This site (below) tracks current releases of DVD’s with Audio Description as well as TV schedules for many described programs on TV and helps to explain how to access the alternative audio on these broadcasts: http://www.acb.org/adp/ad.html
This site (also below) tracks movies in theaters showing with Audio Description and various captioning options. As the name would imply, their original focus was apparently for hearing impaired individuals, so you will need to be certain to select the “Descriptive Video” filter, or you’ll get a mixture of results with both DVS and for the hearing impaired (some movies have both at once). The hearing impaired solutions vary from headphones that make things louder, to open captions which all sighted guests can see, to rear displayed captions where sighted moviegoers can put a mirror into a cup holder and read the captions from the back wall (they are shown in reverse and the mirror fixes that.) As a general rule, Regal theaters offers the vast majority of their films with DVS— probably more than 90%: http://www.captionfish.com The big shift at Regal happened when they went all-digital. Since movies all come over the internet, there is no hassle with sending along the DVS. AMC used (may still use) an older system where they have to send a CD or DVD with the DVS and any captioning on it, and then they have to load the right disk with the movie, and it was rarely offered and then hardly ever worked correctly. This was back when most theaters still showed actual films. I had assumed AMC would be the first to use the digital DVS system, but so far, I am only aware of the strong DVS offering by Regal and a few of their affiliated companies. If you are new to this, briefly, for DVD’s you select an alternative language in the setup menu, just like selecting French, Spanish, etc., On television broadcasts, you do likewise, but the odd part is there is place where DVS is listed in some systems, and that is not where the audio description tends to run. You will most often find it under “Spanish”, though one network— I think it was TBS, tends to show only actual Spanish under Spanish, and uses another language— I think it was Portuguese (?) for English DVS. What you get on DVD, and with Broadcast TV is description in quieter parts of a show or over music (rarely over dialogue) and they tend to “dip” (make quieter) the background audio as they speak when possible. In a theater, they cannot dip the background audio, but you wear headphones tied to a receiver that plays ONLY the description in the same quieter places in the show and you listen to the movie (apart from the description) along with everyone else in the theater. One important note. The Regal theaters use the same headsets for hearing impaired and blind patrons. The select a specific channel for the theater where you will watch, and they have to select if it us for hearing impaired or blind. Hearing impaired seems to be more common, and often they set things incorrectly. The hearing impaired assistance, in this case, it to let you play the sound louder— that’s it. We have found they do not run preview audio through the headset for DVS, so the headphones won’t do anything until the movie starts. If you’re hearing coming attraction audio over the headset, go to customer service and have them fix the setting. Do not assume that your white cane will clue them in at all. About 2/3 of the time, when they bring the headset to us (in three different theaters where we have attended, in two different states) they generally have the thing set wrong, so when they bring the headset, your better off to just ask again— did you set this for AUDIO DESCRIPTION? NOT TO JUST MAKE THE SHOW LOUDER? More often than not, we get an embarrassed groan and an apology, with a quick adjustment, and an “Enjoy the show!" Sorry if that is TMI, but I hope that helps. On Apr 4, 2014, at 5:31 PM, Sharon <[email protected]> wrote: > Samnet > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Jfw [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of John Chan > Sent: Friday, April 04, 2014 3:06 PM > To: Jaws Mailing List > Subject: Movies for the blind > > Where cn i find movies fo the blind?Sent from my iPhone > > _______________________________________________ > Jfw mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.the-jdh.com/mailman/listinfo/jfw_lists.the-jdh.com > > > _______________________________________________ > Jfw mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.the-jdh.com/mailman/listinfo/jfw_lists.the-jdh.com _______________________________________________ Jfw mailing list [email protected] http://lists.the-jdh.com/mailman/listinfo/jfw_lists.the-jdh.com
