General Chat

Does anyone else use them? If so have you noticed how often lately they are out of sync. Usually ahead of the speech

Yes Ann I do.

Really annoying. I usually end up turning them off.

Yes - but I can't do without them1 They are often far enough ahead for me to lip- read the actual speech after - not that I do lip-reading, there are some classes starting locally but I feel I'm too old to learn!

Is it my imagination or have they got worse lately?

While waiting at the doc's yesterday I watched the tv...... with subtitles. No sound at all!

I thought it was hilarious.

Someone was unwrapping a parcel..... and the subtitles said "paper crackling"

Our dentist has tv's installed so that you can sit in the chair and watch........ last time I was there the cricket was on........ and some of the subtitles were hysterical.

I'd understand them being out of sync on live street interviews , but studio scripted stuff, weather forecasts, etc should be spot on, methinks..........

Ladyscozz , that might have been Audio Description..........

I wouldn't have a clue........... I rarely watch the lobotomybox.

5 minutes in the waiting room yesterday, would probably be the longest stretch I've watched tv for yonks.

I find them hilarious!

Most television stations use speech to text software and there can be real howlers. The weather forecast is usually good for that.

Quite so,Errol

However to those who are actually so hard of hearing that they don't know the wrong words have been used and who are left trying to match the words that zipped across the screen with the words spoken, it can be very confusing. They are not given a good service. And incidentally if it is speech to text, how does it happen the the text appears before the speech?

I don't really find the synching is a problem - and it is usually fairly obvious what the mistakes should have been in live programmes - much of it is obviously done with the remarkable guesswork we get with spelling suggestions on the computer! And I am always aware of what a difference it would made to my father's life in old age when he was also stone deaf

About a year ago, my middle daughter applied for a job in TV Sub Titles.
Sub titles are done manually for live TV
The test was a nightmare and she was very glad that she didn't get the job.

Her typing speed is excellent but her spelling accuracy is not.
There is no time to correct spelling mistakes.

Out of synch suggests that TV is being viewed via satellite or another digital format.
It's always a few seconds behind normal transmission but the sub titles are on live time

GL, yes that is the conclusion we came to. As we are on Freeview and that is by satellite. Strangely though, it doesn't always happen and is worse on some programmes than others.

Sub-titling errors are apparently called mondegreens, and the letters page of Radio Times often has amusing examples.

This week's offering is "China's got skis" instead of Tchaikovsky and "Bach's Concertos and Potatoes". The writer wasn't sure what that was meant to be!

I use subtitles, especially if I am viewing into the late hours, when the rest of the household are in bed.
I too think they seem to be worse recently, although there have always been comical mix-ups.

I wonder if the Sussex vicar, who featured on our local news some time back, knew that the subtitles referred to him as a 'sausage filler ' ?

Foreign language television programs have become quite popular. For the French ones at least the sub titles are usually in sync but the translations are often way off or utterly fail to catch the spirit of the program. French who dunnits for instance tend to have bowdlerised sub titles as if written by Mary Whitehouse.

I guess much the same applies to Inspec Motelbano and so on.

For silent tv viewing wireless headphones ( under a tenner ) must be a better bet than sub titles lol. They are also a great fix for older people who like to have the volume full up.

We usually watch 'Spiral' and it's very earthy and Parisian and I'm sure the subtitles are sanitised somewhat. You can just tell :-)