I'm a native English speaker and I usually turn on subtitles for media with English audio. Just because I understand the language well doesn't mean I'm going to perfectly hear everything that everyone says throughout a video. The character could mumble, speak quietly, have an accent I can't parse well, be speaking while something else in the video is making a noise, or there could just be something happening near me that drowned out a word. Subtitles are a good backup for when something inevitably goes wrong audio-wise.
I watch everything with subtitles. Honestly they volume of the show after compression can be a huge factor where it is just too quiet or there are some characters that I can barely hear. I know that some shows I can play at almost double volume, but barely hear. One example is NetFlix's Lost in Space. I have to turn it up to hear what they are saying and then the orchestra comes in and it just blows the voices out. For the orchestra to be at a tolerable level, the voices are mere whispers. Its way too loud, its like JFK I get it, you have an orchestra. But It would be better if it was balanced well, I'd prefer not having the orchestra in a version so I could comfortably watch the show. Otherwise I have to manually adjust the volume down for longer sequences. And sometimes I can walk out of the room and it sounds better than in the room. I grew up with CRT tvs and I'm willing to bet the modern sound gear just no longer has the benefit of being in a bigger chassis.
I do this too. I watch everything with subtitles now. It is not your fault. This is some new hollywood mantra. They have become harder to hear and harder to see. Some new Christopher Nolan effect. I forget what it is.
Anyways, I would love to watch the new Oppenheimer movie in a theater but I am not sure, it is hard to see and hear and understand dialogues without subtitles nowadays.
I've seen the argument as starting with pop stars in the late 90's lowering the quality of audio recording to a flat state. I agree that is hard to hear given the way that audio is engineered now. I have no problem waiting until I get subtitles. Honestly, the default should be 'with subtitles'
I don't think they really used the chassis for acoustics all that effectively. I suspect modern builtin speakers are way better just because of the integrated DSP, but I haven't actually heard a CRT in a long time(I still remember the whining mosquito noise though!).
A Sansui television that found its way to me has a horrible habit of turning subtitles back on when powering on the TV, changing channels, or even if the signal drops then returns during broadcast television.Highly annoying. I don't watch it enough to be bothered to dig any further into the settings to find the mystical value to halt the behavior.
I watch original language with english subtitles, I like to learn even while watching tv. Latest one was hot skull in turkish, sounds completely different to the turkish I can hear on german streets
You can fast-forward through the boring parts without missing the plot.
another human of culture i see. i also use subtitles in games for the same reason.
I personally cannot stand subtitles. I wind up reading them and not seeing the video.
some shows are not in an language i understand, while others have an mumbling original speaker and the speaker for my native language is bad, so i use subtitles. I usually use them when i need them.