Adding closed captioning to video files

Closed captions help make your video productions accessible to a wider audience. Closed captions are widely used by viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing, those who are learning to read, or who are learning a second language.

Closed captions can be turned on or off by the viewer (unlike open captions, which are always displayed). Closed captions display spoken dialogue and sound effects as on-screen text.

NOTE

  • VEGAS Pro supports CEA608 captions and CEA708 containers containing CEA608 captions.

  • When rendering to XDCAM HD/HD422, CEA608 data is uplifted to CEA708 format so that CEA608 and CEA708 captions are available when playing via HD SDI. CEA608 CC1 is uplifted to CEA708 Service 1, and CEA608 CC3 is uplifted to CEA708 Service 2. Please note that caption positions can be slightly different after uplifting to CEA708.

  • When you render to a format that does not support embedded captioning markers, an .SCC file is created using the base name of the rendered media file.

Importing or rendering closed captions in an MXF or MPEG-2 file

Importing captions

VEGAS Pro supports closed captioning embedded in XDCAM HD/XDCAM HD422 MXF and MPEG-2 files. ATSC and SCTE formats are supported when reading captions in MPEG-2 files.

When you add media to the timeline or Trimmer, embedded captioning markers are displayed as media markers:

Markers are aligned with the start of captioning for paint-on captions or with the display time for pop-up style captions.

When the captioning markers are read, VEGAS Pro creates an .SCC file in the media file's folder using the same base name as the media file. The .SCC file is used when you use the media in the future so the application doesn't need to scan the media again.

When you're finished editing your project, you can promote the embedded captioning markers to the timeline:

  1. Select events with captions.

  2. From the Tools menu, choose Scripting, and then choose Promote Media Closed Captioning.

    The markers appear as command markers on the timeline, and you can move and edit the markers as needed:

Rendering captions

You can export captions in rendered media and in standalone .SCC files.

  • When you render to XDCAM HD/XDCAM HD422 MXF formats, captioning markers are embedded in the media file. An .SCC file is also created using the base name of the rendered media file.

  • When you render to MPEG-2 format, captioning markers are encoded in ATSC format.

  • When you render to a format that does not support embedded captioning markers, an .SCC file is created using the base name of the rendered media file.

Importing or rendering Line 21 closed captions

Importing Line 21 captions

VEGAS Pro reads embedded Line 21 captions when you import a media file with a frame size of 720x486 pixels (or taller) and a frame rate of 29.97 fps.

When you add media to the timeline or Trimmer, embedded captioning markers are displayed as media markers:

Markers are aligned with the start of captioning for paint-on captions or with the display time for pop-up style captions.

When the captioning markers are read, VEGAS Pro creates an .SCC file in the media file's folder using the same base name as the media file. The .SCC file is used when you use the media in the future so the application doesn't need to scan the media again.

When you're finished editing your project, you can promote the embedded captioning markers to the timeline:

  1. Select events with captions.

  2. From the Tools menu, choose Scripting, and then choose Promote Media Closed Captioning.

    The markers appear as command markers on the timeline, and you can move and edit the markers as needed:

Rendering Line 21 captions

Line 21 captions are supported during rendering when using a frame size of 720x486 pixels (or taller) and a frame rate of 29.97 fps.

NOTE Please note that encoding line 21 captions for DVD is not supported. MPEG-2 video for DVD cannot exceed 480 lines of resolution. DVD line 21 captions are embedded as metadata in the MPEG-2 video stream and are not supported.

Importing closed captions from a closed captioning file

If your media does not contain embedded captioning markers, you can import markers from an external file. The following file types are supported:

  • Scenarist Closed Caption (.SCC)

    TIP

    If an .scc file matches the media file name, the captions willbe read automatically when you load a file.

    For example, if your video file is wildflowers.avi, naming your captioning file wildflowers.avi.scc will allow VEGAS Proto read the captions automatically.

  • RealPlayer Captioning Files (.RT)

  • SubRip Subtitles (.SRT)

  • Windows Media Player Captioning Files (.SMI)

  • Transcript or QuickTime Captioning Files (.TXT)

  • CPC MacCaption Files (.MCC)

    TIP If an .mcc file does not contain CEA608 captions, its CEA708 captions will be converted to CEA608 pop-up captions. Service 1 captions will be imported as 608CC1 captions, and Service 2 captions will be importedas 608CC3 captions.

  • DVD Architect Subtitles (.SUB)

  • From the File menu, choose Import, and then choose Closed Captioning from the submenu.

  • In the Open dialog, browse to the file you want to use and click Open.

    The markers appear as command markers on the timeline, and you can move and edit the markers as needed.

    • TIP Captioning markers will be placed according to the timecode inthe captioning file. If needed, you can adjust marker positions by applyinga timeline ruler offset before importing the closedcaptioning. For more information, see Time ruler

Synchronizing captions with video

After you import captions, you may need to adjust timing to synchronize the markers with your video.

  1. Use the procedure described earlier in this help topic to import captions.

  2. Position your video events as desired in the timeline.

  3. Choose View | Window | Edit Details to display the Edit Details window.

  4. From the Show drop-down list, choose Commands. Your captioning commands are now displayed in the Edit Details window.

  5. In the timeline, position the cursor where you want to start inserting captions.

  6. Select a row in the Edit Details list to select the first caption you want to insert.

  7. Click the Play button to start playback.

  8. When you're ready to insert your first caption, press Ctrl+K. The first caption is inserted at the cursor position, the Position setting is updated, and the next caption is selected.

  9. Press Ctrl+K to insert each subsequent caption.

Adding or editing closed caption markers on the timeline

You can edit closed caption markers on the timeline to adjust caption start times, delete caption markers, edit their contents, or add new markers.

  • To add a new marker, click to position the cursor on the timeline and then choose Command from the Insert menu (or press C).

    TIP To create a pop-on caption quickly, type your caption text in the Comment box in the Command Properties dialog. Caption markup is added automatically.You can use [BR] to indicate a line break.

  • To move a marker, drag the marker tag on the timeline.

  • To delete a marker, right-click it and choose Delete from the shortcut menu.

  • To edit a marker, double-click the marker tag.

Use the Command Properties dialog to edit the marker.

Item

Description

Command

Choose 608CC1 for primary-language captions.

Choose 608CC3 for secondary-language captions.

NOTE Notes:

  • VEGAS Pro also supports 608CC2 and 608CC4 commands for the CC2/CC4 channels.

  • When rendering to XDCAM HD/HD422, CEA608 data is uplifted to CEA708 format so that CEA608 and CEA708 captions are available when playing via HD SDI. CEA608 CC1 is uplifted to CEA708 Service 1, and CEA608 CC3 is uplifted to CEA708 Service 2.

Parameter

Displays the marker's captioning text. [BR] indicates a line break.

Comment

Type closed caption control commands here.

Commands must conform to standard caption markup, and command strings are case and space sensitive. For more information about captioning markup, please see "Captioning markup and examples" in this help topic.

TIP You can use your keyboard to create standard text and punctuation. To insert special characters and punctuation, use the Character Map (Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Character Map). Following are some common symbols you can copy and paste into your captions:

ç

û

Ç

ì

¤

÷

Á

È

Ò

¦

Ñ

É

Ê

ò

Å

ñ

Ó

Ë

Õ

å

®

Ú

ë

õ

Ø

°

Ü

Î

{

ø

½

ü

Ï

}

┌

¿

‘

ï

\

┐

™

¡

Ô

^

└

¢

*

Ù

_

┘

£

'

ù

|

♪

—

Û

~

à

©

«

Ä

è

•

»

ä

â

“

Ã

Ö

ê

”

ã

ö

î

À

Í

ß

Ô

Â

Ì

¥

For minor edits, you can ignore the markup and edit the displayed text. If you change the length of the text, be aware of the following:

{R14In00Wh} means Row 14, Indent 00, White text.

Row (two digits) ranges from 01 to 15.

Indent (two digits) ranges from 00 to 28 but only in multiples of 4.

{TabOff1} means Tab offset 1. Possible values (one digit) are 1, 2, or 3.

IMPORTANT For each row, indent (In) plus tab offset (TabOff) plus the number of content characters cannot exceed 32.

Position

Type the time you want the command to occur in your project.

Captioning markup reference and examples

Pop-On Caption

A pop-on caption is displayed on the screen as a single element and is cleared or replaced with a new caption. Pop-on captions are most often used for prerecorded captioning.

{RCL}{ENM}{R14In00Wh}{TabOff1}First Row{R15In00Wh}{TabOff1}Second Row{EDM}{EOC}

TIP If you type captioning text in the Comment box of the Command Properties dialog and do not specify captioning markup, a pop-on caption is created. You can use [BR] to indicate a line break. Please note that each row is limited to 32 characters.

Roll-Up Caption

A roll-up caption scrolls onto and off the screen two or three lines at a time and is most often used for live captioning.

{RU2}{CR}{R15In00Wh}{TabOff1}First Row

—or—

{RU3}{CR}{R14In00Wh}{TabOff1}First Row{R15In00Wh}{TabOff1}Second Row

—or—

{RU4}{CR}{R13In00Wh}{TabOff1}First Row{R14In00Wh}{TabOff1}Second Row{R15In00Wh}{TabOff1}Third Row

Paint-On Caption

A paint-on caption appears on screen one letter at a time and displayed like a pop-on caption. Paint-in captions are most often used at the beginning of a program.

{RDC}{R14In04Wh}{TabOff3}First Row{R15In04Wh}{TabOff3}Second Row

Captioning Markup

Caption Markup

Description

Usage Notes

{RCL}

Resume Caption Loading

Starts a pop-on caption.

{RDC}

Resume Direct Captioning

Starts a paint-in caption.

{RU2}

Roll-Up Captions-2 Rows

Starts a two-line roll-up caption.

{RU3}

Roll-Up Captions-3 Rows

Starts a three-line roll-up caption.

{RU4}

Roll-Up Captions-4 Rows

Starts a four-line roll-up caption.

{EDM}

Erase Displayed Memory

Cleans the display. Required to remove roll-up and paint-on captions from the screen.

{ENM}

Erase Nondisplayed Memory

Cleans buffered captions from memory.

{EOC}

End of Caption

In pop-up captions, EOC ends the current caption and displays the next caption.

{FlashOn}

Flash On

Causes the caption to blink until new foreground attributes are set.

{TabOff1}

Tab Offset 1

For each row, indent (In) plus tab offset (TabOff) plus the number of content characters cannot exceed 32.

{TabOff2}

Tab Offset 2

{TabOff3}

Tab Offset 3

{Backspace}

Backspace

Used for live captioning.

{DelEndRow}

Delete to End of Row

Used for live captioning.

{CR}

Carriage Return

{R yy Wh}

Row yy [00 to 15], White Text

{R yy WhU}

Row yy [00 to 15], White Underlined

{R yy Gr}

Row yy [00 to 15], Green Text

{R yy GrU}

Row yy [00 to 15], Green Underlined

{R yy Bl}

Row yy [00 to 15], Blue Text

{R yy BlU}

Row yy [00 to 15], Blue Underlined

{R yyCy}

Row yy [00 to 15], Cyan Text

{R yy CyU}

Row yy [00 to 15], Cyan Underlined

{R yy Rd}

Row yy [00 to 15], Red Text

{R yy RdU}

Row yy [00 to 15], Red Underlined

{R yy Yl}

Row yy [00 to 15], Yellow Text

{R yy YlU}

Row yy [00 to 15], Yellow Underlined

{R yy Ma}

Row yy [00 to 15], Magenta Text

{R yy MaU}

Row yy [00 to 15], Magenta Underlined

{R yy WhI}

Row yy [00 to 15], White Italics

{R yy WhIU}

Row yy [00 to 15], White Italics Underlined

{R yy In xx Wh}

Row yy [00 to 15], Indent xx [00|04|08|12|16|20|24|28], White Text

For each row, indent (In) plus tab offset (TabOff) plus the number of content characters cannot exceed 32.

{R yy In xx WhU}

Row yy [00 to 15], Indent xx [00|04|08|12|16|20|24|28], White Underlined

{WhTxt}  

White Text

{WhUTxt}

White Underlined

{GrTxt}

Green Text

{GrUTxt}

Green Underlined

{BlTxt}

Blue Text

{BlUTxt}

Blue Underlined

{CyTxt}

Cyan Text

{CyUTxt}

Cyan Underlined

{RdTxt}

Red Text

{RdUTxt}

Red Underlined

{YlTxt}

Yellow Text

{YlUTxt}

Yellow Underlined

{MaTxt}

Magenta Text

{MaUTxt}

Magenta Underlined

{ITxt}

Italicized Text

{IUTxt}

Italicized Underlined

{BgWh}

Background White

{BgWhSemi}

Background Semitransparent White

{BgGr}

Background Green

{BgGrSemi}

Background Semitransparent Green

{BgBl}

Background Blue

{BgBlSemi}

Background Semitransparent Blue

{BgCy}

Background Cyan

{BgCySemi}

Background Semitransparent Cyan

{BgRd}

Background Red

{BgRdSemi}

Background Semitransparent Red

{BgYl}

Background Yellow

{BgYlSemi}

Background Semitransparent Yellow

{BgMa}

Background Magenta

{BgMaSemi}

Background Semitransparent Magenta

{BgBlk}

Background Black

{BgBlkSemi}

Background Semitransparent Black

{BgTran}

Background Transparent

{BlkTxt}

Black Text

{BlkUTxt}

Black Underlined

{StdCharSet}

Standard Character Set

You can use the character set commands to switch between character sets in your captions. For example, if you needed to display Korean characters in an English-captioned program, you could use {KORCharSet} to display Korean characters and then use {StdCharSet} to switch back to English captions.

{DSzCharSet}

Double Size Character Set

{1PCharSet}

First Private Character Set

{2PCharSet}

Second Private Character Set

{CHNCharset}

People’s Republic of China Character Set

{KORCharSet}

Korean Character Set

{1RgCharSet}

First Registered Character Set

{TH}

Time Holder

Not used when creating new captions.

When you're working with existing captions, captioning data can be transferred ahead of the display time, and {TH} can be used to adjust the display time.

Displaying closed captions in the Video Preview or Trimmer window

You can preview your captions by using overlays in the Video Preview window. For more information, see Using the Video Preview window

TIP Overlay settings from the Video Preview window are also applied to the video monitor in the Trimmer window.

  1. Click the down arrow next to the Overlays button and choose a setting from the menu to turn on the caption type that you want to preview.

  2. Play your project.

Exporting closed captions

Some Webcasting formats require that captions be saved in an external file. After creating your captions, you can export them to several formats.

  1. Create and edit your captions as described in this help topic.

  2. From the Tools menu, choose Scripting, and then choose a command from the submenu:

    Item

    Description

    Export Closed Captioning for DVD Architect

    Creates a subtitle (.SUB) file that can be used by DVD Architect software. The .SUB file contains timecode values and text that will be used to create subtitle events in DVD Architect.

    Export Closed Captioning for QuickTime

    Creates a text (.TXT) and .SMIL file for each subtitle service. The text file contains the captions and formatting, and the .SMIL file contains information that defines how captions will display on the media file.

    The .SMIL file links to a .MOV file that uses the same base name as your exported captions file by default. You can edit the file to refer to the desired media file name.

    TIP If you're using QuickTime Pro, you can create a QuickTime text track to embed captions in your video file.

    Export Closed Captioning for Windows Media Player

    Creates a .SMI and .ASX file for each subtitle service. The .SMI file contains the captions and formatting, and the .ASX file contains information that defines how captions will display on the media file.

    The .ASX file links to a .WMV file that uses the same base name as your exported captions file by default. You can edit the file to refer to the desired media file name.

    Export Closed Captioning for YouTube

    Creates an .SRT file that can be used for YouTube captions and by some DVD authoring software.

    For information about adding subtitles to your YouTube videos, please see http://www.youtube.com.

  3. Use the Save dialog to specify a file name and folder for your captions file, and then click Save.

Editing multiple captions with the Edit Details window

The Edit Details window allows you to see all of your project's captions at once for quick editing. For more information, see Using the Edit Details Window

You can even edit multiple captions at once. For example, if you wanted to change your 608CC1 (primary language) captions to 608CC3 (secondary language), perform the following steps.

  1. Choose View | Window | Edit Details to display the Edit Details window if it isn't already visible.

  2. In the Edit Details window, choose Commands from the Show drop-down list. Your closed caption markers are displayed.

  3. Select the captions you want to edit:

    1. Hold Shift and click in the Command column for the first caption you want to change.

    2. Hold Shift and click in the Command column for the last caption you want to change.

      All captions between the first- and last-selected rows are selected.

  4. Right-click the Command column for any selected caption and choose Edit from the shortcut menu.

  5. Type a new value in the box — in this case, you'd type 608CC3 — and press Enter.

    All selected captions are changed to 608CC3.