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  • Isaac Lymanisaaclyman@toot.cafe
    Jul 21, 2026, 6:55 PM

    I love open-captioned movies but the ones I go to are always half-empty, so for anyone who doesn't know:

    CLOSE CAPTIONED means you need to request a special device to see the movie captions. It might attach to your seat. They won't be on the screen.

    OPEN CAPTIONED means the captions are on the screen, like when you toggle them on your TV.

    Lots of theaters do open captions but only for certain showings. If we all buy tickets to those showings, they'll do more of them.

    #movies #accessibility

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Replies

  • Isaac Lymanisaaclyman@toot.cafe
    Jul 21, 2026, 6:58 PM

    I bring this up because *someone* who's infamous for terrible sound mixing just made a blockbuster movie. I'd really like to see it, and I would also like to understand what the actors are saying, because that would enhance my enjoyment of the movie.

    But there are like 2 open captioned showings this week and none of them are at the theater down the road from me.

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  • aburka 🫣aburka@hachyderm.io
    Jul 21, 2026, 7:01 PM

    @isaaclyman huh, so all colloquial usage of the term "closed captions" and CC buttons in video playback UIs are wrong? 🙃

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  • Isaac Lymanisaaclyman@toot.cafe
    Jul 21, 2026, 7:44 PM

    @aburka I don't feel confident in answering that, there's probably historical context for why it's labeled that way

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  • Curtis Wilcoxcwilcox808@c.im
    Jul 21, 2026, 9:14 PM

    @aburka
    No, that's correct. Closed captioning is a technology invented for broadcast TV and refers to text overlaying the image you can turn on and off with your TV remote. So in online video, captioning you can turn on and off are closed captions and captions "burned" into the video itself are open captions.

    I'm not familiar with the terms used by theaters but AMC calls text everyone can see on the screen "open captions," which makes sense. Whether captions on a device in a theater are always called "closed" or something else, I don't know.
    @isaaclyman

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