E! and HBO are the notable exceptions that have their own captioning departments. The captioning industry in the United States evolved such that, in most cases, the networks and program producers don't do their own captioning, but instead contract with separate companies to do the captioning for them. ( In general, if the captions are leading the dialogue as they roll up, it's offline, and if they're trailing, it's live display.)
#Closed captioning logo Offline#
Talk shows, newsmagazines, and soap operas are the types of programming that are most often captioned this way.įor the viewer at home, the rule of thumb is that if the captions are in the pop on style, it's offline if they're rolling up a word at a time, it's realtime if they're rolling up a line at a time, it's sometimes live display and sometimes offline. The closed captioner has a videotape or an audiotape in advance and can create a complete closed captioning file from that, but the captions are sent out live and encoded into the signal as the show airs. There's also a third type of closed captioning, live display, which is halfway between realtime and offline. Īlso handy for watching late night programs and not waking the family. Doing so requires staff to enter the text, encode it to the media, and check it for accuracy.Ī fellow named Gary Robson has designed a site with extensive FAQs and information about closed captioning, laws and requirements, methods, and equipment. In offline captioning, the captions are added to recorded events in post-production. The stream is sent to a computer, where it is converted to plain text and sent to an encoder for broadcast. The typed stream uses a complex form of phonetics, and the typist can enter the text at speeds of up to 250 words per minute. In realtime captioning, a typist trained in stenography uses a special keyboard device to enter the text, dialog and cues. Changes in federal law require all televisions with 13-inch or larger screens sold in the US to be equipped with closed-captioning decoders.Ĭlosed captioning can be utilized in two ways.
To view the captions, one must use an external decoder or a television with a built-in decoder. In most cases, the captions are inserted in a special scan line in a video image.
Originally developed as an aid to the deaf and hearing impaired. A feature utilized in television and video media that displays dialog and sound effects cues in text on the viewer's screen.