I would never want AI generated dialogue in place of subtitles. That sounds like a massacre.
AI could end foreign-language subtitles
61–70 of 221 posts
Re: AI could end foreign-language subtitles
#62The article seems more against manual dubbing and related difficulties than actual subtitles. The best subtitles I've seen included relevant context on cultural jokes I would have completely missed had there not been explanation text. One example would be recently while watching a Korean drama with dubs that didn't address cultural items and beauty standard, the content itself came off very differently than the intention seemed.
Re: AI could end foreign-language subtitles
#63I grew up consuming movies and TV shows with subtitles so it has never bothered me. My theory is that if you're not used to them, then they are really annoying. Most of my American friends do not like them. There is something about watching a movie/show in its original language that you cannot understand. I think its awesome to be immersed in a different world, getting the sounds, inflections, etc from a different la…
Yes I think it's being a matter of being used to watching things with subtitles. Some people find it very distracting, I hardly notice at all watching something with subtitles since it is how i grew up. The only time I notice is when I want to do something else at the same time as watching the movie/show, then I quickly realize oh I can't do that I dont understand the audio. Dubbed things suck it is always the same voice actors too so they always seem not quite right for each new character.
Re: AI could end foreign-language subtitles
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
> subtitles are some kind of problem Heck, they're not even limited to foreign languages. I put them on in English because I'm starting to lose my hearing now in my late 40's and if I turn up the volume loud enough that I can hear the dialogue ok, the sound effects would be so loud they'd set off the neighbor's car alarm.
many reasons to use them: - family is sleeping so you keep volume low - hard to understand accents or lingo - bad audio mixing or bad audio systems that muffle words and rest of the sound
> hard to understand accents or lingo
It's easy to tell which transcription services have access to the original script as a reference and which don't. I have subs on most of the time to catch subtle or barely-audible dialogue (or to decipher accents). There's sometimes when I can tell "oh gee that's not right at all but I can see how you misheard it." And there's other times when dialogue is coming from offscreen or a TV/radio and it's too far in the background to understand unless you are reading along with the script.
Re: AI could end foreign-language subtitles
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Coming from a non english country I can assure you that dubbing is the worst. When we were kids we would actively avoid watching anything that was dubbed as soon as we could read. It’s actually funny seeing how frustrated with subtitles my American girlfriend gets when we watch anything foreign. “You mean this basic skill every 7 year old has is hard for you, an educated super smart 30 year old? Bwahahaha” I still pr…
I have complicated feelings about this. I also watch most things with subtitles these days, because either (or probably both) my hearing is going a bit or sound design/editing in films and tv shows has gotten worse, but there is a non-trivial difference in how I perceive things with or without. With subtitles my eyes are drawn more often to a part of the screen where nothing visual is happening. They aren't glued the…
At least with subs the performance is there for you to see (and hear), even if you sometimes miss it. With dubs, half the performance is removed completely.
Re: AI could end foreign-language subtitles
#66This would be a lovely option to have and I find it hilarious that anyone imagines that subtitles are some kind of problem we are trying to get out of. Adding text to movies has a huge array of advantages: it preserves the original performances, it makes the dialog accessible to people with hearing or auditory processing disabilities, they can be multiplexed in a way that audio cannot, etc. Obviously it would be wond…
> subtitles are some kind of problem Heck, they're not even limited to foreign languages. I put them on in English because I'm starting to lose my hearing now in my late 40's and if I turn up the volume loud enough that I can hear the dialogue ok, the sound effects would be so loud they'd set off the neighbor's car alarm.
I frequently choose not to watch films because I can't find the right subtitles for them.
They are an absolute boon for those interested in learning foreign languages.
Re: AI could end foreign-language subtitles
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Coming from a non english country I can assure you that dubbing is the worst. When we were kids we would actively avoid watching anything that was dubbed as soon as we could read. It’s actually funny seeing how frustrated with subtitles my American girlfriend gets when we watch anything foreign. “You mean this basic skill every 7 year old has is hard for you, an educated super smart 30 year old? Bwahahaha” I still pr…
As an english first language speaker, I even find english subtitles on english language media very distracting. I consume a huge amount of subtitled films/tv because most good things aren't in english, but subtitles keep my eyes focused on the bottom of the screen. I don't like dubbing because it's generally much lower quality than the original performance, but I get why people who don't have a problem reading could…
Me too. I find subtitles are the main distraction for me to enjoy what’s going on in the screen. I understand that a lot people actually need them. That’s why I am very thankful that subtitles can be turn on/off if needed. I actually hate any videos that have subtitles embedded inside the video (part of each frame)
Re: AI could end foreign-language subtitles
#68This would be a lovely option to have and I find it hilarious that anyone imagines that subtitles are some kind of problem we are trying to get out of. Adding text to movies has a huge array of advantages: it preserves the original performances, it makes the dialog accessible to people with hearing or auditory processing disabilities, they can be multiplexed in a way that audio cannot, etc. Obviously it would be wond…
I love subtitles, but for me they tend to spoil the timing of the lines being delivered, especially with comedy. Unfortunately subtitles are necessary even when I'm able to play audio as loud as I want, because it's almost always hard to understand at least 10-20% of the words that actors are saying. Maybe it would be nice to have subtitles that appear a word at a time as they are spoken, but I imagine that's not ver…
I have the same complaint. I agree it would be more work, but I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t be practical (unless the extra work is what you mean).
Re: AI could end foreign-language subtitles
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Coming from a non english country I can assure you that dubbing is the worst. When we were kids we would actively avoid watching anything that was dubbed as soon as we could read. It’s actually funny seeing how frustrated with subtitles my American girlfriend gets when we watch anything foreign. “You mean this basic skill every 7 year old has is hard for you, an educated super smart 30 year old? Bwahahaha” I still pr…
As an english first language speaker, I even find english subtitles on english language media very distracting. I consume a huge amount of subtitled films/tv because most good things aren't in english, but subtitles keep my eyes focused on the bottom of the screen. I don't like dubbing because it's generally much lower quality than the original performance, but I get why people who don't have a problem reading could…
Idea: subtitles that are placed by characters' mouths like a comic book
Re: AI could end foreign-language subtitles
#70This will not happen for many, many years to come. That is, companies will try it, there will be some bad and ridiculous results, there will be pusheback and the tech will largely be ignored for a decade or so. Main problems will be intonation and inflection. What is a question to an English speaker is a regular sentence to a Russian. And so on. "Petabytes of data from primarily English-speaking libraries" mean jack…
I'd encourage you to listen to some cutting edge speech synthesis like Google Duplex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijwHj2HaOT0 This is live in production today - business owners are getting calls from robots, and you can trigger it yourself with Google Assistant. [Disclaimer: I work(ed) on Google Assistant - I'm in the process of transferring out - and have listened to some presentations about how Duplex works. It…
Although this is irrelevant, is Google Duplex publicly known to be used by any call center company in any capacity?