why are subtitles so shit?

[purplesequins]

on streaming services

so many spelling mistakes and missing spaces between words.

There is a silent TV on in my bank which is permanently tuned to the BBC news channel with subtitles. A few years ago it reported on an accident at ‘Big Inhale’ airport. I think they meant Biggin Hill!

My brother's a subtitler.

It's because the streaming services pay far, far less per minute of subtitling than the other providers, like the BBC (the news subtitles work differently, so errors for them come from errors in the speech recognition software).

interesting butter

live subtitles must be a nightmare, especially with strong accents.

They respeak them. So, when my brother did live he would listen to the news and resoeak the same words - but clearer and in a neutral accent - into the software. But if the software heard incorrectly he had no chance to correct it.

It's a mad skill - to listen ahead and repeat at the same time.

Prerecorded programmes are typed out with clear instructions on colour, grammar and spacing. But the streaming services don't have the same standards and don't pay as much. So the skilled, quality subtitles don't tend to work for them.

@ButterMeTimbers

My brother's a subtitler.

It's because the streaming services pay far, far less per minute of subtitling than the other providers, like the BBC (the news subtitles work differently, so errors for them come from errors in the speech recognition software).

I'm a subtitler, and I suspect this is it, yes. I'm employed, so don't get paid by the minute.

Live subtitles are a lot of fun! I was shitting myself the first time I had to do it, but I love it now. We prepare as much as we can, but I can well imagine Big Inhale coming out. And (I SWEAR this wasn't me!) I saw the estate agent Purple Bricks come out as Purple Pricks the other day

This is one of my faves. I kind of wish this had been me (see image)

How do I get a job working on subtitles?!

Yes, it is to do with money.

Subtitles, and especially subtitle translators, used to be highly skilled.

Streaming services have brought foreign programmes to English speaking audiences, but the other side of it is that the volumes involved and globalisation means Netflicks and their likes want to pay as little as possible (and they tried to get by with crowdsourcing initially).

The result is professionals pushed out of their jobs and low quality subtitles for audiences.

On a related note, other countries have a long tradition of subtitling /dubbing. Dubbing in English has a way to go.

It's been a long family joke that he is a mistake on a King Cnut documentary away from never working again!

It surprises me how much dialogue is missed from the dramas I've been watching on Netflix. It really annoys me. Each time I debate whether to go back and listen again with the sound higher, and risk waking my dd in the room next door, or ignore and hope I haven't missed a vital clue.

I'm sure I can tell the subtitlers who work on Bing apart. One corrects Bing's language and Amma to Emma, the other keeps to the script.

It's the lack of swearing in them that drives me mad 🤬 feel like I'm being infantilised!

I work with someone who is fixing automatically generated subtitles for academic lectures. The software is terrible at comprehending specialist terminology, as well as being terrible at comprehending any words from different languages (common in my field to be referencing at least 4 other languages). As a result, it takes about 4 hours to FIX automatically generated subtitles for one hour of lecture. Needless to say, the budget doesn't run to that. So a lot of the subtitles remain ridiculous...

Talking about live subtitles - I thought they were all done by voice recognition - hence the shitness. A couple of corkers from Strictly It Takes Two were 'Of course Anton is the King of Bahrain' [king of ballroom] and 'well that I was my first time dancing with a bigot' [with a baguette]

It annoys me that hardly anything on Amazon prime has subtitles. But it doesn't warn you before you pay a month upfront. You sign up and then find that there is hardly anything you can watch as nothing it subtitled.

Yes Notanotherwindow, really annoying.

Subtitling on everything is generally very poor, I have no idea how they get away with catering to disabilities so badly. Surely no other disability would receive such substandard assistance in society.

what I find fascinating is forrin language stuff that perviously had been only subtitled and later overvoiced but the subtitles remained...

the best subtitles I have seen so far were the german version (original language) of dark. very acurate.

I love watching foreign dramas but some of the translations result in terrible English. Inspector Montalbano is one if my favourites but who on earth is doing the translating?

Often algorithms are used - much like voice to text function on a phone. I get hilarious texts from my friend, so have become and excellent interpreter of computer-generated errors!

@BadPlaceJanet Brilliant 😆

I usually have subtitles on because the sound quality from our tv and when watching streaming services, can be hit and miss. You either strain to hear the voices so have to turn the volume up high then BOOM bit of dramatic music and the walls rattle. Our old tv was so much better, had a really good voice option, making the volume more consistent!

I agree.
Simple spelling mistakes, one such example which I've seen this week "looks like the made forgot to come".
They miss out important details because they think its easier, but it means a hearing impaired person is missing out on the full experience.
My hearing isn't what it used to be and I've seen (indistinguishable) in brackets when I've been able to hear every word 🙄

I put the subtitles on when the dishwasher is on.
it's a quiet one but the whoosh seems to swallow words iyswim

We watch quite a lot with subtitles on as it helps my DD who has aural processing difficulties. We turn off for live programmes but otherwise she finds them pretty helpful.

Aren't a lot of sub titles computer generated now? YouTube as a option to turn automatic subtitles on.

I'm partially deaf and use subtitles a lot. It helps so much, especially when there's a voice over or similar where I can't see the speaker's face.

My favourite mistake was when some classical music was playing and the subtitles said 'Oboe music' when it was clearly a flute!

Agree about services that don't have subtitles. I get frustrated when YouTube videos don't have them as I watch a lot of that. Lots of schools watch Newsround as part of their day or week. Presenters with disabilities - great! Yet NO subtitles for those watching with disabilities.

@SuziLikeSuziQ

I'm partially deaf and use subtitles a lot. It helps so much, especially when there's a voice over or similar where I can't see the speaker's face.

My favourite mistake was when some classical music was playing and the subtitles said 'Oboe music' when it was clearly a flute!

Agree about services that don't have subtitles. I get frustrated when YouTube videos don't have them as I watch a lot of that. Lots of schools watch Newsround as part of their day or week. Presenters with disabilities - great! Yet NO subtitles for those watching with disabilities.

I think a lot of creators on YouTube rely on their subscribers to do subtitles (at least this was the case a few years ago)