Closed captions vs subtitles3/12/2023 ![]() Sometimes, you just don’t have the right audio quality for your viewers to hear and understand every word. There are a number of reasons to add subtitles to a video or caption your video. Video captioning is not just about accessibility (although this is a factor). For example, if you’re watching a video in which one or more people are speaking English and you want to read the video transcription as you watch, you would need to add “captions.”Īlternatively, if you’re watching a video in which people are speaking in Japanese and you want to have the words translated and transcribed in English, the resulting transcription would be considered “subtitles.” Why Do Videos Need Captions or Subtitles? While captions provide visual transcriptions in the same language as the original content, subtitles translate the words into a different language. Subtitles serve the same function but in a different way. Whether you’re watching a movie on TV or viewing a live-streamed video, captions appear (usually at the bottom of the screen) to provide a text version of everything that is said. Captions provide a word-for-word text transcription of the spoken words in a video or audio file. The most important decision is to choose to caption the product the choice to make it open-captioned or closed-captioned should occur after consideration of all factors regarding its use.Though many people use the terms interchangeably, “captions” (also known as “closed captions” or “closed captioning”) and “subtitles” are two very different things. For example, if a training videotape is specifically designed for individuals with disabilities or for large audiences or for use in noisy conference exhibits, open captioning might be a good choice. With the mix of advantages and disadvantages of open and closed captioning, it is important for the video producer to evaluate the use of the video product and make an informed decision about what type of captioning to use. Also, open captions, unlike closed captions, are subject to loss of quality when the encoded video is compressed. If captions are preserved as text, users potentially can archive and index video content and allow users to search for specific video content within these archives this ability is lost with open captions. Some disadvantages stem from the fact that open captions are an actual part of the video stream, whereas closed captions exist as a separate text stream. Also, when the spoken word of all speakers is open-captioned, additional translation for speakers who have speech impairments is not required.ĭespite the advantages of open captions, there also are disadvantages. Open-captioning proponents also argue that captioning has universal design benefits for people other than those with hearing impairments (e.g., people whose first language is not English people in noisy airports, health clubs, sports bars). So that the user isn't faced with this burden, some people argue in favor of delivering video products with open captions. Some of these products may support captions in their stand-alone client versions but not in browser-embedded or handheld versions of their products.ĭelivering video products with closed captions places responsibility on the user to understand how to turn captions on, either on their television sets or in their media viewer software. At least one version of most major media viewer software applications now supports closed captions. Closed captions appear only when the user agent (e.g., a media viewer player) supports them. When videos are accessed on the World Wide Web, they also may have captions that are open or closed. ![]() Since 1993, decoders have been required to be built into television sets 13 inches or larger sold for use in the United States. Open captions always are in view and cannot be turned off, whereas closed captions can be turned on and off by the viewer.įor video that is displayed on television sets, special devices called decoders must be available in order to view closed captions. Captions are synchronized with the video image so that viewers have equivalent access to the content that is originally presented in sound, regardless of whether they receive that content via audio or text. Captions are on-screen text descriptions that display a video product's dialogue, identify speakers, and describe other relevant sounds that are otherwise inaccessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing. However, the audio portion of a video presentation is inaccessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing unless it includes captions. Now, in the form of computer-based multimedia, video is increasingly utilized in distance learning and other web-based educational applications. Video has played an important role in education for many decades.
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