What is Open Captioning?
Open captioning is the practice of adding captions to a video, which then become a part of the video picture, this means that they cannot be turned on or off. Open captioning is most often used for videos for translation purposes, where the source language of the video is different from the mother tongue language spoken in the country the video is being aired or the film is being shown. For us to carry out open captioning services, we need a high-resolution video as the final output will be the video itself, rather than a caption file.
Open Captioning Services and Accuracy
If you decide to have your captions burned into your film then it is very important that you work closely with us to ensure that you get the exact timings, wording, text style, text size, text colour, background strip (if required) that you want for your video. This will be burnt into your film, program or video and once complete, cannot be changed as it will become part of the video itself.
Open Captioning Services and Things to Consider
Captioning and subtitling are a great way to ensure that your viewers who are deaf, hearing impaired or speak a foreign language have full access to your video content and are recommended for all videos whether online or offline.
Whilst closed captions or subtitle files can be used as and when required, open captioning becomes a part of the video itself, so once applied cannot be changed or amended without creating a new video file. For this reason, open captioning is more expensive than closed captioning and has the disadvantage of only being able to display one language. Closed captioning or subtitle files, on the other hand can be amended fairly easily. Videos that have closed captions or subtitle files can also offer viewers the option of watching their video or film with captions in a variety of languages as and when they desire.
Generally speaking, open captions are used in cinemas where the film being displayed is being aired in a country where the mother tongue language spoken is not the same as the source language of the film. Open captions are also often used for short clips of film, where a foreign language is spoken that is important to the plot or context of the video.
Here at Transcription City, we offer video transcription services, closed captioning services, open captioning services, subtitling services, translation services and interactive transcript services for video. We believe that providing services that make video and audio content accessible to all (including speakers of a foreign language and the deaf and hearing impaired) is paramount. The production and use of open and closed captioning for both online and offline content is extremely important, which is why we work across the board in terms of providing services that promote accessibility for all, including live captioning services and signing services for the deaf and hard of hearing. You can also find more information about open captioning in theatres here.