#closedcaptions — Public Fediverse posts

Just as I depend on good #altText for online images, I use #closedCaptions when I watch videos. Even videos from large, professional producers (e.g., #HBO) suffer the same flaws of poor quality or just plain weirdness in this supplemental text. Especially in videos, I wonder how the caption editors decide what to write. What makes the background music "curious" or "mysterious"? I can't tell. Or this caption from House of the Dragon. Do chickens "bock" or "cluck"?

In watching Marple I have on several occasions seen the captions reveal the names of characters we should NOT know yet. SMH #ClosedCaptions

I've started two baseball games for my father. On the right-hand TV, the MLB app is running on an Onn box, and turning Closed Captions on is easy. On the left-hand TV, the MLB app is running on a Roku box, and it's not.

There are three options to choose from: CC Turn On, CC Turn Off, CC Replays Only. Except no matter which option I choose, I'm not seeing captions during the pregame chatter. #ClosedCaptions

This is in the context of Stranger Things, but no spoilers whatsoever.

So Stranger Things made headlines in past years for its thorough and sometimes gross-out closed captions.

I've been watching S5 and haven't seen any of that. Not only that, but no other cues like "[door slams]" or "[gasps]" or "[haunting choral music]."

Apparently, Netflix started rolling out a "feature" last Spring that in shows going forward, choosing "English" subtitles shows only the dialogue. You have to pick "English [CC]" to get the audio cues as well.

I'm honestly not sure who is served by the former who wouldn't be at least as well served by the latter. But the fuckers seem to have defaulted things to the one without audio cues--i.e., the least accessible thing they could have done. As well as undercutting and concealing the hard work of the sound designers.

Fuck the hard-of-hearing, I guess.

#accessibility #ClosedCaptions #subtitles #Netflix #SoundDesign #StrangerThings #EverydayAbleism

Ars Technica: Google temporarily disabled YouTube’s advanced captions without warning. “Google has now posted a brief statement and confirmed to Ars that it has not ended support for SRV3. However, all is not well. The company says it has temporarily limited the serving of SRV3 caption files because they may break playback for some users.”

Any of you know your way around android APK files?

I have a really weird, very specific modification I'd like to have done to a file, it SHOULD be really simple, but I know basically nothing about this sort of thing.

Spectrum (the Cable TV provider) refuses to release a version of their app for Google/Android TVs. A couple of years ago, someone made an APK that opens "a simple webview that launches the spectrum website to watch live tv." They also routed the basic controls through the TV remote.

It works great... but the one problem I constantly run into is that there's no way to turn Closed Captions on.

The project is on Github - https://github.com/dyay108/SpectrumTV_webview - but hasn't been updated in years and presumably won't need it as long as Spectrum has a web page where you can watch all your cable TV channels. I reached out to the creator asking if there was a way to make a CC-always-on version of it for those that want it that way, but haven't heard back.

#ClosedCaptions #Android

Last week I solved an interesting problem - how to get English subtitles working from a Star Trek DVD.

Short answer: it had no English subtitles, but had Closed Captions info in its analog video stream. So it was a matter of making the DVD player to spit the CC out and the TV to ingest and display CC.

https://codeyarns.com/tech/2026-01-01-the-curious-case-of-the-missing-english-subtitles.html

#closedcaptions #subtitles #dvd

Question for nerds and video watchers: are the closed captions available in this (you may have to enable them)?

https://m.earth.org.uk/smart-radiator-valves-talk-20201112.html

#CORS #VTT #ClosedCaptions

How To Add Closed Captions in Videos Using Canva? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu06cTSegVk 🎬💡✍️ #Add #ClosedCaptions #Videos #Canva #Guide

The Register: Chinese TV uses AI to translate broadcasts into sign language. It’s not going well. “China’s efforts to employ AI as a means of improving access to media for its deaf population aren’t going well, according to a professor at Beijing Normal University’s Faculty of Education.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/07/16/the-register-chinese-tv-uses-ai-to-translate-broadcasts-into-sign-language-its-not-going-well/

Pete Warden: How to caption videos in Javascript. “I’m excited to announce the public launch of MoonshineJS. This is an in-browser implementation of our lightweight speech to text models, and while you can do a lot of different things with the library, one of my favorite use cases is adding captions to videos.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/06/30/pete-warden-how-to-caption-videos-in-javascript/

What’s one thing you wish every video producer or content creator knew about closed captions (or Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing)?

#Accessibility #ClosedCaptions #SDH #DeafCulture

See these captions in Weebles: Welcome to Weebleville? They aren't the VOB subtitles on most DVDs. They're line 21 closed captions. You can see them through composite out on post-1993 TVs.

Most Blu-ray Disc players don't show them on HDMI. This is an accessibility failure on player makers' part.

Technology Connections released a 33-minute video titled "Closed captions on DVDs are getting left behind" about BD players' inability to render EIA-608 captions while upscaling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSCOQ6vnLwU

#Weebles #accessibility #ClosedCaptions #subtitles #a11y #DVD #BluRay

At first glance it seems obscure, even esoteric, but given some thought it becomes obvious that an easy accessibility win is routinely being ignored.

Hey, @videolan I love you, but you rate 'Could Do Better' in this class. Maybe have a look pls?

https://youtu.be/OSCOQ6vnLwU?si=lRvmAvULZN3Kb7y_

#Accessibility #subtitles #ClosedCaptions #HearingImpaired

Thank you for making me feel old today, @TechConnectify, by telling me that #DVD will turn 30 next year...
But more importantly, thanks for your interesting video about #ClosedCaptions and #subtitles in that format, and how a lot of modern HDMI implementations of it are no longer supporting #line21 CC data: https://youtu.be/OSCOQ6vnLwU

Ugh, so annoying when closed captions are positioned on top of open captions...

Which means I'll have to turn off my closed captions to be able to properly read one of them, or change my semi-transparent background to a solid one, and then switch it back again after that video for ones that don't have open captions...

#ClosedCaptions #OpenCaptions #subtitles #accessibility #a11y

Netflixin tekstityksiin iso uudistus

Moni suomalainenkin katsoo Netflixin englanninkieliset sarjatkin englanniksi tekstitettyinä. Tähän saakka nämä tekstitykset ovat olleet kuulo-ongelmista kärsiville tarkoitettuja ns. closed captions -tekstityksiä. Rinnalle tulee nyt myös "tavalliset" englanninkieliset tekstitykset, joissa ei ole enää kuvailevia tekstejä, kuten "askeleet lähestyvät".

https://dawn.fi/uutiset/2025/04/27/netflix-tekstitykset-englanniksi-uudistus-ei-closed-caption

#netflix #tekstitykset #closedcaptions #suoratoisto #uutiset #teknologia #televisio #tekniikka

I usually just want to know what people in movies are saying. I'll judge for myself if the music is ominous.

Of course there are people who need this extra bit of description but it should be rather easy to add a subtitle file without those bits.

#Movies #Subtitles #TV #ClosedCaptions