Hearing Impaired
April 9, 2004 1:36 PM   Subscribe

Why do some DVDs offer both 'English' and 'English for the Hearing Impaired' options? Aren't they going to be the same?
posted by feelinglistless to Technology (6 answers total)
 
Hearing impaired captions often indicate other sounds that are happening. Like if a character whistles, for instance.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 1:42 PM on April 9, 2004


Also, english subtitles for the hearing impaired will, for prelingually deaf viewers, sometimes include an explanation of a purely sound-based joke or play on words, which people who have never heard language would not understand. Puns, for example.
posted by Eldritch at 1:59 PM on April 9, 2004


Additionally, captions will sometimes come from different sources. On TV, for example, some caption tracks are based on a preliminary or "shooting" scripts, and may not reflect editing or last-minute additions, and therefore be different from the transcription of what is actually said. DVD caption tracks may (I don't know for sure) include different versions of caption tracks based on these different sources.
posted by Eldritch at 2:05 PM on April 9, 2004


I think it's on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that I first noticed that the subtitles were different from the captions. (Hm — I wonder if I can view both at once...) They're not very different in CTHD, but they're different enough. (I think that each gives bits of info the other doesn't.)
posted by jdroth at 2:26 PM on April 9, 2004


Response by poster: I hadn't thought of that. Thanks.
posted by feelinglistless at 3:01 PM on April 9, 2004


For that matter (semi-tangent) subtitle tracks will often disagree with spoken dialogue intentionally for the sake of readability. This happens several times in, for example, All the President's Men.

Similarly, subtitles are sometimes selective about what does and doesn't count as dialogue in hazy situations. Consider AtPM again, or as maybe a better example any Robert Altman movie EVER. Watching The Player with the subtitles on was interesting -- does Burt Reynolds' rant about asshole producers make the cut? How much of it? Etc.
posted by cortex at 6:36 PM on April 10, 2004


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