Recently, in IRC, me and some people got into a rather heated argument, and in order to 'resolve' this argument, I come to DVD Talk to see if you can help!

We are trying to determine people's opinions on subtitles including sound effects. An example would be when, in addition to translated dialogue, subtitles also include text that describes other things in the audio like:

# Jazz music plays in background #

I think it would be nice to have both options, as some dvds already have, since the one with sound effects will be beneficial to people who are hearing impaired.

I'm not sure that I've ever actually seen sound effects in subtitles . . . only in closed captioning.

No, only because I'm not hearing impaired. I just like to understand the lines perfectly (often I rewind several times if subtitles are not available to hear a garbled line). I never have a problem hearing a sound effect.
What really annoys me, though, is when it says 'captions for the deaf and hearing impaired', as though only people with those maladies like subtitles. It's a slap in the face, implying that I have hearing problems

I always assumed "English Subtitles" mean general subtitles, and "Subtitles for Deaf and Hearing Impaired" meant it had a little something extra, like sound effects / music descriptions.

No it is not Nate,since captions were made solely for deaf and hard of hearing people

But that does not mean you can not check out the captions/subtitles if you have perfect hearing

When given a choice between "captioned for the hearing impaired" and merely "subtitles" I always choose the captioning. Quite often I see a caption like "dogs barking in background" and it is NOT really evident that there are dogs barking. Sometimes it says "indistinct dialogue in background" and it's nice to know that it's not important to the plot to know what's being said. Sometimes it says "dialogue continues in Russian (or whatever)" and again, it's nice to know that the Russian dialogue is not important to my understanding of the movie.

Woah, I'm seeing double o_O

Subtitles should NOT include sound effects, but CAPTIONS should. Subtitles are useful for movies where either the accent or soundmix renders the dialogue difficult to understand (e.g. Gosford Park). CAPTIONS are for the hearing-impaired, and they definitely need to include sound effects.

What he said ^^^

Possibly the most insecure post ever.

Yep

Exactly what I was gonna say... Don't believe I've ever heard of subtitles with sound effects mixed in, that's generally what closed captioning is used for.