View Full Version : Closed Captioning?


Dawn Brennan
January 5th, 2008, 10:30 AM
Does anyone know if there is a way to add closed captioning to a wedding video? I have a bride that I just met with that has hearing impared parents and I told her I'd look into it for her. I edit with Vegas 8.0. Any help would be appreciated. The wedding is not till 2009, but I wanted to start to try to get an answer for her. Thanks!

Peter Jefferson
January 5th, 2008, 11:00 AM
DVDA3/4 has subtitle options, which you can type in as you go along. As most Wedding DVDs are usually set to music, there shouldn't be too much to type.

Another option is to create a separate audio stream within the DVD which has the audio within a set freq which the brides mother can hear. In doing this, you need to know the fundamentals of EQ, in addition to finding out which frequency range mum can pick up. Then by working the EQ according the the configuration of Mum's hearing aide, you can provide an audio mix which might sound weird to us, but is perfectly suitable for her. Just remember that her hearing has the potential to deteriorate even further, so the second option may not be worth your while.

Chris Davis
January 5th, 2008, 12:07 PM
Most likely what you're looking for is not "closed captioning", but rather "subtitles". Closed captioning (in NTSC) is to encode the text into the video stream, to later be decoded by the viewer's television. I guess if you're delivering on VHS, you might actually want closed captioning...

Anyway, subtitles is not a function of your editing application, but rather the DVD authoring program you use. If you're using DVD Architect, look up "Subtitles" in the DVD Architect help file. It's actually very easy. The viewer will be able to turn subtitles on and off with their DVD remote.

You can do actual closed captioning in Vegas (again, look in the help file) but I really think you'll find DVD subtitles a better option.

Dawn Brennan
January 5th, 2008, 10:28 PM
Most likely what you're looking for is not "closed captioning", but rather "subtitles". Closed captioning (in NTSC) is to encode the text into the video stream, to later be decoded by the viewer's television. I guess if you're delivering on VHS, you might actually want closed captioning...

Anyway, subtitles is not a function of your editing application, but rather the DVD authoring program you use. If you're using DVD Architect, look up "Subtitles" in the DVD Architect help file. It's actually very easy. The viewer will be able to turn subtitles on and off with their DVD remote.

You can do actual closed captioning in Vegas (again, look in the help file) but I really think you'll find DVD subtitles a better option.

Thanks Chris for your help. I am going to look further into it, but I appreciate your direction here. It does sound like Architect is the way to go though. I am just happy I'll be able to provide this for them. Her parents are both hearing impared (completely deaf) as well as about 30 other family members. So this is very important to them.

Bill Mecca
January 6th, 2008, 03:06 PM
The key part is getting it transcribed. I use www.ccmaker.com for closed captioning. I convert it to subtitles in house.