Closed Captions on DVDs

[Abbie Normal]

I am sorry for this weak ass rant, but it really annoys me.

I like to watch movies I have seen a few times with the closed captions on. On most dvds the menu will say this under the closed captions menu: English for the hearing impaired.

Why do they assume that anyone who wants to see the close captions in English is hearing impaired?

I got into the habit of watching the close captions because a girlfriend of mine did not speak English so well. She was better at reading and writing English than hearing it. Something about accents and speaking too fast. She was totally lost on British English as well.

If I recall some movies will have an option for the commentary to be played using closed captions while the movie is normally playing. I think that is awesome. They should all do that.

Like I said this is a weak ass rant, but I hate it when they say "English for the hearing impaired." Why bother with that and just say "English."

[someguy]

There is a difference between saying English and English for the hearing impaired. When it's just English it's subtitles, they have the dialogue and that's it. When it's for the hearing impaired it's a descriptive text, it'll describe how characters speak a line or actions they did. So that's your answer to why they don't just say English, because there's a difference between the two.

[Badbird]

Yeah, I read about this some time ago. Lots of DVDs are not actually closed captioned because they have the "subtitle" option.

But, isn't closed caption a TV setting? If you set CC to be on your TV, you shouldn't have to do anything on your DVD menu.

[Tweek]

But, isn't closed caption a TV setting? If you set CC to be on your TV, you shouldn't have to do anything on your DVD menu.

I would think it's set up just for TV programs with captions available. Could be wrong.

[Abbie Normal]

There is a difference between saying English and English for the hearing impaired. When it's just English it's subtitles, they have the dialogue and that's it. When it's for the hearing impaired it's a descriptive text, it'll describe how characters speak a line or actions they did. So that's your answer to why they don't just say English, because there's a difference between the two.

I have never seen what you are speaking about for english for the hearing impaired. There is never any text, just the dialog. Does it work with something else as well?

[ericdraven]

I would think it's set up just for TV programs with captions available. Could be wrong.

Movies are captioned on TV too.

I am also hard of hearing so I have to watch with subtitles too.

[someguy]

But, isn't closed caption a TV setting? If you set CC to be on your TV, you shouldn't have to do anything on your DVD menu.

Closed Captioning for TV only works for TV programs that have the option available. Some (most major networks) broadcast their shows with a closed captioning feed that people can turn on if they want to. The TV only displays it, it doesn't actually do any transcribing or whatever. For DVDs the subtitles/captioning in the menus are used because it's all from the disc and not broadcast over a signal like TV programs.

I have never seen what you are speaking about for english for the hearing impaired. There is never any text, just the dialog. Does it work with something else as well?

All I can really say is that there might be some sort of improper labelling. If you have a subtitles option on your DVD, the English option would have (for example) someone saying "This is what I want to do" but the English for hearing impaired option would have something like "[Crying] This is what I want to do."

I've seen DVDs with both options of English and English for the hearing impaired where the second track just includes little details like how lines are delivered so people with bad hearing can know how the lines are interpreted. If you have DVDs and whatnot that don't do that kind of stuff then they probably just got lazy and used one English subtitle track with the label on.

[Badbird]

Right, but I thought that if a DVD is encoded to be CC, the TV set will recognize it automatically and show it.

I have a few DVDs that have the CC logo, but there is no setting on the DVD menu to select that.

[The Postmaster General]

My DVD player you have to go into a hack menu to activate closed captioning. It's the same with my cable box. I'm not sure why they don't have it activated by default.

[Brendan M.]

I would think it's set up just for TV programs with captions available. Could be wrong.

I had TVs in school a while back that were always closed caption including with videos. At least that's what I can remember.

[The Postmaster General]

They've been trying to get the FCC to mandate CC, but have failed; however, I don't think there are any shows that don't broadcast in CC, since it would just be kind of dick not to.

[someguy]

I'm gonna guess that music only channels don't do CC

[Abbie Normal]

Closed Captioning for TV only works for TV programs that have the option available. Some (most major networks) broadcast their shows with a closed captioning feed that people can turn on if they want to. The TV only displays it, it doesn't actually do any transcribing or whatever. For DVDs the subtitles/captioning in the menus are used because it's all from the disc and not broadcast over a signal like TV programs.



All I can really say is that there might be some sort of improper labelling. If you have a subtitles option on your DVD, the English option would have (for example) someone saying "This is what I want to do" but the English for hearing impaired option would have something like "[Crying] This is what I want to do."

I've seen DVDs with both options of English and English for the hearing impaired where the second track just includes little details like how lines are delivered so people with bad hearing can know how the lines are interpreted. If you have DVDs and whatnot that don't do that kind of stuff then they probably just got lazy and used one English subtitle track with the label on.


hmm You are right. Thanks. Now I know and knowing is half the battle.

[The Postmaster General]

I'm gonna guess that music only channels don't do CC


They're used in music videos on MTV/VH1 and Fuse, but I don't know about those channels where it plays just music while it runs like a clip show (they're called digital music channels in the states.)

Growing up I had a friend with a deaf brother, and this was before TVs and stuff were equipped with CC and you had to have an external box. This was like 84 - 89 era and everything had captioning (including MTV). I don't remember exactly what we were watching, but it was people making out and going at it, and the whole time on the bottom of the scream it was like, "Mmmm.. Ohhhh.... Uhhhhh..."

This was 20+ years ago, and everything was made for the hearing impaired -- I remember seeing even The Three Stooges, which made it more funny. Though, I admit we weren't watching a lot of classic movies, but I could assume they were as well if they did the Stooges, I don't get why they wouldn't have done Casablanca. The only thing I'd ever seen consistently not being cc are public access stations, but that's just a resource issue I guess. The Nigerian conspiracist who sits in front of the camera and rants for 30 minutes probably didn't have time to transcribe everything.

It doesn't make any sense to me why the FCC never mandated closed captioning except that everyone was already doing it voluntarily.

I always recommend this, and won't stray for a chance to do it here ---- If anyone ever has a chance to see Pee-Wee's Big Adventure in CC or even subs, please do. It's like the first 5000 words are "Ha!"