We use subtitles because the sound mixing is fucking terrible in most media now. It’s set up for massive theatres where dialogue sounds normal and gunfire or explosions sounds realistically loud. But I’m not trying to have realistically loud explosions in my living room on my Vizio, so the volume is set accordingly, meaning you can’t make out words half the time.
In the early days of television, directors really only had the choice of using theater trained actors since those were all that existed. Theater actors are trained to speak in that way so that they can be clearly understood on stage even without mics. But people don’t actually speak that way, and modern directors seem to have a preference for “natural performances” so I wouldn’t necessarily blame the actors. They may just be doing what they’ve been directed to do.
A long time ago my dad bought a full blown surround sound set-up, and I got so tired of not being able to hear that I spent days fiddling with the settings to no effect. Went online to do deep dive research and people just kind of hand-waived with a generic “buy a better setup and try different settings”. Completely gave up on good audio and leaned into the subtitle life.
Maybe if someday I could afford a bigger place I’ll try again. I did get some high quality speakers for my PC, but the years of disappointment lowered my standards so much that I didn’t even notice the left speaker was off because I didn’t slot the copper wires correctly for many months.
In the show Andor, there is a character named “Kleaha” But until about halfway through season 2, I thought it was Princess Leaha. It was only that I saw the subtitle that wrote her name out that let me know it was a different person.
We use subtitles because the sound mixing is fucking terrible in most media now. It’s set up for massive theatres where dialogue sounds normal and gunfire or explosions sounds realistically loud. But I’m not trying to have realistically loud explosions in my living room on my Vizio, so the volume is set accordingly, meaning you can’t make out words half the time.
I’ve got a decent 5.1 system. It brings the boom boom when needed.
Still need subtitles. I blame the lack of theatre trained actors. The Hollywood gang mumble.
In the early days of television, directors really only had the choice of using theater trained actors since those were all that existed. Theater actors are trained to speak in that way so that they can be clearly understood on stage even without mics. But people don’t actually speak that way, and modern directors seem to have a preference for “natural performances” so I wouldn’t necessarily blame the actors. They may just be doing what they’ve been directed to do.
A long time ago my dad bought a full blown surround sound set-up, and I got so tired of not being able to hear that I spent days fiddling with the settings to no effect. Went online to do deep dive research and people just kind of hand-waived with a generic “buy a better setup and try different settings”. Completely gave up on good audio and leaned into the subtitle life.
Maybe if someday I could afford a bigger place I’ll try again. I did get some high quality speakers for my PC, but the years of disappointment lowered my standards so much that I didn’t even notice the left speaker was off because I didn’t slot the copper wires correctly for many months.
In the show Andor, there is a character named “Kleaha” But until about halfway through season 2, I thought it was Princess Leaha. It was only that I saw the subtitle that wrote her name out that let me know it was a different person.
Several times in the new fantastic 4 movie, sue storm called her kid, frankling. That’s not a name. It’s Franklin.
Aren’t Franklings what we call people from France?
/s