Possibly an FQ but since it’s about TV I thought I’d put it here. My wife and I watch British murder mysteries on Britbox. One thing we’ve noticed is that whenever someone is reading something aloud or quoting someone, the CC drops what is being quoted. I’ve never noticed this on US based shows and wonder if it is a peculiarity of British closed captioning? Are quotation marks some kind of “special characters” that cause this behavior? Any way to fix it on my end?
Are the quotes you’re referring to from works of literature or other media? Maybe the shows simply don’t have the right to use them in print?
No, it will be something like someone reading a note or a letter, or they will say something like she told me “blah blah blah” but whatever is in the quoted part doesn’t display.
We watched the last episode of S2 of “Happy Valley” the other night and it happened several times. But it’s also happened watching “Vera” or “Death In Paradise” and other BBC shows.
I find this perplexing because logic says that, if it is okay to hear it, then it should be okay to see it. Logic and the law don’t always agree, however.
Is the written text they’re reading shown onscreen?
Are they showing the note or text while reading it? I have, from time to time, seen phone texts and printed materials read when visible on the screen to the viewer, but with no captions. I assumed that the viewer was expected to be able to read along and that no captions were necessary.
Which brings me to a slight, but relevant hijack. There are often separate SDH (subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing) captions provided. In fact, I am hard of hearing and almost always use captions. In addition, my wife and I are on in years and we do not see as well as we used to. Why don’t SDH captions also provide the text when teeny, tiny phone texts are displayed? It seems to make sense that many older people with impaired hearing might also lack the visual acuity to read, “Sarge, the butler did it!” on a small phone shown for just a few seconds.
Ninjaed by Alessan!
Can’t say I’ve ever noticed it here in the UK (though I have had other gripes with subtitling, particularly with the cheapo archive/back catalogue channels,)
If it were published text that was being read, it might have something to do with ultra-caution over US rights. But it might just be that the subtitling just edits/simplifies bits here and there.
It would need precise chapter and verse, I’m afraid
If it’s a written note or text that someone is reading, the text is not shown. But as I said, it also happens if someone is quoting someone else - whatever they are repeating doesn’t get shown.
I should look to see if there is a “subtitles” option rather than CC and see if it displays any differently.
Maybe it’s just the app on the old DVD player that we are using? It’s an old Sony Blu-Ray player, and we use the Prime app on it to access Britbox. I might have to try streaming through a different device and see if that makes a difference.