Subtitles

I confess. I am the mother of a sub-titler.

Live subtitling is really very difficult and the subtitlers only do about 10 minutes live work at a time. Not all subtitlers can do it and it takes nearly a year to train both the subtitler and their voice recognition computer, which has to learn (like a well-trained dog) to recognise their voices and pronunciation, but like the best trained dogs sometimes they play up and there have been several occasions, including on a grand state occasion when what DD said and what was placed on the screen may have sounded similar but the meaning most emphatically was not.

The other thing she dreads is interviewees who have strong regional or foreign accents. The first time she did live subtitling on national television she got a regional news bulletin and there was an interviewee with a very strong accent, using dialect words and barely moving his lips as he spoke. She had to leave his responses unsubtitled. Fortunately it was the 6.00am bulletin so it passed unnoticed.

Thanks to all who recommended Spiral. We are hooked, and gutted that we missed the first four series. Box set, maybe?

Do have a lovely time in Sicily granjura We've wanted to go since we first started watching Montalbano but DH is too ill to travel that far now. Watch out for Mimi Augello you know what he's like with women

Motalbano is great, and I agree it would be ruined by dubbing. We are going to Southern Sicily in April with uk sil and bil, because of Montalbano- and they don't speak any Italian (I do, and OH gets by).

Here we have the reverse problem- French and Swiss TV have all the UK series, but dubbed, and neither os us can stand it. The worst is that an actor you've known all your life suddenly has a different voice. Can you imagine Judy Dench, or David Tenant (just as examples) not sounding like themselves- an abomination. So we watch UK films in English, and French films in French- or not at all.

Hurray! Moral support for the linguists.

We have had such rubbishy tv lately, I wish they would import a lot more films and series from Europe.

I would always opt for subtitles as I enjoy refreshing my French, German, Italian (Ciao, Montallbano sono ) and reckon that I am becoming a dab hand at Swedish and Danish (Hej! Hej, Hej!). There is the added advantage that an inconvenient phone call can still be taken with sound turned off and I can follow it with the subtitles!

DH's hearing has deteriorated recently and pending the new hearing aid I encourage him to use the subtitles even for Englisg programmes rather than deafen me!

I absolutely love Spiral, Saturday evenings are now sacrosanct!

I like having subtitles because it allows me to practice my, not very good, French. I also enjoy seeing the French legal system in operation, it is so very different from ours.

I like the filming, the lighting and action make this a very taut programme. I also think the actors and the characters they play are so interesting and so very elegant and French!

Yes, I am a closet Francophile!

It is really not possible for the person doing the captions to avoid some delay. They are always going to be a bit behind the live speech. Also no time to correct captioning errors which can be funny on occasions. For example
"The Queen spent her birthday on her own." was shown as "the Queen spent her birthday on heroin."
On programmes like Question Time everyone talks at once, they interrupt each other, I really pity the captioner as they have an impossible job.
The person chairing the debate should exercise more control over the panel members. I just can't watch it any more.

mrsmopp I am also hearing impaired and so find sub titles a godsend, although the ones for the news are sometimes a little strange! My eyesight also isn't too good - ah the joys of getting older - and I have only discovered recently that it is possible to change the appearance of subtitles to make them easier to read. I do this through the settings menu on my Tivo and Netflix box.

Yes, thank heavens for catch up iPlayer TV its a godsend.
I shall carry on watching this series for sure!

It's excellent, do find it. BBC4.

I rely on subtitles completely because i have lost my hearing, so for me they are a godsend. Of course they do not sync properly with a live broadcast and there are often errors, but for people with a hearing loss they are a godsend.

There are dozens of movies at our local Vue cinema, but only two a week have subtitles so our choice is much restricted. Sometimes i borrow a DVD from the library, and it angers me when there are no subtitles, because the technology is there. I think they should be compulsory, to give us equal access but it hasnt happened yet.

Must try the Spiral, maybe find it on catch up TV.

I actually like subtitles I find I have to concentrate and become much more involved in the programme because I am unable to multi-task while watching. No sewing, knitting or sudoku on the side.

Enjoying the new series of the Spirals, gripping drama from the start.

I don't mind the subtitles and do like to see how they translate some of the language, SIL speaks Parisien French and they can have some strange dialects, and slang words which just wouldn't be dubbable??.
DD and I get a laugh when we watch movies dubbed into French or English, as sometimes the grammar is so bad it makes no sense at all.

I agree.

I love Montalbano, too. I love languages, actually. French, German, Italian and Swedish to be precise. So they are a real treat for me. Hands off my subtitles!

Inspector Montalbano would be ruined by dubbing. The characters are so good I would hate them to have other people's voices. I never find subtitles a problem, and some films - The Seven Samurai for instance - would be ruined by dubbing. There's no way you could reproduce the effect of the Japanese language using English and you need all those long pauses and sighs!

Sorry Ana my brain is not in gear. Hope to be fully functioning after a good night's sleep.

I don't mind subtitles but sometimes I find them hard to follow if they are part of the shot rather than on a dark background.

I was joking, NanKate...

No Ana I want dubbed on foreign language films and no sub titles and on English spoken programmes subtitles. Hope that makes sense.

I like Inspector Montalbano. It is in Italian with subtitles. I watch it for the scenery as it was filmed on the island of Sicily (is that the correct spelling)? It can be quite amusing, with the comedic policeman in the police station.

I never watch subtitled stuff, I just can't read them and follow the plot at the same time. I also wish they'd dub them, but there's a fat chance of them going to that expense these days.

Spiral is excellent, I have watched the previous series but I do have the advantage that I speak reasonable French.

Which makes it very entertaining when I see the swear words they have substituted or omitted.

I would hate it if they dubbed them, I look on it as a chance to keep my vocabulary up to date. Parisians tend to speak a lot faster than in other areas too, dubbing it could be quite hard at times.

Yes please! Me too!

So ideally you'd like dubbing and subtitles, NanKate?