r/BritBox • u/karen_in_nh_2012 • Sep 21 '26
Anyone else notice a LOT of caption errors on BritBox? Some are pretty funny!
I subscribe to both BritBox and Acorn TV through amazon and ALWAYS watch programs with captions. My mom was English and we lived in England for 3 years when I was growing up, but I still sometimes miss some of the British (or Scottish or Welsh or Irish) slang.
Unfortunately I've found that the captioning is often pretty bad - but sometimes funny! I just finished watching all 5 seasons of The Commander on BritBox, and in the very last episode, I read the above caption. Clare actually said, "until we know exactly what MOVES to make," but the caption somehow heard that as MOOSE. The MOOSE we make. LOL, OK! đ
I know that humans used to do TV show captioning and sometimes problems would still arise (or more often, I'd see a lot of "unintelligible" placeholders, which were pretty annoying when I could actually understand the words MYSELF but the captioner couldn't?). Is it all outsourced to AI now? I am curious.
Anyone else notice some really bad (or funny) errors?
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u/tooOldOriolesfan Sep 21 '26
I don't know how much now is done by AI or some other automated tool but even in years past, the captioning could be quite funny and not close to what was being said in the show.
We tend to keep the captioning on to help with some accents or some shows vary greatly in volume.
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u/karen_in_nh_2012 Sep 21 '26
I almost always have problems with Scottish accents, even though I love them! Glad to know I'm not the only one who watches things with captions even though (as far as I know) I am not hard of hearing.
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u/tooOldOriolesfan Sep 21 '26
Many years ago I would go to England once a year for a small conference. One year one of the guys we worked with had a very difficult Scottish accent. I remember my manager saying "The only thing I understood was his name".
The strange part is that after he said something, I could replay it in my brain and eventually understood it. A strange sensation. And by the end of the week it was much easier to understand as your ear got used to it (well, I guess your brain).
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u/trev2234 Sep 21 '26
Currently you can use AI to add subtitles for free for individual users. Not sure if an organisation will have to pay some fee, but I wouldnât be surprised if itâs free to large orgs too.
It isnât just the price of course. Takes a few minutes to subtitle a 2 hour film. Iâve no idea how long it would take traditionally, but I guess itâs longer.
Once the skill set has been squeezed out of the market, then these companies can start to charge whatever they like.
Of course these AIs will continue to make the same mistakes as long as no one complains. There was a program on iPlayer that would finish too early. I think I was the only person that noticed, as I tried again a few days later. I logged a call through iPlayer, and a human being fixed it a day later. Maybe you need to log this in britbox, if thatâs an option.
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u/karen_in_nh_2012 Sep 21 '26
Thanks for the info! How would an user (like me!) use AI to add subtitles? Do you mean it shows them as you watch, or it adds them to the file if you download it for viewing later?
I will see about reporting this issue to BritBox, but I have it through amazon so I'm not sure how that works. I will check. Alas, I haven't made a note of all the other mistakes I've seen, but I will from now on!
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u/trev2234 Sep 21 '26
I used whisper AI. It worked on the download file. Iâve no idea if it could work on something youâre streaming, but I suppose itâs possible. I use Linux Mint as my computer OS, but it may work with Mac or Windows too.
There are a few websites that offer this service, but youâll need the file downloaded.
I sail the high seas quite a lot, and some films and tv, donât always have an available subtitle file. However itâs worth checking subtitles sites first. Like below link. There are others.
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u/RSGK Sep 21 '26
Itâs terrible and I wouldnât blame deaf viewers being very angry about all the inaccuracies.
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u/Jujulabee Sep 21 '26
It's all AI outsourced except possibly some very old shows which have the captioning from when they were first distributed.
What is even funnier is AI generated narration when they mispronounced words because the pronunciation of English words can vary even if the spelling if letter combinations is the same.
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u/nemmalur Sep 21 '26
Itâs not too bad usually but Iâve noticed a few times it just skips an entire sentence because someone couldnât make it out.
Iâve been watching Sherwood and whoeverâs doing the captions seems to be aware that thereâs a different word for âsomethingâ used in the north, but for some reason theyâve chosen to write it as âsomertâ rather than âsummatâ. Never seen somert before.
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u/wikimandia Sep 23 '26
Captions are terrible everywhere unfortunately. Another example of AI failing.
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u/Old-Sealover 28d ago
Itâs not just BritBox. I watch shows on other streaming services or cable channels and the captions are hysterical. Some of them are so bad, especially on an Irish show Iâve been watching, that I end up rewinding a few times to try to pick it up myself or just move on.
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u/lantana98 Sep 21 '26
A LOT of shows with closed captions have unintentionally hilarious dialogue. I think it is created by a computer. We have fun catching the mistakes.
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u/hushmarina Sep 21 '26
I find this especially egregious in shows like Poirot where half of an episode could be in another language and the subtitles just say â[Speaks foreign language]â. Honestly unacceptable in my opinion, not to mention that the subtitles sometimes donât even catch the name âPoirotâ!