How to include extended transcripts with video

Hi folks,

this is actually a question of what people would like to do. The HTML  
working group is currently winding up HTML5. One of the outstanding issues  
is how to include an "extended transcript" for a video. I believe the  
opinion of practising professionals about which pattern seems more natural  
is important input.

(Basically a script for people who are just going to read it, so perhaps  
more descriptive than just the captions but not necessarily timestamped.  
It could be HTML, WebVTT mixing in the audio and descriptive audio, or it  
could be more like an actual movie or play script).

There are basically two proposals on the table. One is to use the track  
element (same as for captions, subtitles, audio description, ...) and have  
the browser provide access (e.g. a button added to the video player, like  
the "cc" buttons that are added for captions). The HTML would look a bit  
like this:

<video src="video">
   <track kind="transcript" src="transcript">
   <track kind="captions" src="captions">
</video>

(etc.) The other idea is to build on the common practice of having a link  
to the transcript somewhere on the page already. It would provide an  
attribute on the video element, which would point to the link that is on  
the page.

<video src="video" transcript="transcriptLink">
   <track kind="captions" src="captions">
</video>
...blahblah...
<a href="transcript" id="transcriptLink">click here for extended  
transcript</a>

In both cases, where you have multiple languages available you just  
multiply the relevant elements.

I'd like to get people's perspective on what makes better sense and,  
importantly, why. f this results in some reasonable amount of useful  
material it will be gathered as feedback for the HTML working group.

cheers

Chaals

-- 
Charles 'chaals' McCathieNevile  Opera Software, Standards Group
     je parle français -- hablo español -- jeg kan noen norsk
http://my.opera.com/chaals       Try Opera: http://www.opera.com

Received on Wednesday, 9 May 2012 15:26:40 UTC