I need subtitles, and I have great hearing. I don't know what it is about me - I can hear intonation and ambient sounds perfectly, but the actual meaning of the word gets lost. I'll be listening closely, and yet still ask my girlfriend 5 or 6 times over the course of a movie , "Wait, what did he say?" Subtitles have helped a lot, and now she uses them even when I'm not around! I don't know why I'm so terrible at processing speech on TV, even though I'm fine at it IRL. This article made me feel seen, something I didn't know I wanted. Thanks for sharing!
I'm right there with you. I first started using subtitles on movies that had super horrible sound balancing. You know, LOUD SOUND EFFECTS and mumble speech. Then I started using them all the time after Dala and I moved in together, so I could watch TV quietly when she was already asleep. Somehow, over time, they've become indispensable.
Horror movies are the worst about this! It feels like the entire genre hires the same asshole to make the dialogue quiet, just so you'll listen closely before they blare a LOUD SOUND and some spooky monster jumps out from behind a corner. I love horror, but I fucking hate horror sometimes. I shouldn't need subtitles just to avoid getting honeydicked by the audio...
This is all speculation on my part based on a growing number of complaints I've read and responses from people in the industry. For TV it's due I think to higher level consumer technology - 5.1, 7.1... 22.2 ??!! surround sound are much more affordable now. The teams responsible for both the audio and video are aiming their output to look and sound superb at the highest level of tech available so they'll pipe virtually all speech to specific channels and effects and ambient sound to the rest. Since at least one channel is dedicated to speech - with a well balanced system - dialogue and effects really ought to be clear and audible and lots of people report that. I bet the majority of people are watching TV with stereo sound though and the audio engineers either weren't paid to make a separate stereo mix - forcing your TV/laptop/phone whatever to automatically mix down for you - or they did make a mix but don't have the time/budget to test that mix on the bottom 70% of equipment that most people use. I made that figure up from this article that projects 40% market share for home theatre systems by 2023
I started using subtitles years ago watching movies with my Norwegian gf (now wife). With Norwegian subtitles, it helped me learn the language at the same time it helped her with understanding the dialog. Now we're 50-50 with Norwegian or English subtitles. Interestingly, we were binge-watching several episodes of Killing Eve last night, and one of the episodes did not have English or Norwegian available. Rather than try to download the episode and set up a subtitle file with VLC, we just watched without subtitles. I missed several parts where the characters were speaking with strong British and Irish dialects. Further, I've become so used to having the words on the screen that I found it mentally draining to focus on the spoken words. I was happy when the next episode had English subtitles and I could have my support text back. (To be clear, I am native English-speaking and have no difficulties with hearing.) Watching without subtitles is for me is worse than watching with subtitles. I'm guessing that my brain processes visual data so much more efficiently than auditory data, that having the dialog onscreen makes it easier to follow. I used to hate subtitles because I felt distracted trying to read and watch the nuances in the actors' faces at the same time. Now I don't even notice that the subtitles are there, but I notice when they are NOT there! Subtitle reading is a skill that with practice becomes effortless.
I really hate subtitles - unless the whole movie is completely unintelligible, I'd rather miss a few lines then turn the movie into an audiobook. Whenever subtitles are on, it's really hard to ignore them, and then I miss appreciating the visuals as much.