RE: caption/subtitle discussion on ogg accessibility list

I suspect the Ogg group will go their own way, and while it is disappointing they would not pick up dfxp directly I can understand their reasoning; and this is really not much different to any other proprietary codec.

The primary point about DFXP for me is in its use as a clearing house between production and delivery, and as long as there is a dfxp<-->ogg translation I see no problem in them using whatever they want for end user delivery (although the subrip text format does seem overly basic, it's really not that different from 3gpp or 608.). I'd love the world to standardise on a single delivery format, but I'm realistic that that is not on the cards any time soon, it being too easy to just whip up another time+string format without really considering generality, users needs, IP protection, internationalisation etc, etc.

The way to get to the ideal point is to start at the production and b2b end. The key here is a common origination format, once that is established, and then when mainstream proprietary players to consume and display it with full fidelity; then we can start to think about a one size fits all solution based on dfxp or some successor.

Sean Hayes
Media Accessibility Strategist
Accessibility Business Unit
Microsoft

Office:  +44 118 909 5867,
Mobile: +44 7875 091385

From: public-tt-request@w3.org [mailto:public-tt-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Geoff Freed
Sent: 08 December 2008 14:09
To: public-tt@w3.org
Subject: caption/subtitle discussion on ogg accessibility list


there's a lengthy discussion about captions/subtitles going on at the ogg accessibility list.  archives are available at http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/accessibility/, or you can sign up at http://lists.xiph.org/mailman/listinfo/accessibility and join in.

there has been some debate over what text-display format to support initially, and the group seems headed toward support of SubRip (srt).  i've expressed concern that doing so might initially limit the usefulness of ogg captions/subtitles, and have lobbied for the inclusion of dfxp from the beginning, rather than waiting until after srt support has been established.  you can see my comments in the archives.

g.