Netflix has launched a new type of simple subtitles, which show only the dialogue of the characters; They differ from the deaf subtitles in which they do not show the description of the sound effects, and therefore, do not distract so much for users who can listen to them.
In this way, Netflix is confessing one of the big problems of the current industry: that There is no way to listen to the dialogues in films and series chapters. The quality of audio mixtures has struck in recent years, resulting in a flat sound in which it is difficult to differentiate between the different sources.
In a typical scene of a conversation between two characters, environmental sounds and background noises can make it impossible to distinguish words; And if we add to that some actors that may not be at their best, the situation becomes ridiculous.
It is no accident that more and more people activate the subtitles, even if you are seeing content in your mother tongue or even if you do not have any type of auditory problem. In an official blog post, Netflix has given surprising fact: almost half of American users activates subtitles When you use the platform, and obviously, there are not so many deaf people or with auditory problems, which is supposed to be the main reason why subtitles exist.
Therefore, Netflix’s latest novelty is not so surprising: some subtitles designed for people who can hear without problems. Usually, the subtitles are designed for deaf people, a detail that is usually highlighted with the “CC” indicator; That means that, in addition to the dialogue of the characters, sounds are also included that can be important for the experience but that a deaf person cannot listen, such as the bell of a phone, a shot, or rainfall.
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The problem is that these indications of sounds are annoying for users who can listen to them without difficulty, but who have activated subtitles to understand the characters. That is where the new Netflix subtitles enter, which They only show dialogue and eliminate the distractions of other sounds that we can simply listen.
The good news is that these new subtitles They do not replace CC subtitles for deaf people; Both types will be available in the Menu of subtitles of the player and we can choose the one that best suits our needs. Although initially these new subtitles are only available in English and in the United States, Netflix has confirmed that from now on, they will be in all their original productions in Spanish and in the rest of the languages offered on the platform.
