

You can probably guess by now that captioning is typically used for hearing impaired audiences, or situations where audio can’t be played. The original audio is preserved, but viewers can understand the dialogue and still hear the soundtrack as it was intended. The most common use for subtitles would be a form of translating video footage for audiences of another language.

Meanwhile, closed captioning assumes an audience cannot hear the audio and needs a text description of what they would otherwise be hearing. Subtitles provide a text alternative for the dialogue of video footage – the spoken words of characters, narrators and other vocal participants.Ĭlosed captions, on the other hand, not only supplement for dialogue but other relevant parts of the soundtrack – describing background noises, phones ringing and other audio cues that need describing.Įssentially, subtitles assume an audience can hear the audio, but need the dialogue provided in text form as well. The difference between closed captions and subtitlesĪlthough closed captions (CCs) and subtitles look similar, they’re designed for two different purposes.

#Closed captioning vs subtitles tv#
Because captions are plain text, they can be used to store accurate transcripts of newscasts.īasically, your recording equipment (PC TV card, DVD recorder, whatever) will either be able to record captions or not. Captions are also incredible useful for people learning a foreign language (usually English, Spanish or French) captioning is essential for people with hearing dissabilities, which is the main reason for captions to be a legal requirement for most primetime TV shows. You will need to use an analog connection between the DVD and the closed caption decoder. Note: As far as I know closed captions don't work over HDMI. I bought it around 10 years ago and I can't find any place to get one online, however some alternatives exist, such as the Telemole (I haven't tested it myself though) or the Video Reader VR-20 Anyway here's my setup, which works fine: However be aware that your DVD player must help a bit by sending out the Closed Caption data in the video signal, so not all DVD players are good. Buy a external decoder and put it between the DVD player and the TV.
#Closed captioning vs subtitles software#
Watch the DVDs on a computer using a software player that support Closed Captions (many do). Watching a Closed Captioned DVD in EuropeĪs previously said, European TVs don't come with a built-in decoder, however there are a few options For TV shows, they already have the closed captions (because they cannot broadcast without them due to legal requirements) but the DVD subtitles need to be made.

To discourage European people from importing DVDs. Why do they release DVDs with Captions instead of proper DVD subtitles? It seems that DVD subtitles are better. This is an important difference because if you are in Europe and buy a DVD from the US that has closed captions but no DVD subtitles you will not be able to use the captions as the TVs in Europe don't have a Closed Caption decoder. DVD subtitles are decoded by the DVD player, while Closed Captions are decoded by the TV. DVD subtitles are image based (they could be anything, not just text) while Closed Captions are text based (they can only be text). a transcript of the audio synchronized to it) there are very different from a technical point of view: While both provide the user with the same thing (i.e. There are many technical differences, but these are the two I find more important: How are closed captions different to DVD subtitles? In Europe Teletext (usually page 888) is used for subtitling. The term Closed Captions refer to TV subtitles in NTSC, such as the US or Canada. Please go to the new one.Ĭlosed captions are TV subtitles that you can turn on and off.
