Closed Captioning on iTunes for video downloads

bgramerbgramer
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
I hope you can pass this on to the right people at Apple. I've been unable to find any contacts there other than the usual "blackhole" emails on their web site.



Thanks!

BG





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Dear whom it may concern at Apple,



I'm a longtime user of Apple products dating back to the original Macintosh, and I'm a shareholder and a believer in Apple's vision.



I'm writing because I wanted to share a concern I have about iTunes.



I'm deaf, and I can't view text-captioning with downloaded videos on iTunes. It bugs me that I feel left out of this paradigm shift from broadcast to internet viewing. I am able to access closed-captioning on TV/DVDs/Movies to understand what's being said, and depend heavily on that.



I downloaded one of the Lost episodes and it hit me that there weren't any options for me to understand what was being spoken unlike the other forms of media. That being said, I want to pass along 2 suggestions/scenarios that I hope Apple will incorporate into iTunes because, not only do I want to be able to enjoy it myself, I want 28 Million other deaf and hard-of-hearing people (10% of US population) to enjoy the Apple experience too.



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1) Scenario 1: Create a new feature in the iTunes Menu-bar that lets the viewer toggle captioned text "on-or-off" while watching videos.



iTunes is built on top of the Quicktime framework so text-captioning should be supported.



It doesn't cost any more money for Content Providers to provide captioned text files (timecode markers) along with their content because it was already created for and streamed during broadcast. This should already exist and be shared.



In this first scenario, iTunes viewers would toggle the text-captioning "on" within iTunes to view text-captioning in the video.



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2) Scenario 2: Content Providers, through iTunes provide an alternative video download option containing embedded captioned text (like subtitled movies)



Another possible approach would be to have Apple request that Content Providers also provide text-captioned copies for these who choose to download that version instead of non-captioned files.



In this second scenario, All deaf/HOH people could simply just purchase the captioned files in iTunes instead.



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I hope this feedback and these 2 suggestions help. If you have any better ideas, I'm all for it! Please pass this along to the right people in Apple, so that maybe, hopefully, something can be done to address this. Would love to hear back from you and or whoever else gets this.



Thank you for your time!



BG

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    ndmccormackndmccormack Posts: 13member
    Thats a damn good point! Lets hope apple hear this and add it in.



    in the mean time you can rip your dvd's into iPod format with subtitles burnt into the video..



    http://handbrake.m0k.org/



    Niall
  • Reply 2 of 7
    progmacprogmac Posts: 1,850member
    yeah, they should really be doing that. it's been required for tv makers and programmers for years now (ayk), and apple should be held to the same standards
  • Reply 3 of 7
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Print it and snail-mail it, send it to someone on the board of directors, their names are easily accessable and surely they can get the message to the right place and get ths going, this is most certinly an over-sight, nothing more.



    Snail mail if you want to be taken REALLY seriously.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    mad1661mad1661 Posts: 2member
    Digg the story so apple can see what you are saying

    http://digg.com/apple/Digg_for_those..._Itunes_Please

  • Reply 5 of 7
    flinch13flinch13 Posts: 228member
    That's a damn good idea. And it wouldn't be all that hard for Apple to add that feature.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    spindriftspindrift Posts: 674member
    I think it's an excellent idea and what appears to be an obvious oversight on Apples part.

    Now I don't mean to distract for the importance and relevance of this thread, but why do we all of sudden have a load of new subscribers who just add nothing but Digg links in threads. It's very annoying and doesn't offer any value to the forum.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    flinch13flinch13 Posts: 228member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpinDrift View Post


    I think it's an excellent idea and what appears to be an obvious oversight on Apples part.

    Now I don't mean to distract for the importance and relevance of this thread, but why do we all of sudden have a load of new subscribers who just add nothing but Digg links in threads. It's very annoying and doesn't offer any value to the forum.



    Good point. While I think Digg is useful for getting the word out, everyone should try to contribute something meaningful to a forum if they're going to post.



    Do you think they could add different language tracks to their media? I mean, there are sometimes spanish tracks and stuff to go along with television broadcast, and all you need to do is hit a button on your remote to change over to them. Also for full length movies... there are almost always multiple language tracks for DVD's, as well as captions in different languages. If I were buying a movie from iTunes I would appreciate this option... perhaps even pay a slight (10%?) premium for a feature like that.
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