Multi-lingual captions (e.g. English and Spanish available for caption displays

[Steve Guttag]

Here is a question I'm getting more and more. Patrons are wanting the option of Spanish, in the US for the caption displays. To the best of my knowledge, DCPs are only coming out with a single caption language per CPL. While one could have a different CPL with Spanish (EN-ES), it is reasonable to believe that people wanting/needing captions could be of both languages. Are there DCPs that offer more than one caption language? How are countries like Canada handling this where I presume that French and English would need to be offered on any given show?

I know that the caption displays are ready to handle multiples and, typically, have a button where one can scroll through the language options.

[James Gardiner]

I have not seen a CPL with multiple languages displayed at the same time. Would also be a challenge to DCNC.
From what I have seen, it is not catered for in any way currently. But.. you could always do whatever you want.. and make a VF CPL that added 2 languages at the same time. Would get busy on screen.
As captions typically take 2 lines often. (4 lines would be undesirable)

[Steve Guttag]

James, this would be for outboard caption displays instead of open captions. The caption displays I've seen (e.g. the USL/MIT CCR100) have a button to choose which language you want but there is only the one with the DCP.

[Harold Hallikainen]

As I recall, a dcp can carry 6 caption languages. The ccr100 handles 4. I think Sony and Dolby systems can handle 6.

[Randy Stankey]

I have not seen a CPL with multiple languages displayed at the same time.

Easy! Just re-purpose all those old 3-D adapters that have been sitting around, collecting dust, all these years!

Display the first language in left polarization and the second language with right polarization. Hand out modified 3-D glasses with both lenses the same. Give out glasses polarized left for the first language and right for the second.

[Carsten Kurz]

I created multi-language closed caption DCPs with DCP-o-matic. It's an easy test, you do not even need and video or audio. Just add two random SRT files, assign each a language, and create the DCP. Of course, one could create a better generic test DCP, adding some slides that tell you when and what should be visible on the displays.

[Jim Cassedy]

<edited>The caption displays I've seen (e.g. the USL/MIT CCR100) have
a button to choose which language you want but there is only the one with the DCP.

Just last week I was testing our our HI/VI/CCAP system and the CCR100 display units after swapping
out our TRINNOV audio processor and cleaning up some messy wiring in one of the equipment racks.
I can't remember where I originally got it, but I used to have a test DCP with files that would test the
dual language function on the CCR100's. Unfortunately, it's one of the files that's still sitting in our old
TMS library computer that was replaced several months ago. The old computer is still sitting down in
one of the catacombs under the theater, and one of these days I'm going to haul it back upstairs and
hook it up to a keyboard & monitor and transfer that file, and several other test files I no longer have
access to over to the new TMS library. But I know the CCR100's can display more than one lanaguage,
although I can't ever remember getting a DCP that had more than one caption language on it.
(Except for one Asian movie that had both English and either Mandrin or Canotonese titles that were
'burned in' to the image.- - at times it was 4 lines, and yes, that does take up a lot of space on screen!)

[Marcel Birgelen]

In Belgium, the cinemas in Flanders and Brussels have been running multi-lingual open captions essentially since the beginning of DCI, and it was carried over from the way it was done on film before. Those captions have been specially adapted for that market, so you essentially still have only two lines of captioning on-screen, where one line is Dutch/Flemish and the other is in French. The bottom line is usually also formatted in Italic, to enhance the contrast between the two different languages on screen.

Since having two languages on-screen requires more "screen real-estate", the subtitles are often somewhat simplified, compared to e.g. the Dutch-only subtitles of the same movie,

[Carsten Kurz]

Same in switzerland (German/French/Italian). I have seen DCPs where the different languages have been put into timed bitmap/PNGs OCAP together. Which was probably the safest way also for series 1 equipment.

[Harold Hallikainen]

That gets fun when trying to identify the language in the timed text file and other places.