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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?

#521

Post by distances »

jclardy wrote: post #452
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…

I had this issue recently watching Rings of Power, so much so that I have to keep the remote nearby to change every few minutes. Dialogue volume is so low you have to turn it up, then action scenes happen and the house is shaking.

I have also been doing this for years already. I only watch with subtitles -- no subtitles, no movie -- but I still like the dialogue to be audible without explosions bothering my neighbours.

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

#522

Post by mihaaly »

octobus2021 wrote: post #233
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…

I'm very much outside of the age range mentioned in the article but +100 for crappy audio mixing. When my family was going through all the Marvel movies at first I tried to control the volume by making it higher during the dialog and lower during the battles etc but it was an exercise in futility, as I'm only human and there would be some delay in volume change and we would still miss what the guy/gal said or my hous…

Apple TV had to introduce a feature that makes exactly that for you. Apparently this problem is that systematic. Movie makers ruin sound that the streamer device have to correct.

(https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/tv/atvba773c3c9/tvos> "Reduce Loud Sounds")

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

#523

Post by wazoox »

vel0city wrote: post #331
jader201 wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

A massive number of people don't have anything other than the speakers included in their TV. The next massive percentage of people maybe have a sound bar, maybe with an included subwoofer. A tiny, minuscule, microscopic percentage of consumers will have an external receiver. Maybe they'll have 5.1 on that. Maybe they'll have 9.2. An extremely small fraction, practically a rounding error, will have higher than that. M…

And among those with a 5.1 setup, most have the speakers placed haphazardly around the room and not at all as required for a correct rendering.

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

#524

Post by schwartzworld »

I'm 40. When I was 9 I made friends with a girl who was a CODA, a child of deaf adults. Her parents' TV was the first time I learned captions existed and I was immediately hooked.

Back then you couldn't rewind if you didn't understand and important piece of dialogue, and being able to read while you watch absolutely helped with not missing those moments. My parents didn't like my shows too loud, so captions just made them better.

I got in the habit of turning on CC all the time, except live shows which were usually not worth the effort.

30 years later I still love captions. When my children are sleeping in the next room, I can keep the volume low.

The only downside is that sometimes captions ruin the jokes.

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

#525

Post by Bakary »

trog wrote: post #389

In my mid forties and gave up on trying to understand the audio a couple years ago. Recently bought a sound bar which has helped quite a bit with the audio quality - apparently it's one with emphasis on centre channel so should have better voice output? - but we're still rocking the subtitles. The big downside is I tend to read them much faster. So I'm often laughing at jokes several seconds before my partner as appa…

It's not just a case of hearing loss. Much of the time, the soundmixing is just godawful.

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

#526

Post by Bakary »

dangerwill wrote: post #204

I'm in my 30s and I use subtitles for everything because I don't have the absolute best hearing and I was an anime fan growing up so it never felt weird. Doesn't the Wall Street Journal have better things to be doing other than trying to make a false generational divide over subtitles? Like seriously, this kind of needless naval gazing from a supposedly serious outlet just frustrates me so much.

Ironically we could be creating a generational divide over the fact that older people seem to like to categorize and explain away the youth without proper insight into the matter.

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

#527

Post by bee_rider »

jastuk wrote: post #450
hansbo wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting - I have subtitles on at all times (I am Swedish, we never dub adult content so I have used subtitles for a very long time), but when I do watch children's movies with my kids, they are dubbed, and then I find having subtitles on is extremely annoying. I cannot stand having subtitles in the same language as the dialogue, but which differs in phrasing/content. It is very distracting to me.

I've moved to Germany a couple of years ago and this is a HUGE issue for me. I try to improve my German by watching German shows/movies in their native language. All German audio vs subtitles differ, constantly, and not in a minor way. It's practically never been an issue with English for the past two decades.

It happens in English a little, but usually only in a really tiny differences. So it ends up being more like a funny easter-egg.

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

#529

Post by Bakary »

dhosek wrote: post #202

Speaking of captioning, why the expletive deleted do I have to turn on captions every single time I enter a meeting in Google Meet, Teams, Zoom (which makes it really hard to get captions), Slack Huddle (which I’m not sure if it has captions or not now because the last time I was in one I couldn’t find a setting to turn it on), BlueJeans, etc.? I’m signed into every single one of these and using a dedicated app in ma…

I believe this is because these settings are linked to the host in some of these apps. For instance, captions can be blocked by the host on Zoom. There is no such aspect to consider when streaming video for a single user.

How do I know this? I once organized a session on accessibility and it turned out a deaf guest had the captions blocked by our IT guy who didn't understand what was going on...

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

#530

Post by bee_rider »

stevenwoo wrote: post #118
ecshafer wrote: post #96

I started using captions as a teen because of watching anime, and then I started doing it with normal tv. I am not in my 20s but I think a big part of it is that most tv shows and movies have become absolutely impossible to hear what they are saying. I think speakers on TVs have gotten really bad with the transition to flat screen, and even with a sound system the mixing of audio has gotten really bad. Music and soun…

With the heavy accents I can barely understand every other word in shows like Brassic or sometimes an English word that means one thing for Americans but with a period/place specific meaning so I am not sure what I just heard like in Derry Girls (1980's Northern Ireland) without captioning.

Peaky Blinders and Letterkenny, for me.
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