[MacDV] Re: closed captioning

[Joan Keenan]

On Jun 18, 2009, at   2:29 PM, macdv-request at listserver.themacintoshguy.com 
  wrote:

> Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 23:09:23 -0600
> From: Derek Roff <derek at unm.edu>
> Subject: [MacDV] Re: closed captioning
>
>
>> Is there anyone on the
>> list who knows about closed captioning and Final Cut Pro Studio2?
>> I am working on a 1-hr. documentary and had planned to send it away
>> to add closed captioning. Now my question is how do I get the
>> closed captions to DVD? The company I contacted will return the
>> caption master to me on DVCAM. The more I research the less I
>> understand :-)   Will I lose the CC line if I bring it back into
>> FCP?
>
> Closed Captioning is a very lame technology.  You have no control
> over font, size, color, screen position, phrase boundaries, number of
> text lines displayed, or anything else of importance in presenting
> the text.  You get words on black bars that completely block the
> video image.
>
> DVD title tracks give you much more control over text presentation,
> including all the elements mentioned above, and several more,
> including two outline colors and opacity.  In addition, you can have
> something like 32 different user-selectable title tracks on a DVD.
>
> It is often said that the difference between Closed Captioning and
> titles is that former includes sound cues such as [wind noise],
> [applause], [laughter], etc, whereas the latter does not.  But this
> has nothing to do with the technology.  Indications of sound are
> often absent from Closed Captioning (although they shouldn't be), and
> can be included at will on DVD title tracks.  It is quite reasonable
> to offer one title track with dialog plus the sound cues, and another
> with only the dialog.  Generating the second track, deleting the
> sound cues from a properly prepared captioning transcript for the
> first track, can be done in minutes, using the search and replace
> feature of a word processor, and importing the result into DVD Studio
> Pro.  Although some manual adjustments might be necessary.
>
> Final Cut Studio can handle both Closed Captioning and DVD title
> tracks.  I have thankfully never had to deal with creating or editing
> Closed Captioning.  I've done plenty of title tracks, and Final Cut
> has pretty good tools for working with them.  Although I have a
> wish-list for several additional features.  Title tracks can be
> created (typed in) within Final Cut, or imported from a plain text
> file, or from any of several formats used by captioning software.  In
> every case, the title duration, position, and other attributes can be
> changed at any time within DVD Studio Pro.
>
> If you have any control over the decision, I suggest avoiding Closed
> Captioning, and using DVD title tracks.  This choice might not work
> for you, if the DVD is intended to be played over broadcast TV with
> Closed Captioning.  But then again, maybe it would be fine.  I don't
> know if Closed Captioning from a DVD will translate to broadcast TV,
> nor that a DVD title track couldn't be used.  Talking to your Public
> Access TV engineer might help you learn the answers to those
> questions.
>
> Further delineating my ignorance, I don't know if you can import
> Closed Captioning into Final Cut Studio from a DVCAM tape.  My
> reading of the Apple Pro Training Manual for DVD Studio Pro makes me
> think that the answer is "no."  A Google search on the subject also
> didn't bring up any way to bring Closed Captioning from tape into DVD
> Studio Pro.  Perhaps it can come back into Final Cut Pro, and be sent
> from there to DVD Studio Pro.


Derek,

Thanks for that great detailed response. Not sure I would be ready to  
do the titling as you suggest. No one could assure me that if I  
brought the tape into Final Cut it wouldn't lose line 21. So what I  
wound up doing was sending it off to a closed captioning house and  
getting back a .ccs file that I could add in in DVD Studio Pro. Seems  
to have worked just fine! I couldn't find enough about Final Cut and  
that line 21 info that would be on the tape so I went with the easiest  
method.

Thanks again for you insights.

Joan

janjay at mac.com