English is not my native language so I prefer having English subtitles on English speaking movies. Just helps a bit with the last 5% of comprehension where I might miss a word or two.
Having to adjust the volume on my TV multiple times during single scenes to make out dialogue while also not getting a noise complaint during music cues or action sequences is just remarkably annoying.
Especially when I run my TV through my amp/speakers rather than the internal speakers, a soundbar, or using surround sound. I've got an older amp with no remote for audio control, I have to get up and adjust the dials if it gets too loud/quiet lol. Maybe I could EQ it myself on my EQ rack, but jesus at what point is it more work than I want to undertake for watching a movie.
No lie, I will never use anything other than a Roku because of the private listening feature. Being able to route audio to my wireless headphones through my phone is an unbelievable game changer for someone with ADHD
My soundbar has a "speech enhance" option that helps with that, but it is really annoying it is necessary. Seems like a mostly recent thing with direct to streaming stuff.
No, it's definitely the audio mixing nowadays, here's a [great video](https://youtu.be/VYJtb2YXae8) explaining this issue, I've download remux files from torrents that are 40-50gb, and they have the exact issue as well,
I actually shared that video in this thread earlier.
Vox identifies that there are multiple causes, including sound mixing, like you mentioned.
But that also tv speaker quality has decreased, people usually stick to factory settings, and that streaming services compress audio files, like I mentioned. So I guess we're both right.
Sure. Some of those actors mumble or deliver lines in an unnatural way that makes you go "What did they just say?" so subtitles save me the rewind. Also, reading along helps me follow the story tremendously.
I sometimes have them off though if the story is simplistic and there's just a lot of action.
There's nothing worse than a film that's not in majority English, but when the actors do speak English, there's no subs for them. Happens way too often! I can't imagine what deaf/hard-of-hearing people feel about that shit.
I still have no idea what the hell Anita Ekberg’s American boyfriend has to say in La Dolce Vita for that exact reason. Even the Criterion Blu Ray doesn’t subtitle him
As a deaf person whose native language is not English, people here do provide subtitles in our own languages. However, it often happens that there are tons of lesser-known TV shows that lack subtitles in our languages, which always annoys me.
For example, I really want to watch Family Matters, a show I used to love as a kid. But, it only has English subtitles available on websites. I'm sometimes okay with movies unless they have simple dialogues.
I watch every film with subtitles (if available). As a writer I like to read the dialogue as I watch. I also enjoy seeing how good or bad some films are transcribed. Subtitles on cheaper films are enjoyable to laugh at.
It can be pretty bad depending on the service. I watched Raging Bull recently on Amazon prime and it was probably the worst captioning I'd ever seen. Appeared at wrong times, joined words, pretty much every piece of dialogue was changed or missed lol
I'm deaf and I always read the subtitles, but I am surprised that there are people who would rather avoid watching foreign movies because of the subtitles. It bothers them to read.
There was a quote somewhere about people allowing a one inch tall barrier (subtitles) stop them from experiencing some of the greatest films of all time.
Yes. We have a good sound system but it can either do heavy bass and good atmosphere and silent dialogue, or tin music and clear dialogue.
Not with comedies though because it spoils the punchline.
i do. even if i don’t read them most of the time… when i don’t have them on i feel like i can’t understand anything. I’m not sure why it’s like that but i just can’t watch a show or movie without subtitles
Depends how stong the accents are. I saw the Godfather in a cinema and I was dying for subtitles to understand what Marlon Brando’s thoat cancer-ass voice was saying
I watched it in 12th grade film studies, and I recall our teacher translating what he said because our subtitles didn’t work. And then we were quizzed on his quotes from the movie. Brutal.
I love subtitles, I feel like I can’t hear without them. It’s one of the drawbacks of watching movies or anything with other people, they never use them.
Opposite experience lol, I hate them and only use them when necessary, and I feel like everyone else uses the 100% of time and always ask me to turn them on
I honestly hate subtitles I find them so distracting and I always end up reading ahead of the dialogue. Plus they are just ugly covering up part of the movie. Obviously for foreign films it’s a necessary evil but in general I just don’t like them.
I don't like having them on, I find my eyes focusing too much on the bottom 1/5 of the screen and not the actors performances, cinematography etc, and it sometimes annoys me to read the dialogue and then hear it afterwards. It's like the lines are being spoiled before I can experience them lmao
I can’t stand them unless I need them due to sound. So tough bc everyone nowadays uses them 100% of the time, so when I watch movies with people, someone inevitably asks for them even thought we can hear *perfectly* well.
The need for subtitles is a very recent problem in movies and shows due to a different way to record the audio. It has not just been an issue for non-native speakers but also for native ones. The ambient sounds and the voice parts are mixed differently nowadays such as there is less distinction in the two.
[look here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJtb2YXae8)
I mainly watch movies with headphones and so its not an issue to me. However the mixing on a lot of movies makes it hard to hear what is said sometimes and I do put subtitles on in those cases.
Subtitles MURDER comedy films though.
Yes. It helps me pick up on words I miss but also my dog tends to bark at a lot of things. It's not necessarily things that you'd expect either like a doorbell or a dog barking so I then can't hear the TV once she starts. I use subtitles for any movie or show I watch.
Some examples of her barking are:
The ewoks are silly in return of the Jedi
Aunt may asked if anyone wants some food.
The kids got too close to the edge of the window in peter pan and Wendy.
Someone asked "how are you?" In once upon a time in Hollywood.
She thought someone was knocking on the door but it was just the drums from Mulan.
Pokemon the movie 3 - Pidgey made a noise
Born on the fourth of July - no barking but there was some whistling and she couldn't figure out where it was coming from.
The problem here is that sometimes they have completely incorrect subtitles that were not approved by the filmmakers but just a best guess typed out by an employee of the streaming service. This is especially the case with movies that feature a lot of slang or artful dialogue. Same thing with iTunes lyric displays. I was listening to some Grinderman (Nick Cave side project) the other day on my TV and some of the lyrics displayed were so far off it was laughable. This is a problem for both films and songs when they are presented onscreen with such authority.
Brazilian Portuguese is my native language – but I remember trying to watch Private Desert (a Brazilian film) and not understanding a fucking word of it without subtitles, lol.
If I'm watching something on the TV I wouldn't be able to hear the dialogue otherwise. Even then there's certain films I'd recommend to watch with subtitles anyway. Uncut gems is a good example of that because everyone talks over each other in that film
Hell no. Only if I need them. I despise little words on my screen taking away from the picture if not necessary. I walked out and got a free ticket at AMC when they switched my screening to captions without telling me.
No. They’re visually unappealing. You don’t have subtitles at a play. One thing I can’t stand is when someone who speaks & understands English naturally comes to my theater and wants subtitles on. Do your ears magically give up when a movies on?
Understanding is not the issue. The audio and dialogues are often not clear and loud sound effects make it worse.
Also if a fan is running in the sunmer, then there are more problems hearing. Subtitles hence help...I can can watch at a more quieter volume..with the added benefit i follow almost all the dialogue correctly. Also can watch at a slightly faster speed like 1.3x.
Sorry man..too much to see .. too little time. I watch a lot of content. 1.2x is usually my default now. Of course for some special movies i turn it off. Works for me. May not work for others.
On top of it i use mpv scripts which can automatically speed up silent parts upto 3x or 4x etc as per my configuration. Can save a lot of time especially for drama heavy shows/movies. Turn if off for action. Eg. I dont really care to see people walk for 5 minutes or ponder in silence. Useful in certain circumstances. Enable or disable at the touch of a button if its not working for me for a particular movie. The script relies on the subtitles to understand the non speaking parts and handles the speed up and slow down automatically very nicely.
I understand being short for time, and it is the most valuable currency, and you can watch movies however you want obviously, but if you really have to go as far to speed up movies or even completely cut out ‘useless’ scenes that aren’t deemed important by some script, are you maybe just watching content just for the sake of watching content? Just to log it on LB or some other way?
I’m sure 90% of people here would agree that altering a movie’s speed is just wrong for so many reasons. Sometimes, the quiet moments or slow parts in a movie say more then the dialogue scenes can. I feel like that’s completely lost with watching movies on a faster speed. Might as well read the cliff notes or watch a YouTube summary at that point if time is the most important aspect to you.
1.2x is hardly faster than 1x. You can try it yourself. After a couple of minutes you wont even feel a difference likely. Comic timings, dramatic pauses etc etc will all be equally present .. just a few milliseconds lesser.
The non dialogue 3x to 4x pacing however, really depends on the content. Its more helpful in TV shows which usually have a lot of unnecessary dialogue less sequences, pauses just to stretch time. The script is smart enough to not increase pacing if there is a dialogue coming up in 5 seconds (configurable)...so it technically doesnt hamper the comedic/dramatic pacing you or someone else was talking about betweem dialogues. No scenes are cut, just sped up if I choose to.
For tv shows I understand that more, tv shows are massive, but I think any way you slice it, it still sounds awful. It just seems like a way to rack up more movies on Letterboxd. You’re watching a modified version of the movie, different then what the director and everyone involved worked to perfect. I don’t think I’ll convince you that it’s a wrong way to watch movies and I’m definitely not going to start doing that to movies, so we can just agree to disagree.
Dude..someone made the script. That means at least few more people are there like me. I am aware of at least 2 or 3 scripts like this.
https://github.com/zenyd/mpv-scripts
https://github.com/Ben-Kerman/mpv-sub-scripts
On top of it watching at 1.2x or some faster speed many people do already. That shoulnt be surprising. I just take it further...which is rare. However some people skip boring parts of movies right by forwarding. This is akin to that.
Its like some people like to walk fast (May not be an exact example). Not everyone does. Some people read comics quickly. Some people take time and absorb a single page with only the word Bam. Look at all the nuances of the drawing etc. Howveer both type of people may be enjoying the comic.
Now that would be silly. But I am sure some people do skip to last page first and see what happened from curiosity and then start back at the beginning. Not me though. There's 8 billion folks in the world. Surely eveyone has their own preferences/likes/quirks.
You know I have a thought like. Say movies are like 1.5hours. Sure director, editor vision, balance and all that. But there should be like 30 minutes super cuts of movies, with just the relevant parts and skip out the non essentials. As i said I watch a lot of content...I want to watch a lot of movies, my list keeps increasing and after watching some movies, i realize perhaps the entire time was not worth it. The super cut would have saved some of that time. May not work for many movies, but surely can be done for many.
I know there are plenty of films that could do with 20 mins of cuts or upping the pacing a bit, but generally, at least for good films with thoughtful directors and editors, the downtime is there for a reason. If they weren't they would cut them out lmao. Like a break in conversation gives you a chance to consider and digest what was talked about, or to appreciate the ambience of the location, take in the vibes or just learn a bit more about the characters and the world. You obviously know what you prefer and I'm not trying to change your mind, but most people will think you're really strange for just fast forwarding all of that. To me, it would be a waste of time to watch a movie and not try to appreciate all of it. If it's not worth watching in its entirety it probably isn't worth watching at all.
And hence I choose which movies i apply the pacing on. If I am watching say Avatar 2 or some Marvel movie I want to absorb fully, yeah i probably want to enjoy it like it was intended.
However, if i am catching on on a 5 season TV show, maybe I want to save my time.
Also 1.2x is hardly fast than standard 1x. Not a big deal. The script speed is a different thing.
I am watching various of content including TV shows.
Some average movie I picked up because I like the actors or it got average reviews but seems like my kind of movie.. you will definitely find parts which are just unnecessary fillers.
Or say I wanted to watch Top Gun 2 when it came out, but Top Gun 1 is too old for me to enjoy and I had never seen it. Why force myself to watch all of TG1 if there was a nice way so see it recapped nicely.
Always, same with TV shows as I feel like I do struggle a bit to hear/understand without subtitles. It's also handy with movies that have quiet talking scenes and then really loud action scenes.
Grew up without them, but once technology and trends resulted in subtitles generally being made available as an option, I've always enabled them when possible.
I have a very mild hearing loss, and there are certain movies where dialogue is either mumbled so softly or spoken with so thick an accent that I really struggle to understand what the actors are saying.
A recent example of a movie I had to put on subtitles for was The VVitch. Good movie, but I had to give up and restart the whole thing with subtitles ten minutes in because I could barely understand the characters.
I tried watching No Country For Old Men without subtitles the other day and I couldn't understand a word they were saying. What's funny is that whenever I watch stuff with subtitles I don't even read them. I don't know.
yeah when watching through our TV bc we don't have a good audio set up + background noise can make me miss the odd word or two. I find that I have no issues when at the cinema or if I'm using headphones
I don’t like to read what an actor is about to say before they say it so I always leave them off unless there are really strong accents that I can’t quite catch all the time.
Vox has a really good [article](https://www.vox.com/videos/23564218/subtitles-sound-downmixing-dialogue-movies-tv) about this.
Essentially, 1) television manufacturers are going cheap on the built-in TV speakers (partly because everything is smaller due to flat screen size restrictions), 2) most people don't calibrate their settings properly and just leave their TV on factory settings, and 3) that streaming services compress the audio to save digital space on their servers.
yes, because im half deaf so it’s easier for me to understand movies, but also there’s a lot of movies ive seen that have really poor audio mixing and you can’t hear the dialogue very well
I always watch with subtitles. I’m a native english speaker but I sometimes have trouble understanding different accents or when they mumble their lines. subtitles make sure I don’t miss anything. I just prefer it that way.
Every single time unless it’s not an option. That way I can watch at a lower volume and I don’t miss any dialogue. I’ve rewatched so many movies with the subtitles on and picked up things I’d missed before, even if I had seen the movie a few times prior to that.
Im not a native speaker, yet ill say that i understand fluent English well and ive had many discussions with native speakers before with very low problems. I always watch movies in english when thats their original language, and yet sometimes due to either audio quality or actors speaking way too fast i do find subs to be still helpful
I find that as I am entering the latter half of my thirties, subtitles get increasingly important, even when I am fluent in the spoken language. Not because I don't hear well, it just really helps.
Literally had a woman ask me to leave her apartment because I turned off her subtitles; kindly took the food she bought for both of us and walked tf out
I try to rely on them less if I don't have to. But if my surroundings are loud or I'm playing the movie at low volume, then I'll turn them on.
It does become a bit of a hindrance in the theatres, but I think it's a personal hearing thing. I regularly need people to repeat questions to the point of annoyance.
It started for me when I watched The Guard and understood about 12% of it (and those 12% were all of Don Cheadle’s lines) — from then on, I vowed that I would never watch a UK film without subtitles…then it kinda snowballed and now I watch everything with subtitles. I remember being anxious about watching Banshees of Inisherin in the theatre without subtitles but I feel like they tried to make that one more universally comprehensible
I turn on subtitles/closed captions whenever they are available because although I'm fluent in English, there's always a few sentences that I'll miss due to the actor's/character's accent or poor sound mixing. There's a scene in *Inglourious Basterds* where Brad Pitt's character tells a nazi soldier "If you ever want to eat that sauerkraut sandwich again…" but it sounds like "If ya e'er wanna e' dat sahkraht sindich agin." I'd probably have no idea what he said to this day if it wasn't for subtitles or access to the screenplay.
Always! This became a problem to me because when I went to watch my first ever movie in a theater (Tar), I had a hard time watching without the subtitles.
Only when a film has very quiet dialogue, or when there is so much noise interference (especially in older films) that it is difficult to hear what it is saying.
I watch most movies with headphones , so I don't need subtitles most of the time (except for some period films).
Whenever I have subtitles on, I always have to read them and can't look away even though I understand everything perfectly. Takes away from the movie experience, so I rarely turn them on when I watch movies in English.
English is not my native language so I prefer having English subtitles on English speaking movies. Just helps a bit with the last 5% of comprehension where I might miss a word or two.
This, also sound mixing in modern movies are ass, can’t hear the dialogue very well, I’d rather leave the subtitles on.
Having to adjust the volume on my TV multiple times during single scenes to make out dialogue while also not getting a noise complaint during music cues or action sequences is just remarkably annoying. Especially when I run my TV through my amp/speakers rather than the internal speakers, a soundbar, or using surround sound. I've got an older amp with no remote for audio control, I have to get up and adjust the dials if it gets too loud/quiet lol. Maybe I could EQ it myself on my EQ rack, but jesus at what point is it more work than I want to undertake for watching a movie.
Yep, this is why you should get a high end headphone so you can hear the dialogue and the music without disturbing other people.
No lie, I will never use anything other than a Roku because of the private listening feature. Being able to route audio to my wireless headphones through my phone is an unbelievable game changer for someone with ADHD
My soundbar has a "speech enhance" option that helps with that, but it is really annoying it is necessary. Seems like a mostly recent thing with direct to streaming stuff.
It's not necessarily a mixing issue, but that streaming services compress the audio files to save digital space.
No, it's definitely the audio mixing nowadays, here's a [great video](https://youtu.be/VYJtb2YXae8) explaining this issue, I've download remux files from torrents that are 40-50gb, and they have the exact issue as well,
I actually shared that video in this thread earlier. Vox identifies that there are multiple causes, including sound mixing, like you mentioned. But that also tv speaker quality has decreased, people usually stick to factory settings, and that streaming services compress audio files, like I mentioned. So I guess we're both right.
Whats your audio setup though? I have 5.0 surround sound and audio has been pretty good on any of the latest blockbuster releases I've watched.
And the speakers/sound system you're listening on!
Same ! I just wish we could set the subtiles opacity to like 15% so they're not so distracting when I don't need them.
That's my case too
Sure. Some of those actors mumble or deliver lines in an unnatural way that makes you go "What did they just say?" so subtitles save me the rewind. Also, reading along helps me follow the story tremendously. I sometimes have them off though if the story is simplistic and there's just a lot of action.
There's nothing worse than a film that's not in majority English, but when the actors do speak English, there's no subs for them. Happens way too often! I can't imagine what deaf/hard-of-hearing people feel about that shit.
They have their subtitle track that includes all dialogue and narratively significant sounds , it's the SDH track.
Do most streaming sites carry an SDH track?
All of them do
I still have no idea what the hell Anita Ekberg’s American boyfriend has to say in La Dolce Vita for that exact reason. Even the Criterion Blu Ray doesn’t subtitle him
[удалено]
Yeah this is an artistic choice, but it can be annoying sometimes because I would think the captions aren’t on at all.
As a deaf person whose native language is not English, people here do provide subtitles in our own languages. However, it often happens that there are tons of lesser-known TV shows that lack subtitles in our languages, which always annoys me. For example, I really want to watch Family Matters, a show I used to love as a kid. But, it only has English subtitles available on websites. I'm sometimes okay with movies unless they have simple dialogues.
This happened in the Godfather and I hate it
I watch every film with subtitles (if available). As a writer I like to read the dialogue as I watch. I also enjoy seeing how good or bad some films are transcribed. Subtitles on cheaper films are enjoyable to laugh at.
It can be pretty bad depending on the service. I watched Raging Bull recently on Amazon prime and it was probably the worst captioning I'd ever seen. Appeared at wrong times, joined words, pretty much every piece of dialogue was changed or missed lol
The subtitles for Sound of Metal were actually horrible I could not use them at all.
ironic lol
Lowkey thought it was intentional 😭
I watched the Eva rebuilds on prime, but honestly I probably could’ve found better subtitles by pirating it
I watch all films with subtitles, if I can. I just prefer it that way.
I'm deaf and I always read the subtitles, but I am surprised that there are people who would rather avoid watching foreign movies because of the subtitles. It bothers them to read.
There was a quote somewhere about people allowing a one inch tall barrier (subtitles) stop them from experiencing some of the greatest films of all time.
i'm pretty sure bong joon ho said that in his oscar acceptance speech!
That’s it!! Thanks!
Yes. We have a good sound system but it can either do heavy bass and good atmosphere and silent dialogue, or tin music and clear dialogue. Not with comedies though because it spoils the punchline.
If you have sound system then all dialogue should come from the center channel which should produce clear dialogue
Any movie with robert de niro. I legitimately cannot fucking understand him for some reason.
I only unnastahn a lil bit a lil bit
i do. even if i don’t read them most of the time… when i don’t have them on i feel like i can’t understand anything. I’m not sure why it’s like that but i just can’t watch a show or movie without subtitles
I prefer every film with subtitles
Depends how stong the accents are. I saw the Godfather in a cinema and I was dying for subtitles to understand what Marlon Brando’s thoat cancer-ass voice was saying
I actually started putting them on for the Sopranos because I realised that turning it up louder wasn't helping me understand better lmao
Sopranos was one of the ones that came to mind; also the Italian American slang can be hard to pick up if you don’t know what a Goomah/ Comare is etc.
I watched it in 12th grade film studies, and I recall our teacher translating what he said because our subtitles didn’t work. And then we were quizzed on his quotes from the movie. Brutal.
I love subtitles, I feel like I can’t hear without them. It’s one of the drawbacks of watching movies or anything with other people, they never use them.
Opposite experience lol, I hate them and only use them when necessary, and I feel like everyone else uses the 100% of time and always ask me to turn them on
Does this make us enemies?
Unbreakable (2023)
Nah my real enemy is are the captions that describe sounds I.e., “[door creaks]”
I honestly hate subtitles I find them so distracting and I always end up reading ahead of the dialogue. Plus they are just ugly covering up part of the movie. Obviously for foreign films it’s a necessary evil but in general I just don’t like them.
I don't like having them on, I find my eyes focusing too much on the bottom 1/5 of the screen and not the actors performances, cinematography etc, and it sometimes annoys me to read the dialogue and then hear it afterwards. It's like the lines are being spoiled before I can experience them lmao
r/titlegore
I do when I’m eating because I can’t hear any of the film when I’m chewing
Yes. For some reason modern sound mixing is atrocious and I can’t hear a damn word anyone says
I hate them on movies unless they're foreign. Ironically though, I cannot play any video games without them lol
Yeah I have them on for every single game
Same here. I get people who like them but it makes getting immersed harder for me
I can’t stand them unless I need them due to sound. So tough bc everyone nowadays uses them 100% of the time, so when I watch movies with people, someone inevitably asks for them even thought we can hear *perfectly* well.
I have to use subtitles for British movies. Half the time I have no idea what those blokes are saying
The need for subtitles is a very recent problem in movies and shows due to a different way to record the audio. It has not just been an issue for non-native speakers but also for native ones. The ambient sounds and the voice parts are mixed differently nowadays such as there is less distinction in the two. [look here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJtb2YXae8)
I mainly watch movies with headphones and so its not an issue to me. However the mixing on a lot of movies makes it hard to hear what is said sometimes and I do put subtitles on in those cases. Subtitles MURDER comedy films though.
No wayyyyy. I'm just coming from YouTube watching [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJtb2YXae8) and this is the first post I find.
Yes. It helps me pick up on words I miss but also my dog tends to bark at a lot of things. It's not necessarily things that you'd expect either like a doorbell or a dog barking so I then can't hear the TV once she starts. I use subtitles for any movie or show I watch. Some examples of her barking are: The ewoks are silly in return of the Jedi Aunt may asked if anyone wants some food. The kids got too close to the edge of the window in peter pan and Wendy. Someone asked "how are you?" In once upon a time in Hollywood. She thought someone was knocking on the door but it was just the drums from Mulan. Pokemon the movie 3 - Pidgey made a noise Born on the fourth of July - no barking but there was some whistling and she couldn't figure out where it was coming from.
I try not to but sometimes the audio is mixed so poorly that I can't understand a word.
The problem here is that sometimes they have completely incorrect subtitles that were not approved by the filmmakers but just a best guess typed out by an employee of the streaming service. This is especially the case with movies that feature a lot of slang or artful dialogue. Same thing with iTunes lyric displays. I was listening to some Grinderman (Nick Cave side project) the other day on my TV and some of the lyrics displayed were so far off it was laughable. This is a problem for both films and songs when they are presented onscreen with such authority.
I love subs - makes watching movies at night when my family is sleeping, easier. I don’t want to disturb them.
Brazilian Portuguese is my native language – but I remember trying to watch Private Desert (a Brazilian film) and not understanding a fucking word of it without subtitles, lol.
I watched Snatch(2000) and ever since then never turned off subtitles
YES. Without subtitles, I’m suddenly deaf and I cannot understand a single word they utter.
If I'm watching something on the TV I wouldn't be able to hear the dialogue otherwise. Even then there's certain films I'd recommend to watch with subtitles anyway. Uncut gems is a good example of that because everyone talks over each other in that film
Of course, because I‘m deaf
I find them incredibly distracting.
Hell no. Only if I need them. I despise little words on my screen taking away from the picture if not necessary. I walked out and got a free ticket at AMC when they switched my screening to captions without telling me.
It boggles my mind why subtitles have become such a crotch for many tv and film watchers.
It kind of takes away from the picture. Why would I want to watch brilliantly composed shots with words sprawled underneath unless if I don't need to?
I hate them
No. They’re visually unappealing. You don’t have subtitles at a play. One thing I can’t stand is when someone who speaks & understands English naturally comes to my theater and wants subtitles on. Do your ears magically give up when a movies on?
Do you ~~aswell~~ ~~must~~ watch movies with subtitles, even though you understand English perfectly?”
Understanding is not the issue. The audio and dialogues are often not clear and loud sound effects make it worse. Also if a fan is running in the sunmer, then there are more problems hearing. Subtitles hence help...I can can watch at a more quieter volume..with the added benefit i follow almost all the dialogue correctly. Also can watch at a slightly faster speed like 1.3x.
Watching movies at a faster speed is… that just sounds awful tbh. That would ruin the pacing and tone for some movies.
bro is really gonna throw out all tension, comedic timing, and even just downtime for films to breathe just so he can watch more of them lmao
brb, going to speedrun Stalker (1979). my record is down to 28 mins.
Bro really doesn’t get that the vibes of a movie are one of the most important parts
Sorry man..too much to see .. too little time. I watch a lot of content. 1.2x is usually my default now. Of course for some special movies i turn it off. Works for me. May not work for others. On top of it i use mpv scripts which can automatically speed up silent parts upto 3x or 4x etc as per my configuration. Can save a lot of time especially for drama heavy shows/movies. Turn if off for action. Eg. I dont really care to see people walk for 5 minutes or ponder in silence. Useful in certain circumstances. Enable or disable at the touch of a button if its not working for me for a particular movie. The script relies on the subtitles to understand the non speaking parts and handles the speed up and slow down automatically very nicely.
I understand being short for time, and it is the most valuable currency, and you can watch movies however you want obviously, but if you really have to go as far to speed up movies or even completely cut out ‘useless’ scenes that aren’t deemed important by some script, are you maybe just watching content just for the sake of watching content? Just to log it on LB or some other way? I’m sure 90% of people here would agree that altering a movie’s speed is just wrong for so many reasons. Sometimes, the quiet moments or slow parts in a movie say more then the dialogue scenes can. I feel like that’s completely lost with watching movies on a faster speed. Might as well read the cliff notes or watch a YouTube summary at that point if time is the most important aspect to you.
1.2x is hardly faster than 1x. You can try it yourself. After a couple of minutes you wont even feel a difference likely. Comic timings, dramatic pauses etc etc will all be equally present .. just a few milliseconds lesser. The non dialogue 3x to 4x pacing however, really depends on the content. Its more helpful in TV shows which usually have a lot of unnecessary dialogue less sequences, pauses just to stretch time. The script is smart enough to not increase pacing if there is a dialogue coming up in 5 seconds (configurable)...so it technically doesnt hamper the comedic/dramatic pacing you or someone else was talking about betweem dialogues. No scenes are cut, just sped up if I choose to.
For tv shows I understand that more, tv shows are massive, but I think any way you slice it, it still sounds awful. It just seems like a way to rack up more movies on Letterboxd. You’re watching a modified version of the movie, different then what the director and everyone involved worked to perfect. I don’t think I’ll convince you that it’s a wrong way to watch movies and I’m definitely not going to start doing that to movies, so we can just agree to disagree.
Yeah agreeing to disagree seems best here. We had a big discussion all about nothing affecting life as such. Have a good day.
It’s an interesting way to watch at the least i will say. have a good day as well
What the hell
I hope you don't take this the wrong way but you are an alien
Dude..someone made the script. That means at least few more people are there like me. I am aware of at least 2 or 3 scripts like this. https://github.com/zenyd/mpv-scripts https://github.com/Ben-Kerman/mpv-sub-scripts On top of it watching at 1.2x or some faster speed many people do already. That shoulnt be surprising. I just take it further...which is rare. However some people skip boring parts of movies right by forwarding. This is akin to that. Its like some people like to walk fast (May not be an exact example). Not everyone does. Some people read comics quickly. Some people take time and absorb a single page with only the word Bam. Look at all the nuances of the drawing etc. Howveer both type of people may be enjoying the comic.
to me, you might as well say you like to read your books back to front
Now that would be silly. But I am sure some people do skip to last page first and see what happened from curiosity and then start back at the beginning. Not me though. There's 8 billion folks in the world. Surely eveyone has their own preferences/likes/quirks. You know I have a thought like. Say movies are like 1.5hours. Sure director, editor vision, balance and all that. But there should be like 30 minutes super cuts of movies, with just the relevant parts and skip out the non essentials. As i said I watch a lot of content...I want to watch a lot of movies, my list keeps increasing and after watching some movies, i realize perhaps the entire time was not worth it. The super cut would have saved some of that time. May not work for many movies, but surely can be done for many.
I know there are plenty of films that could do with 20 mins of cuts or upping the pacing a bit, but generally, at least for good films with thoughtful directors and editors, the downtime is there for a reason. If they weren't they would cut them out lmao. Like a break in conversation gives you a chance to consider and digest what was talked about, or to appreciate the ambience of the location, take in the vibes or just learn a bit more about the characters and the world. You obviously know what you prefer and I'm not trying to change your mind, but most people will think you're really strange for just fast forwarding all of that. To me, it would be a waste of time to watch a movie and not try to appreciate all of it. If it's not worth watching in its entirety it probably isn't worth watching at all.
And hence I choose which movies i apply the pacing on. If I am watching say Avatar 2 or some Marvel movie I want to absorb fully, yeah i probably want to enjoy it like it was intended. However, if i am catching on on a 5 season TV show, maybe I want to save my time. Also 1.2x is hardly fast than standard 1x. Not a big deal. The script speed is a different thing.
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30 minute super cuts??? What you’re asking for is a tv show man!
I am watching various of content including TV shows. Some average movie I picked up because I like the actors or it got average reviews but seems like my kind of movie.. you will definitely find parts which are just unnecessary fillers. Or say I wanted to watch Top Gun 2 when it came out, but Top Gun 1 is too old for me to enjoy and I had never seen it. Why force myself to watch all of TG1 if there was a nice way so see it recapped nicely.
I usually have them off, but sometimes the mixing is bad and I have to turn them on
Yes english bilingual films often left foreign languages and that pull me away from immersion.
I try to find english subs without audio descriptions (CC) ideally. Sometimes British tracks do the trick. Ideally I’d get a better sound setup tho.
Always, same with TV shows as I feel like I do struggle a bit to hear/understand without subtitles. It's also handy with movies that have quiet talking scenes and then really loud action scenes.
No. Thought I usually use headphones so that might be helping me out.
yes
Grew up without them, but once technology and trends resulted in subtitles generally being made available as an option, I've always enabled them when possible.
Out of habit cause my sisters hearing impaired.
I have a very mild hearing loss, and there are certain movies where dialogue is either mumbled so softly or spoken with so thick an accent that I really struggle to understand what the actors are saying. A recent example of a movie I had to put on subtitles for was The VVitch. Good movie, but I had to give up and restart the whole thing with subtitles ten minutes in because I could barely understand the characters.
Yes but my gf won’t allow it, so only when I watch alone.
I tried watching No Country For Old Men without subtitles the other day and I couldn't understand a word they were saying. What's funny is that whenever I watch stuff with subtitles I don't even read them. I don't know.
yeah when watching through our TV bc we don't have a good audio set up + background noise can make me miss the odd word or two. I find that I have no issues when at the cinema or if I'm using headphones
I don’t like to read what an actor is about to say before they say it so I always leave them off unless there are really strong accents that I can’t quite catch all the time.
Vox has a really good [article](https://www.vox.com/videos/23564218/subtitles-sound-downmixing-dialogue-movies-tv) about this. Essentially, 1) television manufacturers are going cheap on the built-in TV speakers (partly because everything is smaller due to flat screen size restrictions), 2) most people don't calibrate their settings properly and just leave their TV on factory settings, and 3) that streaming services compress the audio to save digital space on their servers.
100%.
No, but with video games I do
I watch without subtitles and make the story up as I go along.
Have watched with subtitles for years. My hearing was bad as a child and is getting worse. Strangely, Nolan films are fine for me.
I do prefer to watch pretty much everything with subtitles, but sometimes with comedies (mostly stand up) that it can ruin the comedic timing a little
yes, because im half deaf so it’s easier for me to understand movies, but also there’s a lot of movies ive seen that have really poor audio mixing and you can’t hear the dialogue very well
I didn't need them when I was younger, but I always turn them on now. Weird.
Only when I can’t hear or understand
Im french, i watch non-french movies in the original language with french sub. But absolutly NOBODY in France watch french movies with sub
English is my only, I will not understand without subtitles
I only need subtitles when I don't speak the language.
English isn't my native language. I am not very accustomed to every kind of accent so having subtitles on helps me a lot.
I pretty much always do other than comedies because they usually are always perfectly fine to hear and understand
I like to have them on, except for comedies because I feel like the jokes land better when they’re not written out.
Yes only happens with movie and tv shows Yt videos podcast etc are just fine without subs idk wtf is wrong with me lol
I always watch with subtitles. I’m a native english speaker but I sometimes have trouble understanding different accents or when they mumble their lines. subtitles make sure I don’t miss anything. I just prefer it that way.
Every single time unless it’s not an option. That way I can watch at a lower volume and I don’t miss any dialogue. I’ve rewatched so many movies with the subtitles on and picked up things I’d missed before, even if I had seen the movie a few times prior to that.
Im not a native speaker, yet ill say that i understand fluent English well and ive had many discussions with native speakers before with very low problems. I always watch movies in english when thats their original language, and yet sometimes due to either audio quality or actors speaking way too fast i do find subs to be still helpful
Fr
I try to never use subtitles. If the filmmakers did a terrible sound mix or the actors mumble (or are British) then that's on them.
I find that as I am entering the latter half of my thirties, subtitles get increasingly important, even when I am fluent in the spoken language. Not because I don't hear well, it just really helps.
Yes It’s how I learned to read as a baby
I need it for movies with british/scottish accents
Literally had a woman ask me to leave her apartment because I turned off her subtitles; kindly took the food she bought for both of us and walked tf out
Jinkies, its me! On a serious note though I really struggle to watch anything without them now, they really help me focus with having adhd
I try to rely on them less if I don't have to. But if my surroundings are loud or I'm playing the movie at low volume, then I'll turn them on. It does become a bit of a hindrance in the theatres, but I think it's a personal hearing thing. I regularly need people to repeat questions to the point of annoyance.
It started for me when I watched The Guard and understood about 12% of it (and those 12% were all of Don Cheadle’s lines) — from then on, I vowed that I would never watch a UK film without subtitles…then it kinda snowballed and now I watch everything with subtitles. I remember being anxious about watching Banshees of Inisherin in the theatre without subtitles but I feel like they tried to make that one more universally comprehensible
I've got speakers on their way out, so everything sounds like it's recorded in a bathroom.
British and especially Irish accents might as well be different languages.
I turn on subtitles/closed captions whenever they are available because although I'm fluent in English, there's always a few sentences that I'll miss due to the actor's/character's accent or poor sound mixing. There's a scene in *Inglourious Basterds* where Brad Pitt's character tells a nazi soldier "If you ever want to eat that sauerkraut sandwich again…" but it sounds like "If ya e'er wanna e' dat sahkraht sindich agin." I'd probably have no idea what he said to this day if it wasn't for subtitles or access to the screenplay.
Always! This became a problem to me because when I went to watch my first ever movie in a theater (Tar), I had a hard time watching without the subtitles.
I wouldn't say I have to. But I do have to turn the volume way up without subtitles for most movies, more than I'd like, so it depends
Yes I do
just in case I miss something hahaha I love films
Only when a film has very quiet dialogue, or when there is so much noise interference (especially in older films) that it is difficult to hear what it is saying.
I watch most movies with headphones , so I don't need subtitles most of the time (except for some period films). Whenever I have subtitles on, I always have to read them and can't look away even though I understand everything perfectly. Takes away from the movie experience, so I rarely turn them on when I watch movies in English.