Video Suggestion -- Captioning

Greetings,

One of the best resources for the newbie has to be the access to videos the forum provides. Seeing how to do something, how a hang is supposed to look, how to tie knots -- the list in nearly endless. However, there's one drawback. If you're deaf or hard of hearing, you're pretty much up the creek.

Oddly enough, I speak from experience. I'm stone deaf. While I realize that the deaf form a rather small minority, (hell, I don't know anybody who's deaf but me), they aren't the only one who could benefit from captioning. People who don't understand English (Scots and the Welsh for example) could benefit greatly from having captioning. Might even be able to do a quick translation into something like German or Creole -- who knows?

If you want a good laugh, one can always try to turn English Captioning on in YouTube to see what you can find. Quite often, the video will have the ability to do captioning on the fly, via Google. For a really good time, I'd suggest trying YouTube on the subject of Stealth Camping. Quite a few of those videos (particularly the one where there's a guy sitting in front of a bike explaining how and why people do stealth camping). I thought my wife and daughter were going to need an oxygen mask, the way they were laughing) [ I still don't know what a caterpillar camera of secrecy is.]

Now, I don't know much about the formats for YouTube or the videos that are on the forum right now. Most of my experience has been adding captioning to MP4 format files for movies. I need to research how one can attach a language stream to a video (anybody volunteering to help?) but I'd be willing to do stuff for free if someone could get me a transcript of the video.

Any takers?


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[ if you're wondering, this is a sly way to try and get transcripts of some of the videos I've watched. Sneaky, but what can I say.]

Welcome to the very, VERY small club of deaf hangers, Tgbrowning! I can completely relate to the frustration of understanding videos. I am lucky that my other half is able to interpret in sign for me if needed(He once captioned "Alone In the Wilderness with Richard Proenneke"), but many times, I am as lost as you (think stove videos, when we never see the faces!:lol:).

I think we, as well as others around the world who have language/accent barriers could benefit from another method of communication with DIY videos. Captioning professionals can do it blazing fast, but the learning curve isn't too bad to those who want to try their hand at it. However, since we are a small minority, the demand isn't quite enough to bring it to attention. That being said, I do have a few connections to folks who freelance in captioning for a small fee. Let me know if you are interested, and I can see if we can get a youtube following for captioned videos specifically for our niche. Then we can be in the cool club, too.:cool:

While I don't do videos often I'll do my best to add proper captioning to them from now on. Thanks for reminding us all that different people have different needs. :cool:

I use VideoPad Editor Pro to edit my raw footage. Is there some software that will automatically create captioning with VP Edtr Pro? Or is there software that works with other editing programs, e.g. Adobe PE or others??

Maybe some sort of Dragon application??

Having watched a fair amount of captioned material I think that might work as well or better than a lot of the audio commentary. If it's a lecture it is one issue but if all you are telling me is "Smucker's trail into mysterious falls" ... "mysterious falls"......"campsite".... a caption is as good or better than the the same thing spoken over or under the music track. Probably less work to add too.

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Originally Posted by Catavarie

Thanks for reminding us all that different people have different needs. :cool:

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DITTO!

Rain Man

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YouTube has a Closed Caption function "CC" on the bottom of each video. BUT it is comical in it's application. Wish it did work better.

I have Dragon Naturally Speaking installed on my PC since I lost my finger recently in an accident. I don't know how it might help but if someone has a suggestion or request, I'd be happy to help.

I can't help but chuckle at the idea of a transcript of some of Shug's videos! :D

The one stand alone software I've seen with the most positive reviews can be found here.

It's from Snychrimedia and a single use license is $100 .... but there is a free fully function 14 day trial download available. Might be interesting to give it a try and see how well it works with my garbled Southern Mountain English! :woot:

Especially if it'd help out any cute Ginger Haired friends I know! :woot:

You bet I'm interested -- the only problem is just how much time I can allocate to it. I seem to be a bit minus on spare time these days.

I have done captioning for movies, as I said, and it is time consuming. I've gotten better at it but even so, I would guess that it would take me between 40 and 100 hours for a 90 minute movie -- depending upon how much dialog there was. It varies so much.

I started doing that when I found that there quite a few movies I really loved that had no captioning available at all. My top favorite move, A New Leaf (Elaine May & Walter Mathau) won't ever come into legitamate DVD cause May hates the film -- so I did it myself.

Looking at some of the videos here, I was impressed with the amount of effort and generally high quality. The How-To videos should be fairly easy to do and in fact, I really think nothing more than a transcript of what's said, without timing info, would be more than adequate. For example, a lot of the knot tying would be quick and easy to do. Same with some of the alcohol stove making. There seems to be a lot of time where the director talks (options? sticking points? Humor-- which I knew) and the video itself is simply showing something being held or slowly turned for the camera.

At this point, I really, really need to find out about formats and streams related to YouTube. That's the biggest stumbling block I can see right now.

Thanks, btw. Now I know somebody else who's deaf. :)

That would be a big help. You know, short captions would do for a lot of things. And while I can't speak for anybody else, I do know that I can make a guess (shrewd or not) on what's being said by context.

Do me a favor if you would and review the last video up you put up. Can you spot places in it where a word or phrase might just be all a viewer needs? I'm guessing, well hoping more, that that's the case.

Thanks,

I don't know, I'm afraid. I use Subtitle Workshop almost exclusively and it's kind of an oddity. Somethings are really difficult to do in it.

Let me know if you find some software that you like so I can take a look at it too. Would be a big help.

Thanks.

Advanced understatement. Some of the on the fly captioning is a scream. I caught my wife whose hearing is excellent, turning it on. She says it a great way to brighten the day.

That was one of my goals. Looks like he's a scream but I'm afraid I, ah, miss the more profound points he must make. I do enjoy them myself.

I took a look and it does look like it could be a help. I have the feeling what I'm already doing with Subtitle Workshop is fairy close to the same thing.

Big drawback.

I'm deaf. I can't make up my own transcripts.

That's the big hurdle for me.

Thanks for the link.

I dated a deaf girl for a long time and cc was always an issue on diy/hammock videos. Wish there was a better cc option for deaf folks.

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Originally Posted by hammock_monk

I can't help but chuckle at the idea of a transcript of some of Shug's videos! :D

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My thought exactly :laugh: Have to try that youtube thing people speak about - should bring a good laugh!