TV captions

i watch plenty of TV, mostly everything i come across is captioned. i usually avoid live TV... most live shows don't interest me in the first place, unless they are special things, like annual events. i rarely watch the news, for instance, since i just read the paper in the morning. but i do watch things like the academy awards even though they have incredibly slow captions. also if it's something i want to watch when i notice it's on, but then i realize the captions are effed up, then i just say screw it and switch to a different channel.
 
I wish they would use the colors here too! I see them at the end of TV shows, where the captions say "Captioning Paid for by Some Company" - those are often in color. I think using them for showing who is speaking would be great!

I didn't know about set-top decoders for HDTV...we are house-sitting for my in-laws right now, and the captioning is really bad and it drives me crazy. I have seen on AD before that it has to do with it being HDTV, like it gets converted or something? Anyway, we are hoping to buy a TV soon, we were going to make it a regular TV (but bigger than before) but maybe if we can get a set-top decoder we can get HDTV!

Man, I haven't seen a set-top box since the old days, though - I used to have one, I think it was called the TeleCaption, that had really big dials on it and everything!
 
Well if we are moving to all HDTV in the near future, why cant the government MANDATE that all HDTVs be CC-ready as well, because TV is TV whether it is analog or digital.

Jake I know your comment about not fitting those set-top box devices inside an LCD TV - well guess what mate, Ive seen an LCD TV with a DVD player integrated with it. The DVD tray was vertical rather than horizontal.

All they have to do is make the set-top box vertical rather than horizontal and set it in the back of screen.

I think the manufacturer's are just trying to make exscuses to NOT conform to the law to save themselves a few hundred dollars per TV made.
 
As for captions in general - I too have problems with live TV captions as well as shows that are airing for the first time, the captions tend to be way behind and sprinkled with errors which is hard for a careful reader.

As for color captions - NatGeo (National Geographic) does utilize them, it shows up in yellow when the narrator or a person who is off screen is talking, when its the person they are showing is talking its black and white.

Also when they are translating for a person who is speaking a language other than English it is Italicized to show that its being translated from their spoken language into written English captions/subtitles.
 
^ I am with Dixie, that way it would be less confusing for people who are not highly knowledge with tech stuff. Just put it in HDTV and make it works for all shows.

I am nervous about 2009 coming. It would sucks if I have to get DVD just to watch the shows.
 
Dixie said:
Well if we are moving to all HDTV in the near future, why cant the government MANDATE that all HDTVs be CC-ready as well, because TV is TV whether it is analog or digital.

Jake I know your comment about not fitting those set-top box devices inside an LCD TV - well guess what mate, Ive seen an LCD TV with a DVD player integrated with it. The DVD tray was vertical rather than horizontal.

All they have to do is make the set-top box vertical rather than horizontal and set it in the back of screen.

I think the manufacturer's are just trying to make exscuses to NOT conform to the law to save themselves a few hundred dollars per TV made.
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Dixie, we have the same intergration of these DVD players in our large LCD televisions down here too ;)
 
I don't know whether captions are controlled by the set-top box, but I find captions annoying.

Jake's example looks ok, because there is only one person talking in the picture. However, although Jake's picture is in wide-screen format, I don't see the reason why four words have to take up almost the whole screen.

When two people talking in the picture, they put two captions. Yeah, it can be helpful, but if four words can take up so much screen space, you can imagine how much space is consumes when two dialogs are used. Maybe if they make the black background transparent it would look better.

I guess I am too picky..:)
 
omegaman said:
I don't know whether captions are controlled by the set-top box, but I find captions annoying.
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No, it doesn't control via the set top box, this device helps to retrive them from the captioning centre. Why do you find the captions annoying? No offence, but the question is, what if you fall on deaf ears? Captions can be useful despite if the room is distracted by loud noises and you can not hear these voices booming out of the television. I love CC's :)

Jake's example looks ok, because there is only one person talking in the picture. However, although Jake's picture is in wide-screen format, I don't see the reason why four words have to take up almost the whole screen.
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That's a standard screen size, but they have a default font size of 12p or more, I am not sure, as long it fits nicely in the bottom of the screen and also to the 4 word subjective -- that is WHAT the man said, nothing more. If there was more they will add it up to the sentence.


When two people talking in the picture, they put two captions. Yeah, it can be helpful, but if four words can take up so much screen space, you can imagine how much space is consumes when two dialogs are used. Maybe if they make the black background transparent it would look better.

I guess I am too picky..:)
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See above, and you can have the option to transparent the captions. ;) Depends on the purchase of your digital set top box, my old one does that though, but it is damaged now. :( (I have a new one anyway)
 
Jclarke said:
No offence, but the question is, what if you fall on deaf ears? Captions can be useful despite if the room is distracted by loud noises and you can not hear these voices booming out of the television. I love CC's :)
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I agree that captions are useful. I prefer to watch TV without my HA, so I can lay down without listening to feedback from my HA. But, it is hard to enjoy television when the size and the location of the captions obstructs the picture.

Look how clean subtitles look against captions. They don't take up so much space even when a character is making a long speech.

The other problem I find with captions, is what is already mentioned. For example, captions not updating and is stuck on the screen.


Jclarke said:
See above, and you can have the option to transparent the captions. ;) Depends on the purchase of your digital set top box, my old one does that though, but it is damaged now. :( (I have a new one anyway)
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It is good to know that a set-top box can give the viewer some control over the style of captions.
 
Banjo said:
CC decoders built in TVs in both Canada and USA are capable of showing coloured captions. However, it is not really used much. I don't know why.
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Right.
 
Wouldn't watch any TV programs without captions .... but sometimes, it goes off and when it does, I go off my rocker! My hubby suggested a clever idea to tell the TV stations when captions are not on, then the sound or picture goes off, too! so the hearing can be affected as well. :deal: Why not?! Equal rights for us!
 
omegaman said:
I agree that captions are useful. I prefer to watch TV without my HA, so I can lay down without listening to feedback from my HA. But, it is hard to enjoy television when the size and the location of the captions obstructs the picture.

Look how clean subtitles look against captions. They don't take up so much space even when a character is making a long speech.

The other problem I find with captions, is what is already mentioned. For example, captions not updating and is stuck on the screen.




It is good to know that a set-top box can give the viewer some control over the style of captions.
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That's why I usually prefer subtitles on my movies than captioning. :)
 
omegaman said:
I agree that captions are useful. I prefer to watch TV without my HA, so I can lay down without listening to feedback from my HA. But, it is hard to enjoy television when the size and the location of the captions obstructs the picture.

Look how clean subtitles look against captions. They don't take up so much space even when a character is making a long speech.

The other problem I find with captions, is what is already mentioned. For example, captions not updating and is stuck on the screen.

It is good to know that a set-top box can give the viewer some control over the style of captions.
Click to expand...

I, too, find the captions to be useful as well. As for the subtitles, I find it somewhat annoying. For instance, I'd be watching a movie on DVD that has subtitle features included and most of the time, they have the white colored subtitles which makes it a bit hard to read especially when the white subtitles are shown in light background. Personally, I find the yellow subtitles easier to read because it blends in very well with light or dark colored background.
 
Ozzie said:
Wouldn't watch any TV programs without captions .... but sometimes, it goes off and when it does, I go off my rocker! My hubby suggested a clever idea to tell the TV stations when captions are not on, then the sound or picture goes off, too! so the hearing can be affected as well. :deal: Why not?! Equal rights for us!
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Get a digitial set top box and that'll solve your problems :cool2:
 
We have a PVR and it's still doesn't solve the disappearance of captionings .... it's the TV stations' problems with not keeping an eye at all times on subtitles ... sometimes they forget to turn on the switch at their end. My hubby is a electronic technician and he is able to talk to the technicians at the TV stations to find out what's the problem.
 
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Ozzie said:
We have a PVR and it's still doesn't solve the disappearance of captionings .... it's the TV stations' problems with not keeping an eye at all times on subtitles ... sometimes they forget to turn on the switch at their end. My hubby is a electronic technician and he is able to talk to the technicians at the TV stations to find out what's the problem.
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Fair enough
 
I've never heard of TV stations failing to turn on the captions - must be an Australian thing! :eek:
 
You got it right on! Yes, sometimes, the TV stations in Oz are not manned after hours .... no-one there to look after when things go wrong ... so therefore most of the times when things go wrong, sure enough, it's the captions. :mad:
 
Ozzie said:
You got it right on! Yes, sometimes, the TV stations in Oz are not manned after hours .... no-one there to look after when things go wrong ... so therefore most of the times when things go wrong, sure enough, it's the captions. :mad:
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:o
 
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