Do you use Close Captioning when you watch TV?

[corbe]

   The sound on some of the Old Movies I watch is just horrible (midrange push through) so I find myself using CC more often. 
   @Texas Robin loves it, she can multitask better than me.

[Lando Lincoln]

   The sound on some of the Old Movies I watch is just horrible (midrange push through) so I find myself using CC more often. 
   @Texas Robin loves it, she can multitask better than me.

The answer from here is, yes.

[corbe]

Why Is Everyone Watching TV With the Subtitles On?
It’s not just you.

By Devin Gordon

JUNE 6, 2023

The first time it happened, I assumed it was a Millennial thing. Our younger neighbors had come over with their kids and a projector for backyard movie night—Clueless, I think, or maybe The Goonies.

“Oh,” I said as the opening scene began, “you left the subtitles on.”

“Oh,” the husband said, “we always leave the subtitles on.”

Now, I don’t like to think of myself as a snob—snobs never do—but in that moment, I felt something gurgling up my windpipe that can only be described as snobbery, a need to express my aesthetic horror at the needless gashing of all those scenes. All that came out, though, was: Why? They don’t like missing any of the dialogue, he said, and sometimes it’s hard to hear, or someone is trying to sleep, or they’re only half paying attention, and the subtitles are right there waiting to be flipped on, so … why not?

Because now I’m reading TV, not watching it. Because now, instead of focusing my attention on the performances, the costumes, the cinematography, the painstakingly mixed sound, and how it all works together to tell a story and transport me into an alternate world, my eyes keep getting yanked downward to read words I can already hear. My soul can’t bear the notion of someone watching The Sopranos for the first time and, as Tony wades into the pool, looking down to the bottom of the screen to read [ducks quack]. Subtitles serve an important purpose for people with hearing or cognitive impairments, or for translation from a foreign language. They’re not for fluent English speakers watching something in fluent English.

<..snip..>

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fideas%2Farchive%2F2023%2F06%2Fwatching-movies-tv-with-subtitles%2F674301%2F

   *paywall removed*

[Cyber Liberty]

Yes.  Period.

[Smokin Joe]

Yep. If I don't, at some key point in the dialogue, some crap will happen and I won't be able to hear it. That, and there were some movies which went from a thin mumble to screaming, and I could damp the screaming to a reasonable level and read the rest.

Older soundtrack English accents can't seem to get through my selective hearing loss and have a kazoo like quality I can't decipher, too. (Not talking about Mr. Bean).

[sneakypete]

ALWAYS. Without it,all I can do is guess about what is going on.

[Gefn]

 

[Texas Yellow Rose]

I've been watching Turkish TV series on my computer since 2015.  For that I use closed captioning. I don't use it for regular TV.  My daughter-in-law uses it all the time.  CC drives me crazy when the show is in English.

[GtHawk]

I use CC when there is a lot of background noise(loud music) and can't make out the dialogue. Losing your hearing sucks! remember when you would occasionally have your brain go all mondegreen when you listened to a song? Well with profound hearing loss your brain substitutes words more like 50-60%...or more

[roamer_1]

Nope. Hate em. What I hate worse is swipe-left with the mouse automatically turning them on. I bet I have to shut them back off 10 times a day.

[roamer_1]

Well with profound hearing loss your brain substitutes words more like 50-60%...or more

I find that to be excellent entertainment.

You wouldn't believe the things that have come out of my dear mother's mouth... Of course, she didn't actually SAY those things, and I know that - But the babelfish in my head thinks she did.

Same thing happens with reading. Anymore, when I speed read, which is nearly all the time, I will hit a full stop because it could not have said what I read... Slower re-reading confirms the fact.

Thankfully for me, it's always hilarious.

[sneakypete]

I find that to be excellent entertainment.

You wouldn't believe the things that have come out of my dear mother's mouth... Of course, she didn't actually SAY those things, and I know that - But the babelfish in my head thinks she did.

Same thing happens with reading. Anymore, when I speed read, which is nearly all the time, I will hit a full stop because it could not have said what I read... Slower re-reading confirms the fact.

Thankfully for me, it's always hilarious.

@roamer_1

Well,sometime the ONLY real choices you have in life end up being either amused or pissed off. Amused seems to be the only rational option.

Don't ask me how I know this.

[roamer_1]

Don't ask me how I know this.

@sneakypete

LOL! I don't have to. 

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

My hearing is awful, so yes. I qualify for cochlear impants according to my audiologist. I'm 47.

[240B]

Diagnosed with tinnitus and hearing loss resulting from time in service. So yes.
Also, with Science fiction in particular, they tend to whisper dialogue to portray seriousness/intimacy. I cannot hear it.
Then in the next minute they are blowing up a planet and shaking my walls. Many shows/movies have no leveling.

[Sighlass]

About half the time, and I do watch a lot of foreign films to boot. I just enjoy being able to tell what some hushier sections are saying, also sometimes little clues are given in the details that help the film make more sense.

[Bigun]

My hearing is awful, so yes. I qualify for cochlear impants according to my audiologist. I'm 47.

ALL the time! My hearing is terrible. I have only one ear that works at all and that one with the hearing aid turned up to the max.

[Cyber Liberty]

Diagnosed with tinnitus and hearing loss resulting from time in service. So yes.
Also, with Science fiction in particular, they tend to whisper dialogue to portray seriousness/intimacy. I cannot hear it.
Then in the next minute they are blowing up a planet and shaking my walls. Many shows/movies have no leveling.

I have issues with tinnitus too.  I wish Rumble and Twitter have CC.

[roamer_1]

Diagnosed with tinnitus and hearing loss resulting from time in service. So yes.
Also, with Science fiction in particular, they tend to whisper dialogue to portray seriousness/intimacy. I cannot hear it.
Then in the next minute they are blowing up a planet and shaking my walls. Many shows/movies have no leveling.

I picked up a very serious pair of cordless headphones. Plugged em into my main TV, which operates as a media center, so my music library is on that box too... That was the purpose... For listening to music in my easy chair. BUT I have found it to also be a perfect remedy for what you describe. I seldom listen to movies anymore via ambient sound. If it is a movie, I am probably under those headphones.

[libertybele]

I wanted to vote, but there wasn't an "as needed" selection, so I voted stoner.

I rarely watch TV and I am hard of hearing, so when I do watch a program CC is helpful.

[mountaineer]

I never think about using it at home, but whenever we're at a restaurant that has a bunch of TVs with sporting events on, I wish they'd turn on the CC.

[jmyrlefuller]

Usually I do.

It allows me to listen at lower volumes and allows me to process things on multiple levels (retaining more of what I watched). It's an autism-spectrum thing.

[roamer_1]

Usually I do.

It allows me to listen at lower volumes and allows me to process things on multiple levels (retaining more of what I watched). It's an autism-spectrum thing.

See, for me it's the sound... Especially when I am concentrating.
I can't write a lick of code (as an instance) without some sort of white noise in the background.
So I nearly always have something playing. Sometimes music, sometimes vids... mostly HANK FM or Youtube...

[Smokin Joe]

Diagnosed with tinnitus and hearing loss resulting from time in service. So yes.
Also, with Science fiction in particular, they tend to whisper dialogue to portray seriousness/intimacy. I cannot hear it.
Then in the next minute they are blowing up a planet and shaking my walls. Many shows/movies have no leveling.

Not the service, but the oil patch...same problem. Same gripe about audio levels, so yes, the captions are on to keep the windows from rattling in the loud parts.

[Smokin Joe]

ALL the time! My hearing is terrible. I have only one ear that works at all and that one with the hearing aid turned up to the max.

Don'tcha just love how people always seem to stand on the wrong side when they want to talk to you?