Posted by Linea Recta on 10/18/06 20:00

"Jukka Aho" <jukka.aho@iki.fi> schreef in bericht
news:8lvZg.8920$qj1.5382@reader1.news.jippii.net...
> Linea Recta wrote:
>
> > However, playng the DVD in the stand alone player, I cannot display
> > the closed captions, although I have the option for closed caption
> > activated in the players setup menu. What a shambles of standards
> > eh...?
>
> "Closed captioning" is an American subtitling standard where digital
> subtitling data is embedded in the VBI (vertical blanking interval) of
> analog video signals.
>
> Decoding this digital data and displaying the CC subtitles as text
> superimposed on the video typically requires a TV set with a built-in CC
> decoder. Built-in CC decoders are required by law in the US as they are
> seen as an important accessibility feature.
>
> (As far as I know, American CC subtitles are typically intended first
> and foremost for the hard of hearing and may contain textual
> descriptions of sounds [such as "PHONE RINGS"]. Those learning English


I believe I have seen that from my satellite receiver, using teletext page
888. Apart from that, this receiver has a subtitle button which (sometimes)
leads to different subtitles aswell.


> as a second or additional language are probably another large group that
> uses them. This is different from some other countries which primarily
> use subtitles/captions as means of language translation for the "normal"
> viewers.)
>
> A DVD player _could_ have an option for displaying the Closed Caption
> data as text on the screen. As far as I know, they usually don't.


My player sems to have an option for captions in the setup menu. I never
payed attention to this before. Apart from that, I have an (easier
accessible) button for subtitles on the DVD remote.



> Instead, the CC data, if present, is embedded in the VBI and it is up to
> the tv set to decode it. If the tv set does not have a CC decoder...
> well, though luck.
>
> Since the email address in your signature points to the Netherlands, I
> believe you might be using a PAL tv set.


Right...


> The PAL tv sets do not support
> the American CC standard. There is a similar VBI-based


I believe my TV is PAL/SECAM.



> subtitling/captioning feature in the Teletext standard (Teletext
> decoders are common in European tv sets), but I'm not sure if there are
> any DVD players that would convert the American CC data to the European
> Teletext subtitling format. There is nothing that would technically
> prevent doing that, but the manufacturers of DVD players probably do not
> bother with these kind of neat-but-little-needed features.
>
> As you already noted, the DVD standard has a subtitling feature on its
> own. If you encounter a(n NTSC?) DVD with Closed Caption data that you
> can't view, it would be technically possible to extract this data with a
> computer, convert it to DVD subtitles, and reauthor the DVD. Might
> require learning some obscure tools and investing some time in it,
> though.


Thanks for this extensive explanation. I do have a subtitle editor on PC for
adapting subtitles for DIVX files, but I haven't got into extracting
subtitles (or captions) from DVD's yet. I might examine this in future. BTW,
I noticed that while playing the DVD on the PC, captions where all in upper
case. Is this usual?



--

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os

mccm dot vos at hccnet dot nl

[Back to original message]