WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:04.960 [DTMF signals from the beginning of a Disney VHS tape] 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:06.140 [if you remember those, you’re my kind of awesome] 00:00:06.140 --> 00:00:10.860 As you’ve gone through life as a high quality video connoisseur, you’ve no doubt seen 00:00:10.870 --> 00:00:14.590 the little toggle for turning captions, or subtitling, on and off. 00:00:14.590 --> 00:00:16.350 Here on YouTube, it’s right there. 00:00:16.350 --> 00:00:17.350 Or there. 00:00:17.350 --> 00:00:19.430 Depends on how you're using it. 00:00:19.430 --> 00:00:23.620 By hitting that button, your device will start displaying the text metadata embedded in the 00:00:23.620 --> 00:00:29.080 video stream that either YouTube has auto-generated, or that super awesome content creators like 00:00:29.080 --> 00:00:33.180 myself have put in so that you don’t have to simply watch a stream of unpunctuated words 00:00:33.180 --> 00:00:37.660 flow by like the world's largest run on sentence that never ends and which often contains incorrect 00:00:37.660 --> 00:00:40.560 words because the captoning system isn’t quite perfect and that 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:42.400 while useful as a tool could really use… (jokes sometimes end up here, too!) 00:00:42.400 --> 00:00:46.960 But did you know that even the lowly VHS cassette often contains captions? 00:00:46.960 --> 00:00:51.820 And that a VCR as old as this dinosaur can make them work? 00:00:51.830 --> 00:00:56.260 That last statement is perhaps a bit disingenuous, but you’ll see what I mean shortly. 00:00:56.260 --> 00:01:00.440 Many VHS cassettes will have a little “CC” mark, or sometimes this mark. 00:01:00.440 --> 00:01:04.140 This tells you that the video was encoded with closed captioning. 00:01:04.140 --> 00:01:05.940 But, how? 00:01:05.940 --> 00:01:08.460 First, let’s go over a bit of terminology. 00:01:08.470 --> 00:01:13.240 The reason why these are called “closed captions” is that they are not normally visible. 00:01:13.240 --> 00:01:17.530 While this terminology is a little antiquated at this point, “captions” implies that 00:01:17.530 --> 00:01:21.840 there is actual text baked onto the video, for everyone to see. 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:26.300 Sometimes these are called open captions, though that’s likely a retronym. 00:01:26.300 --> 00:01:28.060 The trouble with these sorts of captions 00:01:34.740 --> 00:01:35.660 [sound of glass breaking]. 00:01:36.260 --> 00:01:41.480 So, closed captioning hides the captions until and unless they are requested by the viewer. 00:01:41.480 --> 00:01:46.080 Believe it or not, the first television program in the US to be captioned at all was 00:01:46.080 --> 00:01:50.139 "The French Chef”, broadcast on PBS in 1971. 00:01:50.139 --> 00:01:54.591 Those were open captions, but nonetheless that was the first time that a US television 00:01:54.591 --> 00:01:57.270 program was accessible to the deaf. 00:01:57.270 --> 00:02:01.609 This is really surprising to me, because you’d think that one of the great benefits of television 00:02:01.609 --> 00:02:06.459 over radio was that non-hearing people could get some benefits from it, and yet it took 00:02:06.460 --> 00:02:11.860 until 1971 for anyone to take advantage of the visual component for this purpose. 00:02:11.860 --> 00:02:13.840 My how we take our senses for granted. 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:17.810 Anyway, according to the National Captioning Institute, the idea that what would become 00:02:17.810 --> 00:02:22.450 closed captioning in the US started with an experiment by the Nationals Bureau of Standards 00:02:22.450 --> 00:02:24.260 and ABC television. 00:02:24.260 --> 00:02:29.450 They were attempting to broadcast the precise time using non-visible parts of the television 00:02:29.450 --> 00:02:30.450 signal. 00:02:30.450 --> 00:02:34.750 That idea never came to fruition, but it did lead to the idea of encoding text for the 00:02:34.750 --> 00:02:37.020 purpose of closed captioning. 00:02:37.020 --> 00:02:41.720 In the early 1970’s, more testing was done on various stations around the country, and 00:02:41.720 --> 00:02:48.240 in 1976 the FCC officially decided that Line 21 would be reserved for closed captioning. 00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:52.880 Eh, to explain what the means we need to go a little more low tech. 00:02:53.640 --> 00:02:54.700 Woah. 00:02:54.740 --> 00:02:56.260 Suddenly I fell kind of… 00:02:56.960 --> 00:02:58.200 interlaced. 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:00.740 Great. 00:03:00.980 --> 00:03:01.840 This again. 00:03:02.580 --> 00:03:04.140 Well, at least I can say, 00:03:04.140 --> 00:03:06.140 “Look ma! I’m on TV!” 00:03:06.150 --> 00:03:10.620 An old-fashioned CRT television like this one is a pretty dumb device. 00:03:10.620 --> 00:03:14.850 There are no logic circuits in here, just a bunch of frequency oscillators, deflection 00:03:14.850 --> 00:03:17.210 coils, and other analog goodies. 00:03:17.210 --> 00:03:21.620 All around the part of the picture that you can see are blank sections that are used as 00:03:21.620 --> 00:03:22.620 triggers. 00:03:22.620 --> 00:03:26.700 I’ve made an earlier series on analog television that you can find if you’d like more information, 00:03:26.700 --> 00:03:31.100 but simply put, the image on the screen is made of one continuous line which is broken 00:03:31.100 --> 00:03:34.650 up and stacked 525 times per second. 00:03:34.650 --> 00:03:38.060 Other countries and continents used different standards, but we’re talking about the 00:03:38.060 --> 00:03:41.980 Freedom Captioning System here so we’re sticking with good ‘ol NTSC. 00:03:41.990 --> 00:03:46.430 The TV knows when to break the line up because throughout the television signal, low-intensity 00:03:46.430 --> 00:03:51.340 pulses (called the horizontal blanking interval) cause it to reset the drawing process, pulling 00:03:51.340 --> 00:03:54.480 the line back to the beginning, and starting from there. 00:03:54.480 --> 00:04:00.000 But the TV also needs to know when to start the next stack of 525, so another trigger, 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:02.480 the vertical blanking interval, is used. 00:04:02.480 --> 00:04:06.720 This trigger is simply a group of lines that have no information in them at all. 00:04:06.720 --> 00:04:11.030 To keep you from seeing these triggers, the picture tube is overscanned so they appear 00:04:11.030 --> 00:04:13.630 outside the borders of the screen. 00:04:13.630 --> 00:04:19.540 Closed captioning simply uses one of the unused and unseen lines to digitally encode text. 00:04:19.540 --> 00:04:25.199 This worked because a TV doesn’t need that many blank lines to reset the vertical deflection--in 00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:27.130 reality it just needs a few. 00:04:27.130 --> 00:04:30.319 So sacrificing one of them wouldn’t hurt compatibility. 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:34.930 The first demonstrations of this experimental system occured in 1972, and in the following 00:04:34.930 --> 00:04:40.650 year Washington DC’s public television station WETA started doing test broadcasts with the 00:04:40.650 --> 00:04:42.849 data transmitted on line 21. 00:04:42.849 --> 00:04:49.850 In 1976 the FCC decided to standardize that, and from then on Line 21 was reserved exclusively 00:04:49.850 --> 00:04:52.259 for closed captioning information. 00:04:52.259 --> 00:04:56.190 Developments to the captioning technology continued to be made throughout the 1970’s 00:04:56.190 --> 00:04:57.919 and early 1980’s. 00:04:57.919 --> 00:05:03.070 Much of the work was done by engineers at PBS, specifically at WGBH in Boston, with 00:05:03.070 --> 00:05:07.349 an important development being the editing consoles used for inserting closed captioning 00:05:07.349 --> 00:05:09.700 data into pre-recorded material. 00:05:09.700 --> 00:05:14.259 By the end of the 1970’s, closed-captioning advocates decided that they should form a 00:05:14.259 --> 00:05:18.520 nonprofit group, with the goal of creating the standards for the system and encouraging 00:05:18.520 --> 00:05:20.819 larger broadcasters to get onboard. 00:05:20.819 --> 00:05:26.789 So, the National Captioning Institute was formed in 1979, and in 1980 the first television 00:05:26.789 --> 00:05:31.360 series to be fully closed captioned was broadcast, and this also appears to be the year that 00:05:31.360 --> 00:05:35.509 the first closed captioned home video releases made it onto the market. 00:05:35.509 --> 00:05:38.979 This symbol here is actually a service mark of the National Captioning Institute. 00:05:38.979 --> 00:05:43.479 I always thought it was just a generic mark indicating closed captioning, but apparently 00:05:43.479 --> 00:05:48.090 it meant that the NCI is who actually created the captions for the program. 00:05:48.090 --> 00:05:49.629 So that’s pretty neat. 00:05:49.629 --> 00:05:54.699 This mark, designed by Jack Foley of WGBH, was placed in the public domain and thus became 00:05:54.699 --> 00:05:56.360 fairly standard as well. 00:05:56.360 --> 00:06:00.779 Now that we know a bit more about its history, let’s take a closer look at how it works. 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:03.520 But first, I gotta get out of this thing. 00:06:03.520 --> 00:06:04.620 There’s no place like 4K! 00:06:04.700 --> 00:06:05.760 There’s no place like 4K! 00:06:05.860 --> 00:06:07.460 There’s no place like 4K! 00:06:09.100 --> 00:06:13.439 If I mess with the vertical synchronization of this television, the image will roll and 00:06:13.439 --> 00:06:15.849 the vertical blanking interval can be seen. 00:06:15.849 --> 00:06:20.509 On this line, which happens to be line 21, you’ll see that occasionally, it bursts 00:06:20.509 --> 00:06:23.150 into a black and white scramble of dots. 00:06:23.150 --> 00:06:25.009 This is where the closed captioning is. 00:06:25.009 --> 00:06:28.939 We’re seeing this visually, as after all the picture tube is still gonna react to it 00:06:28.939 --> 00:06:31.120 as if it were visual information. 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:36.380 But don’t think that it’s being read literally like a barcode--though it looks like one, 00:06:36.380 --> 00:06:40.760 what this really is is a tiny portion of the signal going high-low-high-low. 00:06:40.760 --> 00:06:43.460 In other words, it’s a digital datastream. 00:06:43.460 --> 00:06:46.680 But how do we read that and turn it into captions? 00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:47.680 Great question! 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:49.840 We need a CLOSED CAPTIONING DECODER! 00:06:49.840 --> 00:06:53.479 Luckily I have one right here. 00:06:53.479 --> 00:06:58.479 This is the National Captioning Institute’s very own TeleCaption 3000. 00:06:58.479 --> 00:07:02.000 Glad they used 3000 because it still sounds futuristic! 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:05.330 These were actually built by Sanyo, and they weren’t cheap. 00:07:05.330 --> 00:07:09.189 Costing around $200, they cost more than some basic televisions. 00:07:09.189 --> 00:07:12.729 There’s a great article from the Chicago Tribune written at the time of this unit’s 00:07:12.729 --> 00:07:16.369 introduction which has lots of cool info, and you can check it out in the description 00:07:16.369 --> 00:07:18.259 if you’d like to learn more. 00:07:18.259 --> 00:07:22.310 Although they were expensive, they did at least include some nice features, as we’ll 00:07:22.310 --> 00:07:23.310 see shortly. 00:07:23.310 --> 00:07:28.020 This device is able to read the data from line 21, and generate text on-screen. 00:07:28.020 --> 00:07:32.629 Remember, that data looks like a bar-code, but it’s processing that as a datastream 00:07:32.629 --> 00:07:33.620 because… 00:07:34.840 --> 00:07:39.400 OK now that I think about it… all barcodes kind of work that way, at least with the laser-type 00:07:39.400 --> 00:07:41.980 scanner thing with the spinning mirror--but, anyway! 00:07:41.980 --> 00:07:42.860 It’s reading that data. 00:07:42.860 --> 00:07:43.540 Alright. 00:07:43.540 --> 00:07:48.940 That data encodes text and timing information, and after determining what it has to do, the 00:07:48.949 --> 00:07:53.610 device draws blocks of text on top of the screen, providing a black background to ensure 00:07:53.610 --> 00:07:54.680 it’s visible. 00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:58.979 Now, this may seem pretty simple, but this device actually has a pretty sophisticated 00:07:58.979 --> 00:08:00.029 job to do. 00:08:00.029 --> 00:08:04.309 See, it can only only look at one channel at a time, so it needs to have its own television 00:08:04.309 --> 00:08:05.820 tuner built-in. 00:08:05.820 --> 00:08:10.620 Then, it has to spit out the same picture to the TV, while altering it to contain the 00:08:10.620 --> 00:08:11.560 captioning. 00:08:11.560 --> 00:08:15.619 And it has to do that in real time with technology of the 1970’s. 00:08:15.619 --> 00:08:19.939 Of course, this device isn’t nearly that old--it was made in 1989 and by that time 00:08:19.939 --> 00:08:26.189 the electronics weren’t so crazy-advanced--but the way the NCI designed this device is awesome. 00:08:26.189 --> 00:08:29.539 Take a look on the back and you’ll find a coaxial input from the antenna, and another 00:08:29.539 --> 00:08:31.159 output to go to the TV. 00:08:31.159 --> 00:08:35.860 You’ve got your standard channel 3 or 4 selector (used in case your local market had 00:08:35.860 --> 00:08:40.620 a station broadcasting on either one of those channels), but what’s really clever is this 00:08:40.620 --> 00:08:42.820 switched outlet on the back. 00:08:42.820 --> 00:08:46.590 Since they had to integrate a television tuner and it would be outputting the altered signal 00:08:46.590 --> 00:08:52.600 as if it were, say, a VCR, they designed it to give it a little bit of extra functionality. 00:08:52.600 --> 00:08:57.560 If you plug your TV into the outlet on the back, then you can use the TeleCaption 3000 00:08:57.560 --> 00:08:59.270 to give it a remote control! 00:08:59.270 --> 00:09:04.510 See, the TeleCaption has its own remote, and when you turn it off, it kills the power to 00:09:04.510 --> 00:09:05.510 that outlet. 00:09:05.510 --> 00:09:10.230 So, if you leave your TV turned on, then you could simply turn your TeleCaption on and 00:09:10.230 --> 00:09:13.180 your TV would automatically come to life. 00:09:13.180 --> 00:09:18.100 Better still, they added a volume control, so if you left your TV on, set to channel 00:09:18.100 --> 00:09:23.250 3, and with the volume on high, you could control everything--the channel, the volume, 00:09:23.250 --> 00:09:27.510 the TV’s power, and of course the captions--with this remote. 00:09:27.510 --> 00:09:33.050 I really appreciate this thinking on the part of NCI, as even really old televisions with 00:09:33.050 --> 00:09:37.360 rotary knobs could now be operated completely via remote control. 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:39.470 Nice going, NCI! 00:09:39.470 --> 00:09:43.430 One slightly strange thing about this device is the inclusion of adjustments for the background 00:09:43.430 --> 00:09:45.020 as well as the text. 00:09:45.020 --> 00:09:48.230 I wasn’t really sure what to expect from these, but apparently they allow you to make 00:09:48.230 --> 00:09:51.840 the background lighter and the text darker. 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:55.700 I’m not really sure why you’d want to do this, but I suppose a grey background is 00:09:55.700 --> 00:09:57.570 a little less intrusive. 00:09:57.570 --> 00:10:01.970 And maybe some old sets would be affected by the black box and skew the image geometry 00:10:01.970 --> 00:10:03.110 a bit. 00:10:03.110 --> 00:10:05.240 No matter the reason, options are welcome. 00:10:05.240 --> 00:10:08.640 Buying one of these decoders wasn’t your only option, however. 00:10:08.640 --> 00:10:13.910 Some high-end VCRs were available with built-in closed captioning decoder circuitry, but apparently 00:10:13.910 --> 00:10:17.320 this wasn’t well promoted and they never sold well. 00:10:17.320 --> 00:10:22.220 In any case, this machine will work with a standard VCR, and given that it creates a 00:10:22.220 --> 00:10:27.240 value-add in the form of a television upgrade, I think it was among the best options. 00:10:27.240 --> 00:10:29.780 So let’s look a bit more at the captions themselves. 00:10:29.780 --> 00:10:33.870 One of the great things about the closed captioning protocol is that the text doesn’t just get 00:10:33.870 --> 00:10:36.080 plastered anywhere on the screen. 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:38.270 Its location could be defined. 00:10:38.270 --> 00:10:42.060 This meant that the text could shift left and right to give an indication of which character 00:10:42.060 --> 00:10:43.240 is talking. 00:10:43.240 --> 00:10:44.700 Which is pretty handy. 00:10:44.700 --> 00:10:47.960 And the text could even be placed up high so that it wouldn’t obscure 00:10:47.960 --> 00:10:50.270 other visual information on screen. 00:10:50.270 --> 00:10:54.000 It’s pretty impressive that this encoding was thought out for a captioning system with 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:58.910 roots in the 1970’s, and it’s also frustrating that YouTube captions don’t allow you to 00:10:58.910 --> 00:10:59.910 do this. 00:10:59.910 --> 00:11:01.240 That’s right YouTube, 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:06.900 this old VCR and this box are more sophisticated than your captioning system. 00:11:07.520 --> 00:11:08.820 Maybe work on that. 00:11:08.820 --> 00:11:12.840 Now, this may look like it’s limited to all-caps, but in fact the captions do support 00:11:12.840 --> 00:11:14.180 mixed-case. 00:11:14.180 --> 00:11:17.720 It just tended to be used for descriptions rather than dialogue. 00:11:17.720 --> 00:11:22.850 Not sure why, and there are exceptions to that rule, but the default seems to be all-caps. 00:11:22.850 --> 00:11:27.340 Of course with today’s context, it seems like everyone is shouting. 00:11:27.340 --> 00:11:31.010 One of the more surprising aspects of this system was how robust it was. 00:11:31.010 --> 00:11:36.170 This is a pretty old VHS cassette with a recording made from live TV, done with not the greatest 00:11:36.170 --> 00:11:40.700 incoming reception, and recorded on the low-quality SLP speed. 00:11:40.700 --> 00:11:44.490 The captions still come through fine, and with few errors. 00:11:44.490 --> 00:11:48.490 Even in areas far from the transmitters, the closed captioning system would still work 00:11:48.490 --> 00:11:49.490 reliably. 00:11:49.490 --> 00:11:52.930 Of course, for many years, the likelihood that a program would actually contain captioning 00:11:52.930 --> 00:11:54.800 would be pretty slim. 00:11:54.800 --> 00:11:59.110 It took a lot of effort from the NCI and other organizations to persuade broadcasters to 00:11:59.110 --> 00:12:00.590 start using it. 00:12:00.590 --> 00:12:03.230 But over time, it began to spread. 00:12:03.230 --> 00:12:05.410 Every home video format began to support it. 00:12:05.410 --> 00:12:10.400 You can even find CEDs with closed captioning, like this copy of Robin Hood bearing the NCI’s 00:12:10.400 --> 00:12:11.840 service mark. 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:12.340 CEDs? 00:12:12.340 --> 00:12:13.240 You mean those things from RCA? 00:12:13.240 --> 00:12:15.340 That really failed format that was video on a vinyl disc? 00:12:15.340 --> 00:12:17.720 Is he gonna do a video about it sometime? 00:12:17.720 --> 00:12:18.220 Yes. 00:12:18.640 --> 00:12:22.500 Another big development was the real-time captioning console, which allowed for captioning 00:12:22.510 --> 00:12:24.860 of live and unscripted events. 00:12:24.860 --> 00:12:29.280 Stenographers were hired to furiously spit out captions of newscasts, sporting events, 00:12:29.280 --> 00:12:31.450 and other unscripted programs. 00:12:31.450 --> 00:12:35.700 Of course, accuracy wasn’t exactly perfect, and one of the downsides was that the captions 00:12:35.700 --> 00:12:40.010 would often appear with a fair delay, but hey, it was better than nothing. 00:12:40.010 --> 00:12:44.780 But the real windfall came in early 1991 when Congress finally got around to passing the 00:12:44.780 --> 00:12:48.310 Television Circuitry Decoder Act of 1990. 00:12:48.310 --> 00:12:53.250 This required all televisions of screen size 13 inches or greater to include the ability 00:12:53.250 --> 00:12:55.490 to display closed captioning. 00:12:55.490 --> 00:12:58.760 The law went into effect on July 1st, 1993, 00:12:58.760 --> 00:13:03.000 and from that point on the important accessibility feature became… 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:04.780 more accessible. 00:13:04.780 --> 00:13:09.700 This TV was made in 1994, and sure enough--closed captioning can be turned on via a few button 00:13:09.700 --> 00:13:11.840 presses on the remote. 00:13:13.530 --> 00:13:18.920 When DVD rolled along in 1996, suddenly closed captioning got a whole lot more interesting. 00:13:18.920 --> 00:13:20.250 And for a number of reasons. 00:13:20.250 --> 00:13:23.980 First, DVD players natively support subtitles. 00:13:23.980 --> 00:13:28.400 Subtitles in a DVD work very differently from the Line 21 closed captioning, as they are 00:13:28.410 --> 00:13:31.870 stored on the DVD as series of images. 00:13:31.870 --> 00:13:36.560 When you toggle them on, the DVD player is stamping semi-transparent bitmaps on top of 00:13:36.560 --> 00:13:41.040 the video, and because of this many languages could be supported without needing to have 00:13:41.040 --> 00:13:43.300 support for their character sets. 00:13:43.300 --> 00:13:47.940 This also explains why the subtitles can look so different from DVD to DVD. 00:13:47.940 --> 00:13:51.800 But--DVD still supported line 21 closed captioning. 00:13:51.800 --> 00:13:56.360 That’s pretty remarkable once you realize that in order to do that, the DVD player has 00:13:56.370 --> 00:14:00.790 to do its own line 21 encoding from metadata on the disc. 00:14:00.790 --> 00:14:05.720 The video files on the disc don’t contain anything outside the frame, so the DVD player 00:14:05.720 --> 00:14:10.150 itself has to generate the vertical blanking interval and shove that captioning data into 00:14:10.150 --> 00:14:12.000 line 21. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:16.450 This just happened in the background, enabling those who relied on captions to use their 00:14:16.450 --> 00:14:18.810 existing equipment if they preferred. 00:14:18.810 --> 00:14:23.560 This was also useful in a scenario like a hotel, where a central DVD player might be 00:14:23.560 --> 00:14:26.980 broadcasting the same program to many televisions. 00:14:26.980 --> 00:14:30.050 Then only those who wanted captions would view them. 00:14:30.050 --> 00:14:33.700 Of course, now I needed to know if Blu-Ray supported line 21 captions. 00:14:33.700 --> 00:14:38.870 It looks like it doesn’t given that over HDMI there is no vertical blanking interval, 00:14:38.870 --> 00:14:42.080 and being an HD format what’s the point? 00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:43.080 BUT! 00:14:43.080 --> 00:14:47.360 The PlayStation 3 has a composite output, so let’s see if anything happens. 00:14:47.800 --> 00:14:48.440 Oh. 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:56.660 And just as another test--would the PS3 send Line 21 captions out with DVDs? 00:14:56.670 --> 00:14:57.760 Looks like it does! 00:14:57.760 --> 00:14:59.920 Look at Sony being all backward compatible. 00:14:59.920 --> 00:15:00.920 Wait… 00:15:00.920 --> 00:15:04.230 Did you know that closed captioning systems exist for movie theaters? 00:15:04.230 --> 00:15:08.930 I’ve only ever seen these systems in person at theme park shows, but the system is very 00:15:08.930 --> 00:15:09.930 clever. 00:15:09.930 --> 00:15:13.370 At the rear of the theater is an LED dot matrix display. 00:15:13.370 --> 00:15:17.380 This display is showing subtitles for the film...backwards. 00:15:17.380 --> 00:15:21.590 The idea is that, if you need captions, the theater will provide you with a rectangular 00:15:21.590 --> 00:15:26.660 piece of plexiglass on a stand, and by placing this in front of you, you can aim it to reflect 00:15:26.660 --> 00:15:32.450 an image of that display into your eyes, either below the screen or on top of it if you choose. 00:15:32.450 --> 00:15:37.920 And since the reflection reverses the image, the previously backwards text appears forwards. 00:15:37.920 --> 00:15:41.720 The most common of these systems is the Rear Window Captioning System, also created in 00:15:41.720 --> 00:15:43.880 part by WGBH Boston. 00:15:43.880 --> 00:15:45.970 Jeez, those folks are nice. 00:15:45.970 --> 00:15:50.980 Anyway, if you’ve ever looked behind you and saw a display board with backwards subtitles--now 00:15:50.980 --> 00:15:52.240 you know what that’s for. 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:55.700 Online streaming services seem to handle closed captioning differently. 00:15:55.700 --> 00:16:00.440 One thing I’ve noticed with the way Netflix handles it, is that the captions can be forced on. 00:16:00.440 --> 00:16:04.040 I’m pretty sure Blu-Ray can do this, too--and maybe even DVDs. 00:16:04.040 --> 00:16:07.440 The practical upshot of doing this is that any on-screen text, such as 00:16:08.840 --> 00:16:09.560 can be automatically 00:16:09.570 --> 00:16:13.670 translated into a different language if a different audio track is selected. 00:16:13.670 --> 00:16:15.240 That’s pretty handy. 00:16:15.240 --> 00:16:19.280 One thing that the hearing impaired can look forward to is real-time captioning. 00:16:19.280 --> 00:16:23.040 I’m sure this is already in development, but this would be a socially acceptable use 00:16:23.040 --> 00:16:25.160 of something like Google Glass. 00:16:25.160 --> 00:16:29.300 With speech-recognition technology as advanced as it already is, I suspect it will not be 00:16:29.300 --> 00:16:33.240 long before a simple glasses-like device enables real-time captioning. 00:16:34.160 --> 00:16:38.320 Oh wait, of course it’s already a thing and you can find some links in the description. 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:42.050 But before I go--did you notice that there were three modes on this closed captioning 00:16:42.050 --> 00:16:43.050 decoder? 00:16:43.050 --> 00:16:45.310 There’s TV, which does nothing. 00:16:45.310 --> 00:16:48.310 There’s Caption which does… captions. 00:16:48.310 --> 00:16:50.310 And then, there’s Text. 00:16:50.310 --> 00:16:52.760 What happens if I turn that mode on? 00:16:52.760 --> 00:16:53.860 Interesting. 00:16:53.860 --> 00:16:56.930 A black box covers almost all of the screen. 00:16:56.930 --> 00:16:58.920 What could that be for? 00:16:59.280 --> 00:17:00.280 That’s right James. 00:17:00.280 --> 00:17:01.820 You’ve waited so long. 00:17:01.820 --> 00:17:03.100 It’s coming. 00:17:03.100 --> 00:17:08.150 Soon, we’ll talk about Teletext, the much more advanced sibling to closed captioning 00:17:08.150 --> 00:17:11.970 that much of Europe enjoyed, but which never caught on here in the States. 00:17:11.970 --> 00:17:14.839 So, uh, stay tuned for that. 00:17:14.839 --> 00:17:16.910 Thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoyed the video! 00:17:16.910 --> 00:17:21.660 I think that closed captions are now something we very much take for granted, and the hearing 00:17:21.660 --> 00:17:24.339 impaired are very thankful that we do. 00:17:24.339 --> 00:17:28.730 Though it took an act of Congress, I’m glad that we finally decided to give the hearing impaired 00:17:28.730 --> 00:17:32.000 the same access to television that the rest of us have. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:36.150 As always, thank you to everyone who supports the channel on Patreon, especially the fine 00:17:36.150 --> 00:17:38.540 folks that are scrolling up your screen. 00:17:38.540 --> 00:17:43.020 With the support of people just like you, Technology Connections has gone from my hobby 00:17:43.020 --> 00:17:45.340 to, well, this! 00:17:45.340 --> 00:17:47.260 And I’m very thankful for that. 00:17:47.260 --> 00:17:51.410 If you would like to support the channel and get perks like early video access, behind-the-scenes 00:17:51.410 --> 00:17:56.130 stuff, as well as other Patreon-exclusive content, please check out my Patreon page. 00:17:56.130 --> 00:17:58.700 Thank you for your consideration, and I’ll see you next time! 00:17:59.140 --> 00:18:01.180 ♫ insufferably smooth jazz ♫ 00:18:04.100 --> 00:18:08.220 I accidentally discovered something while shooting B-roll for this video. 00:18:08.220 --> 00:18:12.770 Earlier I made a video on a little something called Macrovision, an analog copy protection 00:18:12.770 --> 00:18:13.790 scheme. 00:18:13.790 --> 00:18:18.180 This deliberately screwed with the vertical blanking interval to confuse VCRs, and indeed 00:18:18.180 --> 00:18:22.160 it created a few problems for my capturing process this time. 00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:26.770 To help make the caption data easier to see, I tried playing a Laserdisc which is known 00:18:26.770 --> 00:18:29.190 for not having Macrovision. 00:18:29.190 --> 00:18:32.050 And now, I think I know why. 00:18:32.050 --> 00:18:36.510 Laserdiscs are chock full of other barcode-like things in the blanking interval, and judging 00:18:36.510 --> 00:18:40.720 by how they are jittering around, I’m thinking this is what the player looks for when skipping 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:43.340 tracks or even just looking at the timecode. 00:18:43.340 --> 00:18:49.340 And, assuming this is true, this would explain why Macrovision never made it to Laserdisc. 00:18:49.340 --> 00:18:52.890 Laserdisc had already done its own screwing around with the vertical blanking interval--in 00:18:52.890 --> 00:18:56.750 its case to create the control system for the format--and trying to put Macrovision 00:18:56.750 --> 00:18:59.260 in there would probably break it. 00:18:59.720 --> 00:19:03.380 And while we’re on the subject of closed captioning, I’ve finally turned on community 00:19:03.380 --> 00:19:05.790 subtitle submissions for the channel. 00:19:05.790 --> 00:19:09.470 If you speak another language and are willing to help out by translating my videos into 00:19:09.470 --> 00:19:14.040 that second language, please check out the link below with instructions on how to do so. 00:19:14.040 --> 00:19:17.740 This would be really helpful to me to give exposure to the channel in other countries, 00:19:17.740 --> 00:19:19.650 as well as just being pretty neat. 00:19:19.650 --> 00:19:22.440 If you decide to do it, I promise you’ll get your very own 00:19:22.440 --> 00:19:25.580 Unofficial Official Imaginary Badge of Complete Awesomeness. 00:19:26.220 --> 00:19:28.560 You’ll know it’s true so long as you believe. 00:19:29.180 --> 00:19:33.640 Hey, for everyone who used these captions--I'm sorry they were on top of other captions so frequently. 00:19:33.640 --> 00:19:37.660 I REALLY REALLY wish that YouTube would let me move them around like.. you know... 00:19:37.660 --> 00:19:40.060 like we could in 1980. 00:19:41.420 --> 00:19:42.860 That'd be swell.