posted
Having two small children who, if God likes me that day, nap at the same time, I often have the closed captioning on my TV turned on so the set doesn't bother them. As such, I have noticed several common "errors" (for lack of a better word) that have to do with my TVs' (yes, that apostrophe is in the right place, as I'm talking about 2 TVs) closed captioning. It happens more with the upstairs TV, which is an older set, so I'm thinking that the decoder is just dying or something.
1. Missing letters. Always in multiples of 2, it seems. Quite funny when I'm watching a commercial for that Ionic Breeze air purifier thingie when the IM went missing out of the phrase "animal dander."
2. Q substituted for S and A substituted for C. That A for C thing was funny when I was watching something about acacia trees and it came up "aaaaia." Also, sometimes 1 gets substituted for 3... but more often, numbers go entirely missing, with a big white square left in place.
3. Something truly screwy, like "-//////////!" where an apostrophe or hyphen should have gone.
Anyone else notice things like this?
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posted
Oh, well live TV is another thing. Real time captioners have their hands full and goodness knows how they manage! The delayed captioning, tho, it's just odd, is all. I dunno if it's just my sets or bad captioning, period.
-------------------- They just don't make crazed, beserk robots like they used to. --Sheen Estevez, Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius
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quote:Missing letters. Always in multiples of 2, it seems.
Probably because most captioning (like court reporting and other forms of transcription) is done by capturing sounds rather than letters. That is, the captionist's equipment might have a 'th' key (because that's a common sound combination in English), and if the key is missed or isn't pressed, the resulting caption will be missing two letters.
posted
I like the live captioning where you just KNOW the person doing it isn't feeling well today...
Like one of the awards shows where the person recieving the award went on and on and the cationist put "blah blah blah"
or during a local mayoral debate the captionist declared their dislike for the incumbant with "more of the same old bs he's been feeding us for years"
Posts: 62 | From: Markham, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
Wow. I've seen instances where someone obviously cut corners or didn't understand what was being said but I've never seen editorial comments like that.
Probably the most common thing would be missing sentences. Someone will be talking and the captions will leave out whole sentences.
Posts: 716 | From: San Antonio, TX | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
Oh, but the cc is fun. They may bleep things out in the audio, but not in the cc.
They also change things in CSI, like time of death, names, and other such. The cc doesn't match, which can make it very entertaining.
I like it when the cc has a fit and suddenly starts bursting out in symbols.
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posted
Reminds me of the time I spent a good few minutes at the gym trying to figure out what the magic trick being performed on Regis and (whoever) entitled the "Miss Tickle Cross" was.
Had to say it out loud.
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posted
Pi... I had to say it out loud too... what a dork I am!
-------------------- They just don't make crazed, beserk robots like they used to. --Sheen Estevez, Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius
If I manage to post something swipe-worthy that you would like to make your sig, you may do so with my blessing. Posts: 2486 | From: East Stroudsburg, PA | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Pondicherry Pi: Reminds me of the time I spent a good few minutes at the gym trying to figure out what the magic trick being performed on Regis and (whoever) entitled the "Miss Tickle Cross" was.
Had to say it out loud.
I am still not so sure I get it. Can you explain?
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posted
I remember a close-captioned news show where "the suspected killer" became "the speckled kisser".
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posted
Does anyone else also have problems with the synchronisation of subtitles. I'm not talking about live broadcasts, where someone has to key in the sounds as they are spoken. I can understand a delay between the speech and the titles. I refer to pre-recorded programmes, where the subtitlers must have had time to do it properly.
Sometimes the subtitles come in before the speech, sometimes they come in afterwards. In extreme examples, the titles are for the show immediately before or following the show I'm watching.
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posted
Eddylizard, I know what you are talking about. There is a show called Best Week Ever in which the CC is at least a minute behind. Since turning off the CC can be a bit of a pain, I just have to suffer through it for a half hour.
I've never had the shows as far off as you have, though.
-------------------- Whereas as you are dancing happily in the fields of ignorance through which the stream of stupidity bubbles and flows. -BlushingBride My my space. Posts: 656 | From: Ohio | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Why are there sometimes strange typos in the captions?
When you see dropped letters (especially if those letters are dropped in pairs), that usually indicates transmission problems or bad television reception rather than errors on the part of the captioner. The most common reception problem is dropping of a frame of video, which takes out the two characters contained in that frame, so missing letters usually come in pairs.
What are those funny white squares I sometimes see?
When there are problems with reception, the caption decoder may not be able to retrieve the captions correctly from the VBI of the television picture. That can cause garbled or dropped letters. If the decoder receives something that it interprets as invalid, it will often display it as a solid white square ("blob").
There is a "backspace" command on newer decoders that displays on some older decoders as a white square as well.
Lots of other interesting information on that page.
posted
PI we've been using CC since the kiddo came along. Even when she's fast asleep we keep it on and have become a little bit dependant on it. The delay isn't so bad either. One of us will go "What did he say" and then the answer will appear. On wordy fast paced shows like Gilmore Girls I don't get much time to look at the actors at all. I also like it when they'll put the name of the background music or even the lyrics. It's funny that something geared toward deaf people is letting me appreciate music.
Posts: 1168 | From: Missouri | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
I know what you mean, Aud. There are so many artists that I would never know existed if it weren't for the fact that it came up on the CC. I mean, sometimes it will just caption (male singer) or something like that, but sometimes it will actually tell you the artist and the name of the song. That's pretty cool!
-------------------- They just don't make crazed, beserk robots like they used to. --Sheen Estevez, Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius
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