What are the differences between closed captions and subtitles?
The main difference is that subtitles usually only transcribe the spoken dialog, and are mainly aimed at people who are not hearing impaired, but lack fluency in the spoken language. Closed captions are aimed at the deaf and hearing impaired, who need additional non-verbal audio cues (such as “[GUN SHOT]” or “[SPOOKY MUSIC]”) to be transcribed in the text. Closed captions are also useful for situations in which video is being shown but the sound is muted or difficult to hear, such as for a noisy bar, convention floor, video signage & billboards, etc.. Subtitles which also contain these non-verbal cues are usually referred to as “SDH” (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of hearing) tracks, but for various reasons, closed captions are usually the preferred method of making video accessible for the deaf and hearing impaired. SDH subtitles tend to be used on video formats that do not support closed captioning, such as Blu-ray discs.
