News Subtitles - Typed directly? Program assisted?

Factual Questions
1

So I have to admit I’m very curious. Are news subtitles typed completely on the fly or is there some computer program out there to help them? If there are programs, what kind of programs are they?

I’ve been watching the news with my dad, and he uses subtitles because of hearing loss and refuses to get a hearing aid. And in watching the news I find myself drawn to a sort of game of finding the next error in the transcription, be it typo, completely wrong word, or just completely ignoring a speaker.

Just wondering. If anyone is in the biz and has the info, I’m quite curious.

2

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=288594&highlight=closed+captioning

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mclosedcaption.html

3

Errrr DOH

I searched for subtitles and got nothing related to the question. Closed Captioning makes too much sense. Thanks!

4

IME:

[ul]
[li]Subtitles: The stuff that comes on DVDs. May or may not include speaker names and sound effects (also known as the choice ‘English for the Hearing Impaired’ or similarly worded phrases) You don’t need to tweak your TV to see these. Usually white or yellow. [/li][li]Closed captioning: The stuff that comes in your TV when you figure out the buttons on that there clicker plus the menus. May or may not include sound effects, although I find that happens more often than not.[/li][/ul]

Hope that helps.

(and yes, I’m being deliberately non-technical. :wink: Hey, I have to have a break from trying to decipher developer verbiage in relation to arcane content and turn it into something approaching precise, readable English.)