The Hobbit: SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

What are SDH subtitles?

SDH subtitles are not always seen by TV viewers in the UK; we often get cheaper poor quality respeaking using Dragon voice recognition software. SDH subtitles were recently shown on a British TV channel’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – this was worth a viewing not just for the enhanced cinematography, but for the amazing quality of the subtitles themselves, causing a storm on social media. SDH subtitles are subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing are a transcription – they are subtitles in the same language as the spoken dialogue, with added information for those who cannot hear the environmental sounds or lyrics. Such subtitling gives fuller access to the film for deaf and hard of hearing viewers, those who cannot understand the spoken dialogue, or have problems understanding the accents.

The highest standards of SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing will have very close synchronisation of audio and subtitles, with the subtitles showing in different colours for different speakers. This film’s deaf viewers certainly got a wowser of an experience!

The production budget for this movie was $250,000,000 and to add subtitles would not have cost very much at all, less than 0.001% of the overall budget. We believe that subtitles (or closed captions) should be budgeted for from the very start for each movie, and should not be an afterthought or omission.  Sir Peter Jackson, the film’s producer, has shown that it can be done.

Feedback from deaf and hard of hearing viewers

Well done Sir Peter Jackson. You did a sterling job for 360 million deaf and hard of hearing viewers around the world by ensuring your movie was subtitled properly. We very much enjoyed the subtitling experience and we want more of this! We are very pleased that ITV broadcasted the subtitle track as it was meant to be.

Ahhh – now we have an expert subtitler doing The Hobbit – on ITV – so much you miss at the cinema…. and via DVD – LOVING the add ons… I’m in heaven now. Different colours are working… grammatically correct, background noises are given.. who did this? Thought it was amazing – got so much more than I got from either the cinema or the DVD – that subtitler needs a medal for giving us access to “hidden noises” and umms and ahhs and screams…. it was like you were actually experiencing it in real life – finally! – Viewer

I’m watching it too.. Very good!! – Viewer

I did, really enjoyed it – subtitles were great. – Viewer

Were great x – Viewer

I enjoyed it alot.. it gave me all the sounds effects which sometimes gets missed out – Viewer

I tried watching it before without subtitles but had to give up. Tried again last night and finally got to enjoy it because of the subtitles. – Viewer

Brilliant subtitles – Viewer

I saw all three films at IMAX and for all its wondrous Hi-Fidelity I could hardly understand any of the dialogue – thankfully I read the books as a lad so knew what was going on mostly. 
Had to buy the BluRay discs to get the subtitles to really enjoy it. 
ITV deserve little praise for the subtitles for the Hobbit – they were supervised and coded by Peter Jackson himself – All ITV had to do was transmit them as provided on the film subtitle track. 
What is apparent is how much we all enjoy programmes that meet these high standards. 
We should call for this same high standard on EVERY pre-recorded content and work hard to get Live programming to match the best in class. 
Automatic transcribing is not good enough – its lazy with a ‘We don’t care’ attitude – it’s all about the numbers we say we subtitle. 
Not Good Enough broadcasters!  
Could it be time for IBA to levy fines for under-performance? – Martyn Butler

Giving feedback on great SDH subtitling for deaf viewers

Do let this film’s producer Sir Peter Jackson and ITV know what you think of their SDH subtitles. It’s always nice to receive praise for a job done well. We loved these subtitles and we hope to see more of such outstanding quality.

• Director of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Sir Peter Jackson (Facebook page)
• viewerservices@itv.com
• Twitter @itvpresscentre @ITV
• Facebook

121 Captions SDH subtitles services

Subtitling for you in any video format, in over 80 languages, 24 hour turnaround

Find out more about SDH subtitles or contact us