New to closed captioning - what the hey???

trixiesirisheye · 02-14-2008, 07:42 PM

I've started using the closed captioning so I don't have the TV cranked up all the time. "Why is the TV so loud?" my daughter snarks when she comes over.

Some of the closed captioning is near perfect. Other closed captioning is, "Uh, that's not a word. And that's not a word, and that definitely is not a word..." The news and commercials are the worst. I can barely watch the news anymore. The CC for recent political commercials for the presidential candidates were hysterical! I started reading the CC out loud for my son, who just giggled and then told me to stop.

So I get to choose between unintelligible speech and unintelligible closed captioning?

Any suggestions?

***VamPyroX*** · 02-15-2008, 12:51 AM

Live captioning is usually where the text is garbled or messed up.

The reason for this is because it's live. There's no time to correct mistakes and people talk too fast.

This is very common during football games and live speeches such as political debates. In football games, the announcer talks so fast that sometimes the announcer will speak a slang word that the captionist can't immediately recognize. So, the typing messes up.

If you watch a show that's already been captioned beforehand, then the captions won't mess up. However, there will be times when the captions still mess up for some of those shows. That is usually because the connection between the video and the television is messed up or because the video itself is messed up.

trixiesirisheye · 02-15-2008, 09:35 PM

Okay, so that explains the news. It doesn't explain the political commercials that are aired repeatedly and show the same mistakes, and it doesn't excuse other commercials that are aired repeatedly and show the same mistakes. And on different channels, consistently. So it can't be the reception.

I just feel like often, CC isn't very helpful at all. I might as well have nothing.

This especially concerns me when we get a broadcast alert and they don't scroll text on the screen to say what's going on. We had that happen one time, and I was scared witless, because I heard the alert signal, saw the screen on the TV but no announcement that this was a test, and no scrolling text to say what was going on. Survival of the fittest, I guess. Deaf people can die, everyone else can be saved.

Etoile · 02-16-2008, 07:02 AM

Here is a copy of the CapFAQ that you might find interesting:
Closed Captioning FAQ Index

02-14-2008, 07:42 PM	#1 (permalink)
trixiesirisheye Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 3	New to closed captioning - what the hey??? I've started using the closed captioning so I don't have the TV cranked up all the time. "Why is the TV so loud?" my daughter snarks when she comes over. Some of the closed captioning is near perfect. Other closed captioning is, "Uh, that's not a word. And that's not a word, and that definitely is not a word..." The news and commercials are the worst. I can barely watch the news anymore. The CC for recent political commercials for the presidential candidates were hysterical! I started reading the CC out loud for my son, who just giggled and then told me to stop. So I get to choose between unintelligible speech and unintelligible closed captioning? Any suggestions?

02-15-2008, 12:51 AM	#2 (permalink)
*VamPyroX* bloody phreak from hell Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Hell Posts: 27,039	Live captioning is usually where the text is garbled or messed up. The reason for this is because it's live. There's no time to correct mistakes and people talk too fast. This is very common during football games and live speeches such as political debates. In football games, the announcer talks so fast that sometimes the announcer will speak a slang word that the captionist can't immediately recognize. So, the typing messes up. If you watch a show that's already been captioned beforehand, then the captions won't mess up. However, there will be times when the captions still mess up for some of those shows. That is usually because the connection between the video and the television is messed up or because the video itself is messed up. __________________ Check out my city... CLICK HERE! (If you already visited yesterday, visit again today!)

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02-15-2008, 09:35 PM	#3 (permalink)
trixiesirisheye Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 3	Okay, so that explains the news. It doesn't explain the political commercials that are aired repeatedly and show the same mistakes, and it doesn't excuse other commercials that are aired repeatedly and show the same mistakes. And on different channels, consistently. So it can't be the reception. I just feel like often, CC isn't very helpful at all. I might as well have nothing. This especially concerns me when we get a broadcast alert and they don't scroll text on the screen to say what's going on. We had that happen one time, and I was scared witless, because I heard the alert signal, saw the screen on the TV but no announcement that this was a test, and no scrolling text to say what was going on. Survival of the fittest, I guess. Deaf people can die, everyone else can be saved.

02-16-2008, 07:02 AM	#4 (permalink)
Etoile HOH terp Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Washington DC Posts: 897	Here is a copy of the CapFAQ that you might find interesting: Closed Captioning FAQ Index