Urgen Help : Dvd Players that can play Closed captions

[edgler vess]

I've heard that some Dvd Players can play Closed captions through an option in menu...

Would like to know what other european based players can do it ...

thanks

[MarkE19]

Every DVD player I have ever owned (6 in total) and AFAIK all others have the ability to display the subtitles track on a DVD disk.

Mark.

[edgler vess]

Originally Posted by MarkE19

Every DVD player I have ever owned (6 in total) and AFAIK all others have the ability to display the subtitles track on a DVD disk.

Mark.

The closed Captions are a special type of Subtitles and the dvd Player need a buil-in decoder.

You are talking about the normal subtitles ....

[hornydragon]

have you tried RNID??? http://www.rnid.org.uk/html/info_equipment_edbfin.asp

[MarkE19]

Well my understanding of 'closed caption' was that it is the American equivelent of subtitles on TV, which as you say is decoded via a separate box as the American I believe don't have teletext. Does a DVD contain a different 'closed caption' track that can only be displayed via a CC decoder? If so what is the difference to the subtitles?

Mark.

[nwgarratt]

Any DVD player can play captioned subtitles on a DVD. It is the subtitle track that has "phone ringing", "door opening" etc. Any sound efffects basically. It isn't proper closed caption as such but, has come to be known a CC with regards to DVD.

I use this link from time to time.

http://www.dvdfile.com/site/faq/caption_guide/

[MarkE19]

On a few of my disks it has the subtitles options as:
English
English for the hard of hearing
French etc

Mark.

[nwgarratt]

Originally Posted by MarkE19

On a few of my disks it has the subtitles options as:
English
English for the hard of hearing
French etc

Mark.

The hard of hearing one will have "phone rining" etc and is usually regarded as the closed caption subtitles.

[zeropoint]

I haven't tried it to see the effect but, the Skyworth 3650 (WHS £29.99) has a "closed captions" (ON/OFF) option on the general setup page, and "subtitles" (language) option on the preferences page. Maybe "captions" mostly relate to it's karaoke function whereas the "subtitles" are standard dvd and maybe DiVX related in a future firmware revision.

I get this question asked by my website members and on my forums all the time, so I have done quite a lot of research into this, although I cannot claim to be an authority on it.

Closed Captions are a different subtitle technology (very old and widely adopted in the US) to normal DVD subtitles - Whether or not it contains contextual information ([phone ringing] etc) has nothing to do with it.

Closed Captions need an external decoder - no question about this. in the US they are built-into 99% of TVs. In the UK they don't exist in TVs. You can get CC decoders for CCs on PAL VHS tapes but I have read that they don't work with NTSC closed captions on DVDs.

I have also seen "Closed Captions" options on DVD players. Either they are incorrectly labelled, or these are simply another switch in addition to switching them on/off on the TV or external decoder. You still need an external decoder, either in the TV or separate.

To add to the confusion, especially in the US, some major DVD studios incorrectly refer to contextual subtitles (aka "subtitles for the Hearing Impaired") as Closed Captions, when in fact they are simply normal dvd subtitles with contextual information.

For more information, check out the thread here:
http://www.rnid.org.uk/ubb/Forum1/HTML/004017.html

There are a couple of subtitling professionals posting on that thread to clarify things.

Cheers,
Mat.

[nwgarratt]

To add to the confusion, especially in the US, some major DVD studios incorrectly refer to contextual subtitles (aka "subtitles for the Hearing Impaired") as Closed Captions, when in fact they are simply normal dvd subtitles with contextual information.

Cheers,
Mat.

That was the point I was trying to make.

The DVD's don't have actual CC but a variation on the normal subtitles with the contextual. This misconception is so common now, that most people will think of this rather than the type that uses a external decoder (which is really only in the US).

I have seen DVD players that use the phrase "closed captions" in reference to normal subtitles.

[edgler vess]

Mat,

Do you know if this decoder works perfect with a Dvd Player?

Sarabec VHS Video Closed Caption Decoder

http://www.deafequipment.co.uk/Qstor...ROD=1051111598

[YellowCows]

Originally Posted by nwgarratt

The DVD's don't have actual CC but a variation on the normal subtitles with the contextual.

Correction: Many DVD's do have both regular subtitles and CC's. In fact I have quite a few R1 discs with Closed Captioning, but no subtitles at all, or English CC's and Spanish/French subtitles only. Nearly all R1 DVD's carry Closed Captions (which cannot be decoded internally by mainstream DVD players sold in the UK) in addition to the standard subtitle streams (which can be).

HTH,

Moory

Originally Posted by edgler vess

Mat,

Do you know if this decoder works perfect with a Dvd Player?

Sarabec VHS Video Closed Caption Decoder

http://www.deafequipment.co.uk/Qstor...ROD=1051111598

I asked on the RNID forum whether there was a difference between line 21 data (where CCs are encoded) in video signals on PAL/NTSC and VHS/DVD, I got a reply as follows:

"I could not find any detailed description of how the americans put text on line 21, except from some sites quoting words per minute figure much lower that teletext send on our line 21. I also know that american TV shows about 450 dots per line whereas VHS gives 180 to 220 depending on the quality of the tape. As dirs.org said the VHS was a variant of line 21 encoding, I have doubts that it would work with a R1 DVD that had NTSC encoded video. I may be wrong, their TV broadcasts might be sending text no faster than a VHS tape, but as the caption decoders cost twice as much as a DVD player nowadays, I would not buy one for the odd R1 DVD. If the R1 DVD is a film, chances are that the closed captions are in fact just DVD subtitles."

To sum up, we suspect that line 21 encoding in DVD video is not exactly the same as line 21 encoding in VHS video, so we are not sure whether this decoder will work. Furthermore the website states that this decoder is for VHS captions and does not mention DVD.

It might be worth calling the supplier of this decoder to see if they can help, or ask them if you would be able to return the decoder and get your money back if it does not work with DVD.

Cheers,
Mat