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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?

#561

Post by OJFord »

mgdlbp wrote: post #438
OJFord wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

X.Y (e.g. 5.1) means X wide range speakers and Y subwoofers. You also sometimes see it like S/T.Y where S+T = X, and it refers to front/surround speakers. There are standard values and configurations, such as 2.0 (aka stereo) both at the front, 2.1, 3.1 adds a centre channel mostly for on-screen dialogue positioned close to screen, 5.1 (3/2.1) adds a second stereo pair behind you, 7.1 - adds an extra surround stereo…

For real enthusiasts, also X.Y.Z, adding ceiling/bounce speakers for vertical spatial audio. The real "stuck so far behind" that I don't get is why we use speaker arrays at all -- instead of binaural stereo tech. That virtual haircut demo, apparently from the 90s,[0] sounds incredible on my cheap headphones, yet the technology seems to have gone nowhere since. Is there even spatial audio in VR setups? If the difficul…

I think it only works/is a lot easier with head/earphones? Since you know exactly where the ears are w.r.t. the speakers in that case.

Not that that's really an explanation - if that was the best sound and it was available on Blu-rays and streaming platforms, and legacy 5.1 content upmixed nicely, then yeah why wouldn't I use headphones even at home in front of the television. Less obvious for joint/family viewing I suppose.

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

#562

Post by elteto »

daniel-cussen wrote: post #547
mihaaly wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly!! Things became worse in the past 10 or something years (I am a 40 something btw.). As the article states we used subtitles in movies to learn language and to understand thick accent. However throughout time while we got better and better in comprehension the use of subtitles remained the same in overall. But very uneven too. Old movies (not yet seen) and movies for children are never a problem. Also some pro…

Quoted post unavailable.

I wish I could turn subtitles on for this comment. I have no idea what you are saying.

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

#563

Post by elteto »

adrianN wrote: post #385
zaroth wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a shame though! A decent 5.1 setup should be cheap and easy to setup. Of course that’s far from the truth, but good sound is so worth it! Being able to truly enjoy music, movies, we live in an incredible era for content, video is regularly available in 4K and people can play that! Why is sound stuck so far behind?

I watch movies for the story. 480p and my laptop speakers are enough for that. I enjoyed movies just the same when they were 700mb DivX with 128kps mp3 sound.

It’s an audiovisual art, it’s way more than just the story.

Have you seen Barry Lyndon in a 4K OLED TV? You should.

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

#564

Post by nabakin »

egman_ekki wrote: post #505
octobus2021 wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

When I had a 5.1 setup, I had the center channel volume set higher than the side/rear channels and it made speech understandable while explosions weren't overpowering. Maybe the receiver you have allows the same?

I do this too. It works decently as long as the media supports 5.1

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

#565

Post by aasasd »

Idk what you can do with streaming services, but old-school VLC users can dodge „whisper and explosions“ by turning dynamic compression to the max.

In theory one can use systemwide in-line effects with something like AU Lab to the same end, but that's kind of a pain at least on Mac, mostly because virtual audio devices like ‘Blackhole’ tend to not work. Perhaps the paid ‘Loopback’ does work, dunno.

Also funny how USians complain en masse about volume too loud (with the trademark ‘shaking the house’), when with a simple pair of desktop speakers it would be physically impossible to have that problem. Man buys big speakers, surprised to discover that they provide loud sound.

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

#566

Post by marssaxman »

Freak_NL wrote: post #433
vel0city wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That pretty much sums it up. I wouldn't even be surprised if the percentage of households with anything over 2.0 has dropped in the past two decades. Of those people with an external receiver, a significant percentage will deliberately have a stereo setup, often used for listening to music. Good speakers, but no surround sound.

I used to watch movies on an absurdly excessive 3000-watt sound system, equipped with dual 18" subwoofers... but I never bothered to get a surround decoder.

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

#568

Post by rdtwo »

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…

Yeah but this is 2022 are there even movie theaters anymore? The box office sales are deep in the red and many theaters are going bankrupt. Most of What I watch are tv shows

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

#569

Post by rdtwo »

tsimionescu wrote: post #320
derefr wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, it is now fashionable for actors to mumble. Why does it matter that actors are mumbling, though? Don't most lines in Hollywood movies (that aren't already recorded on a soundstage with a boom mic inches from the actor's face) get ADRed these days?

If the actor's intention is to mumble instead of enunciatiting clearly (presumably because of some notion of authenticity), then they will also mumble the studio takes. It's not a problem of sound volume/background noise, which ADR can fix, it's a problem of style over ease of understanding the dialogue. This mirrors the problem of TV series sometimes becoming too dark to easily follow the action on a TV screen in us…

The mandolorian is so dark my iPad has issues with not enough dynamic range. I think they shoot that way too cover bad cg

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

#570

Post by daniel-cussen »

elteto wrote: post #562
daniel-cussen wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

I wish I could turn subtitles on for this comment. I have no idea what you are saying.

SUBTITLES: The film industry makes high art as well as common fare. The high art is what the artists want to make and enjoy but it has a very small market. The common fare is what pays the bills, because it sells like 100x more tickets than high art. High art = caviar, Shakespeare "caviar for the general" whereas common fare is hamburgers, flipping burgers, which is a real business, many more servings of hamburgers than caviar.
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