Subtitles

This is currently showing on BBC Four. Presentation wise, it is being shown as a 4:3 picture in a 16:9 frame. It has the BBC Four DOG on screen (I'd have thought this is the kind of thing they would normally remove it for).

The subtitles are the live style subtitles where one word appears at a time rather than the caption style subtitles where a sentence or two will appear at a time, although I doubt they are actually being created live as there has not been a mistake so far.

Until quite recently live style subtitles were only used on live programmes and programmes that were finished close to the time of broadcast. However, I have noticed an increase in live style subtitles recently on programmes where I would expect them to use caption style subtitles. I imagine the live style subtitles are easier to produce than the caption style but, in my opinion at least, they are not as useful.

Why would a programme that they have had 32 years to subtitle need live style subtitles? Even if it didn't have subtitles when it was originally shown, it must have been shown with subtitles since then hasn't it?

Is it possible that the live-style subtitles are actually voice-recognition subtitles? Presumably would be easier and cheaper to subtitle an old repeat on BBC Four that way rather than the more common way of doing it.

I suspect that previous subtitling of the programme has not been kept and therefore it has had to be reworked from scratch again. I doubt if the programme master had the subtitles file attached.

When was it last shown though? I wouldn't necessarily expect the 1978/1982 subtitles to still exist (if they ever existed) but it must have been shown in more recent years when the technology to keep the programme and subtitles together was available. I probably wouldn't have commented on this had it not been the BBC but they are normally very good at getting proper subtitles done (I know it is actually done by Red Bee, but it is obvious that the BBC pay for a better service than some of the other channels do). For example, Have I Got News For You sometimes has live style subtitles but by the time the repeat airs, the caption style subtitles have been created.

Damm forgot that was on!

WWW.BBC.CO.UK/PROGRAMMES , although not an exact record, would seem to infer this is the first transmission since 2006, when programmes was first established as a project.

According to Wiki (yes I know), transmission years are listed as the original run which was apparently also shown on BBC One for the benefit of 405-line viewers apparently (was there that many in 1980?) and next aired in 1989. Pushed out to DVD in 2003.

The subtitles issue, considering I've seen various archive programming with subtitle tracks made in 1989, not totally impossible that subtitles made for a 1989 re-airing wouldn't survive, though stranger things have happened. Point of order actually on this topic, if a DVD of a TV programme is released with a subtitle track, is it a converted from the Ceefax subtitle track or done anew for the DVD?

It might have been that there had been a recent re-edit of the programme, this would make any existing subtitle file useless as they'd go out of sync after the edit.

If there was a subtitle file from the 1989 showing it could be that they discovered it didn't work only when the programme was cached to server a few days ago. By that point it would be too late to create a new one

Early subtitles were stored on various floppy disc formats ISTR. Not sure what strategy was used to archive these and transfer to new formats when programmes are transferred from 2" or 1" VT.

There used to be a few tapes floating around, mainly education and OU programmes, with floppy discs attached.

For at least the last 10 years the subtitle files were stored, moved and fed into the inserters across a computer network

Slightly OT, but I do remember a few years ago a James Bond film being shown on ITV and the Subtitles were credited to Oracle rather than ITSC or whoever does the job these days. That surprised me that those were still there at least ten years after Oracle disappeared. But I do remember reading into this before and apparently the BBC are the same too.

On UK Gold, you still see some subtitles credited to BBC Scotland complete with the year and the name of the person preparing the subtitles when they show older BBC programmes. It's better than the 'Subtitles by Red Bee Media' and 'email us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk' that we get now.