Re: IPCC dates and rules have been published

On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 5:44 AM, Geoff Freed <geoff_freed@wgbh.org> wrote:
>
> Note that SMPTE-TT is named as a safe-harbor format here:
> https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2012/03/30/2012-7247/closed-captioning-of-internet-protocol-delivered-video-programming-implementation-of-the#p-283


This statement has to be taken with utmost care, because it seems to
imply a lot more than the actual ruling says. We need to avoid
spreading FUD about SMPTE-TT being the only acceptable format online,
which is what this statement seems to imply.

Instead, the ruling only says that SMPTE-TT is a "safe harbor
interchange and delivery format". This makes sense because SMPTE-TT
isn't actually a single format. Instead it is a format that allows
TTML or an encapsulation of your existing format into a SMPTE-TT file.
Thus, it basically avoids having to make a decision for which format
to transcode your captions into and leaves that problem to the
receiving entity that has to present the data. This is why there is a
restriction to "interchange and delivery" and there is NO statement
that SMPTE-TT is the rendering format.

Instead, it is stated in [1] that
"Video programming distributors and providers must enable the
rendering or pass through of all required captions to the end user,
maintaining the quality of the captions provided by the video
programming owner and transmitting captions in a format reasonably
designed to reach the end user in that quality."

Thus, the requirement on rendering is about retaining the quality of
the captions as authored using whichever format is most appropriate.

Let's please be very careful with our choice of words and not drive
everyone crazy about a "safe harbor" format that is no more than a
recommendation as to how to deliver your data between commercial
entities.

[1] https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2012/03/30/2012-7247/closed-captioning-of-internet-protocol-delivered-video-programming-implementation-of-the#p-397


Best Regards,
Silvia.

Received on Tuesday, 3 April 2012 22:53:45 UTC