Thread Subject: possible addition to the table in 4-A

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From: Geoff Freed
Date: Fri, Aug 24 2007 7:15 AM

Gregg V recently pointed out that the table in 4-A, "Caption
Playback," dwells on the playback of captioned material on hardware
such as televisions, tuners and tuner cards, but not on software
players, such as QuickTime, Windows Media Player, RealPlayer and
Flash. This seems an oversight, no? I don't believe caption
playback in software players is specifically covered anywhere in
508-- *content* is covered in section 6, but not the caption-display
capabilities of the players themselves.

With this in mind, below is a draft of language to add to the table
(linearized for ease of reading). Software players would be item #4
in the table:

4-A - Caption Playback
Analog television, digital television and tuners, computer equipment,
software players and other equipment must provide closed and open
captions:

4. Equipment of this type:
Software audio or video players on computers, personal video display
devices or other devices which play digital audio or video

Uses this standard:
[[GF note: there is no prevailing standard for captions in this
category. What should we say?

To provide these functions:
Display caption data, when available. Players must allow users to
turn the caption display on and off at will, and the technology for
doing so must be freely available to all users.

Let the hatchets fly!
Geoff/NCAM

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