We here at Video Labs www.VideoLabs.net have now added HD closed-captioning to our menu of services.

Standard EIA-608 (EIA = Electronics Industries Association) is the techical name given to the format that we have all come to associate with closed-captioning over the years.  You know, those white block letters within a black box.  

 If you work in television, you may also know that the 608 captioning information is carried in the vetical interval part of the video signal, on line 21 to be exact.  (You can see the white line data if you have the ability to underscan the monitor screen.)

But there is no Line 21 in digital television (of which HDTV is part of).  Instead, captions are put into a data stream with the digtal signal.  And that data set is called EIA-708 captions.

708 captions offer various fonts, letter colors and a range of option for backgrounds among other features.  But in reality, today’s 708 captions are basically upconverted 608 captions limited to the 32 characters per line standard of 608. 

Now a digital TV user may be able to utilize some of the 708 advantages with that upconverted 608 signal, but as you can imagine, there is a lot more to 708 digital captioning heading our way down the road than exists now.

And you may have heard that there are some hurdles still to work out some HDTV users to access the 708 captions.  Unlike SD connections between cable boxes, DVD players and television sets, it appears that the HDMI connectors used in homes between a cable or satellite HD decoder box and a HDTV do not pass through the 708 data set.  So that means that the captions have to be decoded before the HDMI connector — in otherwords, by the cable or satellite decoder box.  Unfortunately, as of yet, trying to make that adjustment within a decoder box has not been very user-friendly.  The FCC is aware of this. http://tinyurl.com/5kjj2a  . . . and like everything else, all will surely get worked out eventually.

But in the mean time, you are likely saying, “That’s all very fine and good David, but all I know is that I have an HD program that has to get closed-captioned!”

Don’t worry, just give me a call:  301-217-0000 x104 or e-mail me at dryan@videolabs.net  We’ll get it done for you.  (One disclaimer: while we can playback and record 720 HD tapes, presently Video Labs cannot caption HD programs that originate as 720 and need to end up as 720 closed-captioned.  Call me nonetheless and let’s see if we can offer you some options to that.)

I welcome you comments below.  Thanks - David

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