Comment Re:Laws Neither Cheap nor Easy (Score 1) 164
>There is NO reason of any sort why closed captioning can't be done. It is cheap and easy
The true mark of someone who's never done something is when they say "It is cheap and easy". (The engineer in me knows that too well.)
It is neither cheap nor easy.
NOT CHEAP: The prices for closed-captioning production and encoding software start at around US$2k, and quickly climb to almost US$10k. I own a video production business, and those prices are simply out-of-reach for the few times (zero) that a client has ever asked for CC.
NOT EASY: There have been a few times when clients have asked me to add captions (open, on-screen text) to training videos at selected points. Simply transcribing dialog takes a long time. It also takes time (ie: costs money. ie: is not cheap) to synchronize the caption with the video.
OH, AND THERE'S STANDARDS: Closed captioning is not a one-for-one straight transcript of the words spoken. There are paraphrasings, there are audio hints. There is a reason why there's only a small handful of companies that do CC for professional production... It takes training. It takes practice. It takes discipline. It's not flashy, trivial, or cheap.
The non-broadcast demand for is so incredibly small. So, it's incredibly expensive in money and time and expertise.
Yeah, I'd love to be able to add CC to my work. It's how I view most TV and movies myself. But without some breakthrough, it ain't gonna happen soon.
Tom
The true mark of someone who's never done something is when they say "It is cheap and easy". (The engineer in me knows that too well.)
It is neither cheap nor easy.
NOT CHEAP: The prices for closed-captioning production and encoding software start at around US$2k, and quickly climb to almost US$10k. I own a video production business, and those prices are simply out-of-reach for the few times (zero) that a client has ever asked for CC.
NOT EASY: There have been a few times when clients have asked me to add captions (open, on-screen text) to training videos at selected points. Simply transcribing dialog takes a long time. It also takes time (ie: costs money. ie: is not cheap) to synchronize the caption with the video.
OH, AND THERE'S STANDARDS: Closed captioning is not a one-for-one straight transcript of the words spoken. There are paraphrasings, there are audio hints. There is a reason why there's only a small handful of companies that do CC for professional production... It takes training. It takes practice. It takes discipline. It's not flashy, trivial, or cheap.
The non-broadcast demand for is so incredibly small. So, it's incredibly expensive in money and time and expertise.
Yeah, I'd love to be able to add CC to my work. It's how I view most TV and movies myself. But without some breakthrough, it ain't gonna happen soon.
Tom
