Captions Needed for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing (1 Viewer)

[William0]

It's so frustrating to see that many TVShowsOnDVD studios have shown insensitiveness toward the Deaf & Hard of Hearing viewers who would not purchased their dvds due to lack of captions or subtitles. I should mentioned that the foriegners would benefit from what we need, too.

Can we have an equal access like the rest of the Hearing viewers? If not, then that's a discrimination, clear as a bell in front of our eyes! What they forget is that they are losing the sales from us and they take their hearing for granted! It's a shame!

There are many studios out there, do not provided the necessary access for us such as Image Entertainment (Twilight Zone, my favorite TV show of all time), Rhino
(The Monkees, Ed Sullivan Rock 'n Roll Shows & Lone Ranger), A&E (Benny Hill, the Prisoner & Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman) and I can go on and on. As I mentioned "many", I mean there are many lesser known studios out there in the same company as the ones I mentioned above.

However, there are some exceptions among the well reputated studios such as Warner Brothers, MGM, Universal, Columbia Tristar, Paramount, to name several, they have proved us that they can entertain us as well as the rest of the whole audience! That's the Total Access! Kudos to them!!

I have been hoping and hoping, in fact I have been begging that the Twilight Zone (the original and the 80's version) will have what we need when their releases be out in December. PLEASE!!!

 

[Gord Lacey]

It comes down to cost. If they don't have access to the closed captioning files then they'll have to spend thousands of dollars to subtitle/caption the episodes. All the companies you listed license their material and probably don't have access to caption files, and they are on tight budgets. I think I posted a price list for captions/subtitles awhile ago.

Gord

 

[Glenn Overholt]

I always like to put the captions on when I'm listening to a commentary, because sometimes they mention what is being said.

Anyway, i started one up the other day (don't remember which) and captions were not available. I put my TV set on mute and they showed up!

I don't know if this would always work, but have you tried that?

Glenn

 

[Steve...O]

I agree cost can be a consideration for smaller labels, but I am really turned off if there are no subtitles/captions.

The recent Van Dyke box sets were kept from perfection only by the lack of subtitles. These are captioned on cable so why couldn't Image pony up some bucks to license the files since they obviously exist? Amortized the cost over however many units they figured on selling and it wouldn't impacted the MSRP that much.

If the files didn't exist, I can understand Image not being able to afford all new captioning. I read somewhere that it can cost several thousand dollars just to captuion one movie so clearly the cost to caption over 100 episodes would have been prohibitive.

I am not picking on Image, just using them as an example. Of course, if I am wrong about the ability of a label to license already existing captioning files, please let me know and I will gladly stand corrected.

Steve

 

[Gord Lacey]

Here's my previous post regarind the cost for subtitles and captions:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...31#post2026531

You can see how expensive it can become.

Gord

 

[Roger_R]

I hate it when a show doesn't have captions too. You have to listen with headphones or tell everyone else to get out so you don't miss anything important. What really irks me is when studios put closed captions on DVDs, but not regular subtitles. Why not go the extra inch and just convert the already written text to the DVD's own subtitle format? That way people with non CC compatible TVs will be able to get subtitles too.

 

[William0]

Thanks Gord, for the information. Ok, I wonder which is cheaper, english subtitles or closed captioned? I am fine by either way, however I think any studio should provide captions or subtitles according to the TV show's popularity.
So Twilight Zone is the Classic TV show, it's no brainer that it ought to have them on DVD.

 

[Gord Lacey]

I think it's the same price for captions or subtitles.

Gord

 

[Dan Rudolph]

The expense would almost entirely be the labor, yes? And the work involved is essentially the same.

 

[William0]

Would the cost of captions/subtitles be allowable as a tax deduction? It should be because it's considered as assisting the disadvantaged to enjoy the show just like the rest of the audience.

 

[Steve...O]

All expenses associated with producing a DVD would qualify for a tax deduction in the sense that a company would only pay taxes on their net income (revenue less expenses).

I want to thank Gord for linking to the other thread and enlightening us all on this subject. The "several thousand dollars" I mentioned above came from a newsgroup posting from someone at one of the smaller labels (Kino maybe?) that said it would cost them something like $3,000 to caption a movie and there was no way they would ever recoup that. Obviously the costs can actually far exceed that. No wonder "closed captioner" is often listed as one of the best paying fields to get into (no, I am not making that up).

Hopefully someone will come up with a way to affordably make the captioning file portable from video source to video source so that the files used for a television broadcast can also be used for home video. Granted, there are issues with syndication cuts, time compression, etc. that would make portability to a complete episode difficult, but hey, isn't that what good old American ingenuity is supposed to be able to solve!

Steve

 

[Adam*M]

If they put captions on the Twilight Zone DVD's, you would probably end up breaking your glasses and be unable to read them...

 

[Javier Gaminde]

Hi to all

I totally support the idea of putting subtitles in every DVD released.
Fortunately i don´t suffer from any deafness or hard hearing but i think this people have the right to enjoy any film or tv show. Indeed i think it´s discrimination, and if money is an obstacle for not putting subtitles..... well...... what a sad, sad world........

In my case i only buy DVD´s not released in Spain or with Spanish language as option because although my knowledge of the english language is not too bad it´s far from perfect and American pronunciation is quite difficult for me to understand so subtitles in English or Spanish do help a lot.

I have to agree with William0, Twilight Zone is one of my all time favourites TV. Show.
When it was first released i didn´t buy any of the DVDS or sets because of the lack of subtitles.

If in this second release, subtitles are present i´ll gladly buy them all.

Regards

 

[William0]

LOL...Adam*M, you must be referred this to the old episode of TZ..."Time Enough At Last", definitely one of my favorite episodes. By the way you can be the writer, think of the today's version of that episode...

 

[William0]

Javier, many thanks for your support!!

Now if any of you, the Twilight Zone fans are supportive of having captions or subtitles for the upcoming dvd releases, please go to tvshowsondvd.com website. The reason is you can email to Image Entertainment,you can tell them that you want to have the TZ (two versions, original and 80's)to have captions/subtitles. More submission, the better!

 

[Javier Gaminde]

Hi!

Well thanks but not at all William0 i really think it´s unfair for the people that suffer from deaf or hard hearing.

Just a little secret.... some years ago i suffered from tinnitus for nearly two years i had like a bell ringing in my left ear a real pain, some days it was worst than others i went to many doctors and they didn´t have a clue of the origin of this weird sound, on my left ear, but i tell you, sometimes it was a real pain to simply watch tv or listen to music. I was diagnosed with Menieres disease since i had 4 episode of dizziness and vertigo (most horrible and scaring experience).

Then one day it simply disappeared. A few years have passed (7) since then, and thank god now i´m 100% recovered. Don´t know if it will happen to me again, hope not (fingers crossed).

Please forgive me for this personal story, i know this is not the proper place to writte about it, but what i´m triying to say is that i truly simpathize with people that suffer from any hearing related problem. You´ve got to suffer it to realise what it is ( not that i want you to!!).

So please don´t let money be an issue for not including subtitles or captions for the hearing impaired. It can happen some day to any of us.

Not sure 100% so correct me if any of you know better, but in England by Law, all DVD´s released in that country must include subtitles for the hearing impaired.
I have some Gerry Anderson series and all have subtitles in the region 2 release but same editions for region 1, don´t. Why? it´s not fair.

Say you live in the USA, and you like those Tv. shows, if you want or need subtitles you have to buy the region 2 version (need a region free DVD player that transforms Pal signals to NTSC, customs....). It´s simply weird!!!! again... WHY?

So please people in charge or big or small companies have a little sensibility and include always subtitles.

Regards

 

[William0]

Many thanks Javier, for a well written point of view.

Matter of fact, we are in the same boat, I experienced dizziness several times plus one very serious case of vertigo last year. I know exactly what it is and I do not want to go through it again.(knock on the wood)

By the way, I have lost half of my hearing since birth. I always watch TV programs or movies with captions so I can be entertained just like every one else.

Anyway, I am learning every day...so I am not sure that in the US, that we have region 2 like in England. I am not sure how does this work?

Yeah, hearing loss can happen to anyone, I have a friend who lost his entire hearing overnight with no known cause. It sounds scary but it's true. Think about it....

 

[Javier Gaminde]

Hi William0

Never loose faith!!!! as you probably know this things related to dizziness are a "mistery" feel free to mail me off forum and maybe i can be of help, regarding what the doctors prescribed me and that seemed worked.

Well i´m not an expert in this matter, but DVD´s are divided in Regions i give you a link that´s explains this matter in full: OOOOOpssssss i´m told i´m not allowed to post links untill i have 15 posts!


Well i´ll try to explain what´s this all about.

The thing is that DVD´s releases are divided in 7 regions, for example Europe is region 2, and USA is region 1.
So if you try to play a region 2 DVD in an American DVD Player it will likely not play and an American DVD will not play in an European DVD player. You need to buy a region free DVD player or multizone to be able to watch region 2 DVD´s.

To make things worse the signal of American TV´s is NTSC in Europe is Pal, so you need to convert the Pal signal to NTSC in order to watch a region 2 DVD. Wish my english speaking was better!!

I have a region free DVD player and American DVD´s play fine.

And again William0 if i can be of any help drop me a mail, i´ll be glad if i can tell you anything that might help.

Regards

 

[Javier Gaminde]

Hi

No one has an answer in this forum of why North American tv shows and films released in Europe have subtitles and in some cases not in the country of origin, that is, USA?

Simply don´t understand why.

Regards.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Gord, if you'll pardon the phrase, I hear what you're saying, but deafness is one of the commonest physical handicaps on the planet. E.g. even if anyone on this forum doesn't have a hearing disability now, there is a greater than evens chance you will have one by the time you reach old age. I can sympathise with a small company not having the moolah to offer subtitles, but when it comes to the big corporations, surely (1) they can recoup the money through sales and (2) saying 'we offer subtitles on all our DVDs' would be good publicity?