Subtitles play a crucial role in enhancing the viewing experience by making content more accessible and understandable. They are especially valuable for people with hearing impairments, allowing them to fully enjoy movies and shows. Subtitles also enable viewers to watch foreign-language films without waiting for a dubbed version, providing the convenience of enjoying new releases as soon as they hit the screen.
In English, subtitles are often referred to as either “subtitles” or “closed captioning.” The term “closed captioning” is usually marked with a CC icon next to the supported language, a practice more common in the United States. In contrast, the simpler term “subtitles” is more widely used across Europe.
There is actually no difference between closed captioning, but there is a common misconception on the internet that closed captioning is more perfect, although this is not true.
History of the term closed captioning
To better understand the terminology, let’s take a look back at the history of subtitles. In the era of analog television, subtitles were directly overlaid on the video, creating a single, inseparable frame. However, this method lacked flexibility, so in the 1980s, work began to improve subtitle display. A new system was developed that broadcast subtitles on a separate channel, allowing the TV to combine two channels into one. This made it possible to turn subtitles on and off as needed. However, due to the complexity of implementation, this system did not become widespread.
With the advent of digital video formats, a more advanced solution emerged. Codecs started to support subtitles directly within the video stream. This meant that subtitles were included with the video file, and to display them, you only needed to enable them in the settings of your TV or video playback device. Additionally, digital subtitles allowed for multiple language options, such as English and Spanish, giving viewers the freedom to choose their preferred language.
Since these subtitles needed to be manually turned on, the term “closed captioning” was born. It implies that the captions are present but hidden within the digital stream until the viewer decides to activate them. This term became popular in the United States as a kind of slang for user-controlled subtitles.
What closed captioning is by type
While there’s no longer a technical difference between closed captioning and regular subtitles, the digital age has significantly transformed how subtitles are used. Today, it’s common for movies filmed in English to offer multiple subtitle tracks in various languages, allowing viewers to choose their preferred language easily.
A newer development is automatic subtitles, which differ from traditional studio-created subtitles. These are generated by servers that use software to analyze the movie’s audio track and automatically create subtitles in real-time. Since these subtitles are only displayed when requested, they also fall under the closed captioning category. However, a notable drawback of automatic subtitles is the potential for errors due to speech recognition limitations. To help viewers identify them, these subtitles are often labeled as auto-generated.
