TV / Films with subtitles

Corelli

Hi,

I'm doing some research for my mother who is deaf and needs subtitles to watch TV and films.

Is anyone aware of a set top box supplier like Skye and all the rest who provide a wider option of viewing material that is well subtitled?

Apparantly the freeview programmes can be very eratically subtitled, with chunks missing and very annoyingly programmes that my mother has watched and enjoyed in the past with subtitles do not get subtitled when repeated.

Thanks

pmlindyloo

Corelli wrote: »

Hi,

I'm doing some research for my mother who is deaf and needs subtitles to watch TV and films.

Is anyone aware of a set top box supplier like Skye and all the rest who provide a wider option of viewing material that is well subtitled?

Apparantly the freeview programmes can be very eratically subtitled, with chunks missing and very annoyingly programmes that my mother has watched and enjoyed in the past with subtitles do not get subtitled when repeated.

Thanks

From what I've read the provision of subtitles is pretty poor although targets are set by the regulator.

Here is a good overview of the situation:

http://www.choose.net/media/guide/features/subtitles-best-tv-on-demand.html

Corelli

pmlindyloo wrote: »

From what I've read the provision of subtitles is pretty poor although targets are set by the regulator.

Here is a good overview of the situation:

http://www.choose.net/media/guide/features/subtitles-best-tv-on-demand.html

Thank you VERY VERY much. I'll get this printed off and sent to her.

[Deleted User]

pmlindyloo wrote: »

From what I've read the provision of subtitles is pretty poor although targets are set by the regulator.

Poor?
Even the link you provided shows that more than 90% of all the five main channels output is subtitled. Most broadcasters are exceeding OFCOM targets by some margin.

The Op's problem would seem to caused more by a poor signal reception than actual provision of the subtitles

Corelli wrote: »

Apparantly the freeview programmes can be very eratically subtitled, with chunks missing

Might need the aerial re-aligned if chunks are "missing"-this isn't the fault of the broadcaster.

LimeLight

I use subtitles and sometimes they are so bad they are laughable.

Even better is when they bleep out the name on the TV but it's there in all it's glory for subtitle users to know who it is getting arrested by the police lol
And there's the time the students complained that they were "cuddled by the police" in the London marches lol

Corelli

I've watched with my mother, obviously I as a hearing person get both inputs and it is indeed sometimes laughable. Sometimes a person will say several sentences and the subtitles will just give a few words. That's not drop out from poor reception. Like LimeLight said the misinterpretation can be very funny but I can't think of any specific examples.

Point taken though about looking at the aerial.

My original point is that I'm looking for more choice for my mother, the same as hearing people have more choice than the main channels.

Savvy_Sue

Could be worth taking a look at the Action on Hearing Loss website, if you search there for TV subtitles you may get some other advice.

I was astonished to discover that the sub-titles on some programmes are actually produced live by transcribers. I'd assumed that with the news, for example, they'd use the script the newsreaders are reading but no, they have a team of people listening and attempting to make sense of it. It's no wonder it sometimes gets very silly.

suse*

I have sky and always have subtitles on when I watch tv as it helps me to focus more on the programs. It seems to vary a bit which channels have them as some of the more american channels/ shows don't always have them as standard.

I do like netflix the tv / movie streaming service though as the majority of things I've watched on there do have subtitles including american box sets etc.

Emmylou_2

DH has hearing issues (it's actually an auditory processing disorder so while he can "physically hear" what's going on, sometimes his brain can't process it, especially if there's other noise in the background), so we have the subtitles on most of the time.

We find the subtitles are generally good (and most channels have them - annoyingly Syfy is one that doesn't subtitle much at all, and we watch it lots), the "live action" scrolling can be hilarious, particularly when it comes to names, but you don't get subtitles on downloaded content from catch-up (at least I haven't worked out how to do it), so if there's a clash and we need to record one (or two) things "live" and download another, and the "just me" programme will be available on download, then we do it that way.

M00minMama

I've found that if you watch a programme directly from BBC iPlayer on a tablet there are subtitles, but if you download the programme there are no subtitles available. This is confirmed in the help pages
http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/mobile_tablet/iphone_ipodtouch_accessibility
I often download programmes for when I'm in hospital to avoid paying for over-priced TV packages and find it really annoying!