Caption Bleep

[natty_4ever]

Aren't we deafies entitled to know exactly what is being said on TV ?...why is it blocked out (captions) for the deafies and not for the hearing?

I'm pretty sure almost always when the captions block it out, the audio is blocked out for the hearing. There was only one time where I was watching a show with my hearing boyfriend and he said he heard a bad word, but I didn't see it on the screen. It wasn't bleeped on the screen, but rather the entire sentence didn't appear. That was probably just a captioning error, not something they did on purpose.

 

[Etoile]

I have seen it three ways:

1) Caption shows [BLEEP] and sound bleep is heard
2) Caption shows [BLEEP] and swear word is heard
3) Caption shows swear word and sound bleep is heard

So really it can happen any way. I would say that #1 is the MOST common, by a lot. #3 is probably second most common and #2 only happens rarely, in my experience.

 

[LoveBlue]

Interesting. I thought profanity was banned on the radio. When I was a teenager, I never heard any bad words on the rock 'n' roll stations. I guess the rules have changed.

I don't think songs had bad words back in our day, Reba.

 

[Reba]

I don't think songs had bad words back in our day, Reba.

During the late 60's there were some, oh, yes.

Sometimes groups released one version for air play, and then sang it differently for live performances.

 

[ceelynncee]

I been watching the AMC show "The Killing" the last couple of weeks and have noticed that the captioning will show a word with the first letter then ---. Like b----. I don't know if the word is heard in the audio or if it's bleeped out but it is a distraction when reading the captions. I would rather they caption the whole word.

 

[purplewowies]

I saw a captioned video on YouTube once where a (mild) swear word was bleeped out but left in the captioning, then later a racial slur (that could be considered a swear) was not beeped out but was censored in the captioning.

 

[whatdidyousay!]

I noticed that sometimes a cloud appears over the mouth of the speaker of the bleeped word so even lipreaders are not sure.

But you still know what been said as the whole sentence is not beeped out! You just have to fill in the blank!

 

[Mountain Man]

That IS strange because I'm now thinking ,"How did the captioner hear it"?

The captioner was working with the unedited audio track which was later edited for broadcast. But since the caption information is transmitted in the video portion of the signal, editing the audio won't affect the captioning.

 

[Beowulf]

A few days ago I watched The Departed on tv, and the swear words were aired, but not in the captioning. A double standard, eh? It is insulting.

 

[marcyp06]

Watching America Dad. Roger said: "Dont forget the Mentol Lights" captions read: "Dont forget the Virgina Slims." That one just DOESNT make sense!

 

[Reba]

Watching America Dad. Roger said: "Dont forget the Mentol Lights" captions read: "Dont forget the Virgina Slims." That one just DOESNT make sense!

I wonder if the person doing the captions was working from an original script rather than the actual words spoken? If so, it could be that the dialogue was adlibbed by the actor and not changed on the script, which is why it wasn't picked up by the person doing the captions.