Banjo's World

Captions matter because captions are…

• Free to viewers of television and the Internet.
• Accessible to individuals living in nearly every household in the United States.
• Professionally produced in the US by highly skilled stenographers and offline captioners. Stenographers transcribe the audio portion of a live program as it is being aired and send the captions across the country in seconds. Offline captioners transcribe prerecorded programming with 100% accuracy before it airs.
• An essential service for the over 31 million individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, giving them access to the audio portion of programming on TV and the Internet.
• A tool that improves reading and listening skills of children and adults by visually tying words with sound.
• A way to strengthen language and comprehension skills for those learning English as a second language, marrying the spoken word with the written word as well as reinforcing grammar and sentence structure.
• A great way to engage and exercise the mind by challenging the viewer to focus on reading, listening and comprehending in real time
• Able to enhance family time by not only allowing all members of the household to enjoy programming at lower volume levels but also knowing the added benefits captions are bringing to everyone – regardless of age.

Source: CaptionsON.com

Key Findings:

• Eight in ten TV viewers have been exposed to captions.
• 50% of those exposed to captions proactively turn captions on some percent of their viewing time.
• Less than 1/5 of them have seen captions online (17%).
• Less than 1/3 of them report having seen captions in TV advertising (31%).
• 70% of those who never use captions said they would turn on captions if they knew about all the benefits of captions. Among those who are under 45 the percentage jumps to 81%.
• But unfortunately 47% of those who responded, when asked if they were unhappy with the quality of captions, said “yes.” And 45% of that group said that they change the channel/turn the program off when they are unhappy with the captions.

Source: CaptionsON.com

It's a good website to check out. They tell you all of the problems associated with captioning and more. As I mentioned earlier today about captioning issues with HDTV and high-definition media/video players such as Blu-ray and HDTV receivers.

They will tell you what you need to know and have the sources to back it up. It is amazing how much power the corporations wield when it comes to passing accessibility laws. They always try to find a loophole to weasel their way out and make excuses. Corporations always send their lobbyists to the government buildings and put the pressure onto the politicians to make some changes. For example, before the digital TVs came out, the government only mandated that analog TVs with a screen size of 13 inches and above must be CC-ready.

Then they had to make a few things once they started selling HDTV displays. Today, the standards are still incredibly weak. We need to start mandating the media/video players including DVD players, Blu-ray players, HDTV receivers and more to be CC-ready. It shouldn't be just the TV sets anymore. Even portable DVD players with built-in LCD screens should be able to display CC.

It is sickening that many people are still living in blissful ignorance while we are fighting to break down the barriers. It is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to get what we want because not enough people are backing us up. Enough is enough. This needs to stop falling onto deaf ears. No pun intended.

Equal access for all.

The HDMI cable, it is a wonderful thing to have. It can carry the 1080p signal bringing you true high-definition video and audio quality. The bad news is that there are drawbacks. The cable itself is only able to transmit a video signal and an audio signal simultaneously.

What this means is that you cannot put any other signal through a HDMI cable because it will not be recognized at the other end. This is an issue for many deaf and hard of hearing people. A lot of deaf people use closed captioning to read the dialogues and background noises so they can become aware of what is going on.

Closed captioning and SDH are different. SDH itself is image-based while closed captioning is ASCII-based. For the last 10 years with the HDTVs on the market, people are still facing issues with built-in CC decoders on their HDTV sets. There are a few factors in why these are happening. For example, many DVD players are unable to send the CC signal to the HDTV when it is enabled in the progressive mode. The reason why this happens is because the analog CC fills in every 21st line in the interlaced mode. So when it is in the progressive mode, all lines appear at once so the CC signal is unable to find a place to fill in the information.

So, the best way to solve that problem is to use a software decoder rather than a hardware decoder. It is available on many DVD playback softwares on both PC and Mac. The CC signal will overlay the video signal rather than being sent directly to the monitor, projector, TV, HDTV and other types of displays.

The fact is, there are no Blu-ray players out there that offer such a feature to overlay the CC signal onto the video signal. I don't know about the other Blu-ray players, but if these players’ firmware can be updated; then it may be a possibility. I am pretty certain that it is entirely possible to do it on the PS3 (Playstation 3) with a firmware update.

Now, even though most movies on Blu-ray are subtitled for the deaf and hard of hearing. There are still many deaf owners who own movies on DVD. Many of these movies on DVD do not use subtitles, they use closed captioning instead.

I have brought this issue up with some film industry insiders including Bill Hunt of ‘The Digital Bits’ and more on several occasions. Whether some people like it or not, Sony, Fox, MGM and Warner Bros holds a bad reputation for not subtitling or captioning the lyrics in the main feature (movie) and the special features. I sent Sony an e-mail regarding "Across the Universe" and how they abused the use of the term, SDH (subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing) when a large number of lyrics were not subtitled mainly because they were copyrighted. Actually, it isn't a copyright infringement. It seems like some people may be misinformed on that part. But it is too common these days. It's that simple, if you can't subtitle the lyrics, don't use the term, SDH to describe the subtitle track because it isn't fully accessible. They still haven't responded to the e-mail since it was sent more than a month ago. So yes, I do believe Sony is not being responsive to our needs.

Disney, DreamWorks, Paramount, Genius Products, New Line Cinema and more caption/subtitle all of the contents including the special features. They do care about our needs. There are thirty million Americans with hearing loss. It is not a small number of people at all.

Accessibility is important and should be made a top priority by every studio out there. Especially when the deaf and hard of hearing consumers pay the same price as everybody else. Just like the blind people deserve descriptive audio tracks on the movies they buy or rent.

There should be no barriers, but there are and we are constantly fighting to break them down. Sometimes, it's just easier for the majority to live in ignorance because it is blissful. However, ignoring it isn't going to make the problems go away. We do constantly face naysayers and audists on many occasions. I'm pretty much used to seeing ignorant remarks being made toward us. I don't let it get to me and I continue to fight for what I believe in.

We demand equal access. That is all we are asking for.

Project readOn just turned a year old. They already made an impact on the internet over the year. If you ask me, I think it's quite an achievement on what they have done so far. I command them for doing a great job.

As a part of the celebration, you are now able to embed any captioned video from Projectreadon.com on your blog. Just like you can with YouTube and Google Video.

Congratulations to the Project readOn team for a great year!

In a recent e-mail I received, the person mentioned that he is working with the local deaf community to organize events at the theatre. He is trying to get a V.I.P. -type program set up for the deaf and hard of hearing moviegoers so it would be easier to show open-captioned movies instead of using the RWC system. I must say he's one heck of a guy because of his dedication to providing accessibility to the deaf and blind moviegoers.

RWC stands for Rear Window Captioning. It has a bad reputation among the deaf moviegoers. I know a lot of hearing people may be surprised to hear that, but I can't say I am and I know why.

The reason why many deaf moviegoers dislike RWC system is because of how much of a hassle it is. It is a tinted plastic glass attached to a snake-like stand. It is bendable and adjustable. However, you would have to come in early to get a good seat. The best place to use it is to sit in middle of the theatre. If you sit in the back, the captions will not be able to fit in it, and if you sit at the front, the captions will be really tiny and difficult to read. If you sit to the right or left, it will be slanted. Also, it will have to sit in the cup holder next to you. So if the theatre is packed, you will have nowhere to put your cup of beverage.

Also, there are too many cases of where the neck of the snake-like stand will be unable to stay in the position you put it in because it is too worn out. So it will repeatedly bend over forcing you to readjust it. Another problem is that you have to sit very still to watch the movie with the captions reflecting off the glass. It can get quite uncomfortable after a while.

Open captioned movies is preferred by many because it's right on the screen instead of having to focus on two separate objects at once which is difficult for some because some people are unable to see both without one being out of focus. As hard as that may be to believe, but it's true. To the deaf people, it is a big pain in the neck. We do have to put up with a lot more than the hearing people ever will have to in their entire lives. The hearing people don't realize that they are really working harder to accommodate us when they could be doing much less by just offering open captioned movies.

The problem is that they are worried about how the moviegoers may react to it and how it may affect the attendance at the theatres. I can understand their argument, but have they ever tried a test run of it? Have they ever ran a month worth of nothing but open captioned movies at every showing on every screen at a few selected locations and study the impact of the experiment? I would really like to know.

In the end, they might be surprised to see how much of a difference it may make. I just hope it would be the surprise I hope for.

In fact, the person who e-mailed me is hearing and his whole family is hearing. His children watch movies with captions turned on all of the times. Just to show you that there are hearing people out there who do watch movies with captions or subtitles turned on. In fact, he is not the only one. I know several people including movie reviewers who watch movies with captions on and they are all hearing.

If they can do that, why can't everybody else? A few people will try to fuss over it but many will probably become accustomed to it. In United Kingdom, they show some TV shows with an interpreter in the corner. Myself, I don't like seeing an interpreter on the screen; I prefer captions since it's less distracting. Different strokes for everyone. But they do it anyway. How do we know how everybody will like it or hate it if we don't give it a shot?

I am not advocating that every single screen should be open-captioned. I am only saying that they should do a test run of it at selected theatres across the country where every movie shown on every screen is open captioned at every showing for a month or more. It should be a good way to study the impact it makes on the audience and how it affects the attendance at these selected theatres. I just wanted to re-clarify what I said earlier and hope people won't take it the wrong way.

If the audience reacts quite positively to the open-captioned movies, then I would say open-captioned movies are far, far more economic compared to using expensive technologies like the RWC system.

I am sure a number of readers are tired of reading about subtitles in our vlogs. Though I still want to do a poll and see what the average reader think. There are two polls below.

As many of you may be aware of, they don't often caption or subtitle TV advertisements online for the deaf and hard of hearing. That was always the case with Superbowl ads ever since they started airing them online on a yearly basis following the Super Bowl event.

Today, that is no longer the case. I received an e-mail from John Erskine, the co-founder of ProjectReadon.com. They are captioning a number of Superbowl ads for everyone on the internet. John has assured me that they will be captioning even more Superbowl ads as they become available online.

If there are some Superbowl ads missing on the Project Readon website; you can submit it via their "Request a Video" feature. I would suggest that you wait for a few days before submitting it. I already mentioned that they are planning on adding more to the website within days.

Just click here to gain access to the Superbowl webpage on the Project Readon website. I want to let the Project Readon team know how grateful I am for their service to the deaf and hard of hearing community. Their dedication to providing such a service is making a big impact on the internet.

Enjoy the Superbowl ads!

By the way, congratulations to the New York Giants for winning the Superbowl game!

Earlier today, I wrote that Shoshannah Stern would be in the second season of "Jericho." I also posted a link to the video clip at the official website. Though it wasn't captioned.

Now, I want to thank Bill Creswell for captioning the video. A few days ago, I mentioned how he is working to caption as many movie trailers as he can free of charge. We shouldn't take it for granted; it's wonderful how many volunteers there are on the internet who are willing to work for free just to provide access.

Believe it or not, there are thousands and thousands of people on the internet who subtitle video clips on a daily basis and don't get a single penny out of it. It makes me wonder why so many websites like CNN, FOX News, CBS News and many, many more websites are not willing to do anything about it. It's a potential career for many people who are already volunteering their time to subtitle just to provide access to everyone. They even subtitle them in foreign languages. There are many people who deserve to be paid for doing such a thing.

In fact, there is a team of people who are getting serious about it. For instance, Project readOn. They just partnered up with Senator Tom Harkin to caption the video clips on his website, I mentioned it back in December.

Anyway, that's all I have to say. Here's the captioned video and remember to thank Bill Creswell for volunteering his time to caption the "Jericho" preview. Also, click here to access his website.

Thanks to Bill Creswell who responded to my recent blog entry, "Captioned Movie Trailers!" He gave me a web address leading to a website titled, "Subtitled Movie Trailers!" Click here to check it out!

They have over 100 trailers that are subtitled. I checked some of them out. The subtitles appear to be burnt in with the movie. Unlikely Bill Creswell's captioned trailers, you cannot turn them off. So the captions will appear a little soft rather than sharp because it's not embedded. Overall, I still recommend that everybody check the website out because they are doing quite a good job on captioning the trailers.

It's always great to see people working hard to make their websites more accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing communities.

Have a Happy New Year!

Bill Creswell, a web developer who works for a theatre that provides closed captioning and descriptive audio. He first contacted me earlier this year in response to my captioned vlogs and asked how I did it. I shared some information with him regarding captioning video clips.

I must say I am pleased with what he has done so far. The reason why he wanted my help in the first place was to see how he can caption the movie trailers on his own and provide them at the local theatre he's employed at. I don't know if he has managed to get any in. But he is doing a fine job of captioning movie trailers and posting them on his blog.

I certainly hope this will be the starting point of pushing the studios into providing English subtitles for the movie trailers on their websites and other websites hosting the movie trailers. I also share the same complaint toward websites like CNN.com and other websites where they provide a large amount of video clips that are inaccessible to the deaf and hard of hearing. It has been years and nothing is still being done about it despite the loud complaints.

I just want to let Bill Creswell know how I really appreciate his hard work and dedication to making the movie trailers more accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing communities around the world.

Bill, keep up the great work! I really appreciate it, and I imagine many of us do too as well. By the way, for these who are interested in watching the captioned movie trailers, just click here to gain access to Bill's website.

Enjoy!

Thank you for all the positive feedback regarding my last blog entry titled, 'HDTV Captioning: What You Should Know'. As a result, here's another 'What You Should Know' column.

The reason why I'm writing this is in response to several complaints among some deaf people regarding subtitle issues while watching movies on their DVD players. There are a lot of people out there who dislike watching movies where black bars are present. I prefer watching movies in their original aspect ratio; which mean black bars will be displayed quite often.

Before the fifties, movies were often filmed and projected in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which is what most television sets are set at. Though that is changing, as there's a lot of widescreen television sets on the market. They are already mainstreamed as of a few years ago. Most widescreen TV displays are set at around 1.78:1. Many television programs today are filmed in 1.78:1.

Then when the television sets were starting to become popular in households, the theatre owners started to see a decline in audience attendance. So they came up with a new aspect ratio and convinced people that the wider the movie, the better. In fact, many film lovers including myself agree with the philosophy. An aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 give the movie a much more cinematic look to it compared to 1.33:1.

Anyway, the problem with subtitles is that they are images, not text. So when you turn them on, they are locked into their place all through the movie. You cannot move it or adjust the size of the subtitles. It doesn't help especially when most television sets already over scan the pictures to start with.

What is an overscan?

There are a few types of overscan. There are two common overscan types starting with optical overscan and digital zoom. Optical overscan is when the TV showing less of the picture rather than the whole picture. Most of the times, it's just mostly borders with a little of the actual image cut off. Digital zoom, it's when the image is scaled or zoomed so it will be larger than the visible area. If your television set does that, you cannot disable it so you may face some problems with subtitles. Usually, it's the super-cheap television sets the deaf consumers should think twice before buying. There are some affordable television sets that won't overscan enough to crop the subtitles, but you should at least do research before buying a television set.

A lot of people make a habit out of zooming into their movies to get rid of the black bars. What will happen is that the subtitles will be cropped out of the display area. Not only to mention that it will decrease the picture quality of the movie. If you have a standard television (1.33:1) and prefer to watch movie in full frame meaning no black bars, you should buy DVDs that are marked 'Full Screen' or 'Full Frame', or where it says 1.33:1 or 1.33. Avoid any DVDs marked 'Widescreen' or the aspect ratios, 1.78:1, 2.35:1 or 2.40:1. If you have a widescreen display and still don't want black bars, avoid any DVDs that are in 1.33:1 or 2.35:1 and 2.40:1. Stick to either 1.78:1 or 1.85:1.

I do have some good news for the Blu-ray owners who prefer to fill up the screen by eliminating the black bars. Sony will be implementing a new feature onto future titles. The new feature will allow us to re-position the subtitles after the black bars are eliminated. Mainly, it is for projectors that are set to project 2.35:1 which result in eliminating the black bars, so will be the subtitles. This won't be possible on the DVD players, they lack the technology needed to use it.

I made some graphic examples for people who want to learn more about the aspect ratios used.

The three examples below, the screen size represents the standard televisions (4:3, Full Frame), the most common screen size used in North America. In each example, the aspect ratio is displayed and named. The black area represent the whole aspect ratio used within a 4:3 television set. The area labelled ‘Black Bars’ is unused area. A lot of people find the black bars to be an annoyance because they believe they are seeing less of the movie, which they are not. It's the other way around; they are getting the whole movie in its full glory.


The three examples below, the screen size represents the widescreen televisions (16:9 or 1.78:1), a mainstreamed screen size used in North America. In each example, the aspect ratio is displayed and named. The black area represent the whole aspect ratio used within a 16:9 (1.78:1) television set. The area labelled ‘Black Bars’ is unused area. In the aspect ratio of 2.35:1, black bars will appear at the top and bottom. The only aspect ratio that will fill up the whole widescreen display is if the movie is in either 1.78:1 or 1.85:1. The black bars will be displayed when a 1.33:1 (4:3, Full-Frame) movie is displayed, the only difference is that it will appear on the sides instead of the top and bottom.


The bottom line is, the best solution is to avoid using the zoom function if you want the subtitles to stay in the picture.

The technology of closed captioning is a wonderful tool for the deaf and hard of hearing. Even the hearing people are finding the benefits in using the technology. I just want to let everybody know that this blog entry will not be covering the issues regarding the problems with captioning on HD channels through some cable/satellite services. Mainly, I will be focusing on all DVD, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD and the HDTV displays. I do feel that it's important that people understand the issues surrounding these formats. It concerns the technology of closed captioning. It is crucial that the deaf consumers become aware of this as many salespeople at stores like Best Buy, Circuit City and more tend to lack knowledge on the technology of captioning.

Closed Captioning Logo

More than ten years ago, high definition televisions started making their way onto the market. There are several resolutions available now including 480i, 480p, 720p, 768p, 1080i and 1080p. Now you may be asking how this concerns you and your needs. It's important that you know why.

For these unfamiliar with the resolutions I just mentioned, below is a picture showing the difference between all resolutions.


Here's an example, if you set your computer's resolution to 800x600. The last number, 600 would be known as 600p, for 1024x768, it would be 768p because all computer monitors are already in progressive.

If you have seen some people using terms like 1080p24 and 1080p60. Both 24 and 60 are refresh rates. 24 frames per second and 60 frames per second. The standard frame rate for movies is approximately 24 (23.97) frames per second. So that's basically the best way to watch movies. If you are to buy a 1080p HDTV, be sure to check that it offer this option.

The problem with a lot of HDTV displays is that they can be difficult to work with when it comes to closed captioning. Every time they make an upgrade in resolution, there will be a problem with closed captioning. Especially with two video inputs, DVI (Digital Visual Interface) and HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface). On many HDTV displays, the option to select CC is nowhere to be found when one of these inputs is on display.

Digital Visual Interface Logo

High Definition Multimedia Interface Logo

Component Cables

CC is an analog technology; the information is entered at every 21st line in the 480i mode. In the 480p mode, they have nowhere to put it because all 480 lines are displayed at once. They do now offer digital closed captioning on many HDTV displays. However, it's not as user-friendly as one would think. Not even with DVD players. There are at least 2 standard digital closed captioning modes that I know of. I'm still reading about many deaf consumers who face problems with their DVD players when the progressive mode is enabled. The truth is, no deaf consumer should ever have to put up with it.


This is an example of what an interlaced signal look like. The lines are much more visible in the interlaced mode. Only half of the 480 lines appear per frame.


This is what a progressive scan signal look like, the lines are much less visible because they all appear at once.

Now, we're moving onto SDH. It either stands for 'Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing' or 'Subtitled for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing'. This is important for the deaf and hard of hearing consumers to understand. There is a difference between SDH and English subtitles when it's mentioned on the back of a DVD case. When it says, 'English Subtitles', it's not often formatted for the deaf. It will exclude all background noise, names, common words people may be familiar with, song lyrics and more.

SDH (Subtitled for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) Logo

Myself, I now prefer SDH because it guarantee that you will get access at any given time regardless of what you are using, a portable DVD player with a small LCD display, a TV with no closed captioning decoder built in, on the computer and more.

The truth is, the major studios are leaning toward SDH because of the easiness with working with them and the fact that people can subtitle the movies within the DVD authoring software. Apple's DVD Studio offers this option. Not only to mention that it's probably the cheaper solution because they won't have to pay for the captioning equipment, which isn't cheap. I have looked up the prices for some of the equipments and software used to caption movies, they are not as cost effective since many DVD authoring software already offer the option to subtitle movies.

Universal Studios was one of the first studios on the DVD format to use SDH instead of CC. Though it was labeled as captions for the first few years till the term, SDH was introduced. I am not sure why Universal Studios chose to go on this path to start with but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the progressive scan mode causing headaches at Universal Studios.

Two new high definition video formats, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD (High Density Digital Versatile Disc) were released last year. The majority of the movies released on both high definition formats lack analog/digital closed captioning. I’m not entirely confident but I believe none of the movies available on either Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD include analog CC. I believe it’s due to the reason I mentioned earlier. The HDMI and DVI inputs often lack the ability to display CC. So the movie studios are going the SDH route to make it easier on the consumers. I will be the first to admit that it's not perfect yet because of how most of them format it. The dialogues should be placed all over the screen rather than dead-on centre on the screen through the whole movie. They also often lack a solid or transparent background behind the subtitles. But I am pleased to tell you that they do include all the information as they do with closed captioning on the DVD and VHS.

As far I can tell you, Fox Home Entertainment and Sony are the best when it comes to formatting the SDH. Fox Home Entertainment uses a strong black stroke all around the subtitles. Sony formats the SDH to bear a strong resemblance to the old-fashioned CC style, which I do appreciate. In fact, Sony even moves them around the screen like they do with CC. Though Sony's SDH style can only be found on their Blu-ray Disc titles.

I made some examples for you to look at to get the idea of how a SDH is formatted and the difference between English subtitles and SDH.

The subtitle shown above is a common format seen on many DVD titles using English subtitles. They often exclude people's names from the dialogues.


The subtitle shown above is a common format seen on many DVD titles using SDH. They often include people's names from the dialogues.


The subtitle shown above is a format seen on some DVD titles and is strongly disliked due to the lack of black strokes around the subtitles making it difficult to read if the background is too light.


The subtitles shown above are the SDH format Sony use on their Blu-ray titles. Like I told you, it bears a strong resemblance to the closed captioning style.


The subtitles shown above show a description of a sound heard in the background. This is the kind of information you can expect to find on a DVD/Blu-ray/HD DVD where SDH is used.


Nothing appears on the screen at all, this is what you can expect from watching a movie with English subtitles, it is obviously not formatted for the deaf and hard of hearing. It's for people who are learning English or these who like to read subtitles.


Here's another example of how English subtitles is formatted. In the dialogue, the person's name is spoken but isn't included in the subtitle because the hearing people will already know who the person is. So it is not necessary to name the person.


As you can see, both images above show subtitles including the person's name rather than excluding it. This is important for the deaf and hard of hearing consumers. They need to know who's saying these lines, if they don't include this kind of information, people may end up finding it difficult to follow the storyline and whose lines it is.

Whew, what a long blog entry. It’s a blog entry I started on last week but I had to put it off for a while. Now that I’m on my vacation, I decided to finish it and publish it. I hope many people will find the information useful and helpful and clear up the confusion among many deaf consumers when it comes to HDTV displays, DVD and the high definition video formats.

If you have any questions or have something to share, feel free to leave a comment.

Closed Captioning (CC) has benefited the deaf and hard of hearing community tremendously. I remember my early childhood when my family didn't have closed captioning on our television set. I had to ask my parents or siblings what was being said. Or I just left it to my imagination on what was being said which surprisingly worked quite well for me. You can do a lot with your imagination when you aren't given a lot of choices. When I was around 5 or 6, my mother was told of a device that enables the TV to display closed captioning. So she and my grandmother drove to the U.S.A. and bought the device as it was cheaper there at the time. I was told about the device but I didn't fully understand the concept because it was new to me. I already had begun to learn how to read and write before that. The day I came home from school, I saw a black box on the top of the television set and then looked at the screen. I was speechless and excited; I finally understood everything that was being said on the television. This was before they started requiring analog television sets to be sold with the CC decoder device built in.

I don't take the amazing technology for granted because it has done a lot for me. Even the hearing folks are benefiting from watching television programs with closed captioning turned on. It's amazing how much a hearing person can miss out by just listening, a lot of hearing people find themselves startled at first to learn how much they've been missing by not reading the captions. Not a lot of people know this, but it's a fact and has been proven in some studies. The largest audience in North America is the hearing people learning English as a second language. I bet you didn't know that one, eh?