# Closed Captions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 25, 2001, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525 "2001-05-25T23:54:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2001, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/1 "2001-05-25T23:54:32Z")
My television has a nifty little feature. When you put it on mute for a few seconds, it automatically puts on closed captions. Today I was going to answer the phone, so I put the TV on mute. There was a commercial for New York State saying how nice its landscapes were. It had Gov. Pataki saying something to the effect of “Come see how nice it is in New York.” The closed caption read “Come ere see New Yote.” I see mistakes like this all the time. Do the people who write these things have to do it live? If they’re not trying to keep up with the show/commercial, then why are there so many typos? This is, after all, their profession. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/2 "2001-05-26T01:41:27Z")
I love to watch live sports with the caption feature on. During dull games it can be more entertaining than whatever contest is taking place. Good question in the OP though. ---
**Author:** ![Louie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Louie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Louie)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/3 "2001-05-26T06:45:34Z")
WAG : A poor reception of the station might be one of the cause of errors in the closed-captions. I wonder if there are hidden messages only seen in the captions… ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/4 "2001-05-26T14:04:30Z")
“I wonder if there are hidden messages only seen in the captions…” Yeah, they can make them red too. The messages are usually signatures of who did the captioning. Those aren’t typos, they are probably weak caption signals. Typos are more like ‘eye deal’ for ‘ideal’. Sometimes you can see them type four letter words that don’t get BEEPED. Did I tell you I once wrote a topic here on BEEP/BLEEP & why they use that in captions? ---
**Author:** ![Dandmb50](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ba9def/32.png) [@Dandmb50](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandmb50)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/5 "2001-05-26T14:34:04Z")
yes I have noticed this too. It is the cable signal strength that is causing this problem it is not typos. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/6 "2001-05-26T16:43:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > \*\*“I wonder if there are hidden messages only seen in the captions…” > > Yeah, they can make them red too. The messages are usually signatures of who did the captioning.\*\* Yes, and usually the captions also show who paid the money for the captions to be done (usually the U.S. Dept. of Education). But as far as I know, there’s no hidden messages to the effect of “Satan has possesed me!” That would probably confuse the poor deaf people. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/7 "2001-05-26T21:43:51Z")
My college just got captioning equipment to caption videos. Thanks for that great idea, now I can put hidden messages in them. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/8 "2001-05-27T01:52:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > \*\*Those aren’t typos, they are probably weak caption signals. > > Typos are more like ‘eye deal’ for ‘ideal’. Sometimes you can see them type four letter words that don’t get BEEPED.\*\* Messed-up captioning is from a weak cable signal? Doesn’t sound right to me. As for “eye deal” instead of “ideal,” the person typing should have a good command of the language. I see what looks like almost phonetic spellings quite a bit. Shouldn’t they get it right? Few more captioning questions: Sometimes when it’s on (with the sound up), you will see a slightly different version of what is being said…not completely different, just a different way of saying something. For example, a character might say, “Let’s go get some coffee and discuss this matter” but the caption reads, “Let’s discuss this matter over coffee.” What is the deal with that? Captioners editing the script? Do they work from the script or do they listen to the soundtrack? A specific example I just remembered: On the show “Friends” there is an episode with Joey reading a deceased neighbor’s diary. Joey **says** “Italian guy’s gay roommate brings home a drag queen” but the captioning **reads** , “Italian guy’s gay roommate brings home the dry cleaning.” Makes a big difference. One is funny; the other is not. Obviously for older shows now being captioned, I assume they just listen to the show and type away, but with newer shows, do they have access to the script? ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/9 "2001-05-27T02:43:14Z")
Well, it’s from a weak, scrambled, or otherwise messy whatever-you-get-your-teevee-channels-from signal. Granted, it’s much less common with cable than with broadcast signals, but it’s possible. Personally, my favorite CC “glitch” is something that happens on live broadcasts fairly frequently: the caption transcriber will start to get slow, lose synchronization with the audio, and sometimes the captioner will panic and freeze up … so you get 10-15 seconds without captions, followed by a bunch of frantic and usually ungrammatical paraphrases paging through the stuff that got missed, until the captioning catches up again. Once you’ve seen it happen, it’s about as addictive as watching a car-accident scene. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/10 "2001-05-27T02:45:35Z")
Here is some general information on Closed Captions: [Closed Captioning FAQ Index](http://www.robson.org/capfaq/) ---
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/11 "2001-05-27T14:43:36Z")
I can understand how weak signal would make words drop off. However, why would it cause “New York” to be spelled “New Yote.” I think this was human error. ---
**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/12 "2001-05-27T15:32:33Z")
I always use closed captioning. In most TV fiction, the captions seem to be based on the script rather than what’s said or heard on screen. I find this particularly useful if there is background conversation at the opening of a scene, written to be relevant but ending up barely audible when broadcast. The other thing that’s interesting is when the dialogue has been changed, as in **Kinsey** ’s example. One of the shows which does this most often is The Simpsons; almost every show I’ll see a line recited differently by the actors to be less offensive to a particular company, celebrity, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/13 "2001-05-27T21:49:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*I can understand how weak signal would make words drop off. However, why would it cause “New York” to be spelled “New Yote.” I think this was human error. > \*\* and > [@](#): > > **Typos are more like ‘eye deal’ for ‘ideal’.** Long shot here, but I’m wondering if this still could be caused by corrupted/weak signals; it all depends on the way in which the info is encoded for transmission - if it’s just plain ASCII or something, then these would be ordinary typos, but if they compress/encode it with something similar to [soundex](http://www.rootsweb.com/~mimanist/Soundex.html) coding (this may be necessary if they are trying to pack a lot of info into a small amount of bandwidth), a small corruption could end up being uncompressed/decoded as the wrong word, but still a real one that sounds similar. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/14 "2001-05-27T22:12:33Z")
With live broadcasts, its either a true typo or the speaker deviated from a prepared script. For pre-recorded material its a technical glitch. The NTSC signal itself is analog so closed captioning has no ‘error correction’ and therefore will occasionally contain errors. Try this: Find something you taped at the slow EP (or SLP) speed that has closed captioning on it. Preferably a tape in less than great condition. When you play it back (particularly on a different VCR than it was recorded on) the closed captioning will be a jumbled mess of characters. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/15 "2001-05-27T22:23:31Z")
I may be wrong about this, but I think that the closed caption data is transmitted in the ‘hidden lines’ (along with teletext data), VCRs don’t record this (perhaps to minimize the amount of data to be recorded?) ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/16 "2001-05-27T23:54:52Z")
Modern VCRs, maybe; I know that my new VCR doesn’t record captions, but my 8 year old model did. Which kinda bites, because sometimes I’ll rewind and turn the captions on to catch some slurred or unclear dialog. No longer. sigh. What discussion of closed-captions would be complete without the brainwashing power of the [TV Guardian](http://tvguardian.com/html/qanda.html#q1), which monitors the CC for naughty language and, when some is detected, mutes the audio and displays an edited caption? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/17 "2001-05-28T01:00:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Max Torque \* > \*\*What discussion of closed-captions would be complete without the brainwashing power of the [TV Guardian](http://tvguardian.com/html/qanda.html#q1), which monitors the CC for naughty language and, when some is detected, mutes the audio and displays an edited caption? \*\* That has to be the most hilarious thing I will read all week! Especially this part: > [@](#): > > **TVGuardian’s method of muting the offensive phrase is much more effective than just muting the profane word. If only a single word were muted, your eyes would still be focused on the mouth, making it easy to read lips and fill-in-the-blanks. Thus, muting only a single word would defeat the purpose of TVGuardian.** Damn my eyes anyway; now that they have seen a bad word, I will have to pluck them out! ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/18 "2001-05-28T05:08:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dqa \* > \*\*The other thing that’s interesting is when the dialogue has been changed, as in **Kinsey** ’s example. One of the shows which does this most often is The Simpsons; almost every show I’ll see a line recited differently by the actors to be less offensive to a particular company, celebrity, etc. \*\* This is something that particularly bothered me, and Closed Captions redeemed me. I remember the first time I saw the episode where Bart got lice (the kids all went to foster-care with the Flanders’), Bart recollected Milhouse saying that a wicker backet had come from “Pier One Imports” with a monkey inside who subsequently spread the lice. But every other time, the dialogue was changed to “Trader Petes.” “Pier One” is funnier; it’s real! Is Trader Pete’s real somewhere?). Anyway, the captions still have the original. So, are these changes done to be nicer to a company, or under threat of a law-suit? ---
**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/19 "2001-05-28T05:37:55Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Balthisar \*\*\* > Anyway, the captions still have the original. So, are these changes done to be nicer to a company, or under threat of a law-suit?_\* Like there’s a difference. The figuring probably goes that not enough people read the captions to matter; any lawsuit has to prove that the plaintiff has suffered injury as a result of the defendant’s actions. If all the viewing public has repeatedly heard Pier One associated with lice, there may be a small chance that a chunk of people won’t realize it’s a joke, and Pier One will lose business. If we’re only talking about a fraction of one percent of the viewing audience, it’s a hard case to make, and any monetary damages are going to be small. Ironically, Fox seems to want to play it the other way as well. I wish I could remember the specific brand, but in at least one episode(Simpsons or Futurama) some company name was used that sounded identical to the real life name - like Skippee peanut butter instead of Skippy. If there was any visual reference to the different spelling, it was fleeting. Instead they seemed to believe that having a differently spelled name in the script, and thus the closed captioning, was enough to protect them. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525/20 "2001-05-28T05:55:52Z")
That reminds me: in the current season of The Simpsons, I noticed a major change from the dialog to the captions; it was in the episode where (forgive me if I don’t recall all the specifics) Lisa invents a spray that makes nerds invisible to bullies. When talking to Professor Frink before making her presentation, some mention is made of a person in the audience as, “the inventor of X.” (can’t remember what it is, sorry.) The captions say that he’s the inventor of something like the “no-spill travel mug” or something like that. No idea why the captions were so significantly different from the dialog. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captions/66525.md?page=2)