Why aren't some DVD captions correct?

[Free4Life11]

I like watching movies with captions, because I like to see what's said. I'm watching "Training Day" and almost all of the captions don't match the dialogue. Some aren't even close to being the same!

Anyone know why??

 

[bicker]

Do you mean they're not in sync, or they actually don't match word-for-word?

 

[Charade]

Do you mean they're not in sync, or they actually don't match word-for-word?

I think he means word-for-word.

 

[bicker]

Yeah, the word-for-word issue is actually pretty cool. I suspect most of the time it is the difference between the original dialog written for the scene and the dialog that eventually made it to broadcast -- changed either during filming or via dubbing, in post-production. Often, I've noted, it is a matter of an inconsistency in the dialog as originally written: Early in the program they refer to the ex-husband as "John" but later in the program they refer to the ex-husband as "Paul"; that'll often get corrected via dubbing in post-production, but the closed captions apparently don't receive such scrutiny for continuity errors. Sometimes the changes are more subtle, perhaps being a matter of what the director, at the time the scene was filmed, or perhaps in post-production editing, decided would make better sense, or help make the whole program work better as-a-whole.

Anyway, since marrying a hearing impaired person thirteen years ago, it's been a eye-opener. It amazes me how often there are such changes made to dialog. It's actually sometimes pretty funny how arbitrary some of the changes seem to be.

The not-in-sync issue is completely different, likely due to an inconsistency between processing of the audio and video feeds... much more complicated stuff that I don't understand as well.

 

[LoraJ]

I work with captioning a lot.
It's possible that the captioning company typed up the captions from the script. Sometimes they shorten sentences so that it can be read faster. When it is out of sync, that's probably because the captioning company got a screening copy with different timecode on it than what the master really is.

I'm surprised that no one checks that on DVD's. If we find that captioning gets off by more than 5 seconds on our programming, we send it back to the captioning company.

 

[Cool-Beans]

Sometimes, when it is just a word that is out of place (and doesn't make sense) or nonsense instead of a word, it is the typing.

The machines are set up with just a few letters and combinations of these letters make other letters. Like pressing PH will translate into M on the left, and PB will be N on the right. So if you hit (and the keys are all hit at once) PHAPB, it should show up on screen as MAN.

But if you miss when you strike, you might hit PHAB instead of PHAPB. So, now you've typed in MAB, which is your abbreviating for the word "maybe."

Did I explain it OK?

 

[bicker]

I suspect that captioning of a recorded program and live captioning are done in different manners.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Some captioning is better than others on live shows. I've seen some that are impeccable and accurate. And others looks like they are drinking while they type (very garbled typing). Reads funny--but not if you depend on the caption to understand. Someone somewhere is watching the show with you and typing as it airs. You can even see them backspace if they get something incorrect. It is very weird.

When I worked for a news station--the script that is loaded into the teleprompter is what broadcasts--so if they have typos---they try not to...but they just go on if there is one. And if they drop stories or have some shuffling issues--the producer can reorder the broadcast as it airs to get things in the right order---but doesn't always happen quickly enough and so you will get stories that don't quite match up right. And I do not recall if the speed at which the prompter is operated is the speed that it airs. So if we fast forward through a story--I don't remember what happens on air.

 

[LoraJ]

I think some live captioning is done with voice recognition software. I suspect that the Survivor finale was done this way. It was very amusing.

 

[cardaway]

I suspect the OP said captioning but also could have meant subtitles. Sometimes the same, sometimes not for the reasons already posted in this thread.

No offense intended to the people who need them, but nothing is more annoying than the subtiltes that include extra detail. [Sounds of car starting] and the like mixed into the dialog.

This is really a problem with foreign films when people like myself have to use the subtitles. There should be one track like that and one for people like me who only want the dialog. Many DVD's are like that, but sadly many are not.

 

[SueM in MN]

I suspect that captioning of a recorded program and live captioning are done in different manners.

You can understand mistakes in the live programs. The ones I hate are the DVDs of movies or made for DVD programs (like children's movies). My DD has a lot of those and likes the closed captioning on for other reasons (she is not hearing impaired). Sometimes the movies/cartoons on DVD are really bad. They should be quality checked before being sold because the people who are using the close captioning deserve to get what they paid for.

 

[bicker]

I've noticed, recently, how little companies emphasize consideration for the hearing impaired. We just bought a brand new home theater system with DVD player, and found that it only passes CC through composite video -- not through the higher quality component video. I was told by their customer service folks that "you give something up when you get closed cpations, in this case picture quality."