Closed Captions and subtitles are popping up in more and more places. They were originally developed for the “hard of hearing” but with visual media becoming more and more prevalent, it is estimated that 80% of the general population is leveraging closed captions and subtitles. For the purposes of this blog, the term captions will be used to represent both closed captions and subtitles.
Captions:
They are the words that represent the spoken dialogue and sound effects from video programming. Captions are synchronized to the audio and adhere to accessibility standards mandated by law. Typically they are created as separate files using products such as CaptionMaker and MacCaption (offered by Telestream). These files contain timing, text, position, font and color information. Once the files are created they need to be “married” to the media. They can either be “burned in” to create a unified single media file that can be distributed or they can be “married” in a tightly coupled fashion and enabled by the viewers of video programming by using an “on” or “off” button on consumer electronics such as smart phones, TVs, cable boxes, and software players on computers.
Integrating Captions with Media
A proper video processing software has the capability to produce media with embedded captions. With Telestream Cloud, the process is really simple. You upload the source media, typically an MP4 or MOV file and the captions, typically an SCC file. Choose the encoding parameters and options on Telestream Cloud or provide an advanced workflow using Vantage to process the media files. The output that is generated, based on your selection criteria will include your captions. The process is that simple.
Use case for Captions:
Future blogs will explore the different use cases in details for captions, but broadly the use case is based on reaching more audiences.
- Want to watch a video in a crowded and noisy environment where audio is not possible? Embedded captions is the answer.
- Want to show the video in a different geography with a different language? Embedded captions is the answer.
- Want to satisfy government regulation in different parts of the world? Embedded captions is now becoming a requirement for all kinds of media.
- How about making your media easier to find? Adding captions, makes the media ready for searches and easier to find on search-engines.
There are many more reasons to use captions and subtitles and future blogs will explore them in greater details.
For now, rest assured that Telestream helps you in
- Creating the captions using tools like CaptionMaker and MacCaption.
- “Marrying” the captions with media and making it ready for consumption using the Telestream Cloud.
For more information, or to sign up for a trial visit our website. Or, to learn more about captioning download our ebook, Taking Charge of Your Closed Captioning.
What about source files with Closed Caption tracks in an MXF media file instead of external SCC files?
MXF is our specialist. We do do this. I used SCC as an example for the blog.