Why we all need subtitles now

[Ed Gordon]

No, there is nothing wrong with your hearing....

[Dominique De Bast]

Thanks for that very interesting subject. The same problem occurs with French-speaking medias. I have at least once a day to use the back function of my remote when I'm watching tv to try to understand a word or two in a fiction (that doesn't happen with the news, the documentaries or with a debate).

[Ed Gordon]

It's frustrating when you rewind and listen again, and again, and still you can't understand what is being said. Luckily most shows have subtitles or you can download the subtitles.

[Dominique De Bast]

It's frustrating when you rewind and listen again, and again, and still you can't understand what is being said.

Right. When I watch the "normal" TV signal and there is no subtitles (unlike on Netflix for example).

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Do you remember Teletext, Dominique? Here in Germany, it’s still active on most channels. And it’s still used to broadcast the subtitles.

[Graham Ritchie]

Very good Ed, so its not my hearing after all

Honestly actors etc should learn to speak "PROPERLY" or they don't have a job. I remember in the cinema on some films, the dialogue would be a bit on the low side , so you would crank things up a bit, then when the special effects BOOM BOOM kick in its now to LOUD.

When we went to Reading to watch Jurassic Park Dominion after a while I was getting tired of not just the visuals but the SOUND as well. Now this might sound interesting, but when I watched the blu-ray that came with the 4K of JAWS, I selected original mono and to be honest it sounded a lot better for me, than the 5:1 I had once played before.

In saying that there is a lot more to good sound than what I describe above, as I am not a sound engineer just a humble listener. In saying that complaints of the sound being to loud in cinema is nothing new. Where I worked we did manage to eliminate complaints of the sound being a bit on the loud side. I used to go in at the start from the back, and listen and adjust the level for the "size and age" of the audience in just about every session. You want people to enjoy the movie experience and not to think otherwise. Its not so much the sub-woofer, its that mid to high range that gets folk annoyed.

As far as sub-titles when we ran the 35mm print of "Letters From Iwo Jima" it was all sub-titles and even though other staff members thought I was nuts to run a film with sub-titles it actually worked out well with the pubic, no problem at all.

[Brian Fretwell]

It has been said that films/TV shows that have been mixed for 5.1 sound often have the dialogue overpowered by music and effects when seen on a 2 channel sound TV. The original mono you mention wouldn't have suffered from that.

Also with cinema sound I think that recently the dynamic range has been lowered and instead of parts that should be loud being loud and the rest quieter some are now mixed with everything loud.

[Larry Arpin]

After watching that, thanks for posting Ed, I don't feel so bad about my film. There is one part where the actress speaks so low you can barely hear what she is saying even when cranking it up. To bring her back and do ADR is more money which I don't want to spend as I have other expenses, like trying to finish the live action. I even thought of replacing her voice with this new AI voice. Maybe I can make her sound like Marilyn Monroe. Ha!Ha!

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Hi! I’m also having this problem with certain films: Normally, the volume is set to „8“ on my TV. But on many newer movies, TV-series, … I have to set the volume to „12“ when the actors are talking and then reduce the loudness to „5-6“ when the music and/or some special sound-F/X are playing. Not sure whether this is linked to the soundtrack being „more than stereo“. But this is getting so annoying in some movies that I was close to buying some of boxes that will enforce a certain volume (by increasing the volume on „more silent“ passages and by reducing it when a certain level is reached), e.g. this one: https://www.amazon.de/HDSX-Gleichm%C.../dp/B09NL7YXPY

[Joerg Polzfusz]

…you can barely hear what she is saying even when cranking it up. To bring her back and do ADR is more money which I don't want to spend …

DaVinci Resolve has got a feature to „isolate“ the human voice. It should also be available in the free versions (for Windows, Linux and MacOS). You can then increase the volume of the speech without also increasing the background noise. (Of course, this will only help when the actress didn’t mumble )

[Rob Young]

Don't get me started on "Tenet". Why you would consciously mix a soundtrack to make the dialogue practically unfathomable and inaudible is just bonkers to me. It's actually turned me off seeing any more Chris Nolan films. Why would he want an audience to feel that way? Crazy.

Interesting Graham mentioning Jaws, as Spielberg apparently particularly likes old movies where the actors talk over each other. The action scenes near the end of the movie are a great example, with each actor yelling over the other. The difference is this is used in specific instances for increase the drama (he's good Spielberg isn't he...!) and what surprised me on the blu-ray was that if you listen, each actors dialogue is still audible. That's how you do it.

Unbelievably, many cinema auditoriums have not been EQ'd correctly. So it isn't so much as the actual volume that is irritating, but as Graham mentions, the mid to higher frequencies are irritating when this could be corrected.

I'd like to hear Brad's view on this, as he is an expert on cinema installation.

[Dominique De Bast]

Do you remember Teletext, Dominique? Here in Germany, it’s still active on most channels. And it’s still used to broadcast the subtitles.

Sure, I remember. it seems the function on my tv remote is not working. Maybe there is something I don't know but I'm pretty sure it worked only when you watched the programm at the time it was broadcasted, not when it was recorded (and, so certainly not if you go back, neither). I don't watch to have subtitles permanently when I watch a programm in French as that's distracting.

[Brian Fretwell]

Yes I believe the digital TV system uses a different system than the original Teletext which used lines not carrying picture info (625 lines TV has 575 lines of picture content the rest were for the CRT to reset the scan to the top again) and could be recorded to one where it isn't as only the 575 lines are recorded.

[Ken Finch]

My hearing is gradually getting worse and I have to have the hearing aids adjusted about twice a year. I use special wireless headphones for watching tv programmes but still have the same problems you have all described. Often the dialogue is drowned out by repetitious background music as well. Recently there have been shots of characters texting on mobile phones which are too small to read ! As for going to cinemas and theatres, they seldom have the hearing loop switched on and the sound effects drown out any dialogue. I do use sub titles on the tv to keep the volume reasonably low. These are fine in most cases but can be quite amusing for live broadcasts like the news! Press the sub button on your remote control and you will see what I mean.Ken Finch😉

[Dominique De Bast]

Recently there have been shots of characters texting on mobile phones which are too small to read !

The same happened in several French TV fictions (I use the past as it seems they fixed it and now they show the message bigger enough). Sometimes, I wonder if they test their programmes on tv sets.

Another problem is the volume getting suddently higer. When you live in a flat and have neighboors...

Brian, I checked again and it doesn't work with my two remotes (the one from the TV set and the one from the converter box). Maybe there is a way (I didn't check in the settings) to put the subtitles permanently but that's not what I wish.