SCC Captions Editor?

[TwoToad]

I was wondering if anyone knows of any editors that support closed captions? I'm looking for one that handles SCC captions, positioning information, can import SRT subtitles, and might be open source/community supported.

I've found MacCaption/CaptionMaker (http://www.cpcweb.com/) for Mac/Windows that would do the trick, but is closed source.

[a451guy451]

You can use a combo of SCC tools and SubtitleEdit.

[TwoToad]

Thank you! I didn't know that Subtitle Edit could save as SCC. Unfortunately, I don't believe it can do any positioning yet.

[spawnbsd]

Thank you! I didn't know that Subtitle Edit could save as SCC. Unfortunately, I don't believe it can do any positioning yet.

I find SubtitleEdit doesn't produce correct SCC files; everything has problems with them. At least when testing using an SRT source.

I use SCCtools mod to convert the SRT to an SCC, and then insert them as CEA 608/708 into an AVC stream via Manzanita MP2TSME.

[TwoToad]

Very nice, spawnbsd. I'm muxing the SCC files with *.m4v's using Subler for the Mac to produce iTunes capable videos. It's purely a hobby, and I'm not deaf, but due to a touch of ADD, I miss words and conversations and the subs help...

I like how captions work on apple devices vs. their subtitles. (subs are limited to 2 lines at the bottom of the screen where captions can be positioned next to the speaker or at the top to avoid burned in credits, etc.)

It looks like the SCCTools srt->scc is going to be the way to go, with a little hand editing to adjust positions. The only editors I've really found have all been comercial products, such as MacCaption, Scenarist Lemony, or MAGpie (which I can't seem to get to work). It'd be nice to develop an open source captions editor so the community and low budget operations could provide captions...

[spawnbsd]

It'd be nice to develop an open source captions editor so the community and low budget operations could provide captions...

I think SubtitleEditor would be the closest to accomplishing this. I see a new version was recently release, I'll need to retest its .scc support.

[Blue_MiSfit]

MacCaption / CaptionMaker (same product, uses a shared USB dongle for licensing) are indeed not open-source, and they're not exactly cheap either.

However, it's an amazing product with some of the best support I've ever experienced.

I understand this is a personal project, and definitely understand the desire to avoid spending money. If anyone else reads this thread with professional aspirations, go buy MacCaption / CaptionMaker. It will pay for itself over and over.

Derek

[TwoToad]

Good info Blue... I'm glad to see MacCaption get good praise from a Doom9 member. Do you know roughly how much it costs? It's not listed on their website.

Oh, and btw...

Daryk (f'd up spelling of your name... =D)

[Nikse555]

Latest beta of SE should have improved read/write support for SCC: http://www.nikse.dk/SubtitleEdit.zip

All subtitles should be centered at bottom of screen... but I don't know how to test it ;)
No individual positioning sorry.

[Blue_MiSfit]

I'm not sure, they have a lot of versions available, depending on which features you need. My company recently purchased a license of the "HD Enterprise" version, which is their top tier license. We needed this specific version for embedding SMPTE 436M VANC tracks containing 608 and 708 closed captions into MXF files (from SCC files). That particular version cost about $10k for one seat, which may sound high, but it's very cheap compared to the previous (tape based) workflows, often involving VERY EXPENSIVE hardware caption encoders. That's somewhat out of scope for the purposes of this discussion, though!

There are lots of other versions though. Talk to their sales team, they'll figure out which version you really need - based on your requirements. They're very cool people and will ship you a demo USB dongle if you ask nicely ;)

Their product manager, Jason Livingston, is all over the creativecow forums offering up caption advice. He also heads up a lot of the support tickets I've opened up. I can't say enough good things about this guy!

Derek