[Jason Livingston]

Hi Kevin,
DV does not store its caption data in line 21. Weird as it may be, DV in fact does store the captions as metadata in the DV stream. This is because DV is a 720×480 format, but line 21 does not go in the 480 lines of active picture data. (The same is true for DVD which is also 720×480.)

Most DV decks will convert the metadata into line 21 when you go out via the analog outputs (although in the case of the DSR-45, only via the Monitor output).

If you want to verify that your DV tape has captions, you can either hook up a regular consumer TV to the monitor output of your DSR-45, or after printing to DV tape, capture it back in by firewire and then decode the DV captions using the MacCaption demo.

Hope this helps.

Jason Livingston
CPC

[Jason Livingston]

Hi Kevin,
If you are using a DSR-45 then this note may be of interest:
https://www.cpcweb.com/dv/Sony-DSR-Notes.htm

Jason Livingston
CPC

[Jason Livingston]

Encore will fail with SCC files that have any captions within the first two seconds (00:00:02:00).

It looks like maybe your caption company was on the right track, but they fixed only the first two frames (00:02) instead of two seconds (02:00).

Jason Livingston
CPC

[Jason Livingston]

[Kevin Hamm] […]the fact that a system like yours, which appears to be built by buying up the competition and eliminating it[…]

I’m sorry if you feel this way Kevin, but your information is not correct. CPC has never bought out or eliminated any of our competition. Our main competitors are companies which make hardware closed caption encoders for linear tape-to-tape captioning, which are significantly more expensive than our software.

[Kevin Hamm] “As the information in the Closed Captioning track is, as you well know, text with timecode (608) or text with timecode and a stylesheet (708) there is no reason that it can’t be built digitally, without a separate box at all.”

You are correct that the 608 and 708 data can be built digitally without dedicated hardware, this is how MacCaption works after all. However, the encoded data is much more complex than simple “text with timecode and a stylesheet,” and the software encoding process is not at all trivial as you make it sound.

I don’t want to go too off topic for this FCP forum, so I suggest you call or e-mail us if you are interested in continuing this discussion privately.

Thanks,

Jason Livingston
CPC

[Jason Livingston]

Are the audio tracks on the timeline still set to output audio tracks to Audio Output 1&2 instead of, say, track A1 going to Audio Output 1 and track A2 going to Audio Output 2? If both A1 and A2 are being output to Output 1&2 then both left and right channels are getting mixed together into two identical mono outputs.

Also, when you changed to dual mono, do you have Audio Output 1 set to monitor on the left speaker and Output 2 for the right? I seem to recall you need to set that somewhere.

Jason Livingston
CPC

[Jason Livingston]

Hello Kevin,
First, a couple of technical clarifications: MPEG-2 Program and Transport streams most definitely do support HD closed captioning (both 708 and 608), in fact that’s how DTV broadcasts deliver captions, and we have many customers using this workflow to caption their commercial spots and programs now. Second, MacCaption does offer digital (tapeless) solutions not only for HD MPEG-2 streams but also for QuickTime 708 & 608 caption tracks, XDCAM .MXF files (tapeless), DVCPRO-HD (tapeless), and playout servers like the Harris Nexio (with more server support on the way).

As you’ve probably discovered, .SCC files are easier to generate, however even in the new Final Cut Pro, they can only be used to caption DV exports by FireWire. SCC files do not contain the EIA-708 data necessary to caption HD formats.

I’m sorry if you think MacCaption is too expensive. If you saw our R&D expenses, or compare our prices to the fees typically charged by caption service companies, you probably wouldn’t think so. Our interface was designed by captioners for captioners and FCP users, drastically reducing the time and costs for preparing captions. We also offer the best support in the industry, which is why companies like Apple, Sony, NBC Universal, Fox, etc. rely on CPC’s expertise for their closed captioning needs. If you look in the new Final Cut Pro manuals under closed captioning, the only name you’ll see mentioned is MacCaption by CPC.

To be honest, closed captioning has always been an expensive and time consuming process, but it is something that almost everyone has to do if they want to broadcast. CPC has worked with Matrox, AJA, and Apple to make closed captioning much cheaper, easier, and more accessible to a market that previously had no other options.

Until this year, an HD closed captioning system would easily cost over $10,000 for a hardware encoder, not counting the software to run it or the cost of the 2 HD decks you would need to make use of it (tapeless simply wasn’t an option). Our new software such as MacCaption DTV-M for Matrox MXO2 users, or DTV-A for AJA Kona users, brings down the cost of a HD closed captioning solution by over 75% and finally makes HD tapeless workflows a reality.

Feel free to call or e-mail us if you have any questions.

Thanks!

Jason Livingston
CPC

[Jason Livingston]

Hi Wayne, it depends on what version of CaptionMaker you have. I suggest you give CPC a call or e-mail me privately for more information.

Thanks!

Jason Livingston
CPC

[Jason Livingston]

Hi Kevin,
Sorry I don’t know the answer about your audio sync issue. However, I can offer some suggestions for solving your HD closed captioning issue.

CPC’s MacCaption software allows you to do all your HD and SD closed captioning in-house. You can save a lot of money and time compared to other captioning services.

However, HDV is a consumer format which doesn’t support closed captioning. You could deliver your show as captioned .MOV or .MXF files on a hard drive, or on XDCAM discs using the relatively inexpensive Sony PDW-U1, depending on your networks’ preferences.

Please see our website or give us a call for more information.

Hope this helps!

Jason Livingston
CPC

[Jason Livingston]

Hello Wayne and John,
.SCC files can be used in the new FCP for standard definition captioning such as for DV and DVD.

To caption material for DTV broadcast (HD or SD), you need to use the EIA-708 caption standard. However .SCC files do not include 708 caption data (only 608, the old analog standard).

MacCaption can import an .SCC file (or any other kind of caption file, or your raw script from a text file) and convert the captions into the 708 format so that you can print to HD or SD tape from your AJA Kona 3, Matrox MXO2, or Blackmagic Decklink cards. The workflow is slightly different depending on which card you use.

This page talks about AJA and the new FCP: https://cpcweb.com/hdtv/aja.htm

Also see: Matrox MXO2, Blackmagic Decklink

Your CaptionMaker software can be upgraded to the latest version of MacCaption to gain this capability. Please see our website or contact us for more details.

Hope this helps!

Jason Livingston
CPC

[Jason Livingston]

Hello Rudy,
It is definitely possible to closed caption HDCAM in Final Cut Pro, however you do need some extra software.

It requires two things:
A Matrox MXO2 (this is the only video I/O device which supports HD video with closed captions. AJA and Blackmagic cards currently do not support HD closed captions.)

A closed captions file in the “Matrox 4VANC” format. This can be generated using CPC’s MacCaption software. If you want to bring closed captioning in-house, then you can buy the software and do all the captioning yourself. Or if this is just a one-off project, you can pay a closed captioning service company to do the captioning for you and e-mail you the Matrox 4VANC file (it is very small, even for a long form project). You don’t have to ship tapes back and forth using this method.

Once you have the Matrox 4VANC track generated by MacCaption, you simply drop this into your Final Cut Pro timeline and then you can output captioned HD video (and captioned SD video simultaneously if you wish) right from your FCP timeline. You don’t even have to render.

For more information, please see: https://cpcweb.com/mxo2/

You can download a free demo of MacCaption, as well as sample Matrox 4VANC files, and free video tutorials which demonstrate the process from start to finish.

Hope this helps.

Jason Livingston
CPC