4 ms·

Netflix seems to be pretty opinionated about subtitles. Try watching Narcos without subs, you can't. "Off" means the Spanish parts are subbed, and switching it

Netflix seems to be pretty opinionated about subtitles. Try watching Narcos without subs, you can't. "Off" means the Spanish parts are subbed, and switching it to Spanish means the English parts are subbed! Netflix, a Californian company, simply couldn't fathom that some people might understand English and Spanish.

Lewton 9y ago
That’s a far far saner interpretation of “off” than the alternative On hbo Nordic, (The Scandinavian hbo go) off means -OFF- and it’s absolutely infuriatingly stupid to expect that I can speak Spanish, or Russian, just because I don’t want Scandinavian subtitles when watching an English movie
- YawningAngel 9y ago
  I feel like English-speaking product design in general has not caught up with the idea that there is a substantial audience of very competent second language speakers. Most educated Continentals I know have similar complaints.
- xxs 9y ago
  To help out: in the most of Hollywood movies spoken Russian is usually beyond unnatural with a heavy accent... to a point computer synthesized voice acting would be an improvement.
  - ekianjo 9y ago
    Do the same thing happen in Russia when they feature spoken English?
    - xxs 9y ago
      (Likely) it used to in the 80s when I was exposed to Russian movies but nowadays I cannot judge due to lack of exposure. (Russian is my 3rd language.)
jedberg 9y ago
Heh, that's actually funny. I'll be that is a technology issue and not a rights issue. The again, how do you indicate that you understand both languages? For a standard movie, the "foreign" language is always subtitled (unless the director specifically sats not to), even with subs off.
djsumdog 9y ago
But that's the same for BluRay and DVDs. It's just a limited use case and probably just difficult to program for.
- kodt 9y ago
  edit: never-mind I responded to the wrong post
oh_sigh 9y ago
Perhaps they can fathom it, but the percent of the audience that is spanish/english bilingual and cares about subtitles was too small for them to care about.
kbenson 9y ago
> Netflix, a Californian company, simply couldn't fathom that some people might understand English and Spanish. Or they just decided the path that serves the most people without complicating matters is to assume you want subtitles for any language not selected as the primary audio language. I think the relevant question here is how would you design a control panel that allowed you to define which of the many languages which might be in the movie should be subtitled or not? I think the people that care about this (that is, those that speak both languages and find it annoying) is vanishingly small.
- mulmen 9y ago
  In the app settings you have a list of languages and the user selects the ones they speak. When CC is on subtitle everything, when CC is off subtitle what is not selected.
  - takeda 9y ago
    Yes, that's probably the right way to implement this, but it is still more complex. No one on this site will have problem with that UI, but I personally know people who have issues with much simpler things.
    - mulmen 9y ago
      Sane defaults are easy to set in this scenario so the average user gets the same behavior as today but those people who want more control can still do so.
- wpietri 9y ago
  Yes, exactly. Netflix is militantly opposed to feature bloat. That means picking the case that works well for most people. And I'd add that what to subtitle is an artistic choice; directors carefully decide what languages to use and what they want to subtitle or leave untranslated. Plus Netflix have to deal with source material from hundreds of companies. Creating clever subtitle features quickly gets out into very deep waters.
gsich 9y ago
Burned in subtitles maybe?
markc 9y ago
You'd need more "settings" too because some people want only foreign language subtitles turned on (language impaired) and others want subtitles for everything (hearing impaired). And what if you're multi-lingual but hearing impaired? You might want all subtitles for languages you speak in the original language.

Lewton 9y ago

That’s a far far saner interpretation of “off” than the alternative On hbo Nordic, (The Scandinavian hbo go) off means -OFF- and it’s absolutely infuriatingly stupid to expect that I can speak Spanish, or Russian, just because I don’t want Scandinavian subtitles when watching an English movie

YawningAngel 9y ago
I feel like English-speaking product design in general has not caught up with the idea that there is a substantial audience of very competent second language speakers. Most educated Continentals I know have similar complaints.
xxs 9y ago
To help out: in the most of Hollywood movies spoken Russian is usually beyond unnatural with a heavy accent... to a point computer synthesized voice acting would be an improvement.
- ekianjo 9y ago
  Do the same thing happen in Russia when they feature spoken English?
  - xxs 9y ago
    (Likely) it used to in the 80s when I was exposed to Russian movies but nowadays I cannot judge due to lack of exposure. (Russian is my 3rd language.)

jedberg 9y ago

Heh, that's actually funny. I'll be that is a technology issue and not a rights issue. The again, how do you indicate that you understand both languages? For a standard movie, the "foreign" language is always subtitled (unless the director specifically sats not to), even with subs off.

djsumdog 9y ago

But that's the same for BluRay and DVDs. It's just a limited use case and probably just difficult to program for.

kodt 9y ago
edit: never-mind I responded to the wrong post

oh_sigh 9y ago

Perhaps they can fathom it, but the percent of the audience that is spanish/english bilingual and cares about subtitles was too small for them to care about.

kbenson 9y ago

> Netflix, a Californian company, simply couldn't fathom that some people might understand English and Spanish. Or they just decided the path that serves the most people without complicating matters is to assume you want subtitles for any language not selected as the primary audio language. I think the relevant question here is how would you design a control panel that allowed you to define which of the many languages which might be in the movie should be subtitled or not? I think the people that care about this (that is, those that speak both languages and find it annoying) is vanishingly small.

mulmen 9y ago
In the app settings you have a list of languages and the user selects the ones they speak. When CC is on subtitle everything, when CC is off subtitle what is not selected.
- takeda 9y ago
  Yes, that's probably the right way to implement this, but it is still more complex. No one on this site will have problem with that UI, but I personally know people who have issues with much simpler things.
  - mulmen 9y ago
    Sane defaults are easy to set in this scenario so the average user gets the same behavior as today but those people who want more control can still do so.
wpietri 9y ago
Yes, exactly. Netflix is militantly opposed to feature bloat. That means picking the case that works well for most people. And I'd add that what to subtitle is an artistic choice; directors carefully decide what languages to use and what they want to subtitle or leave untranslated. Plus Netflix have to deal with source material from hundreds of companies. Creating clever subtitle features quickly gets out into very deep waters.

gsich 9y ago

Burned in subtitles maybe?

markc 9y ago

You'd need more "settings" too because some people want only foreign language subtitles turned on (language impaired) and others want subtitles for everything (hearing impaired). And what if you're multi-lingual but hearing impaired? You might want all subtitles for languages you speak in the original language.