PS3 & Blu-ray Players: Why Closed Captioning is Necessary

[Banjo]

Yesterday, there were some discussions on closed captioning, SDH (subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing) and what issues need to be addressed.

The HDMI cable, it is a wonderful thing to have. It can carry the 1080p signal bringing you true high-definition video and audio quality. The bad news is that there are drawbacks. The cable itself is only able to transmit a video signal and an audio signal simultaneously.

What this means is that you cannot put any other signal through a HDMI cable because it will not be recognized at the other end. This is an issue for many deaf and hard of hearing people. A lot of deaf people use closed captioning to read the dialogues and background noises so they can become aware of what is going on.

Closed captioning and SDH are different. SDH itself is image-based while closed captioning is ASCII-based. For the last 10 years with the HDTVs on the market, people are still facing issues with built-in CC decoders on their HDTV sets. There are a few factors in why these are happening. For example, many DVD players are unable to send the CC signal to the HDTV when it is enabled in the progressive mode. The reason why this happens is because the analog CC fills in every 21st line in the interlaced mode. So when it is in the progressive mode, all lines appear at once so the CC signal is unable to find a place to fill in the information.

So, the best way to solve that problem is to use a software decoder rather than a hardware decoder. It is available on many DVD playback softwares on both PC and Mac. The CC signal will overlay the video signal rather than being sent directly to the monitor, projector, TV, HDTV and other types of displays.

The fact is, there are no Blu-ray players out there that offer such a feature to overlay the CC signal onto the video signal. I don't know about the other Blu-ray players, but if these players’ firmware can be updated; then it may be a possibility. I am pretty certain that it is entirely possible to do it on the PS3 with a firmware update.

Now, even though most movies on Blu-ray are subtitled for the deaf and hard of hearing. There are still many deaf owners who own movies on DVD. Many of these movies on DVD do not use subtitles, they use closed captioning instead.

I have brought this issue up with some insiders including Paidgeek, Bill Hunt and more on several occasions. Whether you like it or not, Sony, Fox, MGM and Warner Bros holds a bad reputation for not subtitling or captioning the lyrics in the main feature (movie) and the special features. I sent Sony an e-mail regarding "Across the Universe" and how they abused the use of the term, SDH (subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing) when a large number of lyrics were not subtitled mainly because they were copyrighted. It's that simple, if you can't subtitle the lyrics, don't use the term, SDH to describe the subtitle track because it isn't fully accessible. They still haven't responded to the e-mail since it was sent more than a month ago. So yes, I do believe Sony is not being responsive to our needs.

Disney, DreamWorks, Paramount, Genius Products, New Line Cinema and more caption/subtitle all of the contents including the special features. They do care about our needs. There are thirty million Americans with hearing loss. It is not a small number of people at all.

Accessibility is important and should be made a top priority by every studio out there. Especially when the deaf and hard of hearing consumers pay the same price as everybody else. Just like the blind people deserve descriptive audio tracks on the movies they buy or rent.

There should be no barriers, but there are and we are constantly fighting to break them down. Sometimes, it's just easier for the majority to live in ignorance because it is blissful. However, ignoring it isn't going to make the problems go away. We do constantly face naysayers and audists on many occasions. I'm pretty much used to seeing ignorant remarks being made toward us. I don't let it get to me and I continue to fight for what I believe in.

We demand equal access. That is all we are asking for.

Here is a good website for these who may be unfamiliar with the captioning issues.

"Captioning Sucks!"