subtitles
Latest
E3 failed its deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers today
If you were relying on the ESA's closed captions to make sense of what’s being unveiled at E3 today, you might have been very confused.
Google's Live Caption feature comes to Chromebooks
Google is adding its auto-generating Live Caption system to Chromebooks by way of a new Chrome OS release.
Chrome can now caption all audio playing through the browser
Google is bringing one of its most useful Android accessibility features to Chrome. The company announced today that its browser can now caption any audio and video you play in it.
Microsoft brings live captions and subtitles to PowerPoint
Microsoft is rolling out a new accessibility feature for PowerPoint, one that stands to help speakers ensure their presentations are understood by their entire audience. The company notes that in cases where audience members are hard of hearing or speak a different language than the presenter, the speaker's presentation may not be fully communicated, but a new tool aims to solve that problem. Soon, PowerPoint will be able to transcribe and caption what a speaker is saying in real-time, giving audience members the option of reading what a presenter is saying. And the tool will also be able to translate speech into different languages, subtitling the presentation into a language of the speaker's choice.
Attackers can use video subtitles to hijack your devices
Be careful before you fire up media player software to play that foreign-language movie -- it might be a way for intruders to compromise your system. Check Point researchers have discovered an exploit that uses maliciously crafted subtitles to take control of your device, whether it's a PC, phone or smart TV. It's not picky about the program, either -- the researchers demonstrated the flaw in Kodi, PopcornTime, Stremio and VLC. The technique isn't particularly complicated, and relies on a tendency by developers to assume that subtitles are little more than innocuous text files.
Netflix has a new translation test to avoid subtitle fails
Netflix supports over 20 languages, many of which aren't dubbed, so subtitles are often the only way for foreign viewers to follow the plot. While the streaming company holds itself to a high standard, the internet abounds with tales of wonky translations. That's why it has developed Hermes, the first-ever proficiency test for caption translators by a major content provider. The aim is to identify subtitlers that understand the subtleties of a language and won't translate "Smashing Pumpkins" to "Pumpkin Puree" (above).
BBC adds subtitles to live iPlayer channels
In a bid to make its programming more accessible to deaf and hearing-impaired viewers, the BBC has launched a new trial that will bring subtitles to live channels on iPlayer. It's the first time any major on-demand video service has embarked on such a trial. The BBC says that it will initially launch on PC and Mac, before rolling out to the broadcaster's smartphone and tablet apps. Connected TVs will also get the feature but viewers will have to wait a bit longer. The reason behind the move is clear: the BBC says almost two million programmes or 20 percent of all iPlayer viewings are done so with subtitles enabled. Right now, subtitles are only available on iPlayer programmes after they've aired but at launch, live subtitles will be available on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four, CBBC, CBeebies and BBC News and on some region-specific channels too. You can find the full list in the source below.
Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F 2nd trailer showcases English subs
This fall on PS3 and Vita, Project Diva F 2nd will be the first Hatsune Miku game to present the synthesized singer's tunes with translated subtitles. Just in case you were worried you were tapping rhythms to some super weird lyrics, here's a new trailer to reassure you it's all appreciably poppy fluff. [Image: Sega]
Vita action game Freedom Wars offers Japanese audio only
The Western version of Freedom Wars features Japanese audio with subtitles in multiple languages, but no English dubs, says Producer Nick Accordino, who also revealed a physical edition of the sci-fi Vita game is "definitely planned" for North America. Sony's also published a new subtitled story trailer, which you'll find below the break. Freedom Wars is set in a dystopian future where players are born into penal communities called Panopticons and have to fight to earn their freedom. Completing the game's action-RPG, Monster Hunter-like missions helps to reduce your incarceration, but - and it's a but big enough to please Sir Mix-a-Lot - your sentence begins at 1 million years. Bit harsh. From a gameplay perspective, there is an interesting regional difference to do with the Panopticons. In Japan, where the game just released, there are 47 Panopticons based on the country's real-life 47 prefectures. According to Accordino (possible sitcom?), the West's Freedom Wars features 50 Panopticons based on cities across the globe, and players can choose which one they'd like to be placed in.
Daily App: Subtitles Viewer for iOS
I'm always really pleased to see an app that serves the handicapped, and Subtitles Viewer makes a strong contribution to this category of iOS owner. It's also useful for people struggling with a new language and want to view movies and TV in their native language. This free universal app lets you search a database for TV shows and movies and get subtitles in your language or English for the hearing impaired in the U.S. Here's how it works: You enter the name of a film or TV show, and set a language. Languages include English, Spanish, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Danish, French, German, Greek, Javanese, Hebrew, Italian, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese. When you title is loaded, you wait until the first dialog of the movie, then tap on the screen. Subtitles will appear and closely follow the spoken dialogue. I tried a couple of films, including Gravity and Jurassic Park. Both had files in several languages. When I ran the subtitles against the film, the text appeared in the right place in terms of timing. Subtitles Viewer is a handy app that will make many with hearing or language issues very happy. There is no guarantee that every movie you search for will be there or will be available in the language you may need, but it is going to be very helpful for many people. Of course, most movies and TV shows on DVD or Blu-ray have embedded subtitles, but not always in the language you may need, which is an another advantage of using a dedicated subtitling app. My only caveat with Subtitles Viewer is whether theaters will object to a screen running during a film, given the general rules about texting and cellphones in theaters. Subtitles Viewer requires iOS 7 or later and it is optimized for the iPhone 5. There's a similar app for U.S. $0.99 that appears to have the same features called Subtitles.
Plex Media Server update brings web client for all, new PlexPass-only feature teased (update: PlexSync)
When Plex rolled out its PlexPass subscription that offered paying customers access to some new features as they were being developed, a new web client was first in line. Now an update to its Media Server is available that brings it to all users, along with a slew of other fixes and tweaks including improved photo access, transcoder management and increased subtitle support over DLNA. If you are on PlexPass however, now that the Plex/Web feature has escaped over the paywall the blog post teases a "mystery feature" set to debut tomorrow. Hit the source link for the full changelog and instructions on how to access everything. Update: The new PlexPass-exclusive feature is "PlexSync", that lets users flag content in their library to be automatically reformatted and loaded on their iOS (or Android, soon) device. There's several filters included to manage what content gets sideloaded plus APIs for developers, check the new blog post for more details.
Amazon adds closed captions to select Instant streams
Amazon is finally catching up to the rest of the streaming industry and adding closed captions to some of its Instant Video selections. For the moment the library of CCed content is pretty slim, with only 169 shows and 74 movies, but we'd expect that to grow pretty quickly. That does put the burgeoning media giant quite a bit behind competitors like Hulu and Netflix, who have been catering to the hearing impaired for some time. For now, captions are only available when streaming from Amazon's website, but the company promises to expand support to "additional devices" soon. For more info check out the Amazon help page at the source and the email notice forwarded to us by a tipster after the break. [Thanks, Linda]
YouTube gains translated caption support, tears down another language barrier
Aside from being powered by memes, likes and tweets, today's internet is strongly fueled by viral videos. King of the latter, YouTube has added yet another trendsetting feature to its repertoire. The Google owned video sharing service now gives its content producers the ability to add subtitles to their videos in over 300 languages. Leaning on Google Translate's software, this new feature gives YouTubers the option to add or request translated captions for their videos anytime during the content's lifespan. So, whether you're a casual vlogger, or an aspiring director hoping to have your recent short reach a broader audience, you now have to opportunity to snag some views on a global scale. Just be sure to remember us little people when those awards for best foreign film start rolling in.
Hulu Plus, HBO Go and Max Go apps for Android updated with support for closed captions
Sound familiar? Just days after the mobile apps for HBO, Cinemax and Hulu added closed captions support on iOS, a similar slew of upgrades have come to their apps on Android. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any change in the number of supported devices for any of them at this time. Hulu's upgrade also adds on the option to share videos via Twitter, Facebook and other services, although the 10 second rewind button added on iOS does not appear to have made the cut. As usual you should see the new versions rolling around in the app store, hit the source links for more info.
Plex Media Server beta adds DLNA support, streams to PS3, Xbox 360, WP7 and more
Using Plex as your media server software is great, with its ability to organize and transcode media for playback on a variety of devices, but what about platforms that still lack a compatible client? The freshest beta version of Plex Media Server fixes that by supporting DLNA, making it compatible right out of the box with many of the HDTVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles and other connected devices released recently. There are some limitations when it's being used this way in terms of metadata and subtitle support, but we're pretty sure being able to access Plex at all from devices like the PS3 (as shown above), Xbox 360 and WDTV Live (the profiles it's been tested with so far) is worth it. Also featured in the beta is support for Silverlight Smooth Streaming, which comes in handy for the new Windows Phone 7 client app (Update: If you're not seeing it yet don't worry you're not alone, it's been approved by Microsoft and should be live soon, check the forum thread and blog post linked below for more information). Check out the blog post for all the details or just head to the download page to try it out yourself if you're on a Windows PC or Mac -- Linux builds are still being tested.
aTV Flash update adds automatic backups, new playback options to jailbroken Apple TVs
The FireCore team has been busy updating its pay-to-play ($30) aTV Flash software package for jailbroken Apple TVs and just rolled out the latest bundle of updates in version 1.3. Now it can automatically perform backups, speaks more languages, supports more remote commands, reads more subtitles and the list goes on. You can check after the break for the full changelog, or just hit the Maintenance section if you're already running it to download the update. Take a peek at what it can do and let us know if this is a worthwhile alternative to XBMC, or any of the other media streaming platforms out there.
Google TV 3.2 update enhances HLS video streaming support, Plex update takes advantage
The Google TV update that rolled out to Sony units earlier this week (no word on the Revue, yet) brought tweaks to Chrome and support for Blu-ray 3D playback on the player, but that's not all. The bump to Android 3.2 also improved hooks for developers to access channel listings in their apps, enabled hardware acceleration and last but not least, improved support for HTTP Live Streaming. That last detail is particularly important to those streaming video from their PCs using Plex, since additional HLS tweaks were necessary to allow viewing of files transcoded from otherwise-Google TV unfriendly formats. Also supported as in the Plex update is selection of alternate audio streams, subtitles, more channels and a few other fixes. Check out a Google+ post from Les Vogel of the Google TV team for all the Honeycomb 3.2 (API Level 13) details you can stomach, the Plex blog for more info on its software, or just make sure you're running the latest updates and take a look around yourself.
Closed captioned TV episodes appearing in iTunes
AppleInsider reports that some TV studios are beginning to add closed captioning to their shows on iTunes. As of this writing, captions are showing up on "Sons of Anarchy," "New Girl" and "The Secret Circle." The update is limited to episodes from the current season of these shows. Apple TV has offered closed captioning for many movies for quite some time, and Netflix, which is available through Apple TV, does as well. To enable closed captioning on the Apple TV, go to Settings > Video. There you'll see the option to toggle the service on or off. In the past there have been complaints about the small amount of material that is subtitled on Netflix and on the Apple TV. The captioning has to be provided by the content creator, unfortunately, so Apple and Netflix can't do much about it. By the way, Lion also supports closed captioning in movies, videos, podcasts, QuickTime content and the DVD player.
Personal subtitle glasses from Sony may get trial run in UK next year
It's been quite a while since we've heard any news about those spiffy specs that put private subtitles in your field of view. It looks like they're finally inching closer to reality though, with some help from Sony's UK arm. The BBC recently took hard-of-hearing Brit Charlie Swinbourne to the theater and let him give the glasses a go. Rather than displaying subtitles on screen the eye-wear projects text on the lenses where only that particular user can see them. Going to see a French film in an American cinema, but your first language is Spanish? One day you could pick your language, in addition to keeping the captions out of other movie goers way. Sony hopes to trial the glasses in UK theaters next year. Check out the source link for the full report.
Netflix deal with Viz Media brings more anime with subbed eps of Inuyasha, Bleach, Naruto
As we noted when Netflix announced its expanded deal with Fox, there's some new anime available on Watch Instantly these days and now Netflix has revealed a deal with Viz Media made it all possible. This has brought hundreds of episodes of popular series including Bleach, Naruto and Inuyasha to the service and most importantly, they're uncut and feature the Japanese audio with subtitles -- a must for hardcore fans. There's also new eps of other series like Trigun and Fullmetal Alchemist available through a deal with Funimation, but unfortunately it appears those are dubbed editions. Clearly licensing issues play a role, but here's hoping we see more original audio, uncut releases in the future (trying to watch Ghost in the Shell dubbed is just painful) or in the best possible case -- an option to watch subbed or dubbed.
