the "poor service at restaurants" thing. It is a negative point that has become accepted and almost expected by Germans, so there is literally no desire to change it, which would take a lot of effort…

>Tangentially, it also reminds me of going back to the UK last week to visit a conference. The trains were just so much different to those in Germany, even the crappy "Stansted Express", those here in Germany feel very utilitarian and unfriendly (particularly the Deutsche Bahn "Bombardier Double-deck Coach") while in the UK similarly priced train services are more explicitly friendly and caring in their design. The f…

To be fair, that’s not exactly what German trains are known for either :D

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

#494

Post by YokoZar »

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.

I've noticed some streaming platforms (eg Paramount Plus) occasionally fail to make use of the center speaker entirely when supposedly in 5.1; this makes the dialog nearly inaudible. I only get this issue with some content sources, and forcing the mixer into stereo mode alleviates the problem.

There are almost surely a whole host of bugs just outputting in the format the user has, never mind mixing issues, copyright protection, and similar.

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

#495

Post by capableweb »

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…

> 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.)

I think that'd ruin me more than not having subtitles at all, because I just get stuck at reading the subtitles all the time if they are on (which, I have on 99% of the time). I go so far to avoid content that doesn't have subtitles.

What I'd love to have, would be a "speed-reading" version of subtitles, that just show each word individually as it's spoken (or maybe two/three) instead of the full sentence. That way it can still be in sync, while not ruining punchlines. Would be a real hassle to actually write/make the subtitles though, but with all the AI/ML around today, there is probably a way to automate it.

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

#497

Post by capableweb »

uno123 wrote: post #112
simonw wrote: post #78

I recently graduated to the next step beyond closed captions: I've started enabling audio descriptions for TV shows too. It's SO interesting. They are generally really well put together. And they often highlight things that I would have missed - mentioning the name of a character who joins a scene who I don't instantly recognize, for example. Even more fun: audio descriptions of the title sequences for a TV show. Thr…

I find Amazon X-Ray similarily userful. It displays the current actors on screen, their screen names, and the current song playing in the background of any scene. As far as I know, no other streaming service has this feature.

No other conglomerate owns IMDB either which is a huge treasure trove of data about all those things they display with X-Ray.

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

#498

Post by rokweom »

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…

AFAIK, there's only one audio mix done with theaters in mind, and studios don't do separate mixes for home viewing. It's down to the distributor do make sure that the average home viewer gets a good experience. That's why it boggles my mind that big players like Netflix don't have any dynamic range compression and surround downmixing options in their settings. Also the way most TVs handle surround downmixing is straight up broken. I watch my movies from mkv files on a PC, so for me it's not a problem because there's tons of options available for that in players like mpv, VLC and MPC-HC, but I do feel bad for your average person that has no business knowing about this stuff. They should just have a simple DRC setting available with maybe 3 levels and a clear explanation of what it does.

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

#499

Post by b112 »

least wrote: post #288
ekianjo wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so you have people in real life that emit slurred intelligible sounds instead of speaking properly? that sounds terrible.

I'm one of those people that mumble and/or struggle with speaking in real life, so I'm probably placing that burden more on other people than the other way around. I just find that stage acting sounds very unnatural. So do news anchors and you will find the same sort of unnatural voice in older classic films. No one talks like that in real life so of course it's something that is going to detach the tv show or movie…

When you are sitting at home, with perhaps a friend on your couch, do they constantly say "What?"

Or, if standing with a few people you know outside, is every sentence you speak replied to with a request to repeat yourself?

I bet not. Maybe it happens sometimes, but my point is, being able to understand what someone says, regardless of how they say it, is the key part here.

Yet it sounds as if you believe most people are barely understandable? Including yourself?

And for example, listening to much of the dialog out there, the Picard reference. The guy is in command of the flagship of a fleet, in the military, and would not be in command, in that position, if there was any inability to clearly issue orders, and to communicate fluently.

Beyond that, many of the characters we watch in media, are top tier of their professions, even if that profession is 'thief'.

A CEO? An ex-world class military retiree? Someone working in upper management of the NSA? These people will be heard.

There are indeed roles featuring the "regular person", but if you mumble, if you define your speach style as mumbling, that means you employ the word "mumble" to differentiate you, from how most people speak.

Otherwise you wouldn't be mumbling, you'd just be speakkng.

So that all said, I think your assertion is unfair.

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

#500

Post by itronitron »

itronitron wrote: post #406
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

A lot of the new 4K TVs by default have some 'video enhancement' processing steps turned on by default which ends up making everything look fake. If you go into the TV settings and turn all of those things off it should make the world look more natural.

Prior HN discussion on the 'soap opera effect' I'm referring to >> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10613575
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