Netflix/Hulu/HBOMax/Prime (All Streaming Services) • Page 1263

Before we inevitably end up in "do you use subtitles?" Discourse for the millionth time

• Miniaturized microphones have changed acting styles where actors feel comfortable to whisper more now. Making dialogue harder to understand
• The fast advancement of digital audio recording picks up so much now that there are many more layers the sound editor has to cut through to make dialogue come out clearly
• Studios have cut budgets and given stricter deadlines for sound departments so they usually don't have the time and money to focus on making the dialogue crystal clear, especially for TV
• The Christopher Nolan philosophy of "intentionally near unintelligible dialogue can be a sound effect" has begun go spread to other directors
• Thinner TVs have terrible backfacing speakers. So unless you have a home sound system you are getting bad sound
• People are watching more international content with actors that have accents that can be difficult to understand
• Way more people's living spaces have open floor plans now, which are horrible for acoustics, and often clash with kitchen/kid/pet noises.
• The subtitle third party contracter industry got a huge boost after the hearing disability lobby pressured streamers to make them available for everything. As such subtitlers started to get resources to be more creative, and actually add and enhance the story, which some viewers appreciate.

That is why people use captions and subtitles. Discourse over. The end.

 

i have three sisters, so growing up, subtitles were the norm since my parents couldn't usually hear the dialogue. at nearly 30, it's a go-to practice in my household.

 

I tried watching the John Mulaney talk show and hated every second of it. Usually love John but thought the first episode was painfully unfunny and it didn’t help that Jerry Seinfeld was the first guest.

 

except for the Seinfeld part

 

The Paramount+ app is awful and slow, but it still technically works fine and plays stuff on my android phone, Shield TV Pro and Chromecast with Google TV

 

how the hell do you get it to work on your CCwGTV? because the only option they've suggested to avoid the dreaded error 6000 or 6040 is to uninstall/reinstall the app (which never works) or factory reset your device (which i don't want to do if possible). otherwise, i turn on my VPN and then it plays.

 

Admittedly I haven't used the app in a few months so maybe it got worse? I'm curious to try it again.

The thing that pisses me off though is I pay for ad free, and sometimes the app screws up and gives me ads anyways. And closing/reopening never fixed it, I'd have to like wait a few days haha

 

definitely let me know. about a year ago, what would happen is that the app would work fine for a week at a time before breaking for 2 or 3 weeks after (error 6040, which is somehow Internet related and they originally suggested could be solved by resetting your router. my WiFi is centrally controlled in my building, so that was impossible, and even when i reset my connection over the phone or the Internet went down, it still wouldn't fix it). nowadays (without a VPN), i get a black loading screen for about a minute (with the "optimizing video playback" notification) before getting error 6000 (i guess the same error with a different name?). admittedly, this also happens on Android phones (i have a Galaxy S24 Ultra), but only on a WiFi connection. cellular streaming works fine.

re: ads, the only problems i have are an ad occasionally playing at the beginning to promote more P+ or Showtime content, but that's definitely ridiculous if you're getting ur in the middle of a program.

oh, and the only other viable alternative for watching content is to cast from my phone to the TV, but for some reason, they only enable stereo audio for this option, so it's definitely not preferable with my sound setup.

 

I think the biggest issue for most people is because TVs have shitty speakers. These days you have to buy an audio solution to hear your fancy new tv that’s thinner than a slice of cheese. And you likely blew your budget on the tv so you’re gonna get the cheapest soundbar you can find which doesn’t do shit besides making the background noise louder.

 

Even with my soundbar, dialog can be so difficult to hear at times. Very frustrating

 

the worst thing about modern movies is that they love to bounce between being extremely quiet and extremely loud. so i use subtitles way more these days than i ever used to.

 

My argument against subtitles is I simply don’t care if I don’t hear every single line of dialogue in a movie. The vibe/visuals are way more important to me, I’d rather focus on that.

 

I swear the subtitle discussion happened like two weeks ago. Wait a month before repeating discussions!

 

Let’s rank subtitles

 

I tried to end it before it started but it just created more subtitle discourse!

 

I personally prefer flats to drums when it comes to wings

 

Same

 

What the fuck is a flat?

 

Flats suck, I hate trying to get out the chicken between the bones. Drums ftw

 

Wait why are we talking about chicken wings in the Netflix thread

 

I just love wings and hate subtitles man

 

#TeamFlats

 

That is just a wing. And drums are legs not wings.

 

I'm more of a boneless "wings" guy with the sauce on the side so I can control the amount of sauce I'm getting. Having wings drowned in sauce ruins it imo