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Question...

Mindwalker

Regular
Why are the extras on DVD's not subtitled or captioned? (if this is not in the right forum go ahead and move it)
 
I guess that depends on what DVD's you're talking about. If you're talking about the B5 ones they belong in the B5-Related forum, and I can move this there if that's what you mean.
 
Why are the extras on DVD's not subtitled or captioned?

Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't. It depends on the particular DVD, who produced it, and what their budget was. Captioning costs money, and sometimes there just isn't any left by the time they get around to doing the extras.

Regards,

Joe
 
no i mutter about how cheap some of these video people are. Use the same prog your software people desined to put subtitles in the DVD itself then hire a temp who can type fast at 8-9 bucks a hour to type up all the extras. but...noooo that would be toooo easy.
 
then hire a temp who can type fast at 8-9 bucks a hour to type up all the extras. but...noooo that would be toooo easy.

Accurately transcribing the spoken word, then editing it down and timing the display of the edited words to sync up with the picture and still give the viewer time to read what's on the screen is not as cheap or as easy as what you absurdly suggest. "Fast typist" indeed. A fast typist is someone who can convert hand-written material into typescript, not one who takes dication on keyboard. The only people who do that kind of thing are court reporters who use specialized machines that are effectively shorthand typewriters. Their output then has to be translated into clear text for other people to read. And court reporters don't work for a few bucks an hour.

Regards,

Joe
 
As the granddaughter, daughter, first cousin, and mother of hard of hearing people, I'm with Mindwalker--*all* visual media that includes the spoken word should be captioned! Doesn't the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 cover this sort of thing? True, it ain't cheap to hire a stenotypist/court reporter (or whatever they're calling themselves these days), but, on the other hand, it's a good way to earn the good will of thousands of people. Maybe the powers that be should think of captioning as a "loss leader" (a product that doesn't generate much profit but encourages people to buy other products).
 
I don't the Disabilities Act covers entertainment.

Do y'all remember that case, I think it was in England, with the blind dude who tried to sue a strip club because they wouldn't let him touch the strippers? :LOL:
 
Doesn't the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 cover this sort of thing?

If it did then that would imply that *every* book or magazine that was published would have to simultaneously publish a braille version. Also, every movie would have to be captioned in the theaters, as well as every play.

Does that sound like the world that we live in?


Oh, and since this is a B5 based message board, let's not forget that whoever is doing the transcribing for an SF show / movie will often have to get special vocab training just for that assignment. Besides the proper names (which might be an issue even outside the SF and fantasy genres) such as G'Kar, things like "Minbari", and technobabble (though there is relatively little of this in B5); even relatively simple sounding things raise questions. For example: should the transcriber use "jump gate" (2 words) or "jumpgate" (one word)? "Hyper space", "hyperspace", or "hyper-space"?
 
...let's not forget that whoever is doing the transcribing for an SF show / movie will often have to get special vocab training just for that assignment.

And let's also remember that the way we originally found out that the show was being released on DVD was a post to the moderated newsgroup from an employee at the National Captioning Institute who was looking for exactly that kind of help in prepping new CC for the first season set. (Warner Bros. hadn't told her that the release was still a secret pending the official announcement. :))

And I wasn't saying the studios are right not to caption some extras, I just a) answered the original question and b) pointed out that the proposed "solution" was based on totally incorrect assumptions about what goes into such work.

Regards,

Joe
 
Do y'all remember that case, I think it was in England, with the blind dude who tried to sue a strip club because they wouldn't let him touch the strippers? :LOL:

That reminds me of the old joke about studying 'a broad' and taking a braille course in human anatomy. ;)
 
Roger that, Joe--it's frelling expensive to do a good captioning job. As for the ADA not covering entertainment, the coverage may not be 100%, but why do you think so many TV shows and DVDs are being captioned in the first place?! Twenty years ago, captioning was almost unheard of. My understanding is that limited numbers of captioned movies were made, and these were passed from one local Deaf organization to another. Just about all of the captioning that we see now in the U.S. came about as a direct result of the entertainment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. I hope that the 5th-season DVD will be captioned from beginning to end.

Okay, getting off my soapbox now. :)
 
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