Captioning Tools

Before looking at tools, please look at the DMCP Captioning Key to get familiar with captioning standards. Note that I just discovered this in 2009, so many of my captioned videos do not yet conform to the captioning standards. http://www.dcmp.org/captioningkey/special_considerations.html
Also see: A gentle introduction to video encoding, part 4: captioning by Mark Pilgrim.
Captioning With Video Editors:

Online Captions:

Offline Captions

Other Tools

10 responses

15 04 2009
Brein (16:49:36) :

Can you actually separate this somewhat into subtitling and captioning tools, since they have different functions? I know the terms are used interchangeably at times, but at least ‘traditionally’ in the U.S. TV industry, subtitling is embedded, and captioning usually refers to ‘closed’ captions or captions that work only on activation.

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15 04 2009
Bill (17:18:07) :

Hi Brein,

Subtitling and captioning (aka subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing) use the same tools.

Open/Closed is a description of the display options, and depends on the player that is used to display them.

Some of the options, like TubeCaption and Bubbleply, do not allow the export of the caption files, but they are still a separate entity.

Subtitles that are “burned in”, like the type of titles you might see if you used Windows MovieMaker, and JumpCut to add titles and comments, are usually created at the time of the editing of a movie.

Does that make sense? Let me know if I am wrong, or need to further clarify something.

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15 04 2009
Brein (19:16:27) :

I disagree that they use the same tools, but there are so many variables and options that the line is very blurred.

I’m looking for a tool that provides a reasonable Closed Caption display option in the finished product. It seems like you clarified at least some of the variables here. The video editors usually do ‘burn-in’ as you said. And at least some of the post-production tools do not by default provide options to turn off the display. Overstream is a good example.. you can export the caption files, but their own display does not let you turn it off.

Is the link to subtitlehorse.com supposed to refer to http://subtitle-horse.org/ ? That seems like a nice resource since you can embed it in a CMS.

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15 04 2009
Bill (20:30:13) :

Yep, that’s the one, I’ll make corrections.

I feel the best for that use is to caption in Overstream, and import into Google or YouTube player (the export works as-is for import into those)

I use these definitions of captioning vs subtitling:
http://openandclosed.org/topics/captioning/
http://openandclosed.org/topics/subtitling/

Captions, as opposed to “subtitles,” reflect all of a program’s audio for deaf or hard of hearing people, converting not only dialog into text, but also sound effects, music, speaker identifications and the like, which are needed for a more complete understanding and enjoyment of the content. Subtitles convert the spoken dialog from one language to another for hearing viewers, and do not include non-speech information.

http://www.nationaltechcenter.org/index.php/2008/06/06/closed-captions-enabled-on-handhelds/

On the other hand, sometimes the difference refers to the font format – this sounds like maybe where you’re coming from?:

The only significant difference for the user between “SDH” subtitles and “closed captions” is their appearance: SDH subtitles usually are displayed with the same proportional font used for the translation subtitles on the DVD; however, closed captions are displayed as white text on a black band, which blocks a large portion of the view.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtitle_(captioning)

If you have a good basis for your definitions, I would be interested in knowing it. I have only been doing captioning since 2007.

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15 04 2009
Bill (20:40:30) :

Overstream is also planning on adding a caption on/off button in their player.

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15 04 2009
Brein (21:19:58) :

I posted & replied to you on twitter, but posting here so as to maintain the conversation on site.

http://twitter.com/Signcasts/status/1528114022 —
@grwebguy deaf people inaccurately say ‘captioning’ for Closed Captioning. subtitles = open captioned. method vs content definition issue.

http://twitter.com/Signcasts/status/1528263925 –
@grwebguy see http://ow.ly/2XO6 (formats) vs http://ow.ly/2XOh (content). Both right in context. http://ow.ly/2XOC is for tools = formats.

—-
Deaf people use CC on TV heavily, so our definitions and ideals are shaped by that. Both the content of the text and the format are often (inaccurately — I do this too! ) defined interchangeably. But with web tools for creating captioning we do have to consider what formats and method they use. The creation of the content of ’subtitles’ for foreign languages versus ‘captioning’ for the deaf could be any tool, but the format they put them in does make a difference!

In a reversal of fortune, I wish to do captioning for Sign Language videos for hearing people to have access to the dialogue. But since ‘open captioned’ subtitles can’t be turned off, they can be visually distracting to those who understand signing. Closed captioning (on/off) seems to be more ideal.

Also would love love love to have more spoken videos captioned, so the more deaf people are involved in understanding how to make it easier to have captioning, the more we can encourage it to be done for our benefit. Any “K.I.S.S” tools like that now?

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21 04 2009
21 04 2009
1 06 2009
Rob Colling (09:57:25) :

Hi Bill and Brein.

I’m enjoying the discussion here very much. But given that we are no longer limited to a simple choice between burned-in subtitles or Line 21 closed captions, I’d like to see a broadening of the definitions.

The Joe Clarke site that Bill quotes is spot on in defining subtitles versus captions. The Wikipedia entry, on the other hand, is hopelessly out of date. To my mind it’s perfectly possible to have open or closed captions, and (independently) to have open or closed subtitles. You can have closed captions and closed subtitles living happily side by side on a DVD or YouTube video, for example, with the ability to switch between the two during playback.

In the 21st century I’d submit that open/closed refers purely to the delivery format, and captions/subtitles purely to the content. Let’s not muddy the waters by talking about “open-captioned subtitles”… :)

Kudos for your respective sites, by the way. Bill, yours has long been a fixture on my bookmarks list, and Brein, I’ve just discovered you, but I like Signcasts very much.

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20 11 2009
Make video accessible, localised, mobile and searchable by captioning » iheni :: making the web worldwide (10:08:14) :

[...] are more captioning tools out there than I’ve had hot dinners so I thought I’d narrow it down scientifically and [...]

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