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Unfortunately, only a small minority of video recorders are capable of recording subtitles so before buying one make sure it is one of those that does.
Subtitles are provided on programming on our on demand service Channel 4 Streaming available via the app on a range of devices.
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If you have hearing loss, more recent videos will have subtitles which can be accessed from the playback menu and will be indicated with an 'S' Icon.
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If you have hearing loss, most of our recent content will have subtitles available, if subtitles are available, there will be a 'S' icon on the video. Subtitles can be enabled via the accessibility settings or via the playback menu within the app. Google subtitles will not currently work if there are no subtitles present on the video. Subtitles cannot be adjusted or customised from the accessibility settings menu. Advertisement content is not currently subtitled. For users that listen via an earpiece, the audio balance can be adjusted or switched to mono from within the accessibility settings.
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Subtitles are currently supported on the channel4.com website, the iPhone and iPad app (for streaming), the Android app, YouView, Samsung Tizen (mid-2015 and above), PS4, Amazon Fire and Freeview Play.
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Subtitled content be found across our platforms. If subtitles are available an "S" button will be visible on the video player bar. Click on the "S" and the subtitles will load and display.
Subtitles are currently supported on the channel4.com website, the iPhone/iPad app (for streaming), a number of Android mobile and tablet apps (for downloads and streaming), YouView, PS4, Amazon Fire, Freeview Play, Samsung devices and on our content available on Sky.We take accessibility seriously and whilst we aim to subtitle as much content as possible, unfortunately, not everything on demand will carry subtitles. In particular, this could be some of our older content that was subtitled live on our linear services or where the version of a programme differs to the one originally broadcast.
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Our aim is for the listings to be as accurate as possible and we do not want to disappoint our viewers. We send out a list of the programmes we intend to subtitle to the magazines, newspapers, television electronic programme guides and text services. The information we supply to the listings organisations is up to date when it is issued and should be accurate. We also issue updates when there are schedule changes.
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When a show is live or completed very close to transmission, it is not possible to prepare the subtitles in advance. To provide subtitles on live programmes (or on programmes completed very close to transmission), we employ a technique known as broadcast stenography or stenocaptioning.
Stenography is a type of machine-written shorthand based on phonetics, as used to record proceedings in courts and for parliamentary committees. Our stenographers employ the same technique, with the difference that the shorthand outline is translated by computer and transmitted instantly to air. Our stenographers are very experienced, but when writing previously unseen material at speeds of up to 240 words per minute, some mistakes are inevitable. They may occur because a word may come up that has not been fed into the stenographer’s dictionary, in which case the computer will supply a "phonetic" translation.
Sometimes the speed at which they work makes it inevitable that a finger will be in the wrong place, and a simple word will translate as something completely different. Mistakes may in fact represent only one finger error or “typo”. We also use speech recognition technology to provide live subtitling. A speech subtitler listens to the commentary and "re-speaks" it into software which recognises the speech and translates it into subtitles. Speech recognition produces a different range of errors to stenography as the software attempts to "make sense" of the sounds it hears, so instead of seeing phonetic translations, words may appear out of context.
The average person speaks over 240 words a minute and although this is fine for the average listener, it is much too fast for anyone reading subtitles, especially with a picture to watch at the same time. Subtitlers, therefore, have to reduce the number of words that are said so that the subtitles can be read in the time it takes the speaker to say them. They must also synchronise the subtitles with the soundtrack and make it clear who is saying what. In order to achieve all of this, it is sometimes necessary to edit the soundtrack and careful yet quick decisions have to be made about how best to do this.
With all this in mind, a small delay between the words spoken on screen and the subtitles appearing is inevitable. We aim to keep this delay as short as possible, but it is often more noticeable on an unscripted programme such as Big Brother where often several people are talking at once. Subtitles on live programmes are therefore not precisely synchronised with the soundtrack, as you may expect in pre-recorded programmes. Our live team constantly work towards eliminating errors and consistently achieve extremely accurate results across a wide range of programmes. However, live programming presents some of the biggest challenges to live subtitlers and some mistakes are unfortunately inevitable.
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Where time allows us to prepare subtitles in advance, we aim to edit the subtitles to a comfortable reading speed that allows viewers time to read the subtitle and still have time to look at the pictures. When programmes are live, or are completed very close to transmission time, we do not always have time to edit the text to a comfortable reading speed. On these occasions, if the text were to be presented verbatim in blocks, each block would flash on and off too quickly to be read. In this situation, we use the word-by-word or "scrolling" format for presenting subtitles. This technique allows verbatim subtitles to be shown in a way that, although very fast, are not so fast as to be impossible to read.
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Most of our recent content will have subtitles available, if subtitles are available, there will be a 'S' icon on the video. Subtitles are activated by selecting the subtitles icon.
Audio settings can be adjusted via your mobile, tablet or desktop PC settings
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We take accessibility seriously and whilst we aim to subtitle as much content as possible, unfortunately, not everything on Channel 4 streaming will carry subtitles. In particular, this could be some of our older content that was subtitled live on our linear services or where the version of a programme differs to the one originally broadcast. Subtitles are supported on most of our platforms and we are committed to continuing to extend accessibility on channel4.com where possible.
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