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Article tagline: “Just the dialogue—no sound effects or music cues.” Do any HNers find those cues sufficiently distracting that they’re excited about this feat

Article tagline: “Just the dialogue—no sound effects or music cues.” Do any HNers find those cues sufficiently distracting that they’re excited about this feature? I always have subtitles on. While I find those cues occasionally amusing, I’ve never found them to be an impediment to my enjoyment. Maybe they are for people who read slowly? Or because they break the fourth wall?

pests 2y ago
Eh, I don't need help hearing background noise. I need help understanding the words coming out of the actors mouths because the mix is wrong or directed that way.
- doublerabbit 2y ago
  Exactly the same issue. Quiet parts loud, loud parts quiet.
conartist6 2y ago
To be honest I usually think they're tacky because I imagine they detract from the experience of nearly every single person. It's the kind of thing where there is a horse-drawn carriage going by on screen and they print the text "[clip clop clip clop]". If you can't hear it, wouldn't you just want to watch it?
- avidiax 2y ago
  Sometimes the sound can be offscreen, e.g.: [Window breaking] [Gun cocking] [Stairs creaking]
  - stevage 2y ago
    Yeah those make sense to me, because they're part of the plot. The weird ones for me are where some absolutely unintelligible background murmuring is subtitled. I couldn't tell that any actual words had been spoken and suddenly it's all spelt out.
  - conartist6 2y ago
    yeah I totally get it for moments like that where something that you can only hear is critical to understanding what's going on in the movie, but they never seemed to care much about making those kinds of artistic judgements
WhyNotHugo 2y ago
The funny thing is that I've been seeing this for decades. E.g.: media with a separate "subtitle (audio only)" and "subtitles (with sounds)" tracks. Not sure why this is being presented a something new here.
- pests 2y ago
  This is the difference between just "subtitles" and "closed captioning / subtitles for the Deaf or hard of hearing". Usually one will be labeled as "English" and the other as "English (CC)". Other streaming services have had this distinction and you can also see this classification in places such as open subtitles. Netflix has always been the odd one out to only include "English (CC)".
  - netsharc 2y ago
    This is Apple introducing the new iPhone, with the world-turning new features "copy", and "paste" all over again. Pro Max buyers get "cut" too.
  - watwut 2y ago
    CC are not meant for deaf. They are exact transcripts of speech. They are better for language learners and foreigners who occasionally need to glance at subtitles to get missing word. They dont have advantages for dead afaik. They real advantage is that you don't need to create priper subtitles that are subject to different standards. So, they are cheaper.
    - Tireings 2y ago
      Are you nitpicking or what do deaf people normally?
      - watwut 2y ago
        Deaf are better off using normal subtitles, because those are literally designed to be read while watching the movie. They have different standards for stuff like how many letters to show on screen at the same time and for how long.
lozenge 2y ago
The ones that describe the music are funniest. Cheery music! Foreboding music! I've seen this option for a long time, I always assumed they create them as the starting point of subtitling in foreign languages. Presumably nobody is French, hard of hearing and wants to watch an English language program.
Larrikin 2y ago
As someone that reads faster than people general speak, I find subtitles very annoying in a language I understand. But I live in a multilingual household so I keep them on for nearly all English content because it is genuinely helpful for others. Anything that gets some of the text off screen is a positive for me
stevage 2y ago
Yeah I hate them.
altairprime 2y ago
I expect the target audience for this change is people whose reading speed for whatever reason can’t keep up with dialogue when sound effects captions are included. There are a variety of reasons for that and it’s sensible to provide “sfx/bgm on/off”, though it shows how little investment is being made in accessibility by the media industry that Netflix has to do this in their language selector rather than the TV being able to do it for all feeds.
rightbyte 2y ago
If you are discussing the movie as you watch it subs are nice to not miss dialogue. And disturbance in general.
7bit 2y ago
I don't care about that. But being presented the choice, I would choose the subtitles without (loud bang). And having a choice is nice, isn't it? So yes, I appreciate the effort.
bookofjoe 2y ago
Me for one

pests 2y ago

Eh, I don't need help hearing background noise. I need help understanding the words coming out of the actors mouths because the mix is wrong or directed that way.

doublerabbit 2y ago
Exactly the same issue. Quiet parts loud, loud parts quiet.

conartist6 2y ago

To be honest I usually think they're tacky because I imagine they detract from the experience of nearly every single person. It's the kind of thing where there is a horse-drawn carriage going by on screen and they print the text "[clip clop clip clop]". If you can't hear it, wouldn't you just want to watch it?

avidiax 2y ago
Sometimes the sound can be offscreen, e.g.: [Window breaking] [Gun cocking] [Stairs creaking]
- stevage 2y ago
  Yeah those make sense to me, because they're part of the plot. The weird ones for me are where some absolutely unintelligible background murmuring is subtitled. I couldn't tell that any actual words had been spoken and suddenly it's all spelt out.
- conartist6 2y ago
  yeah I totally get it for moments like that where something that you can only hear is critical to understanding what's going on in the movie, but they never seemed to care much about making those kinds of artistic judgements

WhyNotHugo 2y ago

The funny thing is that I've been seeing this for decades. E.g.: media with a separate "subtitle (audio only)" and "subtitles (with sounds)" tracks. Not sure why this is being presented a something new here.

pests 2y ago
This is the difference between just "subtitles" and "closed captioning / subtitles for the Deaf or hard of hearing". Usually one will be labeled as "English" and the other as "English (CC)". Other streaming services have had this distinction and you can also see this classification in places such as open subtitles. Netflix has always been the odd one out to only include "English (CC)".
- netsharc 2y ago
  This is Apple introducing the new iPhone, with the world-turning new features "copy", and "paste" all over again. Pro Max buyers get "cut" too.
- watwut 2y ago
  CC are not meant for deaf. They are exact transcripts of speech. They are better for language learners and foreigners who occasionally need to glance at subtitles to get missing word. They dont have advantages for dead afaik. They real advantage is that you don't need to create priper subtitles that are subject to different standards. So, they are cheaper.
  - Tireings 2y ago
    Are you nitpicking or what do deaf people normally?
    - watwut 2y ago
      Deaf are better off using normal subtitles, because those are literally designed to be read while watching the movie. They have different standards for stuff like how many letters to show on screen at the same time and for how long.

lozenge 2y ago

The ones that describe the music are funniest. Cheery music! Foreboding music! I've seen this option for a long time, I always assumed they create them as the starting point of subtitling in foreign languages. Presumably nobody is French, hard of hearing and wants to watch an English language program.

Larrikin 2y ago

As someone that reads faster than people general speak, I find subtitles very annoying in a language I understand. But I live in a multilingual household so I keep them on for nearly all English content because it is genuinely helpful for others. Anything that gets some of the text off screen is a positive for me

stevage 2y ago

Yeah I hate them.

altairprime 2y ago

I expect the target audience for this change is people whose reading speed for whatever reason can’t keep up with dialogue when sound effects captions are included. There are a variety of reasons for that and it’s sensible to provide “sfx/bgm on/off”, though it shows how little investment is being made in accessibility by the media industry that Netflix has to do this in their language selector rather than the TV being able to do it for all feeds.

rightbyte 2y ago

If you are discussing the movie as you watch it subs are nice to not miss dialogue. And disturbance in general.

7bit 2y ago

I don't care about that. But being presented the choice, I would choose the subtitles without (loud bang). And having a choice is nice, isn't it? So yes, I appreciate the effort.

bookofjoe 2y ago

Me for one