Subtitles - a couple of questions

[Mr+Ripley]

  Last night, we started watching Nine Puzzles on Disney+, a South Korean thriller. For some reason, it defaulted to the dubbed version, which I hate. So I sorted out the subtitles, which defaulted to CC subtitles, which I also hate. There doesn't seem to be any way to change this. It isn't only on this programme, it is across the board on all platforms. I checked Sky, Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ & Apple TV+. The only one I could see that gave the option of CC or no CC is Apple TV+. Why is this? I don't need to read the door opens, tense music, she laughs, thunderclap, he sighs. Unfortunately, it is very hard for the eye not to be drawn to these captions, & then you realise you've read yet another unnecessary subtitle. What happened to dialogue-only subtitles? Why isn't there an option for them on the various platforms ( apart from Apple TV+ )?

  I want to make clear that I'm not suggesting the removal of CC captioning, I know it is very useful for some people. All I want is regular subtitles with dialogue & nothing else.

  Next question. Why are the subtitles on Sky so big & why are they not placed nearer the bottom of the screen, like every other platform does? Most other platforms have a lot of options for the size & style of their subtitles, which is a very good idea. Not Sky, though. One size ( big ) & one style, that's it. The options for subtitles on Sky are On or Off, that's all. Sky really needs to rethink its subtitling. I should say I have Sky Q. Maybe it's better on Sky Glass & Stream, I don't know.

  I've included some screenshots below to show comparisons between Sky subtitles & subtitles from other platforms.

  No.1 is Amazon. No.2 is Netflix. No.3 is Disney+. No.4 is Sky.

  

[Marlu-Nyu]

---

@Mr+Ripley wrote:

  Last night, we started watching Nine Puzzles on Disney+, a South Korean thriller. For some reason, it defaulted to the dubbed version, which I hate. So I sorted out the subtitles, which defaulted to CC subtitles, which I also hate. There doesn't seem to be any way to change this. It isn't only on this programme, it is across the board on all platforms. I checked Sky, Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ & Apple TV+. The only one I could see that gave the option of CC or no CC is Apple TV+. Why is this? I don't need to read the door opens, tense music, she laughs, thunderclap, he sighs. Unfortunately, it is very hard for the eye not to be drawn to these captions, & then you realise you've read yet another unnecessary subtitle. What happened to dialogue-only subtitles? Why isn't there an option for them on the various platforms ( apart from Apple TV+ )?

  I want to make clear that I'm not suggesting the removal of CC captioning, I know it is very useful for some people. All I want is regular subtitles with dialogue & nothing else.

  Next question. Why are the subtitles on Sky so big & why are they not placed nearer the bottom of the screen, like every other platform does? Most other platforms have a lot of options for the size & style of their subtitles, which is a very good idea. Not Sky, though. One size ( big ) & one style, that's it. The options for subtitles on Sky are On or Off, that's all. Sky really needs to rethink its subtitling. I should say I have Sky Q. Maybe it's better on Sky Glass & Stream, I don't know.

  I've included some screenshots below to show comparisons between Sky subtitles & subtitles from other platforms.

  No.1 is Amazon. No.2 is Netflix. No.3 is Disney+. No.4 is Sky.

  [...]

---

Sky, and most traditional broadcast TV services, still rely on the broadcast-era subtitling standard, which would be the modern equivalent of Teletext page 888. The subtitle data (content and timing) is provided by the broadcaster, production company or subtitling company and is embedded in a reserved part of the broadcast signal that is not generally seen.

The Sky box decodes this and then renders it on screen using Sky's own fixed style. That's why the words themselves are decided by the content provider, but the large, blocky font and position you see on Sky Q are a result of Sky's chosen rendering, not the broadcaster's. I suspect the style of the subtitles is deliberately reminiscent of the old Teletext 888 subtitles for consistency.

On streaming platforms,  it's different. The subtitles are delivered as a multilingual text tracks (e.g., WebVTT or TTML), and the app itself can offer more customisation, font size, colour, positioning, or even separate "SDH/CC" and "dialogue-only" tracks. That's why streaming services can give you more options, whereas broadcast-style delivery generally cannot.

[Mr+Ripley]

  @Marlu-Nyu Thanks for the explanation. It doesn't exactly show Sky in a good light, though. The speed at which technology moves these days, & Sky is happy to stay stuck in the 90s, giving us a sub-par subtitling system. 

  Out of curiosity, can anyone with Sky Glass or Stream tell me if the subtitles are any different from what I get on Sky Q?

[Marlu-Nyu]

---

@Mr+Ripley wrote:

  @Marlu-Nyu Thanks for the explanation. It doesn't exactly show Sky in a good light, though. The speed at which technology moves these days, & Sky is happy to stay stuck in the 90s, giving us a sub-par subtitling system. 

  Out of curiosity, can anyone with Sky Glass or Stream tell me if the subtitles are any different from what I get on Sky Q?

---

The problem with terrestrial broadcasting is that the subtitles come directly from the media source (DVD, file, etc.) and are tied to the legacy broadcast system. Redesigning it from scratch to support more options would likely be expensive, so the current setup is designed to work on both older and modern receivers.

Sky Glass and Sky Stream use subtitle tracks in a similar way to streaming services, but customisation is still minimal. When a broadcast channel is delivered over Sky Glass and Sky Stream, the original DVB subtitle feed from the broadcast is converted into a streaming-friendly "SDH/CC"-style text track.

To clarify what I mean by "broadcast signal":

Pre-recorded content (TV shows, adverts, films, etc.) is usually stored by the broadcaster as an MXF file. This is the "raw" broadcast master and contains video, audio, metadata, and subtitles.

Before transmission, the MXF is played out in real time and encoded into a DVB transport stream for satellite, terrestrial, or online delivery. Your Sky device (satellite, Sky Glass/Stream) then decodes that stream so it's watchable.

For live TV programmes, there is no MXF file in the chain. Instead, the programme is handled as a baseband signal, usually HD-SDI or 3G-SDI (Serial Digital Interface) from the cameras, which is sent to a vision mixer, where graphics and effects are added in real time. The output is then fed into the broadcast encoder, transmitted, and decoded by your Sky device.

[Mr+Ripley]

  @Marlu-Nyu  Got to hand it to you, from your replies here & other replies I've read from you, you sure do know your stuff. Thanks.