watching TV with subtitles on

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This is something I do which traces back to when I was living at home and had a TV in my room. I often would watch TV in the evening when I was the only one awake, and so I didn't have to fret about waking anyone up, I would watch it on mute with the subtitles on. Then I started watching it that way in the daytime--sound and subtitles together. After moving out, I pretty much kept up with this, and even today I often prefer to watch films and shows (in English) with English subtitles.

Odd thing is, I'm pretty good at understanding the spoken word--except verbal instructions, of course, which could basically be someone saying, "Go over to the place and do the thing with the thing, no the other thing! Not that that thing, THAT thing!". But I actually have no real difficulty grasping the spoken word for the most part. Yet I prefer the subtitles. I want to read what they're saying before they blurt it out...

This might just be a personal quirk, though. Like always muting commercials--something which for some bizarre reason seems to really annoy other people. Who wants to listen to a bunch of commercials? No understandey!

I hate TV subtitles. Too crappy looking. However, I enjoy having the subtitles on on a DVD. I enjoy reading, so it gives me something else to do than just watch the action and listen to the dialogue.

I much prefer the subtitles on in dvds, but off on tv - CC is ugly.

Though, I think it started when I started to have difficult hearing.

It's true, they are ugly, and yet...

Actually they're often a lot of fun because the TV captions are frequently quite different from the dialogue. Example: an episode of Futurama in which Fry moons Mom.

audio: You call that a pressed ham?
caption: You call that an anus?

I get the impression that a lot of the captions feature the original uncensored dialogue, which is a nice touch.

I always use subtitles too... then it's easier to follow along. When the characters are yelling or talking too quickly, then I always miss stuff. Plus if you focus on the writing then you don't get distracted as easily.

Only when I am watching a DVD, some times with voice over commentary when I watch the DVD for
the second time. Feels like I'm reading a book.

Well, I do like to turn the closed captioning on my TV.

I do. However, the captions are full of misspellings.

I like my DVD of Four Minutes with the enhanced trivia track feature.

I always use closed captions on TV and subtitles on DVD's, because I have a lot of difficulty making out what people say when any other sounds are also present, and even when I can make it out I'm slow at interpreting it. Subtitles, on the other hand, I can read in a split second, so they don't distract at all. Also in real life, any time anyone says anything to me, what they say (if I can make it out) immediately appears in written form before my mind's eye, along with images of what they're talking about. I have really good ears, but somehow my brain doesn't have any intelligent ways of dealing with sounds.

I do not like them at all.

Last edited by TheMachine1 on 28 Jul 2007, 3:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I use subtitles sometimes. I use them when I wasnt to know what the characters said. Sometimes they are so hard to understand I want to know what they said so subtitles do the trick.

That's the fun of watching closed captions! When they're done live, like on news, you get some real zingers. Remember the time former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan was reported to be in the hospital to remove "a large prostitute?"

rarely ever watch tv with any sound,subtitles on its own,or a little sound if no subtitles are there.
am use sky tvs own subtitles,the words are on a big black background,rather than see through,so they are easier to read.
subtitles on live programmes like the news are the worst,the words of one bit never appear until the next bit is on.

Once in a while I put the subtitles on because I often mishear what the people are saying. I like how the subtitles add in little things like "grunts."

From the first Highlander movie

English dialogue
"He's a Highlander dammit and the last thing he hears won't be the wailing of a woman".

Hungarian subtitles
"He's a man who lives on a hill and he will not hear the tears of a lady"

Somehow it loses something in the translation.

Ed Almos

I love to read the subs too... It is alot better in foreign films and It gives me something to do other than just look at images