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FireWire · Mar 25, 2006, 05:31 AM

I noticed that on most DVD, when you get to the point of selecting the close captioning options, they list a few languages without any further explanation, but when it comes to English, it seems that they feel obligated to add the " * For the deaf and the hearing-impaired" statement.

I don't understand this practice, as it wastes some screen space and clutters the usually nice menus graphic. And, as this Wikipedia article puts it:

Closed captioning (CC) allows deaf and hard of hearing / hearing-impaired people, people learning English as an additional language, people first learning how to read, people in a noisy environment, and others to read a transcript or dialogue of the audio portion of a video, film, or other presentation.

there are many reasons for turning on CC. Personally, I use it when I must keep the volume low, as to not wake people asleep when I watch movies late at night. I find it borderline "insulting" or ashaming that they consider that CC is only good for deaf people. "What? you're not deaf and you need CC? hahaha

"

Anyone has an explanation? I mean, it's extra work for them and it doesn't add anything relevant to the menus. They're deaf, not dumb!

Doofy · Mar 25, 2006, 05:43 AM

Originally Posted by FireWire

Anyone has an explanation?

Yes, what you're supposed to do while you're watching a film if you're not hard of hearing is hook the audio up to your 20,000 watt PA system and turn it up sufficiently so that everyone within a 15-block radius can hear it. It'd be selfish to keep all that lovely soundtrack just for yourself, wouldn't it? I mean, just how anti-social are you, denying your neighbours their rights to share your audio experience?

euchomai · Mar 25, 2006, 09:00 AM

I worked for many years in the field of interpreting for the deaf. There are many extra laws that are to be followed because of the ADA (Americans with disabilities Act). From hotels having CC TVs in all their rooms, having gizmos that attach to doors that will flash when someone knocks, a flashing light for phone calls received and a TDD available for them too.

DVDs are not captioned in the regular sense. You can turn the captioning on with your TV but it won't put the black bars with white print along the bottom of the screen. This is a relatively new thing happening. Now, instead of paying to have it closed captioned, they are just using the subtitles as captioning. They are also following the recommendations of the ADA, so printing it makes sense to inform on both fronts.

wataru · Mar 25, 2006, 10:59 AM

There is a difference between "English subtitles" and "English subtitles for the hearing impaired." That is, the hearing impaired one tells you about non-verbal audio cues, like background music, important sound effects, and might note "offscreen" or something when a voice comes from offscreen but it's not clear that the onscreen characters aren't talking.

So there is a difference, but you often don't notice it because American movies will rarely have English subtitles that aren't for the hearing impaired, because of the assumption that anyone who can hear also understands English.

FireWire · Mar 25, 2006, 04:13 PM

Thank you! That helped me to understand the reasonning behind this practice.

One other thing I noticed, is that when a song is played in the background, they print the title on screen, instead of simply writing "[music]". Does it really tell something to deaf people? (Except those who lost their sense later in life, after being able to hear for a few years, naturally)

davesimondotcom · Mar 25, 2006, 05:29 PM

Originally Posted by FireWire

Personally, I use it when I must keep the volume low, as to not wake people asleep when I watch movies late at night.

And listening to a movie or TV at a low volume impairs how well you can hear it. There, now you know you can put it on and it won't be "wrong."

wataru · Mar 25, 2006, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by FireWire

Thank you! That helped me to understand the reasonning behind this practice.

One other thing I noticed, is that when a song is played in the background, they print the title on screen, instead of simply writing "[music]". Does it really tell something to deaf people? (Except those who lost their sense later in life, after being able to hear for a few years, naturally)

I imagine there's still some artistic expression in choice of song, regardless of whether you can hear it or not. In general I think the idea is to tell the viewer what's going on as accurately, but succinctly, as possible. To not mention the name or artist of a song would be needlessly discarding information that could be useful.

Adam Betts · Mar 26, 2006, 01:10 PM

Originally Posted by FireWire

One other thing I noticed, is that when a song is played in the background, they print the title on screen, instead of simply writing "[music]". Does it really tell something to deaf people? (Except those who lost their sense later in life, after being able to hear for a few years, naturally)

Not to me. In fact it ruined the effect when they added in [Spooky Music Playing] text. I don't need to know that =/

I prefer a simple [music playing...] than telling music genre or title.

itai195 · Mar 26, 2006, 01:18 PM

Originally Posted by wataru

So there is a difference, but you often don't notice it because American movies will rarely have English subtitles that aren't for the hearing impaired, because of the assumption that anyone who can hear also understands English.

I sometimes have to turn on subtitles when I watch a British film... I don't know, sometimes I just can't understand a word they're saying.

andi*pandi · Mar 26, 2006, 07:47 PM

^^^ yes that. Films with accents. or when the voice track is much lower than the rest of the soundtrack.

euchomai · Mar 26, 2006, 08:00 PM

My father is deaf and I got used to watching them growing up, now it is just part of TV viewing for me.

Railroader · Mar 26, 2006, 08:24 PM

"Snatch" is ruined with CC turned on.

itai195 · Mar 26, 2006, 11:19 PM

Originally Posted by Railroader

"Snatch" is ruined with CC turned on.

Hah, that's exactly the movie I was referring to, just saw it the other day.

tooki · Mar 27, 2006, 01:47 AM

Originally Posted by euchomai

DVDs are not captioned in the regular sense. You can turn the captioning on with your TV but it won't put the black bars with white print along the bottom of the screen. This is a relatively new thing happening. Now, instead of paying to have it closed captioned, they are just using the subtitles as captioning. They are also following the recommendations of the ADA, so printing it makes sense to inform on both fronts.

Actually, most DVDs in the U.S. have both English-for-the-hearing-impaired subtitles and Closed Captioning. They are entirely separate technologies that are not in any way mutually exclusive.

What I have noticed is that CC tends to place the text near the speaker, while subtitles tend to just be centered.

tooki