Closed captions frustrating me

[aesmael]

Only recently we got a television which can display closed captions. I don't normally need those to be able to understand what is on television but I often find them a great aid at times when my auditory processing is disrupted. Even otherwise they usually help me understand what is being said better.

Consequently now that I am able to access the state of closed captioning I am very disappointed in it. When I can understand what is being said the words on the screen are sometimes jumbled, overlapping, at the wrong times (such as showing after the preceding sentence(s)) or just wrong. Which is not the same as edits for ease of reading or clarity, and live captioned programs are not what I am talking about. Two of the newest television channels often seem not to have captions at all, which is especially infuriating, although I think my sisters appreciate it since they don't like when I have the captions on.

Maybe it is just this particular television acting up, or maybe I am seeing things wrong but if not, it is disappointing the state of captioning is not what it could be.

(I do tend to use subtitles where available in DVDs and games where available, and my impression of those is of being more accurate and comprehensible)

Comments

[infinitely-late.livejournal.com]

For the most part, I think this is because a lot more time and care goes into making the subtitles for things that are to be purchased, in much the same way that things are cut to make room for more ads or to gain a lower rating, and then they put it all back together and neaten it up on the DVD. So, the captions get put on, but they often seem to be more 'make sure the viewer gets the idea' rather than a complete and accurate transcript of what is said.

[freelark.livejournal.com]

Yes, closed captioning can be very frustrating. I can hear well enough 95% of the time, but I find reading words on the screen to be less taxing -- that is, when the right words are on the screen. But when it comes to closed captioning, I often find myself falling back on my hearing to compensate for errors. Why does it have to be so annoying?

[mantic-angel.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhh, I get it now! Closed Captions != Subtitles, dur.

Yeah, closed captioning absolutely sucks. I've never had much complaint with subtitles. I haven't watched live TV in probably five years, so I'd forgotten how much worse they are, and that they are not the same awesome subtitles we get on DVDs (why the hell NOT?! o.o)