Not sure which caption standard to select...

[robjenga]

I couldn't find the answer in the forums...so please forgive if it's already been answered.

Between the six options i have listed...I am not sure which to pick as I have no idea what they are.

Could someone PLEASE explain each option as to what it does when selected...or better yet...just a definition (description) for each option?

I have looked online...read descriptions of 608 (for analog)... 708 (for digital)...but it doesn't really explain why I would pick each one.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

CEA-608

CEA-708

Teletext

Open Subtitling

Open Captions

Australian

[Stan Jones]

What do you plan to do with them?

[robjenga]

I should have stated I'm not looking for an answer for any one job...more of wanting a complete knowledge of what they are/what they do.

[Kevin-Monahan]

robjenga,

Do you just want subtitles or actual captions? The former are for foreign audiences, typically. The latter are for the hearing impaired. 608 is for SD, 708 is for HD--basically. Does that help?

Thanks,
Kevin

[Stan Jones]

robjenga  wrote

I should have stated I'm not looking for an answer for any one job...more of wanting a complete knowledge of what they are/what they do.

The devil is in the details. PR currently has this particular set of "format" options, but when used in the real world, some of them are not a single "thing." PR started with some basics around CS5, and has added to the captioning tool over time. But it is a very complex area with MANY formats. "Complete" knowledge will elude you for some time.... lol.

You will find it easier if, in addition to trying to grasp the whole area, you tackle a specific application and see how it works. Three main applications are:

Burned in - your goal is a video with captions/subtitles always visible; they cannot be turned off. That is one of the main purposes of Open Captions;

Exported "sidecar" file - many players (VLC) or on line options (YouTube/Vimeo) look for a separate file to use with your video, and to provide subtitles that you can turn on and off. You can use more than one of the formats for this.

Embedded stream - primarily the classic Closed Captions designed for broadcast TV and part of the video file. When editing, your colors/fonts/etc are limited because they are going to be limited in the application.

And, of course, they overlap. For example, you can export a sidecar from a Closed Caption stream.

And there are gotchas as they are implemented in PR: for example, you can convert any of the formats to Open Caption. You cannot convert Open Caption to anything else.

Not up to date, but you will get some PR specific information in the help file:

Learn to work with captions in Premiere Pro

I found that I needed information from outside Adobe to understand what is going on. There are many on line services for captioning, and some provide good information. For example, see "Caption and Subtitle Formats Explained" on this page:

https://www.3playmedia.com/solutions/features/tools/captions-format-converter/

This article focused on the export file type:

https://www.3playmedia.com/2015/03/05/caption-format-acronyms-explained/

In practical use, you will often find PR alone won't get you what you need. For example, the format of your .srt sidecar file is not exactly what a particular application expects. I find SubtitleEdit (free app) very useful. When you look at the list of different file formats and variations, you will further understand how complex this area is.

[robjenga]

Thank you, Stan. This helps a bit...and I appreciate you taking the time to respond!

-Rob

[Stan Jones]

You're welcome!