Thread Subject: Re: teitac-video 4-A Caption Playback

Note

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From: Schomburg, Paul
Date: Tue, Aug 07 2007 9:30 AM

Allen: As you know, Congress originally limited the requirement to
include a caption decoder to television receivers with screen sizes 13"
or greater. See:
http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/guide/1194.24-decoderact.htm. The
FCC's 2000 DTV closed captioning order, however, applied the requirement
to support CEA-708 captioning to non-display DTV receivers. Portable
DVD players are not TV receivers so have no requirement to support
captioning.



The rules we have defined are consistent with current FCC regulations,
which would require the government to purchase devices, including
portable media players, that support CEA-708 or a functional equivalent.
The government cannot purchase analog televisions or analog-only tuner
cards anymore because the FCC prohibits manufacturers from importing or
shipping such products in interstate commerce. I would not want to see
the TEITAC try to force support of analog CEA-608 captioning on legacy
devices when we are in the midst of a federally-mandated transition to
digital television. We should look forward to a digital future and not
try to fix the problems with legacy analog products. For this reason,
the TEITAC should recommend rules that give precedence to the purchase
of products that support the advanced captioning features in CEA-708,
which is a much better solution set for people with disabilities. By
the time the Access Board approves and Federal agencies implement the
TEITAC recommendations I would hope that such products will be widely
available in the marketplace and that this will not be an undue burden
for government.



At the same time, as you recognize, the government will continue to use
and author content recorded on DVDs. The good news is that devices
which support CEA-708 decoding will also support CEA-608 decoding, so
DVD media with 608 captioning can continue to be used. That is why I
suggested changing "videotape" to "recordable media" to cover DVD and
other media.



Best regards, Paul



Paul G. Schomburg, Sr. Manager

Tel: (202) 912-3800 x114; Cell: (202) 550-2230

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