Whedonesque : Comments on 17266 : Closed captioning on Dr. Horrible fixed.

This site will work and look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.

August 12 2008

Closed captioning on Dr. Horrible fixed. Back on August 6, the Dr. Horrible twitter announced that the closed captioning on Hulu's streams of Dr. Horrible had been fixed.

It wasn't quite true at the time (they'd been submitted, but not inserted), but it is true now, at least based upon the now-correct "I hate the homeless... ness problem that plagues our city" captioning.

The One True b!X | Dr. Horrible | 05:37 CET | 31 comments total | tags: doctorhorrible.net, darby, closed captioning, dr horrible

The individual acts look better but I think the full-length streams (SD and HD) have not been updated yet. Good to see progress though.

jam2 | August 12, 06:28 CET

The full-length I checked had the correct "homeless...ness" captioning. I did not check the HD.

The One True b!X | August 12, 06:29 CET

I haven't checked either, but I would like to thank all involved for fixing the errors.

It makes a HUGE difference to the enjoyment that deaf/hearing impaired people can get out of entertainment when they can actually understand what's going on. :-)

missb | August 12, 10:29 CET

I completely agree with missb. Mispellings and wrong words are the curse of captioning, unfortunately, but I'm glad we have people who care enough to help correct them. It really helps.

Funny story- when Joss was on 'Best Week Ever' to promote Dr. Horrible, the closed captioning refered to him both as "Josh Whedon" and "Josh Wheadon". Granted, BWE is captioned live so it's not like they could cross-check the spelling, but poor mispelled Josh.

EvilFirePixie8 | August 12, 13:01 CET

Or they did it on purpose to be funny.

NYPinTA | August 12, 14:43 CET

This is amazing news! I hadn't even attempted to view any of the Dr. Horrible incarnations and was waiting for the dvd release because I felt sure I'd be crushed at the lack of closed captions.

Thank you Joss! This means the world to me ~ I'll actually be able to view it before heading off to DragonCon and won't be so utterly lost there.

Also thanks to theonetruebix for bringing the fact that it was captioned at all to my attention!

thundercat | August 12, 16:25 CET

Actually, if one is nitpicky it should be "sec" instead of "second" during the "Man's Gotta Do" song. And I can also add, unless it was known already, that this works in outside of the US (well, atleast in Sweden) now.

EDIT: Oh, and during the "Everyone's a Hero" song it say "drill" when it should be "trail". They also missed "sheeple". And plenty others... Seems they used the Itunes caption straight through, should probably fix that...

[ edited by Djungelurban on 2008-08-12 17:14 ]

Djungelurban | August 12, 16:47 CET

Or sheep'll as in contraction of sheep will, though I heard it as sheeple first as well.

zeitgeist | August 12, 17:56 CET

So, does anyone else clearly hear "FOUR sweater vestS" and not "for his sweater vest"?

pillboxed | August 12, 21:29 CET

Whoa...the iTunes version was captioned? I watched it there and it was -not- captioned.

QuanticoMVP | August 12, 21:39 CET

I heard "Four sweater vests!" He has not 1, but 4. It's the true tragedy of the piece, really.

Sunfire | August 12, 21:42 CET

It is, for me, without a shadow of a doubt: "four sweater vests". It's so much more poetic.

redders | August 12, 22:15 CET

The only real thing I've noticed is the same thing with other [CC] stuff with the exception that the sound effects are not [CC]'d as well. Most of the time with [CC], you'll notice phrases getting trimmed down or removed altogether because, sometimes, it's just too much to read (for the hearing impaired). You also often see the person's name for off-camera or overlapping lines.

This seems to be subtitled (which often, but not always experiences the same trimming as [CC]), but subtitles do not include the captioned sound and usually do not bother with names if they're in the same language as the show.

So this is not Closed Captioning, but rather, subtitling. As subtitling goes, you can still expect some things to get trimmed or cut altogether.

However...!!! This is supposed to be a "singalong" blog. Singalong subtitling is always accurate regardless how fast it goes. (Sometimes they include a cue for each word, but not always.)

*insert big grin face smiley icon thingy here*

TheGamut | August 12, 22:18 CET

It is, for me, without a shadow of a doubt: "four sweater vests". It's so much more poetic.

Yep, I heard "four sweater vests". Again though, to me that's about the start of Hammer's path to redemption. Sweater vests are practical and versatile items of clothing (I mean, checks go with everything right ?) so the line is surely specifically there to indicate a new flexibility in his thinking, a willingness to embrace normalcy as symbolised by Penny, as well as greater freedom of arm movement. And I don't have to tell anyone here about the increased ventilation, obviously.

Saje | August 12, 22:24 CET

It is poetic. For me it conjures up images of Captain Hammer's Clark Kent persona. I bet it's hilarious and obvious and no one sees through it.

Sunfire | August 12, 22:27 CET

Are you saying Captain Hammer is really FakeSMG?

hacksaway | August 12, 22:41 CET

Saje, you never fail to make me smile. I'm so glad you're here.

pillboxed | August 12, 22:44 CET

And I don't have to tell anyone here about the increased ventilation, obviously.

Obviously :). Bwahahah!

zeitgeist | August 12, 22:56 CET

"Why????" makes no sense to me as what Captain Hammer's saying when he pins Dr. Horrible to the floor. Shouldn't it be "Waaaay!!!" since it seems to be a continuation of what he was stopped from saying when he was hit by the freeze ray?

MonkeyJoe | August 12, 23:40 CET

I also heard sheep'll. I had to go look it up to see what you were talking about. But I get all happily distracted by the lemming reference in that part.

I thought it was "way." As in the end of the line he didn't finish.

Sunfire | August 12, 23:41 CET

Whoa...the iTunes version was captioned? I watched it there and it was -not- captioned.

You are correct QuanticoMVP. The iTunes version was not captioned. iTunes regrettably doesn't support closed captioning at all at this time.

thundercat | August 13, 00:18 CET

I assumed he was saying "Why, a deathray.", only with a grand musical emphasis on the 'why'. But what you're suggesting actually makes a lot of sense.

Ohh, now I'm all confuzzled.

Winther | August 13, 00:29 CET

Yep, it's gotta be "WAY!!" I dunno about these closed captioning folks. Seems like, in order to get the job, they would have to be *better* than average at making out the dialog/lyrics, not worse, ya know?

I also didn't check to see if they changed Penny's last words from "Captain Hammer would say that" to the presumably correcter "Captain Hammer will save us".

pillboxed | August 13, 00:29 CET

Bad Horse votes "Neigh" in my world, no matter what closed captioning says. Because he is badass, and puns are badass.

Sunfire | August 13, 00:57 CET

In the final song they also have the line as "Arise and see" instead of "arise and sing". But yes, it does say "Captain Hammer will save us, so that is corrected.

Lioness | August 13, 03:12 CET

Latest drhorrible tweet: " Yeah, still some flaws in the closed captioning. Grrrr..."

The One True b!X | August 13, 05:21 CET

"Bad Horse votes "Neigh" in my world, no matter what closed captioning says."

... And why this wasn't blatantly obvious to me until just this second, I'll never know.

MonkeyJoe | August 13, 05:57 CET

Ok, I'm gonna have to hop on the "four sweater vests" and "way" bandwagons. I've always liked to think that CH had a dry cleaning bill that included sweater vests because he dry cleaned them for Penny...

chance | August 13, 07:10 CET

"his dry cleaning bill for sweater vests", to my way of thinking, and "sheep'll" gets my vote too (since my second time through, anyway).

mjwilson | August 13, 12:20 CET

I vote for voting "nay". I assume Bad Horse communicates telepathically, which is why he uses his chorus (like with the mute negotiator in that STNG episode). In which case "nay" is one of the few words he can actually vocalise. I wouldn't want to take that away from him by making it read like a random barnyard noise.

Also, I think "sheeple" has way more attitude, so that is what I hear.

And "four sweater vests". They punch "four" in the song. There would be no reason to punch "for".

AlanD | August 13, 14:48 CET

Does anyone know why it's been pulled from International viewing AGAIN?

spooforbrains | August 13, 21:31 CET

You need to log in to be able to post comments.
About membership.

« Older Felicia Day's final Dr. Horrible ... | Fox's own Dollhouse @ Comic-Con vi... Newer »