Subtitles - Do you need them?

I have excellent private hearing aids now but still find subtitles helpful. They keep the volume down to manageable levels.

BlueBelle

My hearing is fine, passed all tests but I cannot watch tv without subtitles, I used to use it for dramas but I like it for everything now. My one moan is the do not give sub titles about what is on a letter or card or telephone screen which can be paramount to the story and I always miss what is written

Yes, I'm the same as you BlueBelle. I've taken to freezing the screen and going up to the TV to read the writing which drives my husband bonkers.

this is why I will not subscribe to netflix unless I know everything is subtitled there is no point as even on full blast I cannot hear the tv as I am deaf, they need to make it accessible to all to get more subscribers

It's not you, I have the same problem, eve.Don't know what the answer is.ryone mumbles, can't make out a word or follow anything.

I use subtitles all the time as I have had quite a severe hearing impediment since small when I also learned to lip read as I was forced to pretend there was nothing wrong. I too am very frustrated when new TV dramas don't make subtitles available. I wanted to watch the new "cosy crime" drama Bookish on Now TV but there are currently no subtitles available. I will have to watch it on my iPad Pro and wear my Apple air pods which usually make things very clear, fortunately. Apparently skim reading subtitles quickly as you watch TV is very good for your brain and since many actors don't seem to be able to enunciate their words very clearly, they become a godsend for the likes of me.

I've watched Dept Q with subtitles.

hence I like the old films! don`t need subtitles for them.

I don’t have hearing problems but really can’t tell what actors are saying these days, they mumble and use very thick accents so I use subtitles.
Matthew MaConnaghey - sorry I know that spelling is wrong - in Interstellar muttered incessantly with a very thick Southern drawl.
Impossible!

I have tinnitus and hearing loss, so can’t watch anything without subtitles. However even my son uses them and he’s not deaf.
I was annoyed recently when I purchased an episode on Amazon prime, to find it came without subtitles and glad I hadn’t bought the whole series. They have a cheek to carry on this way…
I watch old tv period dramas on YouTube with (often frustrating) subtitles, but the actors speak clearly as the repertory system hadn’t completely died out. ‘Natural’ acting has a lot to answer for🙄

I have hearing aids, so should be able to do without, but the mumbling drives me nuts. I also find that if you have the volume right for the actual programme, the volume is crazy high when the adverts come on! Then you have to turn it down or mute it, until it resumes!

I always have them on .
It's just a habit really !
Our house is small and sometimes my father would get irritated if he didn't like the TV programme .
I like foreign language films and benefit from subtitles !

I'm still struggling with the left ear deafness I got in the last couple of years (Covid? Another virus?) and that's a nuisance generally. It's nerve deafness in that ear - and not "age - one of those things" - so I'm still looking out for ways to cure it and get back to normal - as it's definitely a nuisance.

Meanwhile - I watch a noticeable number of YouTube videos and have come to find it very annoying when ditsy type women speak in "little girl" voices. I'm okay with men and women with normal voices. But "little girl" voices are a right nuisance - and I still swear they could talk more normally if they chose to, but wish to use that voice to tell people "Me I'm a feminine little thing......" and it's more important to them to put over that impression than to be understood by everyone. I have yet to hear an older woman doing the "feminine little voice" - and they always speak normally.

People can change their voices - I know that one personally...as I apparently went off to my first primary school speaking in very "standard" English (basically toned-down received pronunciation maybe???) and emerged weeks later speaking broad Devonian - and, even though I am a Devonian, my mother threw a fit and sent me to an elocution teacher to get my own voice back again. Cue for me then swopping to a very posh voice. Then subsequently swopping back to my own voice I had originally.

So - yep...people can change their voices if they wish to.

But - meanwhile - I've given up asking these girly girls to speak more clearly - and I request they put up subtitles instead.

Subtitles are indeed pretty poor - but they're a lot better than nothing and I guess they will improve soon. Now if only YouTube didn't do those subtitles in the wrong language for me sometimes - loadsa fun when they go up in Arabic for instance!

Subtitles are also very handy on there for the fact that I like to watch cookery programmes from Germany for instance and gardening programmes from Eastern Europe (those Eastern European gardeners know a thing or two about gardening on a budget and with very few resources available).

Always have subtitles on if available.

I’m not hard of hearing, but just struggle with some accents, especially American and Scottish ones.

Nandalot

*shysal*, the first 12 seasons of the block are on Prime if you have that. There were even more but they have disappeared for some reason.

Thank you Nandalot. I don't have Prime, I have always resisted, but it might be worth subscribing because I would then be able to see Jeremy Clarkson as well as getting free postage.

shysal, the first 12 seasons of the block are on Prime if you have that. There were even more but they have disappeared for some reason.

I used them all the time. My DC in their 20s do as well so it's not all about hearing.

I might use subtitles for different reasons from other people! Women can always multitask, we have done it for years!! So as music is so important in my life, I hate horrible , inappropriate music usually too loud as well being on, so will press mute, and put subtitles on whilst at the same time may have radio 3 listening to a concert, and for me Bach is the tops, so if there is a concert of Bach on , but I really dont want to miss the last part of a serial on goes the subtitles and I listen to Bach but can follow the story! I also have some fun when they have plays in foreign languages such as the scandinoir sort of things and as I speak various languages enjoy reading their subtitles version of the conversation, whilst knowing on occasions something quite different has been said by the actor!!

Yes I can only watch tv IF subtitles are available. The news I can cope with without. I send emails every week to programnes not subtitled as there is no excuse. Normally if a reply is received I get “we are working towards providing subtitles”. I tell the companies it is pure discrimination.

We have subtitles on most the time, usually turn them off for football as they cover the score, & the commentators are often annoying anyway.

It seems that whenever the casting director chooses an actor with a regional accent they seem to instruct them to 'exaggerate it a bit, for realism'. There was a series called Sutherland's Law in the 1970s, and the titular character was played by Ian Cuthbertson. This actor was born in Glasgow but his accent was not only a delight to the ear, but perfectly clear to anyone who is an English language speaker. This would never now as he sounded too 'posh'.

I must admit I rely on su titles as I have poor hearing. My husband bought a soundboard and turns the sound up but it just seems to distort voices even more. Strangely I can often hear the dialogue on old films so it just proves to me the modern actors are either mumbling or the background music is too intrusive.

I always use subtitles. I can't follow anything on tv without them. I'm not exactly hard of hearing, but my Tinnitus is there 24/7

DD was a subtitler for over 10 years. She did mainly live subtitling. This emant talking into a microphone attached to a computer which she spent many months straining to recognise her voice and her pronunciation. Despite this the computer still frequently grabled what she said and in a liv situation there is little time to try and correct it.

She ceased to be a subtitler because the work was being downgraded. TV and series producers were less and less prepared to pay for good subtittling and prepared to live with more errors - and now, of course they are using AI, to do a lot of it.

It is known as you getwhat you pay for and if streaming services and tv producers will not pay for good work all you get is poor sub titles.

Mind you, she did well out of ceasing to be a subtitler, by circuitous means she ended up with a technical job in banking where she is paid considerably more than she did as a subtitler.

I use Subtitles all the time and would not be able to watch the telly at all without them.
I’m old and the way people speak today has me totally beaten. I don’t mean accents or foreign voices I mean gabbling, people speaking so fast hardly taking a breath.
It’s terrible when on the phone I hsve to ask the caller to back the bus up please, just my bit of humour and they do but why do it, I don’t want shouting I would appreciate a few pauses.
My only gripe about subtitles is they are rarely available on catch up, I missed a recording of a channel five programme I was enjoying never mind I thought I can use catch-up I did but no subtitles on so I was quite put out.
BBC are very good, also channel 4 and most sky channels but don’t bother trying ITV catch-up or older programmes on red button, it should be made a law, subtitles on everything for everybody.

Granmarie I clicked on your photo to learn a new way to access subtitles. It turns out that that’s what I’ve been doing and every time I do it, I say to Dh, there must be an easier way to get subtitles. It seems there’s not! 😂