@weirdwriter My biggest concern is the fact that human-generated audio descriptions cannot handle the scale. So, we need to figure out a solution where TTS descriptions have their place but do not take away from what beautiful things human narration has to offer. I don't think it's one or the other.
@vick21 @weirdwriter I think the biggest problem with audio description is a true lack of standards truly optimized for the format. SAP is a workaround that was never really meant for audio description,. The biggest problem is the need for a secondary audio mix in the first place. The open-standazrd xlm/srt format that has been used for captions gets this right, and even better, it's been excluded from most movie/tv drm - so while the video may be drm-laden, the captions sure aren't.
@vick21 @weirdwriter So what I think needs to happen is a similar standard for audio description, with individual files with each audio description event that fire at the designated queue times, just like captions. Lines on the queue card, like captions, can have additional parameters, such as how much the orginal audio needs to be ducked during the description, and when it should come back. This way, a heavy-action sequence can have its own ducking rules compared to a light scene.
@vick21 @weirdwriter The biggest favor an open standard can do is it can pull the description files from a centralized, streaming provider-agnostic repository of audio description files. Before watching the movie,, the streaming app could download and cache all the individual descriptions that make up the description track so that they play on queue. And the description database could be semi-wikipedia style, wherein anyone can submit descriptions but they go through a board review.
@jackf723 @vick21 @weirdwriter This isn't as easy as you think, movies from different sources may have different lengths, e.g. due to a PAL/NTSC difference, an extra Netflix logo etc.
The only approach which makes sense here is the german Greta system and its derivatives. It's essentially Shazam for movies, you pick a movie you want to watch, give it a short sample, and it syncs your audio description with the movie audio. The added benefit to this is that the AD is completely independent of the movie source, works in cinemas and can be played through your own headphones when watching a movie with sighted friends or family.
@miki @vick21 @weirdwriter Ahh, this is true.