If you found this article, you are probably a DVD authorer at your wit's end trying to figure out why the subtitle file will not import into your authoring system. We have a little tip that might just do the trick.
As you can imagine, as a closed-captioning and subtitling company, we work hand-in-hand with DVD authoring houses and individual DVD authoring people. When we deliver our clients subtitle files for DVD Studio Pro (typically a .stl directory file with .tif images or a stand-alone .stl file), there are sometimes discrepancies with time code making DVD Studio Pro reject the .stl file. Then our client calls us for help and we usually walk through the issue, and often we actually test out the files with their video in our authoring system to see where the problem is originating. After going through this troubleshooting process with our clients time and time again, we have found a solution that pretty much does the trick every time.
Are you ready for it?
- Open your project in DVD Studio Pro without the video. In other words, remove your video from the project.
- Import the subtitle file (.stl for example)
- Import your video
Now you have something you can work with.
If this trick doesn't work, call Aberdeen Captioning at 800-688-6621 and we'll be able to give you a hand troubleshooting your issue.
Do you ever wonder how international businesses keep their branches in different countries on the same page with the same goals, visions, and company outlook? Well, there are many ways this is done, but one simple way is the use of corporate training videos ... subtitled in multiple languages. This is a manageable and cost-effective way for companies across the globe to communicate selling techniques, company updates, new product releases, safety training, and company outlook and vision just to name a few.
Most multi-national corporations either have their own production department or outsource to post-production houses specializing in the creation of corporate training videos. Usually, each post-production house specializes in a sector, for example, retail or construction.
Commonly, these post-productions companies will outsource to a subtitling company to create the translated subtitles for their corporate training videos. Subtitling companies specialize in subtitling multiple languages, even exotic and not-so-common languages, which is often too much of a hassle for the post-production house to handle.
The complicated part about translating corporate training videos is, for one, the industry-specific jargon. The translator will usually be provided with a company-specific lexicon for the given language. For example, a product might have the name, "Super-duper AirTight Duffel" but in Japanese, there is no product name. The multinational corporation will need to decide whether they want to keep product names in English or if they want the translator to create equivalent names in their respective language. It is common for large multinational corporations to have teams of translators in multiple countries who, among other things, dedicate themselves to these types of issues. In this case, the subtitling company will use the clients' translations to do the subtitling.
Creating DVD or Blu-ray Disc subtitles is not as simple as putting a translation into software and spitting out files. It takes adaptation for subtitles, timing, and placement of the subtitles, as well as special subtitling software capable of exporting files for DVD or Blu-ray Disc, like specially formatted .stl files, .son files, .xml files, .txt files, .srt files to name a few. These file types are often accompanied by .tif images. These files are later ingested into the client's or post-production house's DVD or Blu-ray Disc authoring system and added to the DVD or Blu-ray Disc menu.
One thing I have learned from subtitling thousands of corporate training videos is that when we are handling the translation, to always, without fail, get the translation and the subtitles proofed by the client. What we tell the company's international branches via translated subtitles is very crucial to the company's bottom line abroad, and making a mistake with one sentence or even one word could compromise the progress of the overall training. Successful translation and subtitling of corporate training videos come down to having all the available lexicons from the client, a translator who specializes in the sector (retail, construction, hospitality, et cetera), a proofer who also specializes in the given sector, and a final client proof of the subtitles.
All in all, international companies have found the importance of creating videos for training employees abroad, and with these videos, the easiest and most cost-effective way to adapt the video for multiple countries at one time is by the addition of multi-language subtitles.
Last Friday (June 12, 2009) was the official transition of analog television being replaced by digital television (DTV) in the United States. With this having taken place, I thought it would be the appropriate time to discuss 608 captions (captions for analog TV) and 708 captions (captions for DTV). If you didn't know that two types of captioning standards existed, you most definitely will want to read on.
Please note that in this article I simplified the terms to 608 or 708 captions, but you will often see these terms referred to as EIA-608 or EIA-708 after its developer Electronic Industries Alliance.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT 608 CAPTIONS (LINE 21 CAPTIONS)
608 captions, which are commonly referred to as Line 21 captions, used to be the standard for closed captioning for NTSC TV analog broadcasts in the United States and Canada.
What do 608 captions look like?
These are the captions you are most likely used to. They are known for their limited display capabilities: white letters and black-box background. Typically the letters are in all uppercase as this has become a North-American standard for 608 captions.
How does 608 captioning work?
608 captions are embedded in the television signal and become visible when the viewer uses a decoder, either as a separate device or built into a television set. Without this decoder, the captions are not viewable.
Line 21 captions are hidden in--you got it--the Line 21 data area found in the VBI (vertical blanking interval) of the television signal, which is a non-visible, active video data area. There are two fields in Line 21. Field one contains CC1, CC2, T1, and T2 (the latter being text services). Field 2 contains CC3, CC4, T3, and T4. CC1 is most often used to carry English captions and CC3 is increasingly being used for Spanish captions and captions edited for young children's reading speed.
608 Language Capabilities
Line 21 captions are mainly limited to being encoded in these languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, and Dutch.
608 captions for DTV
Seems kind of like an oxymoron, but even though Line 21 captions are for analog broadcasts, they are also sometimes present in the picture user data in digital transmissions.
Future of 608 captions
Don't think they are going to disappear this year, but because of the transition to DTV last week, 608 CC is becoming less prevalent. That being said, producers are still sending their programs to TV stations with only Line 21 captioning. They may not even know that this is what their captioning company is providing them with as the stations are not always demanding otherwise. This is because 608 captions are still supported in DTV by carrying them inside ancillary data channels. TV stations haven't completely addressed this DTV captioning issue. My bet is they have enough on their plate right now with all of the industry changes. Only time will tell what must be done, but if you are a television producer, ask your closed-captioning service provider if they are providing your digital programs in a 708 CC format. There is a good chance that they are not. In fact, most CC viewed on DTV signals is 608 CC up-converted to 708 CC. That being said, the visa-versa is not true: There is no standard way to down-convert 708 captions to 608 captions as there are many features of the 708 format that are not supported in 608 captions.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT 708 CAPTIONS (DTV CAPTIONS)
708 captions are the standard for all digital television, whether that means standard-definition digital broadcasts or high-definition broadcasts. I have found that many people think that 708 captions are only for hi-def channels, but this couldn't be further from the truth.
What do 708 captions look like?
This is where things get fun. Are you sick of the same old look? Like things your way? You'll be happy because the at-home viewer of DTVCC has some control over how they view the captions. The 708 technology for DTV captioning allows for up to eight different fonts and can be displayed in three different sizes. DTV captioning also allows for up to 64 different colors of text on up to 64 different colored backgrounds. Another nice feature is that the background can be made translucent or even omitted entirely with text displayed as edged or drop shadowed characters. North American 708 captions can have a nicer look than 608 captions and if captioned in the pop-on style, they can have a similar look to that of subtitles you may find on a DVD or Blu-ray disc. One thing the viewer cannot change is the captioning style. For example, roll-up captions cannot be reformatted to pop-on captions. This is in the control of the captioner who created the captions. These 708 capabilities can only be obtained if you have access to a new digital television set with a built-in decoder that supports these functions. Although 708 captions were designed with all these features in mind, each decoder manufacturer has created their decoders with different capabilities, features, and functions, so your control over the captions will widely depend on the specific decoder you are using.
708 Language Capabilities
Unlike Line 21 captions, there are many more language and character-set capabilities for 708 captions. Due to their universal character set (Unicode) and complete range of special symbols, 708 captions were designed to support any character in any alphabet in the world. With 608 captions the viewer chooses between CC1, CC2, CC3, and CC4 to view different language captions, many times only accurately allowing for up to two languages due to overlapping signals. In the 708 caption technology, different languages are transmitted as CS1, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6... This easily allows for closed captioning of the same program in multiple languages, broadening the scope of a program's audience.
How does 708 captioning work?
DTV does not have a VBI (vertical blanking interval) like analog video, but rather 708 captions are placed into MPEG-2 video streams in the picture user data. Known as the DTVCC Transport Stream, the packets are in picture order and need to be rearranged like picture frames are. In the fixed-bandwidth channel, there is space allocated for both Line 21 and DTVCC: 960 bit/s are allocated to be compatible with Line 21 captions and 8640 bit/s is allocated for 708 captions.
The future of 708 captions
More and more DTV viewers will start demanding true 708-type captions, rather than accepting the older up-converted 608 captions. They will see DTV captioning on some programs and love them and want them for all their programming. Even so, my inkling is that 708 captions won't be the only type of captions needed until analog television sets no longer exist. People with analog television sets can still receive a digital signal by using an external converter box and this population will still need access to 608 caption data. So to be on the safe side, I recommend you provide both 608 and 708 captions that can be embedded in the MPEG-2 video streams of digital video, so everyone is happy and most importantly, everyone has access.
Read more about the basics of closed captioning and learn more about the services we offer here: Captioning Services | Aberdeen Broadcast Services.
A closed-captioning company working out of the United States can service clientele all around the nation and even around the globe with the advances in modern-day technology.
A company based out of southern California not only reaches the heart of Los Angeles' TV and film industry, but can also service markets like New York, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Boston, Memphis, Milwaukee, and Austin, for example. The closed-captioning market for a southern California-based company is not only limited to the United States, clients abroad (Europe, Australia, et cetera) that are broadcasting in the United States can find it beneficial to use a closed-captioning company based in the U.S.
You may wonder how that can be possible, but it is because the present and the future trend is to use a tapeless closed-captioning method. You can upload digital video files (often referred to as proxy files) directly to your captioning company's FTP site where they can either send you back a captioning file or send the file directly to the stations' play-servers.
Don't limit your closed-captioning service to your hometown or home state; think nationally and internationally. You may just get a better closed-captioning service elsewhere.
Avoid being overcharged, paying high shipping costs, and accepting long turnaround times.
Let's face it: No matter how much you understand the "good" in closed captioning, it can be a downright pain. For producers, TV stations, or editors, captioning can mean an unexpected expense or a hold-up in production time. Shipping costs are usually not considered in the budget and depending on how many stations your program airs on, shipping can add up. Adding in the time for captioning is another thing typically not considered. Although this shouldn't be the norm, I have heard stories of some captioning companies taking up to three weeks to return a closed caption master--which in the world of production doesn't fly. All in all, in your heart, you know captioning is serving the greater good of society, but here I will explain how to make the closed-captioning process not such a pain!
Captioning Pain Solution #1: Get a Good Price
Getting a good price, starts with being informed on what is too much to pay. You should never pay more than $350 for 30 minutes of post-production roll-up captions. You should never pay more than $450 for 30 minutes of post-production pop-on captioning. Within these prices there are different variables that can be negotiated to get lower prices, but these prices should be the maximum and should include one closed-caption master (HD tape stock may raise this price) or closed-caption files. Live captioning prices vary, but you shouldn't pay any more than $105 for a 30-minute live broadcast. Getting a good price, doesn't necessarily equate to getting the lowest price. Not all services are the same. Make sure your closed-captioning service provider gives you excellent service with a quality product and that they have explained exactly what you will be getting for the price you are paying. A captioning company who pays experienced, trained professionals (transcribers, caption editors, real-time captioners, et cetera) and is not outsourcing their services to non-native English speakers overseas, will not have the lowest price, but they should still be able to give you a fair price that matches your budget.
Captioning Pain Solution #2: Avoid High Shipping Costs
Shipping is a hidden cost in captioning that can bite you if not considered. The best way to avoid shipping costs is to choose a tapeless captioning method where you ship your tapes to their location directly or upload your video directly to the stations' play-servers. If tapeless captioning ends up not being the best solution for you, you can still ensure that you are getting the best shipping rates. Your closed-captioning company may have a discount rate with FedEx or UPS based upon the amount of shipping they do, so you should be only paying for the actual cost the captioning company is paying plus a minimal shipping and handling fee per package (around $2.00). Be sure to ask them if they have special rates with their shipping provider and if they are going to pass on the discount to you as well. Some companies may try to make extra money through the shipping, so be upfront about this in the negotiation stage.
Captioning Pain Solution #3: Avoid Accepting Long Turnaround Times
Just like getting a good price, understanding turnaround times for closed captioning is important to avoid long turnaround times. Closed captioning does not happen magically, therefore, in the case of prerecorded programming, it takes the time of coordination, transcribing the audio word-for-word, editing the words to captioning format, positioning the captions, timing the captions, and quality checking the entire captioning project. For a 30-minute program, this process done well can take anywhere from six hours up to 12 hours. Then your project needs to be scheduled in with the rest of the captioning production. From the day your program arrives, the closed-captioning company should be able to turn it around if needed in 48 hours. If they have to they can do it in 24 hours if they are advised that it is coming ahead of time. Without notice, in an emergency situation, they can caption it same day if needed, but doing it a live-to-tape style with real-time captioning. Comfortably, most captioning companies would like three to five business days to turn around your captioning project. If they are taking longer or say they need more time, it is because they have more work than they can handle. Before signing a contract with a closed-captioning company, confirm the guaranteed turnaround time ahead, as well as any rush fees they charge, if any, for doing it under that time.
Why These Solutions Will Make Your Pain Disappear
Knowing how much is too much to pay, will let you know if you need to look somewhere else for your closed-captioning services. Getting a fair price with closed captioning will help lighten your budget for other important costs you need for your production, ultimately helping your bottom line. Understanding how shipping costs work and how much you will pay per program in shipping up front will eliminate any unexpected costs that were not originally included in your production budget. Ensuring that you are working with a closed-captioning company that will meet your deadlines by not abusing your agreed upon turnaround time will eradicate lost airtime and many other problems that go with it.
Conclusion
Captioning doesn't have to be a pain. You may find captioning to be one more thorn in your side because of costs and interruptions in your production schedule, but if things are dealt with the right way from the beginning with the appropriate closed-captioning partner, you may find that captions can be actually a pleasure. Meet with a fair captioning company and have the right questions to ask, so you can be sure that captioning your program not only helps the audience that it serves, but that it also helps your overall production.
I find that most producers and television stations don't really love the idea of captions. In fact, they often find it a nuisance. There are reasons that everyone should love captions, but it is just a matter of being aware of the 94-million Americans who use--and most likely--love closed captions. Read the top five reasons why you should love closed captions too.
1. The Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Love Captions
I guess this is a given, but most people do not know how many people are actually affected if there are no closed captions present on a television program. The number of deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans is astounding--approximately 28 million people! Equal rights to all include providing access to all, which is something we can all smile about.
2. Multi-lingual America Loves Captions
Being from the LA area, I hear how many different languages are spoken in US. All I have to do is go to a local market and hear the multiple languages spoken--Japanese, Spanish, Korean, Arabic, Farsi, Vietnamese... you name it! In America, the number of non-native English speakers is growing, which means most of them are actively learning English. In fact, over 30-million Americans are learning English as a second or other language. What easier way to learn than to watch television in English with English closed captions. You are not only listening to the language but you are reading the language. Your neighbor is learning English with the help of captions ... and that should make any American happy.
3. Grandma Loves Captions
As we all know, not all grandmas (or grandpas for that matter) need closed captions, but many, even the ones without significant hearing loss, enjoy watching television with closed captions. My 85-year-old grandmother lives alone and is pretty much housebound due to her being on oxygen. Her main form of entertainment is television with closed captions, even though she has very little hearing loss. The day her cable box stopped working she almost had a panic attack. Even if it is just to watch the latest Ellen DeGeneres show, closed captions make my Grandma happy... and probably yours too.
4. Six-year-olds Love Captions
Anyone who has young children, has had young children or knows young children, understands it can be a struggle teaching them to read. Ten million Americans are school-age children learning to read in school, but ultimately the parent needs to take time to read with their child and have their child practice reading to them. Most children watch some amount of television daily, in fact studies show that children watch an average of 1,680 minutes of television a week. Children watching television with captions on, improves their reading skills at a far faster rate than children who do not watch television with captions. That is pain-free teaching for parents... and that would make any parent happy.
5. Adults Who Cannot Read Love Captions
It sounds strange that someone who cannot read would love captions, but captions are a tool to help illiterate adults learn to read. It may be an astonishing fact, but about one in 20 adults in the U.S. is not literate in English and 27 million American adults are improving their literacy skills. Using captions is an easy way to aid in the adult learning process. You may not have thought about so many adults not knowing how to read, but knowing your captions may help, makes it worthwhile.
It is hard to think about the usefulness of captions unless you have someone close to you that captioning directly affects. Maybe captions could help someone close to you that is not using them. Pass on the word and turn on your captions--it may help more people than you think! Do you love captions yet?
Cheers to the new Acting Chairman Michael J. Copps who has formed the first technical working group to address closed captioning and video description issues and has set-up the first meeting to take place this month on May 18th 2009. Read more here:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-290504A1.doc
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-995A1.doc
Sony Electronics and Aberdeen Captioning along with software developer CPC have joined forces to develop the first file-based closed-captioning system that maximizes the benefits of Sony’s XDCAM HD422 tapeless technology. The new workflow uses Sony’s PDW-HD1500 optical deck to make the process more efficient, faster and more flexible.
“Because the XDCAM system is file-based, we’re able to do our work in a much more refined and streamlined way,” said Matt Cook, President of Aberdeen Captioning. “Now, once someone is done with their XDCAM edit, we take their file, caption directly onto that file, and then place it back onto the disc. We’ve eliminated the need to go through a closed-captioning encoder—which can cost up to $10,000—therefore eradicating the requirement to do real-time play-out.”
According to Cook, clients—which include a range of broadcast networks, groups and independent producers—benefit from faster turnaround times and a more cost- and time-efficient process than previous methods.
“The primary benefit for clients is that they can keep their file in its original form, and send it to us on a hard drive, via FTP site, or on a disc,” he said. “Once we put the captioning data back in the video file, we can then return it to the client in the format of their choice.”
The PDW-HD1500 deck is designed for file-based recording in studio operations. A Gigabit Ethernet data drive allows it to write any file format from any codec onto the optical disc media, and it also makes handling either SD or HD content much easier.
“This deck is perfect for applications like closed captioning, where turnaround time is often critical and multi-format flexibility is a key,” said Wayne Zuchowski, group marketing manager for XDCAM system at Sony Electronics.
Cook added, “We can handle any format without a problem. That type of capability and functionality is very important to us because as a captioning company we’re required to deliver a finished product in any format a client requires.”
When Aberdeen receives content from a client, the company first converts it to a smaller “working file,” for example Windows or a Quick Time media file, which is used to do the transcribing, captioning and timing.
“Once the captioning work is done, we marry the original MXF XDCAM file and our captioned data file through our MacCaption software,” Cook said. “With the press of a button, both files are merged, and we can drag and drop it back onto the disc and send out, or FTP it to a client and they can drag and drop onto a disc.”
The Sony and Aberdeen joint captioning system will be on display at NAB in Sony’s exhibit, C11001, Central Hall, Las Vegas Convention Center.
Article Written by Tom Di Nome, from Sony Electronics
Copyright notice:
© Sony Electronics & Aberdeen Captioning, Inc. 2009.
This article can be freely reproduced under the following conditions:
a) that no economic benefit be gained from the reproduction
b) that all citations and reproductions carry a reference to this original publication on [online] http://www.abercap.com/blog
If not, you may want to encourage them to do so. The process is simple, and it provides accessibility to one of the most important ceremonies of one's life: GRADUATION. Read below for some answers to some common questions I get regarding captioning for these important life events.
What is the purpose for captioning commencements?
The purpose of closed captioning commencements is obvious: to provide access to viewers who are unable to hear the ceremony.
Who views the captioning and where do they view it?
Captions are usually present on screens at the commencement itself, on the web for live viewing, and potentially broadcast on a local station and viewed by the family or friends of graduates, graduates themselves, or perhaps the faculty members of the school. If not present at the ceremony, viewers can connect to the ceremony from a home computer or from portable devices like laptop computers, PDAs, Smart Phones, et cetera.
For the captioner, what preparation goes into captioning for a commencement ceremony?
A live captioner will usually want to get names of speakers, especially the keynote speaker and valedictorian, and whoever else may be speaking during the ceremony. The captioner should familiarize themselves with the city the commencement is located in and its adjoining cities, as these names may be mentioned during the ceremony. Depending on keynote speaker, the captioner will do some online research about the speaker's history and life so they can learn where she/he lives, works, what their "claim to fame" is. This information will need to be defined in their dictionary.
How long are commencement ceremonies?
They can vary from three to six hours, depending on the size of the school and graduating class.
Does one captioner do the entire commencement? If not, how do they transition?
Many times, one captioner will caption the entire commencement. If it is extremely long, then two captioners will work on the captioning. Usually at a predetermined point, for example, at the top of the hour, the first captioner will sign off with a [pause in captions] on the screen, until the second captioner dials in and gets linked up and they take over.
Does the captioner get a list of graduates beforehand? If not, how do they caption the names?
They usually do NOT get a list of the graduates. When the graduates are announced, they are usually instructed to not write during that time, although sometimes they may write something like [names being read].
What does a captioner do if they do not know how to spell somebody's name or they do not have it in their dictionary?
The captioner will usually phonetically spell the person's last name as opposed to the first name.
Which universities and colleges currently caption their commencement ceremonies?
Many schools caption their commencement ceremonies, but some specific school who we have captioned for or will caption for this year include:
"A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that 'individuality' is the key to success." ~Robert Orben
For more information on closed captioning commencement ceremonies, contact us.
The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has implemented numerous closed-captioning mandates to make television more accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, but they have failed to bring forth quality requirements in the face of many consumer and agency complaints.
To review the FCC closed captioning mandates, visit their website at FCC website.
After reviewing the requirements, you can see they mainly address the amount of programming that is required to be closed captioned, but they do not undertake anything to do with the quality or accessibility of the closed captioning. In 2005, deaf and hard of hearing agencies (TDI, NAD, Hearing Loss Association of America, Association for Late Deafened Adults, and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network) filed a petition with the FCC addressing the issue of the quality of closed captioning. Almost three and a half years later, the FCC has not addressed the issue in its entirety.
To see the entire petition, complaints and responses go to: Hearingloss.org
You will note that many of the complaints are in regard to lack of CC or quality CC for emergency television. The FCC has addressed that situation, but it is not 100% mandated for all stations and networks.
Later this year they "should" be passing a law to make filing complaints easier and more effective. For more information read: Filing Captioning Complaints
Even though the possible new complaint procedure may lead producers, networks, and TV stations to caption their programs better, the FCC has not come up with specific rules about the quality of closed captioning. One very easy point to mandate that would make a significant difference was one of the points mentioned in the 2005 petition:
- All pre-recorded captioning should be captioned offline as opposed to in real-time.
The truth of the matter is that many pre-recorded programs are captioned in a live fashion, therefore significantly decreasing quality.
The main reasons shows are closed captioned this way are:
- Faster turnaround times
- Cheaper cost
- It fulfills the FCC requirements
All the FCC would have to do is mandate that live-style cannot be used for pre-recorded programming. The overall quality of captioning for pre-recorded programming would significantly increase. Unfortunately, many captioning companies offer live captioning for pre-recorded programming to stay afloat in such a competitive market.
Now that almost all programs are being closed-captioned and it has become the norm for TV producers and stations, I predict that more laws will get passed in the near future addressing the quality of closed captions. This would completely change the way *some* closed captioning companies operate, allowing the "good" companies to shine and stand out from the crowd.
The whole point of closed captioning is accessibility and if the captions are not completely readable, there is no access.
