Closed caption services- Everything you need to know!

The same is realized by the content creators focusing on the audio or video content. The closed caption services focus on creating text for audio parts in different content types.

So today, let us focus on what these services are and what their differences are from transcripts, subtitles, live captions, and open captions.

What are closed caption services?

These are the dedicated services offering time-synchronized text reflecting on an audio track while watching the visual content. The dedicated process of closed captioning covers transcribing the audio to text and dividing it into different chunks called caption frames. 

These caption frames are then synchronized with the video. These captions usually appear at the bottom center of the video.

Captions are created while considering that the viewer is not capable of hearing the audio or video at all. Hence, it covers the transcription of spoken dialogues, relevant sound effects, non-speech elements, and speaker identifications.

Difference between the closed captions and transcripts

Firstly, the transcript is not synchronized with the media file. It suits the requirements of audio-only content like a podcast or other promotional content. Transcripts lack the usage in video or presentations.

Closed captions work best for the presentations and videos. Hence, these are synchronized with the video for detailed understanding.

Difference between the closed captions and subtitles

Subtitles are focused on the content availability in different languages. The closed captions, on the other hand, are focused on creating accessible content. Hence, the closed captions include non-speech elements, speaker IDs, and sound effects.

Difference between the closed captions and live captions

Live captions or real-time captions are created and transmitted in real-time using expert stenographers during the live events. The closed captions, on the other hand, are attached to the videos and are created once the event has taken place.

Difference between the closed captions and open captions

Open captions are directly burned to the videos and cannot be turned off. These are found on the open kiosks. The closed captions, on the other hand, are common for online videos. 

The closed captions allow the viewers to toggle the captions on and off which gives complete control to the viewers.

Closed caption services- Popular formats

The popular formats used in the closed captions are:

• RT for real media

• CPT.XML for captioning

• STL for DVD encoding

• QT for QuickTime or QuickText

• SAMI for Microsoft or Windows Media

• WebVTT for HTML5

• SRT for YouTube and web media

• DFXP for Flash players

• EBU.STL for PAL Broadcast

• CAP for Broadcast

• SMPE-TT for web media

• SCC for broadcast, web media, and broadcast

Final words

So, it is easy to understand closed caption service in detail. These are different from the basic concepts of subtitles and open captions. Professional caption experts use different formats for closed captioning according to the specific content types for the different clients.

Close captions ensure that the content can be consumed by a wide audience without any accessibility issues or other barriers.