this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2026
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[–] anticurrent@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

I was watching bewitched! which was made in the 60s and was amazed how clear the sound was and how articulate the actors were.

[–] Raccoon_Rick@altgag.net 75 points 2 days ago (5 children)
[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 24 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

On the bright side: I don't spoil the video myself because i read too fast

On the bad side: JESUS CHRIST I WANNA READ, MY BRAIN CAN'T BEAR YOUR SLOWNESS

*rarely the case but if i have subtitles that's the reason, either that or the speak has a strong Bri’ish🍵 or Freedom 🦅🦅🦅 accent

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[–] Boozilla@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago

Background Music: destroys your eardrums

Brit Lowtalker Villain: we gunna mumbly the wumbky aintwe guvnah

[–] Whostosay@sh.itjust.works 66 points 2 days ago (4 children)

If a motherfucker could properly mix audio I wouldn't need them.

If I wouldn't have to turn the volume ALL THE WAY UP followed by ALL THE WAY DOWN because your show/movie can't decide if we're whispering or blowing the planet up every ten seconds, I wouldn't need them.

[–] SirLeToet@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago (9 children)

They often claim you need a proper audio setup.

I have an expensive (be it old) surround sound setup. Marvel and many other modern movies suck absolute arse. Having to pause and fiddle with volume going from a barely audible conversation to deafening noise in a single scene.

Fuck that noise, audio seems optimized for smartphone speakers nowadays.

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 22 points 2 days ago (5 children)

What if, hear me out, they changed the format a bit to supply 2 separate audio tracks. One for voice, one for effects. Then we could adjust it ourselves.

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[–] AmyAye@nord.pub 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

"Yeah well, it sounds perfect in my soundproof bunker on my $10,000 cans, I don't know why you think Inwould test the sound out in a cluttered living room setting on a $300 TV with no surround sound."

-- Average Present Day Audio Engineer

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[–] Paradachshund@lemmy.today 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I keep hearing things are mixed for the theater, but I went to the theater to see the odyssey the other day for the first time in a while, and it had the same problem! Sound mixing is trash these days...

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

the first film i really noticed it in was Corpse Bride. been a problem for 21 years.

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[–] Godort@lemmy.ca 83 points 2 days ago (8 children)

This is torture if the subtitles don't match.

I have a soft spot for dubbed anime and always have, but in pretty much every case, the subtitles are not a transcript of the dub, they're a translation of the original Japanese.

As a result, the feeling you get trying to watch that is not unlike going up a set of stairs and miscounting, but for every sentence.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 34 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's also torture if the subtitles don't (reasonably) match for non-dubbed content.

This bothers me more with captioning for English language movies in English. They abbreviate a lot to make it easier to quickly read what is being said. Sometimes that makes perfect sense and is very useful. A lot of the time, they're just cutting out details for no good reason.

[–] nshibj@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago

It's also very annoying for non-native speakers who want to listen to the original audio and have the subtitles as help when they don't understand something:

  • what was that one word I didn't get?
  • subtitles: completely different sentence (with the same meaning, OK, but different words)
[–] imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago

I feel your pain. I been learning German and got a bunch of DVDs and Blurayd digitalised. 99% of the time subs do not say exactly as it was dubbed. It counts as paraphrasing but different enough to begin to hate it.

The most fucking fun part is when you watch a local language movie (e.g. Das Boot) and subs also do not match. How? Baffles me.

[–] Raccoon_Rick@altgag.net 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

AI generated subtitles are utter garbage. Combine that with idiots who can’t be bothered to check their 60 second long video for mistakes and you basically end up with subtitles that have no reason of being there in the first place

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[–] KeavesSharpi@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 day ago

Drives me INSANE. Oh and my favorite the auto-generated (read: completely wrong) subtitles in the middle of the screen for some fucking reason.

[–] ISolox@lemmy.world 26 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's not even like I can't hear or anything. It's just sound mixing is terrible.

[–] Bieren@lemmy.today 12 points 2 days ago (7 children)

It really is amazing to me how subtitles have become the norm. Everyone I know uses them. And it’s all cause the audio is just trash. No matter the audio setup. Expensive atmos surround sound, entry level sound bar, Sonos whatever, tv speakers. They all sound like shit and everyone uses subtitles.

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[–] Napster153@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

It's an audio issue. That never happened in thr early 2000s such as in Lord of the Rings which is weird when you think about the things that have regressed.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 day ago

I spent 2K on a capable surround to be able to hear my damned tv.

The downmix to stereo is 90% of the problem. They don't normalize the channels, Front channel is always low, rear channels are always WAY too high. mumble mumble mumble, mumble mumble SCREEEECH CRASH BANG BANG mumble mumble

I think the TV vendors do it so you'll buy their soundbar.

Center Channel / Voices + 5, rear channels -2 and you can actually hear your damned movie.

[–] Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I was watching a Chernobyl documentary. When there were Russian speakers with subtitles already provided, the cc settings added "SPEAKING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE" over the useful text. I know a bit of Russian and was able to follow. Still duh

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[–] Redditmodstouchgrass@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Even with headphones, man. The sound departments really need an overhaul or something.

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[–] craftrabbit@lemmy.zip 19 points 2 days ago (2 children)

If subtitles are so great, why aren't there any supertitles yet?

[–] Flower@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Supertitles are in opera or theatre where they show translated text on a screen above the stage.

[–] Rooster326@programming.dev 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Wait... Is this a real thing?

I'm not rich enough to have ever been to the Opera

[–] Flower@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 days ago

I don't go to Opera either because I'm a cheapskate, but these things do exist.

[–] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

Burn, forced, ASS… subtitles are great, but what about domtitles?

[–] Ellvix@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

I give talks and training in the accessibility space, and have literally this image when I make a point about audio processing and cognitive issues. Another example "I need to park, hold on let me turn the music down I can't see the parking spots"

[–] DudleyMason@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 days ago (11 children)

And I can't see the movie at all if there's subtitles. Brain won't stop reading words to watch pretty pictures move.

Which now makes it nearly impossible for me to watch anything with anyone, since everyone leaves the distraction bars on by default any more.

But happy for all of y'all who are fine reading your movies. Someday maybe we can watch a book together!

[–] Freeposity@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

What sucks is getting older and having a hard time hearing dialog. I can hear everything else fine but dialog is becoming harder to discern every year.

i don't read them the entire movie, just during parts that the sound balance is all fucky. so just during movies made since 2005

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[–] perishthethought@piefed.social 28 points 2 days ago (8 children)
[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 26 points 2 days ago (2 children)

[speaking in a foreign language]

[–] stretch2m@infosec.pub 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I love it when the show puts the foreign language subtitles in the show, and the [SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE] covers up the original subtitles.

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[–] iknewitwhenisawit@fedinsfw.app 13 points 2 days ago

I love it when the subtitle says the name of the song playing. I've learned a few tunes that I enjoy this way!

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[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm re-watching Memento and I'm like "damn, I can hear what everybody is saying clearly." Clearly Nolan wasn't born deaf.

Also, I'm straight, but why didn't Guy Pearce become the hottest male actor in history?

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[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago (4 children)

When and why did this become a thing? Half the people I know are like this

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

It's a vicious circle, these past twenty years. Before then, movie makers made effort to ensure dialog could be heard and understood. There's a line in Casino Royal that James mumbles, "He's a bloody idiot, then", but you can still understand him, it's meant to be mumbled, Eva Greene asks "What?", but he's understandable when he's acting like he's mumbling. They wouldn't even make him unintelligible for a line that was meant to be unintelligible.

Without subtitles, when I don't have them for whatever reason, sometimes I need to rewind, and turn up the volume to catch a single word the actor mumbled. Sometimes, I never hear what they said, and I just move on. Was that important? I don't know.

We started watching with subtitles because we couldn't hear what the actors are saying.

"Big explosions go boom, everyone likes loud music."

Actors don't need to speak clearly, which adds "atmosphere" or whatever, because everyone is watching with subtitles.

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