TV Subtitles are rubbish and misleading

blossomhill_2

TV Subtitles are rubbish and misleading - I get very frustrated with them - sometimes they actually say the opposite of the spoken script

Tonight on Watchdog Anne R said "the benefits" - the text came up as "the Benazir Bhutto" - how are viewers supposed to make sense of this tosh?!

System

is watchdog live? Often on live programs you get typos as they try and write as quickly as they are speaking and errors creep in.

My personal favourite thing about subtitles is they often forget to beep out the swear word, therefore on screen the voice is beeped but on subtitles they write it down in all its blue glory!

ariba10

For some of us, it is better than none at all.

whitegoods_engineer

goater78 wrote: »

is watchdog live? Often on live programs you get typos as they try and write as quickly as they are speaking and errors creep in

:rotfl:

As far as I know, the words are translated into text by a voice recognition system with a real person correcting the mistakes of the computer as they inevitably occur. To imagine some poor person typing frantically at speed is quite funny.

munchpot

blossomhill wrote: »

TV Subtitles are rubbish and misleading - I get very frustrated with them - sometimes they actually say the opposite of the spoken script

Tonight on Watchdog Anne R said "the benefits" - the text came up as "the Benazir Bhutto" - how are viewers supposed to make sense of this tosh?!

I think you are being bit harsh. The majority of TV subtitles are excellent. The problem you've faced is that you are watching a live TV programme where the subtitles being done live.

The BBC do this by a system of re-speaking. The subtitle operator repeats what's being said into a microphone and the subtitle system creates the on-screen graphics. Sometimes the system will mistake what's being said

The BBC and Channel 4 are committed to subtitling 100%of their programmes so I think the odd slip is acceptable and not worthy of the Thread headline.

munchpot

whitegoods_engineer wrote: »

:rotfl:

As far as I know, the words are translated into text by a voice recognition system with a real person correcting the mistakes of the computer as they inevitably occur. To imagine some poor person typing frantically at speed is quite funny.

Actually some broadcasters do type ALL subtitle. Luckily for the live shows they use stenographers

System

whitegoods_engineer wrote: »

:rotfl:

As far as I know, the words are translated into text by a voice recognition system with a real person correcting the mistakes of the computer as they inevitably occur. To imagine some poor person typing frantically at speed is quite funny.

Yeah that makes more sense. However that is probably why you get mistakes as words can easily sound like other words depending on the regional accents.

ThumbRemote

whitegoods_engineer wrote: »

:rotfl:

As far as I know, the words are translated into text by a voice recognition system with a real person correcting the mistakes of the computer as they inevitably occur. To imagine some poor person typing frantically at speed is quite funny.

Thing is, it would be quite easy to put a 10s delay on the 'live' TV to give time to correct the subtitles properly.

munchpot

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Thing is, it would be quite easy to put a 10s delay on the 'live' TV to give time to correct the subtitles properly.

Sorry Thumbremote but it is not that simple to put a 10s delay on TV - even more complicated if you are adding live subtitles.

Azari

munchpot wrote: »

Sorry Thumbremote but it is not that simple to put a 10s delay on TV - even more complicated if you are adding live subtitles.

Why?

You can do exactly that with any household PVR.

Although I would say that if you can't do subtitling properly on live transmissions then limit live transmissions to things that really need them.

The only reason most news is live is because the people making it like the 'buzz'. Most of it could be pre-recorded with anything breaking being inserted live.

Krojan

Speaking from personal experience, yes subtitles can be mistyped however the mistakes are usually so obvious that you can work out from the conversation what is actually meant, its quite rare that there are errors too substantial to understand what is actually meant.

Personally I wish all programme makers/television stations would subtitle their shows as theres so many that don't take into consideration those like myself whom have hearing difficulties and rely on subs to watch television.

I know hearing aid loop systems are available for televisions, however not everyone can afford them or can use them if they don't qualify for a hearing aid.

If the OP thinks he/she can do a better job, feel free to try but take note that those of us whom have relied on them for many many years appreciate the fact that they are there, mistakes and all.