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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?

#161

Post by yamtaddle »

joshstrange wrote: post #70

31 but yeah, I've had subs on for almost a decade now? Maybe only 6-7 years? For me I find I miss things without the subs on. Whispered/background dialog that I'm unsure how anyone is supposed to hear/understand being top of list but also sound mixing seems to be terrible by default and it's hard to hear/understand characters even in a quiet room sometimes. I read quickly so subs have never been an issue to me, I can…

> For me I find I miss things without the subs on. Whispered/background dialog that I'm unsure how anyone is supposed to hear/understand being top of list but also sound mixing seems to be terrible by default and it's hard to hear/understand characters even in a quiet room sometimes.

So many video sources coming with only surround mixes, or lazy stereo mixes that were made automatically from surround mixes, while very few homes have a surround system at all, and even fewer have one that's at least decently-calibrated, has been absolute hell for being able to tell WTF anyone's saying in movies. I suspect many VHS releases had better audio for most people's actual system even today, than the blu-ray of the same movie does.

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

#162

Post by Filligree »

joshstrange wrote: post #70

31 but yeah, I've had subs on for almost a decade now? Maybe only 6-7 years? For me I find I miss things without the subs on. Whispered/background dialog that I'm unsure how anyone is supposed to hear/understand being top of list but also sound mixing seems to be terrible by default and it's hard to hear/understand characters even in a quiet room sometimes. I read quickly so subs have never been an issue to me, I can…

> For foreign content (like Anime) I use dubs + subs (the subs are of the initial English translation before the dubs were done) because it gives 2 passes at any given line. I find it very interesting to see how they change things between the two and it sometimes paints a fuller picture.

Anime is an interesting case, because — remember, a lot of these threads are about poor enunciation and mixing? — anime tends to be really well enunciated, and the characters speak like they're on stage. It's easy to follow along. I keep subs on, because I don't understand literally everything, but usually I don't read them.

Surprise surprise, this doesn't reduce my immersion at all.

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

#163

Post by nerdponx »

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…

Don't forget watching on tiny laptop speakers, cheap earbuds, or little bluetooth speakers. Even older movies are an issue when the sound quality isn't good.

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

#165

Post by hot_gril »

It's just hard to hear the dialog in some movies, and I'm not hard of hearing. I think it was always like this, but you'd crank up the volume to overcome it. Now that I often watch on a laptop, that's not an option.

Also there was the diner robbery scene in "Pulp Fiction." My brother said, "Let's turn on subtitles despite the fact that this guy is speaking English. I can't deal with the accent."

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

#166

Post by lawkwok »

pvarangot wrote: post #149
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 have the same issue but instead of using subtitles I've embraced not knowing what's going on with the show. If it was important that I know for my enjoyment then I'm probably not watching the show anymore. Like if what the actor said was unintelligible I'm going to go with that's part of the plot, a puzzle for me to figure out on the show subreddit or something, but I'm not going to deal with the shitty blinding su…

That’s how I watch movies in general. Maybe it’s a symptom of ADHD or lack of interest but I find it hard to remember people’s names and plot reveals that require me to remember to specific locations or details. I just watch movies and enjoy them “generally”.

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

#168

Post by rendaw »

Here's another speculation: A lot of movies, etc are mastered for surround sound and the single downmix is pretty terrible. It's actually quite a rabbit hole in the ffmpeg forums. But basically the non-front channels end up contributing too much volume and end up drowning out spoken voice a lot of the time.

I know this happens on BD, but I wouldn't be surprised if Netflix + co are using the same source, and 20-somethings probably don't have large places with surround sound systems.

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

#169

Post by bhj »

least wrote: post #150
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…

The Apple TV has a setting called "reduce loud sounds" which helps with this problem. I'm sure you can find it on other devices too. My Sony TV also has a sound setting for enhanced dialogue which might help as well. Can't really help with the actors thing, though I think I'd rather characters that are truer to life than sound like they're acting on stage, personally.

> The Apple TV has a setting called "reduce loud sounds"

This does help, but at some point Apple increased the compressor’s release time so that it’s far too quiet even 10-15s after the loud transient. I wish they would make it behave more like a brickwall limiter.

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

#170

Post by hot_gril »

19h wrote: post #144

1) The reason TikTok etc. have closed captions on is that audio is off by default. If you want people to listen to your words but audio is off, put it into closed captions. 2) With closed captions you can watch a movie on low volume without disturbing others and still understand every word even of the girl in the corner of the room barely utters a word. Source: I'm a "20-something".

> The reason TikTok etc. have closed captions on is that audio is off by default. If you want people to listen to your words but audio is off, put it into closed captions.

I can't believe that whole dramatic article missed this very obvious reason.

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