Captions in video are used to assist listeners with what is being said, to aid the hearing impaired, to provide a translation in another language, or to add additional context or commentary about the subject at hand.
When making captions for videos, the biggest choice is whether the caption will become a part of the video itself, or whether the caption information will stay separate from the video information. There isn't a unified terminology in calling these two, but some call the first option the burned-in caption, while the second option is called the embedded caption.
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Embedded captions
From a video project management perspective, the embedded caption is more flexible and easier to manage that the burned-in caption method. In an embedded caption, the caption text is stored separately from the video information. Time information is added to the caption text to tell the video player when to show each piece of caption.
In a computer environment, the caption text can be an actual separate text file that is separate from the video file. It could also be one file, with the file internally storing text and video information separately. DVD and post-DVD technology also support embedded captions - the disc reserves a portion of the disk to save information about the captions, in multiple languages/versions. Pre-DVD, in the days of the VHS tapes, there was no embedded caption support, and the captions were burned in to the video itself.
The biggest advantage of having embedded captions, when compared to burned-in captions, is its flexibility. Specifically:
- When playing a video with embedded captions, technically, the video player program is displaying two separate images: the video itself, and a layer on top of that, the captions. Because of this, the caption "layer" can be freely adjusted. Font size and color, caption location, even time sync - all can be adjusted. In theory, the captions could be shown in a completely separate screen, such as participant smartphones.
- Often times, it turns out that a caption size is enough for viewing on a computer screen by one person, but when projected into a large screen for a group, the caption size needs to be increased.
- Caption size may need to be increased if viewers are mostly seniors with a weaker vision.
- Some video screening environments only can have an obstructed view towards the bottom of the scree, with peoples' heads covering some portions of the screen, and making it harder to see the captions which are at the bottom by default. With embedded captions, it's possible to move the captions to the top of the screen.
- Even after the initial production, the captions can be edited at any time, by anyone with no specialized software required. All that is needed is a text editor. Because of this, there is less pressure of having "the perfect captions" at the end of the production cycle, because it can always be edited.
- Because editing the captions is so easy, creating, proofing and revising captions during the production process is much simpler than when relying on dedicated video editing software like Adobe Premiere. When there is a separate video producer (who is not bilingual in the target language), and a caption maker, the caption making process usually goes around the video producer making the video -> translator typing each line with time codes and emailing it to the producer -> producer copying & pasting the captions with each time code -> translator revising the time codes wrongly pasted -> proofreader submitting typed feedback on each correction -> producer incorporating it all back in again. With embedded captions, the producer can be completely out of the caption making process.
There are some disadvantages as well.
Not every video player supports captions, or in the case of some video players, the setting is buried deep in the preferences page. So if you go somewhere new (for example an university campus) only with your video on an USB stick, there is no guarantee that the video with captions will work out of the box. Ironically, relying on a video hosted on an online platform like YouTube is generally not a good idea since you are relying on the quality of the internet connection on-site, but for video captions YouTube can be a good backup since it supports captions.
Depending on the video player, the video player may not be able to display captions in a clear manner, with big fonts, or have a lot of flexibility in displaying the captions. Gom Video Player is extremely flexible in the way it displays embedded captions.
In general, independent video producers are more at home with making burned-in video captions, because too often their client is not technology-savy enough to play the video properly with the embedded captions. So even though they produced a normal video, the captions do not load and the video maker is asked for follow-up, which is basically tech support. After many experiences like these, it is likely that the video makers have permanently switched to burned-in.
How to make embedded captions
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