Subtitled or dubbed...?

Mav · 06-04-2007

Watched a French film the other day which was subtitled and not dubbed.

Some people say that reading the subtitles distracts from following the film but for me I prefer to hear the original dialogue in which ever language to understand the original intonations/nuances and don't find subtitles a distraction at all.

What do folk here prefer?

Forum Moderator and Customer
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear - Mark Twain
He who feared he would not succeed sat still

shutter · 06-11-2007

Being almost deaf.. ( even worse without my hearing aids ) .. I prefer subtitles like you... some films have both, which is good.. but then they are "literal" translations or sound translations and the subtitles are meaningless !.

DaveyH · 15-11-2012

Subtitles on the rare occasions I watch them (have to be in the right frame of mind)

I actually find dubbed films more of a distraction than subtitles

Minivanman · 04-11-2014

Definite anti dubber for this deaf old duffer, but then my French is not too bad.

Sub titles every time otherwise, no problemo - except when live streaming news and the like as they are usually well out of sync.

All views expressed are my own but you can express them too if you want to be right about everything like I am.

twocvbloke · 06-11-2014

Subtitles are annoying, they're very distracting, especially when they put english subtitles on english footage when there was no need for them, that gets on my nerves a lot...

Mav · 06-04-2007

I find the lack of lip-sync when dubbed very annoying and distracting. I agree that some subtitles can be far too large and intrusive.

I did catch part of a film a few weeks back where the white subtitles were extremely hard to see on a very bright background.

Forum Moderator and Customer
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear - Mark Twain
He who feared he would not succeed sat still

jaread83 · 22-02-2016

Most dubs are really bad and the original language is best. Its quite distracting when the lips don't match the lines. Some good examples of foreign films that are good to watch in the native language would be Pans Labrynth (Spanish) and City of God (Portugese).

The only film I can think of that did a good job with an english dub is Kung Fu Hustle which is a fantastic film if you like comedy and action.

But no matter what, I always have subtitles on, even when watching regular english TV, as I have trouble hearing some things.

Frontend Web Developer | www.plus.net

If you have an idea to improve the community, create a new topic on our Community Feedback board to start a discussion about your idea.

Jonpe · 05-09-2016

I wish they would stop adding so much (loud) music to everything, it only makes it harder to hear the dialogue.