What I find super annoying is the proliferation of auto-dubbing on YouTube.

[alda@topspicy.social]

HELLO? NO, I DON'T WANT A DEUTSCHE FERNSEHFUNK DOCUMENTARY ABOUT POTATO FARMERS IN SAXONY FROM 1972 TO BE IN FUCKING ENGLISH YOU ABSOLUTELY UNCULTURED HOODIE-WEARING JIRA-MUNHCERS.

[alda@topspicy.social]

@tommorris There have been hints that the US President is watching mistranslated, auto-dubbed interviews with other heads of state and it having consequences.

There's a reason why interpretation is a job with educational requirements.

[eq@mas.to]

@alda Did you ever have a male voice in english dubbed over with a female voice in english? At the same time? Slightly out of sync so the whole instructional movie was impossible to watch and I could find no way of turning off the extra track... It was either both or nothing.

[alda@topspicy.social]

@eq Honestly, my Matrix DVD from the 90's handles sort of stuff this better than the 7th largest corporation in the United States of America does in 2026.

[burnitdown@beige.party]

@alda

the subtitles: three words at a time, bouncing ball style, also as if you can't read

[alda@topspicy.social]

@burnitdown Ah yes. The TikTok style. The extra point size then causes a line break that offsets everything. Very accessible, such subtitle, wow.

[lyrial@transfem.social]

@alda@topspicy.social As an educated American, I agree with every part of this.

[flamekebab@toot.wales]

@alda I'd like to express similar sentiments about burned-in subtitles. I read compulsively and if I wanted to read I wouldn't be watching a damn video. Might as well be a bloody article!

Subtitles: good
No option to disable subtitles: rage

[alda@topspicy.social]

@ojars Tech should have a backbone and make educated design decisions instead of relying on A/B tests and weird algos — and this is a direct consequence of them not doing that.

[alda@topspicy.social]

@Flamekebab Burnt-in subs in source material also go against most broadcasting standards.

But who cares about standards and quality these days?

[burnitdown@beige.party]

@alda i hate it even more if it's a re-posted TikTok video cause then they speak two million words per second and it doesn't matter if you read or listen cause despite understanding the words that were said it's too fast to comprehend.

[eq@mas.to]

@alda Around 1990 our video recorder for VHS tapes could record video and three audio tracks separately. One stereo and two mono (L/R) channels on any VHS tape. So you could do your own dubbing if you wanted to and if you owned a microphone. On any commersial or private VHS tape.

[alda@topspicy.social]

@eq Some of the people I share Discord and Mastodon servers with have been restoring teletext from VHS as you could record the vertical blanking interval on to tape back in the day. Absolutely brilliant if you ask me.

[dataknightmare@mastodon.xyz]

@alda
Another thing the Anglos do not get is that to non-Anglos English is the easier language. They think their replacing phonetics with (local) tradition amounts to "complexity"

[baldur@toot.cafe]

@alda This has been such a pain. It’s bad enough that you lose the original voices but auto dub has IME been universally awful. Bad voices, often completely inappropriate, and full of errors. I keep having to turn it off again and again for each account that has it enabled.

[alda@topspicy.social]

@baldur The saddest thing about this is creators from "dubbing countries" that are attempting to use this feature to expand into the English-speaking audience but it absolutely misses the target.

Even if there is a top button on your shirt collar, it doesn't mean you have to use it.

[rhelune@todon.eu]

@eq @alda Some years ago while learning Russian for work I watched a certain Russian comedy (The Kitchen) on YT. There was a certain male French character whose lines were dubbed by a flat voiced female speaker. Now, this is not a YT thing, it is how TV in Russia is, dubbing, but everyone's lines read by the same person, and all flat. German TV dubbing is much better, but that voice over in documentaries makes me unable to understand anything. Also, background noise makes me unable to understand the dialogue. I need subtitles even for films in my first language.

[dysfun@social.treehouse.systems]

@alda weird cause youtube keeps giving me dubbed french on already english videos

[alda@topspicy.social]

@rhelune @eq German dubs are also super emotionless but it's like the locals here don't even notice that.

[dascandy@infosec.exchange]

@alda It recently auto-dubbed Barbara's Rabarberbar into English for me.

Auto-dubbing people speaking is horrendous, but auto-dubbing a literal song is even worse.