Closed-Captions & Subtitles: FAQs

Embedded in videos and decoded by televisions or cable boxes, closed captions display a written version of a video’s spoken word on your screen.

Closed captions are most often used by the deaf or hard of hearing, the elderly and those learning English, including children learning to read and people of all ages for whom it is a second language. This encompasses approximately 10% of the population.

More often than not, closed-captioning is a broadcast television requirement. To decode closed captions, a hardware decoder is built into the receiving device. Subtitles, on the other hand, are preferred for web applications; although they are also included on DVDs and Blu-ray discs. In appearance, closed captions typically have a black background while subtitles can have backgrounds of varying color or none at all. Subtitles can be decoded both in hardware and software applications.

In contrast to closed-captions (that have to be decoded in order to be displayed), open-captions are burned into the video. Therefore, they are always on, always visible, don’t need to be turned on and can not be turned off.

Closed captions are actually embedded into video streams and transmitted as part of a broadcast or television signal. TV sets, media streaming boxes, cable/satellite receivers or DVRs with built-in decoders then decode the captions and display them on your TV screen or monitor.

While most of the programming on television is, in fact, closed-captioned, there are a few exceptions. To learn more about closed-captioning laws, including what programs require closed captioning and what, if any, programs are exempt – and for what reasons – we encourage you to visit the FCC’s website.

A proxy file is a small, low- to medium-resolution video file. We recommend a 640×360 file size,  h.264 codec, encoded at 1 mb/sec.

Closed captioning costs vary per project. When you place an order with us, our digital register will update in realtime so you’ll never be in doubt of how much your order will cost. For example, closed-captioning, transcoding and delivering a single spot to a single media outlet costs just $75 – provided your spot is ‘ready-to-process’ and no additional services are required.

There are a lot of video formats out there and while we’ve been challenged by one or two in the past, we’ve yet to find one we couldn’t work with. Needless to say, there are ‘preferred formats’ for different applications. For instance, we transcode broadcast formats to web formats every day. The reverse process, however, isn’t recommended as that might mean going from a lower to a higher resolution. At SpotCaption, we’re experts at navigating the transcoding landscape; put us to work for you.

If you’re certain of the format you require, the file we give you should work as expected. In our experience, when a file “doesn’t work”, there’s an element of human error, sofware environment or hardware settings involved. Not to worry though, we don’t expect offline or online editors to be closed captioning experts so, we’re here to help. Even after you’ve taken delivery of your caption/subtitle file, simply Contact Us or give us a call if you run into any problems.

There are ways to edit without destroying captions but, frankly, it’s not easy to do. Preserving captions requires a very specific combination of software/hardware and know-how. Even if you manage to preserve captions through an edit, it’s very likely you’ll strip them when you export/transcode your finished sequence to a ‘for broadcast’ or ‘for distribution’ video format. Therefore, we recommend that you export a caption file from your captioned video before you proceed with any edit. The caption file will provide you with a text-formatted and time-stamped file of all your captions which will considerably reduce the amount of work required to re-caption the show when the revision is done. Contact Us & let us know how we can help.

Yes, SpotCaption and MediaCaption can provide you with caption or subtitle files for your editing system. You can then marry the file we send you with your full-resolution video and deliver/distribute them on your own. Choose “Close-Caption & Deliver” or “Subtitle & Deliver” from the Service Type drop-down on our Order Page.

Yes, for up to a year. If you need an alternate caption format within a year of working with us, just let us know and we’ll work to get you what you need. A small processing fee will apply.

You probably have! Take a look at our gallery for some of the commercials and shows we’ve captioned.

Yes and yes. For most programming, CC is the law; however, the mandate depends, in part, on the length of the programming as well as other factors. Like most laws, you might feel you need a law degree to truly understand the requirements. Suffices to say, commercials are optional at this time. However, since commercials are put out to market a product, compliance is only one part of the equation, closed captioning enables you to market to a much wider audience and, dollar-for-dollar, provides the largest ROI of any marketing effort. It’s a win-win!

A ‘Verbatim’ transcript is preferred. Verbatim, in this context, means only the spoken words should be transcribed. As a matter of preference, you can also identify speakers.

For instance,
>> How are you?
>> Just fine, thank you!
Or…
>> Bob: How are you?
>> Danielle: Just fine, thank you!

If you’d like a sample transcript for closed-captioning, Contact Us and we’ll send you one.
PS. We’re happy to transcribe TV spots/commercials free of charge!

Yes, SpotCaption and MediaCaption can provide captions and subtitles for YouTube, Vimeo and just about any other video streaming service. If you want to be certain, send us the specs for the service or just ask us. Reach out to us via our Contact Us page.

In most cases, yes. Simply upload the file you have to us and we, in turn, will inspect the file, convert it and provide you with a new file compatible with your editing system or one that’s best suited for your application. Visit our Order Page and from the Service Type drop-down menu, choose “Caption/Subtitle File Conversion.”

There are a number of reasons why captions sometimes ‘drift’. With commercials (TV Spots), this isn’t much of an issue since they run a minute or less but for longer programming, a number of issues – including the way the files are transcoded, whether the video has DF or NDF timecode, as well as the timecode mode used to caption the video – can cause captions to slowly fall out-of-sync as a program progresses. More often than not, this happens when many people work towards getting the finished video out the door. The editor, the captioner & the broadcast outlet need to be on the same page to ensure the captions are in the right format and time-coded properly to keep everything in-sync. To that end, we make a point of asking all the right questions as soon as you bring us in.

It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3. Visit our Order Page and you’ll be walked through the process step-by-step. You can upload your spots, provide spec sheets, transcripts, delivery info and any other info you deem important. If we have any questions, we’ll contact you; if not, sit back & relax, we’ll have your order to you in no time.