Another techy blog for those of you adding .scc closed captioning files to your DVDs.
First, the Scenarist Closed Captioning format (.scc) is used by several DVD authoring programs to encode line21 closed caption data into your DVD video. Virtually any problem with a .scc file is either a timing problem or a monitoring problem.
How do you know it’s a monitoring problem?
- Q: Are you are trying to preview the captions before you burn the actual disc?
- A: You won’t see them. The “simulator” in most DVD authoring systems does not decode the closed caption data. You must burn a physical DVD to test your captions.
- Q: Are you playing a disc and still don’t see captions?
- A: Make sure your television set has closed captions turned ON in the setup menu. If you still don’t see captions, your DVD player might be stripping the CC data or not properly decoding the CC data.
- Q: Are you trying to play roll-up captions in the Apple DVD Player?
- A: You won’t see them. Apple DVD Player does not support roll-up captions. Roll-up captions are best viewed using a DVD player and television.
How do you fix a monitoring problem?
- Make sure your television set has closed captions turned ON in the setup menu.
- Try playing the disc in a different DVD player that you are certain can play closed captions.
- Try routing the signal differently, using different cables, player modes and monitors.
How do you know it’s a timing problem?
- The captions will be out of sync with the sound, and it may get worse towards the end of the program.
- If the timing is drastically off, you will likely receive an error message when importing the .scc file in your authoring system.
It’s usually a difference in timing between the MPEG-2 video asset and the proxy video you gave your captioning company.
- Check: Did you make any edits to your MPEG-2 video asset after you sent the proxy file? Are the start times the same? Are the frame rates the same? If the timecode of the proxy video and your final video do not match, you will have timing problems.
How do you fix a timing problem?
- Send the captioning company a new proxy video with burned-in timecode that matches your final MPEG-2 video asset. Be careful to note Drop-Frame versus Non-Drop Frame timecode.
- Email your project manager the first timecode, last timecode, and frame rate of your final MPEG-2 video asset; they may be able to do an offset and send you a new file.
We hope that these help you fix any problems you have with a .scc file. As always, contact us if you have any more questions or need some help!