RE: Preserving subtitles

Hi Vicky, since you are not that far from me (I'm based nr Aberaeron), if you'd like I could come up some time and we could walk through your project and what some of the options might be.

Sean Hayes
TTWG Chair.

-----Original Message-----
From: John Birch [mailto:John.Birch@screensystems.tv] 
Sent: 22 July 2013 10:21
To: vicky.phillips@llgc.org.uk
Cc: public-tt@w3.org
Subject: RE: Preserving subtitles

Hi Vicky,

I am not aware of any effort to preserve subtitle or caption data in any format other than the format used for distribution.
I.e. if the program had 608 captions in it when transmitted, then they might be preserved in an archive.

However, most subtitles and captions are transmitted using closed mechanisms (e.g. hidden in the VBI of a signal, or as a separate stream of data (e.g. DVB)) and these are most probably not captured in archives.
Broadcasters may archive a more complete signal, or may store the original caption or subtitle data files (which will be in a different format - often proprietary).

The EBU is seeking to assist in normalising the use of 'TTML' within broadcast for captioning and subtitling with the EBU family of standards derived from TTML.
See http://tech.ebu.ch/ebu-tt

The additional information you refer to (the contextual info) is not currently stored in any format, or indeed captured electronically at all in most cases (consisting often of post it notes or thoughts in the subtitler or captioner's head!) This is an area that I believe should (and will in future) change as this information has huge value in archiving, curation and search applications. I believe it would be useful for EBU Part 4 (the relevant proposed standard) to use concepts from TEI.

Hope that helps,
Best regards,

John

John Birch | Strategic Partnerships Manager | Screen Main Line : +44 1473 831700 | Ext : 270 | Direct Dial : +44 1473 834532 Mobile : +44 7919 558380 | Fax : +44 1473 830078 John.Birch@screensystems.tv | www.screensystems.tv | https://twitter.com/screensystems

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P Before printing, think about the environment-----Original Message-----
From: Vicky Phillips [mailto:vicky.phillips@llgc.org.uk]
Sent: 22 July 2013 09:56
To: public-tt@w3.org
Subject: Re: Preserving subtitles

Thank you Mike and John for your responses, this is becoming a bit clearer to me now.  My next question is do institutes that preserve this kind of data in a digital archive use TTML and ensure that somewhere in the archive is something that will explain the styles or prefixes used so that generations to come understand them or do they convert them to something like TEI (Text Encoding Initiative)?
Many thanks for your help.
Vicky
--
Vicky Phillips
Rheolwr Safonau Digidol / Digital Standards Manager

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru            National Library of Wales
vicky.phillips@llgc.org.uk      Ffôn / Phone (01970) 632 925

Un o lyfrgelloedd mawr y byd    One of the great libraries of the world
http://www.llgc.org.uk/


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Received on Monday, 22 July 2013 14:28:07 UTC