The scenario here is watching – may be a film, a documentary or some academic stuff. In simple terms, it is the opposite of ‘open’! The term ‘open’ indicates that the captions are visible to the viewers. In the video-audio technical terms, open has other synonyms – ‘burned ‘or ‘hard-coded’. On the other hand, the term "closed" indicates that the captions are not visible until activated by the viewer. This is usually done with the remote control or menu option.

Closed captioning (or abbreviated: CC) and subtitling are both processes of displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information. Both are essentially the same and typically used as a transcription of the audio portion of a program as it occurs (either verbatim or in edited form), sometimes including descriptions of non-speech elements. Other uses have been to provide a textual alternative language translation of a presentation's primary audio language which is usually burned-in (or open) to the video and not selectable (or closed).

Closed captioning in USA & Canada

Most of the world does not distinguish captions from subtitles. In the United States and Canada, however, these terms do have different meanings. "Subtitles" assume the viewer can hear but cannot understand the language or accent, or the speech is not entirely clear, so they only transcribe dialogue and some on-screen text. "Captions" aim to describe to the deaf and hard of hearing all significant audio content – spoken dialogue and non-speech information such as the identity of speakers and, occasionally, their manner of speaking – along with any significant music or sound effects using words or symbols. Also the term closed caption has come to be used to also refer to the North American EIA-608 encoding that is used with NTSC-compatible video.

In the USA, the major producers of closed captions are: WGBH-TV, VITAC, CaptionMax and the National Captioning Institute.

Styles of closed captioning

There are two main styles of line 21 closed captioning.

The first is Roll-up or scroll-up or paint-on or scrolling ? The words appear from left to right, up to one line at a time; when a line is filled, the whole line scrolls up to make way for a new line, and the line on top is erased. The captions usually appear at the bottom of the screen, but can actually be placed anywhere to avoid covering graphics or action. This method is used for live events, where a sequential word-by-word captioning process is needed.

The second is Pop-on or pop-up or block ? A caption appears anywhere on the screen as a whole, followed by another caption or no captions. This method is used for most pre-taped television and film programming.

Uses of captioning in other mediums

• DVDs, BDs, & HD DVDs

• Movies

• Video games

• Online video streaming

• Internet video streaming service

• Theatres

• Telephones

Conclusion

The technology development of Closed Captions is clearly recorded in many countries. Legislation, Functions, Formats and media usage have been clearly identified and standards set and followed.

For more details, Kindly visit

http://www.closed-captioning-us.com