It's also torture if the subtitles don't (reasonably) match for non-dubbed content.

This bothers me more with captioning for English language movies in English. They abbreviate a lot to make it easier to quickly read what is being said. Sometimes that makes perfect sense and is very useful. A lot of the time, they're just cutting out details for no good reason.

AI generated subtitles are utter garbage. Combine that with idiots who can’t be bothered to check their 60 second long video for mistakes and you basically end up with subtitles that have no reason of being there in the first place

If you want the subtitles to match the dub you have to specifically look for dubtitles or CC. But they are rather rare.

I prefer just listening to it in Japanese, but even knowing just basic Japanese you start seeing inaccurate translations in the subtitles too (especially with cussing).

On the bright side: I don't spoil the video myself because i read too fast

On the bad side: JESUS CHRIST I WANNA READ MY BRAIN CAN'T BEAR YOUR SLOWNESS

*rarely the case but if i have subtitles that's the reason, either that or the speak has a strong Bri’ish🍵 or Freedom 🦅🦅🦅 accent

They often claim you need a proper audio setup.

I have an expensive (be it old) surround sound setup. Marvel and many other modern movies suck absolute arse. Having to pause and fiddle with volume going from a barely audible conversation to deafening noise in a single scene.

Fuck that noise, audio seems optimized for smartphone speakers nowadays.

"Yeah well, it sounds perfect in my soundproof bunker on my $10,000 cans, I don't know why you think Inwould test the sound out in a cluttered living room setting on a $300 TV with no surround sound."

-- Average Present Day Audio Engineer

[speaking in a foreign language]

I love it when the subtitle says the name of the song playing. I've learned a few tunes that I enjoy this way!

[Uplifting music]

[Inhuman snarls]

Probably my favorite one that I've seen

[music stops]

[🎵Singing🎵]

It really is amazing to me how subtitles have become the norm. Everyone I know uses them. And it’s all cause the audio is just trash. No matter the audio setup. Expensive atmos surround sound, entry level sound bar, Sonos whatever, tv speakers. They all sound like shit and everyone uses subtitles.

Supertitles are in opera or theatre where they show translated text on a screen above the stage.

Burn, forced, ASS… subtitles are great, but what about domtitles?

It's a vicious circle, these past twenty years. Before then, movie makers made effort to ensure dialog could be heard and understood. There's a line in Casino Royal that James mumbles, "He's a bloody idiot, then", but you can still understand him, it's meant to be mumbled, Eva Greene asks "What?", but he's understandable when he's acting like he's mumbling. They wouldn't even make him unintelligible for a line that was meant to be unintelligible.

Without subtitles, when I don't have them for whatever reason, sometimes I need to rewind, and turn up the volume to catch a single word the actor mumbled. Sometimes, I never hear what they said, and I just move on. Was that important? I don't know.

We started watching with subtitles because we couldn't hear what the actors are saying.

"Big explosions go boom, everyone likes loud music."

Actors don't need to speak clearly, which adds "atmosphere" or whatever, because everyone is watching with subtitles.

I found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJtb2YXae8

So it's layered and complex.

It always had been like this. Before subtitles became commonplace, we just straight up didn't hear half of the words and suffered in solitude.

That helps a bit but doesn't fix studios not remixing audio properly from the theater mix to home audio where the majority of people have basic stereo. No excuse since every physical format and online service supports multiple audio streams.

Some of us just can't hear properly.

I've got full 5.1 surround and subtitles are crucial.

Doesn't matter, if the actor got heavy accent or they're whispering, it help so much. It also doesn't disturb the neighbours.

So I thought, but I'm still a remote jockey, constantly bouncing between gunshots, scene-setting music, and whispered dialogue.