Any Color You Like so Long as it's Black

More than a year ago I got the Elgato EyeTV 250 for recording and watching TV shows on my mac. The main reason I chose Elgato's EyeTV over other brands is they not only record audio and video, like other brands, but it also saved the Closed Captioning as well.

When I wanted to watch a show I'd recorded, I could see the Closed Captions. Other brands didn't include this feature. As a deaf man, TV or movies without Closed Captions is pretty much useless.

This is one of my chief complaints about Apple's iTunes store. Only a select few shows and movies have Closed Captioning. In the Canadian iTunes store, there are a grand total of 83 movies that have Closed Captions. It's only been in the last year that Apple has finally released iPods capable of displaying Closed Captions (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPod Classic).

So, if you're deaf, there's been little point in buying an ipod that plays video, as you either couldn't display captions period, or there is a negligible selection of Closed Captioned videos available to rent or buy from Apple's iTunes store.

Elgato recently introduced EyeTV 3.0, a $39 software upgrade if you own version 2.5 or earlier. It has a few new features, but the single best one is the upgraded export features. Before 3.0, you were out of luck exporting saved shows to play on an iPod - Closed Captions were lost, even if the iPod was capable of playing them.

EyeTV 3.0 now exports shows you've recorded to Quicktime with Closed Captions! Below is a image of a Quicktime export of a recording from EyeTV 3.0, of the show 'Bones.' You can see the Closed Captions. In iTunes, and Quicktime you have an option to turn on Closed Captions or not, and the captions will play in both.



Even better, if you load the Quicktime file onto an iPhone, iPod Touch or an iPod Classic, you can also see the captions on them. Now, the deaf can record shows on EyeTV and take them on the road, train, or bus, playing them on the above mention ipods. They will be able to understand what's being said thanks to Elgato's EyeTV 3.0 that exports captured Closed Captions to Quicktime.

Even those with great hearing can benefit by watching shows in an environment that is too noisy for headphones or earbuds - turn the sound off and read the captions.

Last, an open letter to Apple:

Apple, you have absolutely no excuse for not including Closed Captions with every single movie and TV show sold on iTunes.

I'm tired of the silly excuse "It's up to the networks/movie companies to supply captions." Apple, you are losing 10% of the market - the deaf and hard of hearing make up just over 10% of the population.

Tell the networks all they have to do to increase sales by 10% is to include Closed Captions for all movies and TV shows. Once they do that, you will not only increase your iTunes store video sales, but sales of iPod Touch and Classic as well, since the deaf and hard of hearing will want to be able to take iTunes videos with them, just like everyone else.

Apple, it's time to get off the pot and do something right.

One last thing to go with Elgato EyeTV 3.0 is a great little program called etv-comskip. This is great little plug-in for EyeTV 3.0. After a show is recorded, you hit the "Edit Show" button to bring up a new window. Normally you would skim through the recording and add markers where the commercials are, and then 'Compact.' This removes the sections where the markers are, and saves the file without the commercials. etv-comskip automatically marks where the commercials are, saving you the time of doing it yourself.

The first time I tried it, on an episode of 'Heroes', it didn't work. But after re-booting, and running disk repair, it has worked perfectly on 'Bones' and 'Criminal Minds.' It is a good idea, however, to make sure it has marked only commercials before Compacting.

Special thanks to Trish for testing out the Closed Captions on her iPhone!