# Closed-captioned videos-Do they exist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 9, 2001, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296 "2001-04-09T00:39:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/1 "2001-04-09T00:39:39Z")
Do videos with closed-captioning exist? If they do, where, and if they don’t, why not? Can the VHS encoding system handle closed-captioning? I’ve done a search and come up with nothing. I’m guessing **handy** would know if anyone would. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/2 "2001-04-09T00:42:43Z")
They do exist and are extremely commonplace. I can record broadcast TV on my VCR and the tape will have all the closed caption information. ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/3 "2001-04-09T02:02:41Z")
I accidently hit “mute” on my Toy Story 2 video yesterday and it was entirely CC. Zette ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/4 "2001-04-09T03:02:17Z")
All DVDs have captioning (many in more than one language). Older VHS movies won’t have them, but most newer ones do. ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/5 "2001-04-09T03:40:54Z")
Along the same lines… When taping a television broadcast off the air, does the C.C. information get taped as well? If so, I’ve never seen it. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/6 "2001-04-09T05:14:19Z")
It _should_ get recorded. On the other hand, older VCRs might filter it out, thinking it’s a dirty signal. Try recording something and then playing it back, and turning on captioning on your TV. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/7 "2001-04-09T15:13:12Z")
You betcha, there are tens of thousands of them. Just look at the vhs or dvd box for a CC symbol. They also copy when you copy. Sometimes stations forget to turn the captions on even when a program is captioned. All tvs 12" or larger after 93 have caption capacity. You can do your own captions but the equipment is expensive, $1500 or so & the price hasn’t come down. Might be fun encoding secret messages. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/8 "2001-04-09T15:29:45Z")
The closed captioning information is encoded into the video stream and is therefore recorded whenever the video is, even with old VCRs. What I always wondered: when CC is turned on and tornado warnings are flashed across the bottom of the screen, do the weather warnings cover up the CC, or does the CC cover up the weather warnings? If the latter is true, has anyone ever been injured due to not receiving the warning message? ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/9 "2001-04-09T16:15:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by friedo \* > **All DVDs have captioning (many in more than one language). Older VHS movies won’t have them, but most newer ones do.** Well, not all DVDs. I have found at least one exception so far. I bought the Criterion Collection of **The Silence of the Lambs** , and was sorely disappointed to discover that not only did it not have captions, but it lacked English subtitles as well. An amazing oversight for a Criterion Collection disc. Prior to this, all the DVDs that I had encountered that didn’t have captions at least had English subtitles. I actually traded it with a friend of mine who had the “standard” version of the movie on DVD, which did have the closed captioning. Sent a message about the whole thing to Criterion, but never got a response. Grr. To **CnoteChrist** , yes **friedo** is right, the captions for broadcast programs are encoded into the broadcast signal itself. As for “dirty signals,” what I have encountered is a degraded quality of the captions due to signal interference, either from the way the antenna is set up, or because the tape that the program is being recorded on is getting older, and therefore is more subject to little recording hiccups. The better the reception, the better the captioning. Bad reception, and the phrase, “Answer the phone, will you?” could come through as “AnT&’ t$e3 Tphe,?” Cable is theoretically supposed to help, and most of the time it does solve the reception problem. But lately I’ve noticed that the quality of the cable reception on channels above 45 is sometimes so poor as to confound any possible reception of the captions. As for VHS, it seems that most mass-market videos made after 1985 seem to be closed captioned. Prior to that, it gets kind of iffy. Not that I would worry about that, since a 15 year old videotape’s degraded quality of video and audio (and therefore the captions get futzed, too) probably means the whole thing isn’t worth seeing. ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/10 "2001-04-09T18:16:06Z")
**CnoteChris_T_**? I’ve seen my name butchered around here more than a few times, but never like that. I assume I’d been in more trouble than I already am if I used _that_ as my real screen name. Until I get a big ego, I’ll stick with **CnoteChris**. But I like the typo. It makes me feel all important, all powerfull, all… In response to CC question, thanks. I somehow missed **padeye’s** post and didn’t see that it had already been answered. The few times I’ve ever looked for CC on taped material, I never saw it. Maybe it wasn’t offered on that show or the recorder didn’t pick it up. Thanks, though. ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/11 "2001-04-09T21:24:32Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by CnoteChris \* > **CnoteChrisT**? I’ve seen my name butchered around here more than a few times, but never like that._\* Sorry about that. I try hard to avoid typos, but occasionally one gets past me. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/12 "2001-04-09T22:13:57Z")
It doesn’t seem to be only the older VCRs that have problems recording captions…I bought a new JVC VCR just last summer, and for some reason, it doesn’t seem to record captions. My older JVC model did. Very curious, especially since the new VCR has about a skillion more features than the other one… ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2001, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/13 "2001-04-09T22:14:25Z")
You’re talking to the _king_ of typos **Atreyu**. No complaints from me, I thought it was funny. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2001, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/14 "2001-04-10T00:58:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > \*\* > You can do your own captions but the equipment is expensive, $1500 or so & the price hasn’t come down. Might be fun encoding secret messages. \*\* It might be fun to encode smartass remarks about the film a la’ _Mystery Science Theater 3000,_ too! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2001, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/15 "2001-04-10T03:52:10Z")
My grandma uses closed captioning on her TV, and a few times when I’ve been there, I’ve noticed something interesting. On the news, they’re showing stock news footage from a few years ago or so, relevant to the current story (for instance, the start of the Gulf War, shown during the conclusion of same war). It’s ten-second clips of video, with a voiceover uniting it all… Except that they forgot to change the captioning to match the voiceover. The sound makes perfect sense, but the screen is showing fragments of several different stories, from way back when. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2001, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/16 "2001-04-10T15:39:38Z")
You can find the people that do closed captioning services on the net. [captionmax.com](http://captionmax.com) was one, I think. The big people who caption are the US Gov. Dept of Education. Also, the National Captioning Institute. I tell ya though, in 15 years I have not seen one captioned xxx flick. Sure, you can sometimes get them with subtitles. And forget about the usual hearing person comments of ‘why would you need captions? all they say is uhuh ohohoh’. They do caption NC-17 though. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2001, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/17 "2001-04-10T22:51:13Z")
RACHEL) Jack, why don’t you come into my office. I have a special assignment for you. JACK) You know I can’t work like this. RACHEL) Work time is over, Jack. It’s time to play. _[o/[sup]~[/sup] Funk music starts o/[sup]~[/sup]]_ RACHEL) Oh yeah. JACK) _[grunts]_ RACHEL) Like that, baby. JACK) _[grunts]_ Somehow, I think you’re better off without the captions. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2001, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/18 "2001-04-11T01:19:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > **The big people who caption are the US Gov. Dept of Education. Also, the National Captioning Institute.** Actually, the US Dept. of Education doesn’t do any captioning themselves. They actually help fund it, and sometimes major companies do as well. Though there are many captioning companies, I think the two biggest (at least the ones I see caption the most) are the aforementioned NCI and the Caption Center of WGBH Public Television in Boston, Mass. (02134, of course) ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2001, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/19 "2001-04-11T15:30:05Z")
My wimpy college, Monterey Peninsula College, just got captioning equipment so they have a job for a captioning assistant. Why on earth they got such equipment is a mystery. ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2001, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296/20 "2001-04-11T20:52:37Z")
I know that some colleges and universities produce their own videos (promotional or educational), and they probably feel that captioning them would be a good idea. Makes sense to me. The more captioned material there is out there, the happier I am. I just wish that the Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel would have more captioned programs. It seems like a very large percentage of their programming does not have captions of any kind. Maybe the folks there can take a few tips from your “wimpy” college. 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closed-captioned-videos-do-they-exist/61296.md?page=2)