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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?

#551

Post by boltzmann-brain »

iamacyborg wrote: post #517
boltzmann-brain wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The '05 tripod noises are meant to sound like V1 bomb scare-sounds, which is originally made to sound like mythical Horns of Jericho: https://www.factmag.com/2016/10/09/sound-fear-room40-boss-la... Listen to the V1 bomb sound in the clip on that page - there's no surprise they're being referred to in following works of fiction.

Huh, that’s neat. You can definitely see the influence of that sound then following on into Inception which seemed to really popularise it.

It's always been around. In fact it's been very popular in games like the Modern Warfare series, which have major popular appeal.

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

#552

Post by nogridbag »

boltzmann-brain wrote: post #466
nogridbag wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would a soundbar help the situation or make it worse? With two kids 90% of the time I'm watching kids movies but I still turn on the closed captions. Any background noise and it's nearly impossible to hear the dialogue without cranking up the volume to an undesirable level.

It might to some extent, but it's not the perfect way to go. Speech reproduction gets muddled by distortion and by masking ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_masking ). If you have one speaker reproducing both speech and other sound, this is what happens: 1. additional sound output means heightened distortion 2. when two sounds come from two places, our brains can separate them due to phase differences and spat…

I've had a few 5.1 systems in the past (energy, Polk audio speakers) but I found while the center channel quality is excellent there's just too much bass. Even at low volumes the bass disturbed others in the home (even after playing with eq, boosting center channel, and enabling night mode on the receiver). Currently I have an LG Gallery TV. I like the ease of just using TV for audio and even after raising the volume it doesn't vibrate the whole house.

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

#553

Post by boltzmann-brain »

hef19898 wrote: post #484
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…

The majority of Netflix series produced in Europe are actually a pleasant surprise in that regard. When to comes to writing and acting as well as production, and yes, sound mixing. I consider myself a fantasy and sci-fi nerd, binge read the Lord of The Rings, starting with the Hobbit, between Christmas Eve and when the first movie came out. Read the Simarilion. Loved the LotR triology. Like the Hobbit, ehich already…

Agreed. But then comes along something like The Expanse with impeccable writing, a gripping, high-octane story, with every episode being pretty much perfect, and great set design, and it falls into obscurity and gets prematurely cancelled because it's not being shoved down people's throats.

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

#554

Post by leeter »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #400
IgorPartola wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It’s honestly ridiculous how bad the stereo (aka what 99% of viewers will experience) mixes are. The explosions can be heard by my neighbors yet I can barely hear the dialogue at the same volume. Find myself basically doing half the mix work myself with the volume control. Too many audiophiles in the production chain focusing on something that barely matters at the expense of most viewers.

Theory: Because distribution companies for movies made having DTS/Dolby Atmos/Whatever mandatory in the theater, sound engineers primarily focus on that because that takes 99% of the time. Because theaters with just optical stereo (yes I'm aware most theaters use digital distribution and projectors now, that just hammers home the point) aren't really a thing any more they don't really bother optimizing it because "nobody will hear that anyway". Then when the film goes to home distribution the distribution company takes the automatic downmix that is the existing stereo track for the optical stereo on a print and use that because they don't want to second guess the sound engineers or the director.

Long theory short: it's the same reason the Beatles mono album versions sound a ton better than the stereo versions, because that was the optimized version because that's what people listened too at the time. Sound engineers aren't being paid to optimize the stereo or even 5.1 versions of the audio, only the theater version in whatever multi-channel standard is popular at the moment, so they don't bother they let the standard downmix stand.

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

#555

Post by boltzmann-brain »

nogridbag wrote: post #552
boltzmann-brain wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might to some extent, but it's not the perfect way to go. Speech reproduction gets muddled by distortion and by masking ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_masking ). If you have one speaker reproducing both speech and other sound, this is what happens: 1. additional sound output means heightened distortion 2. when two sounds come from two places, our brains can separate them due to phase differences and spat…

I've had a few 5.1 systems in the past (energy, Polk audio speakers) but I found while the center channel quality is excellent there's just too much bass. Even at low volumes the bass disturbed others in the home (even after playing with eq, boosting center channel, and enabling night mode on the receiver). Currently I have an LG Gallery TV. I like the ease of just using TV for audio and even after raising the volume…

It's not from the speakers - it's from your room. Read up on standing modes. Placing the bass producing speaker (usually the subwoofer) in a different spot can help alleviate this tremendously.

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

#556

Post by azemetre »

distances wrote: post #521
jclardy wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One of the reasons why I bought an Apple TV was the ability to pair it with my airpods. Makes is super convenient to hear everything if you live in an apartment, also some shows take advantage of the spatial audio which is neat if you don't have a proper sound setup.

I still turn on subtitles tho. On that front I've been noticing some subtitles will not match the english dialogue at all. This is noticeable on the Netflix shows Cyberpunk Edgerunners and Aggretsuko. I'm guessing these shows had their scripts written in non-english languages and that was what the translation teams worked with.

I don't remember the exact lines but I do remember them different enough where you can tell the translations were "strict" whereas the dialogue was more "natural" sounding if that makes sense.

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

#557

Post by leephillips »

SkeuomorphicBee wrote: post #508
IgorPartola wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The 5.1 vs 2.0 is a bit of a red herring, it used to be a big problem a decade or two ago, but today it is just a small to insignificant contributor to the problem. The real problem now a days is not technical, it is 100% director's choice. Having deafening "wooooon" organ music, and ear popping explosions is simply in vogue, so all directors want that in their movie, and mix like that on purpose. And it is not about…

I’ve been using ear protection in my ears at the movies for decades. They’re just too loud.

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

#558

Post by conorcleary »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #540

I vote for subtitles as an over-40. I started literally requiring subtitles due to the presence of children (whom I dearly love) in the house and all the other various household sounds like kettles boiling or dishwashers or washing machines or toilet flushes or whatever the fuck else. But I can't go back. I've re-watched movies with subtitles and found explanations of things (non-plot critical, but contributory or in…

Without subtitles you can go back later and rewatch a fairly different show for the first time :)

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

#559

Post by galangalalgol »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #400
IgorPartola wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It’s honestly ridiculous how bad the stereo (aka what 99% of viewers will experience) mixes are. The explosions can be heard by my neighbors yet I can barely hear the dialogue at the same volume. Find myself basically doing half the mix work myself with the volume control. Too many audiophiles in the production chain focusing on something that barely matters at the expense of most viewers.

Can you recommend a good explanation of the different types, how they are recorded encoded etc.? From a naive sonar perspective it seems like two mics one on each side of a head sized camera would do fine for encoding all the angle information. But then you would have to register and apply that knowledge to each boom mic input, and synthesize it for every sound effect that wasn't there at recording. Tl;dr Why isnt two channels enough to generate the correct output for N speakers spread around me?

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

#560

Post by galangalalgol »

leeter wrote: post #554
whywhywhywhy wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s honestly ridiculous how bad the stereo (aka what 99% of viewers will experience) mixes are. The explosions can be heard by my neighbors yet I can barely hear the dialogue at the same volume. Find myself basically doing half the mix work myself with the volume control. Too many audiophiles in the production chain focusing on something that barely matters at the expense of most viewers.

Theory: Because distribution companies for movies made having DTS/Dolby Atmos/Whatever mandatory in the theater, sound engineers primarily focus on that because that takes 99% of the time. Because theaters with just optical stereo (yes I'm aware most theaters use digital distribution and projectors now, that just hammers home the point) aren't really a thing any more they don't really bother optimizing it because "no…

Why is it similarly bad in TV and movies they always knew would be direct to streaming?
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