Hacker News Reader

Comment by kmfrk | Hacker News Reader

Don't know how it is in English-speaking countries, but Netflix's laughable subtitle translations are as common a conversation topic as the weather and sports where I live. I have no idea why they don't bother stepping it up.

As someone who is only very slight of hearing - no problem talking with people in person - it is also immensely frustrating that I usually can't get English subtitles on Netflix instead of a translation. And when I can finally get it in English, it's closed captions, which kind of ruins my experience by captioning every sound effect in a movie or TV show.

I have no idea why this isn't a bigger focus at Netflix given there must be a whole iPod generation with some minor hearing problems.

View on HN

You probably already know this, but the 'pirate' community has your interests well served. There are probably very well-written subtitle tracks for any major movie available in your native language. You won't be able to use them with a Netflix stream (thanks to DRM), but VLC lets you add subtitles to any video file.

> You won't be able to use them with a Netflix stream (thanks to DRM)

I think you're wrong, and to blame DRM is ridiculous.

You can load your own subtitles on Netflix, html5 or silverlight.

You don't even need a Chrome extension for the Silverlight one, it imports DFXP directly from the debug menu (alt+shift+click iirc).

There are even browser extensions that largely automate the process for HTML5. (Downloading the subtitle file and displaying it.)

I don't know about Super Netflix but fwih Netflix Subtitle Downloader also gives you a couple of buttons to adjust subtitle sync if you need it.

You can use an external subtitle player, that uses a semi-transparent window. You'd have to click the play button twice and be careful to keep in in sync when you pause/play, but it works well enough.

I think it's this one.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Other-VIDEO-To...

it's closed captions, which kind of ruins my experience by captioning every sound effect in a movie or TV show.

...which is what deaf disability advocates have demanded, and my understanding is that it's a requirement now by FCC rules[1]. If you don't have that stuff, guess what, no TV sale until you supply it. Again, Netflix relies on the producers to supply this stuff, and from the producers' standpoint, it's just another expense. It costs about $500-$!000 to get this done by a post house, last time I checked. I would expect this to go up a bit now that the FCC has promulgated detailed rules on the subject.

1. http://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-moves-upgrade-tv-closed-capt...

Yeah, I often "pirate" stuff because Netflix lacks subtitles. Or has idiotic things like Portuguese subtitles in Central America. Even on "Original Series" they lack subtitles, depending on where they think you are. It's very discriminatory and annoying.

A lot of Region 2 DVDs don't even have English subtitles. It's the dumbest thing.

I suppose they save a few cents licensing costs per DVD this way.

The hyper-regionalization is an odd construction; makes you wonder just how much there is to save by printing a bunch of different (sub-)region versions compared to just bundling most on one “English” printing.

Especially in the age of Amazon.

It was created before Amazon, right? And I'd imagine for many people, directly importing is not a daily purchasing habit. That way they can keep their "release windows" and other things to make them feel like they're getting every last drop off profit. Or maybe they think consumers want localized covers. It might even be true - someone must be demanding terrible dubbed products, so who knows.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it were because of the B&M companies.

British videogame retailers still wield a big influence over British and to some extent European release windows.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com