Captions or Subtitles?

[RonV]

Re: Captions or Subtitles?

I know this opens up a can of worms but it looks like Apple is under the "Studio" is to blame syndrome for subtitles in their movies:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....13570&tstart=0

[mdrejhon]

Re: Captions or Subtitles?

Yes, this is exactly what I meant. CC is encoded text that is part of line 21 in ntsc and the TV is responsible for displaying the text. My definition of subtitles in this context simply was that we have to render the text on our box and cannot send CC data to the TV. We just need to get at the matching text (in whatever format: DVD subtitles, closed caption data, or in any other way that syncs the text with the video) in some form for VOD content. Then we will transcode this to an internal common format link it to the video content.

I haven't posted here in a while either (currently travelling), but a reminder to keep frequently asking the studios about providing captioning/subtitles. Maybe a pilot project where you offer assistance for the studio to manage them to get captions for for ONE movie (i.e. a popular hollywood release). That might help them get off their *** to provide you with material your developers can work with, to get Vudu ready.

[NA9D]

Re: Captions or Subtitles?

You missed a lively discussion on this topic a week ago. It's still not available for a number of reasons. When or even if it will be ever supported is unknown. The Vudu may never support subtitles or captions.

[BrandonC]

Re: Captions or Subtitles?

Probably not any downloading or straming movie CC is available. It's a shame, so easy but not done.

[ncmacasl]

Re: Captions or Subtitles?

Any updates on this since the Wal-Mart merger?? any plans to add this service?

[ncmacasl]

Re: Captions or Subtitles?

with the FCC's CVAA (Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act) going into effect this weekend (September 30, 2012) all movies on Vudu (and any other content that was originally shown on TV on or after April 30, 2012) that has been shown on April 30, 2012 or later on TV (HBO, PPV, etc.) and when shown were subject to FCC's captioning rules, then any Internet-based display of the same movie (on or after September 30, 2012) will have to include closed captioning.

If VUDU (or anyone else) does NOT display captions for these titles, then anyone can file a complaint to the FCC for non-compliance here:

https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/f...orm_type=2000C

[nycomet]

Re: Captions or Subtitles?

Hopefully, Vudu will start including the option to display captioning. This is a feature I want ASAP.

[MaxH]

Re: Captions or Subtitles?

with the FCC's CVAA (Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act) going into effect this weekend (September 30, 2012) all movies on Vudu (and any other content that was originally shown on TV on or after April 30, 2012) that has been shown on April 30, 2012 or later on TV (HBO, PPV, etc.) and when shown were subject to FCC's captioning rules, then any Internet-based display of the same movie (on or after September 30, 2012) will have to include closed captioning.

If VUDU (or anyone else) does NOT display captions for these titles, then anyone can file a complaint to the FCC for non-compliance here:

https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/f...orm_type=2000C

I was reading up on this. The short version is that after 9/30/12, any movie that is shown on TV with captions, and THEN made newly available on the internet, must be captioned when offered on the internet.

Videos that a provider has already shown on the internet once have until at least 2Q 2014 to be captioned, and even then, the trigger is usually showing them on TV with captions.

So watch for movies that are on TV now, and then newly offered on VOD internet services. Those are the only ones currently required to be captioned.

For details, see http://www.fcc.gov/guides/captioning...eo-programming .

I know I'll be keeping an eye on Vudu, Netflix, and Amazon, and filing complaints if they don't comply with the law.

[rckymtn]

Re: Captions or Subtitles?

I was reading up on this. The short version is that after 9/30/12, any movie that is shown on TV with captions, and THEN made newly available on the internet, must be captioned when offered on the internet.

Videos that a provider has already shown on the internet once have until at least 2Q 2014 to be captioned, and even then, the trigger is usually showing them on TV with captions.

So watch for movies that are on TV now, and then newly offered on VOD internet services. Those are the only ones currently required to be captioned.

For details, see http://www.fcc.gov/guides/captioning...eo-programming .

I know I'll be keeping an eye on Vudu, Netflix, and Amazon, and filing complaints if they don't comply with the law.

From my experience, it looks like VUDU has added captions only to shows aired after 9/30/12 when viewed online. The caption settings are in the account settings and IF a show has captions it will say "Available Subtitles: English" in the profile for that show. HOWEVER, this information does not show when viewed on TV via a device like Roku.

Any others have similar or different experiences on other devices?

[JohnA]

Re: Captions or Subtitles?

Captions are available (when available) on vudu.com, iOS devices and on Sony Playstation 3. We're working on getting them on other devices.

[MaxH]

Re: Captions or Subtitles?

That's great to know John, thanks. It's too bad it is still so limited, but maybe I'll watch some Vudu content on my PC instead of the STB for now. Or just use headphones. At least it's movement in the right direction.

[caquito07]

Re: Captions or Subtitles?

Captions are available (when available) on vudu.com, iOS devices and on Sony Playstation 3. We're working on getting them on other devices.

Any estimate of when it will be available for LG TVs?

[Jake]

Re: Captions or Subtitles?

Any estimate of when it will be available for LG TVs?

I can't really estimate exactly which devices will be supported or when, but we are working on supporting as many as possible. In some cases a firmware update would be required from the manufacturer, so it's much more likely to be supported on newer models.

[MaxH]

Re: Captions or Subtitles?

I can't really estimate exactly which devices will be supported or when, but we are working on supporting as many as possible. In some cases a firmware update would be required from the manufacturer, so it's much more likely to be supported on newer models.

This is great news! Are they available for the original STB's yet? I can check when I get home, but I'm SO happy to hear this that I'm dying to know!

[Jake]

Re: Captions or Subtitles?

This is great news! Are they available for the original STB's yet? I can check when I get home, but I'm SO happy to hear this that I'm dying to know!

The original STB is going to take a bit more work...

We of course can update the firmware since it's our HW, but since it's now ~6 year old HW with 128MB of RAM we don't have a lot of headroom at this point (the fact that is still has the same feature set as other platforms has been no small effort

Basically to support subtitles for a given platform it's going to have to be able to get new firmware (may rule out some older TV & BDs no longer supported by mfrs) and have enough HW resources to do it (while not impacting streaming/playback performance).