Hulu Plus: One Step Closer to Cutting Cable Out Of Our Future of Television?

Yeah but it's no good for the deaf. Not a single device, including the fabled ipad has closed captioning for the deaf. This should be illegal. The deaf are being left out and it's a violation of the ADA laws. No if and or buts about it. It's been said a few shows can be captioned but show me a single one anywhere on the web!! All lip service you jerks. All you hearing people are jerks!

A bunch of us have already cut out cable television because we can get hulu for free on our computers. Those of us who have aren't going to pay a monthly subscription fee and watch ads. I've been perfectly content to watch 24, Heroes, Dollhouse, Glee, and V online as the episodes come out (not broadcast live, but oh well) and then get the DVD sets later, and the comments over at MDN have indicated that other people feel the same. And don't forget that AT&T recently killed their unlimited 3G data plans. Hitting us with both a subscription fee and ads will tank.

I'm sorry, let me turn down my Tv, I couldn't hear you over the awesome sound effects in this movie.

RE HULU—

Dear MIP,

Just turn on the hearing-impared caption device in the Flash player. Not all shows are captioned–but I often prefer captions when I don't want a lot of sound. Even the newest Adobe flash player is wonky—you'll probably need to update your flash player too. I won't be a HULU subscriber because I hate using Flash. It crashes early and often and forces you to rewatch all the commercials again after a crash.

MIP: Name-calling is not a useful tactic when it's clearly a gearhead error. Better use of time would be to brush up on your computer skills. Calling all hearing-enabled people jerks is pretty stupid. Invest in some positive computer and nettiquette skills. It will go further. That's not lip-service.

MIP
06/29/10 at 5:03 pm

Yeah but it's no good for the deaf. Not a single device, including the fabled ipad has closed captioning for the deaf. This should be illegal. The deaf are being left out and it's a violation of the ADA laws. No if and or buts about it. It's been said a few shows can be captioned but show me a single one anywhere on the web!! All lip service you jerks. All you hearing people are jerks!

I never do this, but this needs to be responded to...

Moh,
You have no idea what you are talking about. I work in the deaf and hard of hearing community and one of the biggest complaints that I hear at gatherings is that practically no service offers captioning. This is completely true. You can't just simply "turn on the hearing-impaired caption device" if the distributer/program doesn't caption the video.
There are a few videos on YouTube that are captioned, sure, but those are so few and far between that it is ridiculous (even when they list it, half the time it doesn't work and I have the latest software). Hulu only captions a FEW of their programs (anything marked CC obviously), but that doesn't mean that everything that someone wants to watch is made accessible for them. Netflix also doesn't caption video on its Watch Instantly software.
It costs money to caption things. Then money, again, to transfer that info into a new medium. These are situations that either the industry is not bothering with or is quietly complacent with. Name calling is not ok, but don't tell them that it is their fault when the systems exclude them. You might as well say "just try listening to the show instead of being deaf." You assume that this person doesn't have computer skills. How stupid are you? The deaf/hard of hearing community adopted the internet readily because it finally allowed them communication in a world that pushed them aside.
You're making assumptions, how about I assume that you are not only hearing (as you mentioned), but have never even known someone who is deaf? You use captions as a novelty, but it is this community's only way to access the world you enjoy freely. MIP has every right to be frustrated and upset by this.

You can get most of this content free on the web already, why pay for it?

Most of the hostility I've experienced surrounding the deaf community has been projected out of it, towards everyone else who had the gall to be born with one more sense than them. They lash out at people who have nothing to do with their situation, they cuss people out and sign hateful things to people who they assume can't read what they're signing, and they cloister themselves into little exclusionary deaf groups that cultivate an us versus them attitude. I've even frequently witnessed them abusing the people who work in deaf services. I've known several people who worked in industries that served deaf needs, and while all of them were enthusiastic about getting into them, all of them got burnt by the community. So I guess what saying is: try curbing the accusations and hostility for a change, and maybe, just maybe, your demands might get met.

I ditched cable long ago. I was paying $180.00 a month for every channel and never found anything to watch. I spent more time searching through the channels than watching TV.

I built a computer to hook up to the wide screen and stream netflix and hulu directly to the TV.

I use an antanna on the roof like the old days and get beautiful high def TV from the broadcast channels.

I enjoyed catching the TV shows on Hulu rather than catch them when they aired live. I will miss that but am not going to pay Hulu as not enough was on there to be worth it. I don't know why they don't just make a deal with the networks to provide the broadcast on instant streaming with commercials and all, just as it aired and get commercial revenue for it.

I love Netfilx it is awesome. I will never go back to Cable or satellite.

Wow, 10 bucks a month for a SMALL selection of shows.

Maybe if you could pick your spectrum from the currently available basic cable shows, it would be a little interesting.

The problem as I see it, is that there is just darn little available. Hundreds of channels, most of which repeat a few dismal shows all day long -- or all week long.

I believe we were discussing Hulu here, and MIP quite erroneously pointed out that Hulu had no CC programming. MIP writes: "Yeah but it's [Hulu] no good for the deaf."

I looked at lists of dozens of Hulu programming I regularly watch and I found only one US program that was not CC. British TV fared worse, for sure. But Hulu carries only a handful of UK programming.

deebirs, you wrote "that practically no service offers captioning." Well, good news—Hulu does offer closed captioning on all the major prime time programs I checked. A reminder: we were discussing Hulu here, not YouTube, etc.

I suggested that MIP turn on the CC on Hulu. There's a little CC button in the menu bar. You just click on it. Flash was recently upgraded—and if MIP assumed that Hulu did not carry CC TV, then, computer skills are indeed suspect. Using this column as a general platform for unwarranted name-calling is pointless and, well, stupid.

This is not forum for hearing impaired! Thank you
Wow that said I ditched my cable service two months ago
Because of the bad service, rate increases whenever they felt like without warning and ever changing monthly due date
a cable bill that only a legal team could read 10 or 11 items I was being charged for that cable no longer charges a flat rate for basic service. with all extra supposed taxes and fees I could not tell what I was paying for good by Comcast and good by broadstripe cable “FOREVER”
The cable companies have become a joke for their customer service and their out of control pricing
go hulu

Cable would still have HD as an advantage since many of us (if any) don't have the band width to stream it.

Also, will NBC owned Hulu carry Conan in the fall?

Here in Canada I've heard that the cable guys are moving in as internet TV 'providers'. You can bet that there will be HD, CC, and a whole lot of other stuff that will come in 'packages' that you will PAY for, much like the current cable offerings. I recently dumped cable and went strictly DSL and have watched as channels are feverishly improving web content and streaming. CBC is streaming the World Cup via Rogers Cable and looks pretty good. All just a test though, I think.

MIP, i am hard of hearing, and assuming via your post that you are too I was wondering if your hearing loss was by any chance of the sensorineural variety? As in a nerve, cochlear, or other inner ear problem? If so, e-mail me and i may have something for you to look at in terms of fixing your hearing problem definitively.

Also, Deaf people are more disabled than most people realize. Because you are constantly bombarded by sound, you take for granted all of the sensory input one can receive from sounds. these little things add up to a severe disability. For instance, deaf people have no way to communicate in a business setting, ie. meetings, or even in more casual settings with people that dont know sign language. Their main means of communication are textual, ie. internet, text messages, and books. It is not too great of a leap to say that deaf people are even more disabled than blind people, because the only thing blind people are certainly barred from doing is driving.

Now that i have succeded in ranting way more than i planned too, i would like to get back on topic. The advent of the internet as a means of replacing cable television is a rapidly expanding enterprise. However, as any enterprise, it will soon be bogged down by the same problem experienced in other media venues: greed. the greed of the media corporations stops them from providing an enjoyable experience. So enjoy a $10, semi-commercial free service while you can. Soon enough, it will be back to the same old problems.

Better yet, I hope there's a sort of service in the near future which you can CHOOSE your own channels which cost ranges from $3-$15 a month each, and make your own sort of plan, instead of buying some BS expensive package.

@MIP. Nope, all we "hearing people" are not jerks.
I'm on this article because I've been trying to find out if Roku or Hulu or Netflix have some way to determine how much content has closed captioning.
That is something that I'm sure WILL be available at some point, but isn't yet. There are a LOT of people out there that want closed captions. As our population ages, I'm sure there will be an even greater demand.

I'm just guessing, but I think the technical challenge with getting closed captioning into streaming video is that (I think) the closed captioning data is put in the blanking interval that old analog TV's used. Modern digital streaming video wouldn't have a need for the blanking interval. As such, adding the closed captioning to a digital stream would involve another method of inserting the captioning. Just a guess.