How to Add Closed Caption to Movies for iOS Devices (AppleTV/iPhone)

Over the past few months I've seen a few interesting opinions in the Deaf community regarding Apple's iTune, Apple TV 2 and iPhone's lack of Closed Captioning support. I'm writing to clarify a few things as well as to show everyone how to utilize Apple's products and make them "Deaf Friendly".

First of all, Apple products fully support CC and is not responsible for Close Captioning movies. Think of Apple like a TV manufacturer whose responsibility is to ensure that the their products support Closed Captioning like the CC chips built into every TVs today. The producers of video content then makes sure their movies and shows are captioned in a way that is compatible with the CC chip. Likewise, movie and TV producers must also make sure their contents is captioned for other streaming technologies such as Apple, Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube.

Anyway, here's how to caption your iOS/iTune movies. First, you need the following:
1. A DVD that you OWN (As a filmmaker I'm against pirating).
2. An Apple computer with DVD reader and OS 10.5 or later.
3. iTunes
4. A dedicated hard disk space for storing your movies.
5. Latest Handbrake program.
6. An iOS device (iPhone, iPod, AppleTV, etc.)

Here are the Steps:
Load the DVD into your computer and then open Handbrake. The DVD will likely run automatically using the built-in DVD player, just quit the DVD player and go back to HandBrake. Handbrake will ask you to pick the movie you want to convert, if it doesn't then click the "Source" icon at the top left corner. Select the DVD and click "Open".

Handbrake will scan the DVD chapters, sometimes this can take some time. When the scanning is complete, select "AppleTV 2" under "Apple" in the right "Preset" tray (unless you specifically want the movie only for iPhone or iPod then select "iPhone"). If you don't see the tray, click on "Toggle Presets" icon in the top right corner. These are pre-configured settings so you won't have to worry about adjusting all those mumble-jumble settings that most people don't understand.

The AppleTV 2 preset is configured to convert your DVD to a high quality format that will work with Apple TV. However, Subtitles or Closed Captioning is turned off by default. You simply need to turn it on.

Click on the "Subtitles" button. Under the "Track" column you'll see a drop-down that lists the available subtitles/CC options. Keep in mind that there is a difference between English subtitles and Closed Captions. For example, if you select "English" the English subtitle will be converted to appear (or burned) on the compressed movie permanently (i.e. "open captioned"). Selecting "Closed Captions" will write the captions in a way where the viewer can turn it on or off just like they do on a TV (yes, even Apple's products can turn CC on or off).

So, if you want the subtitles permanently on the video, select "English" if you want it optional then select "Closed Captions" (you may see variations of what they call these such as "English SDH").

If you have a lot of movies it's easier to create your own Preset. This is pretty easy, in the bottom-left corner of the Preset tray you should see a "+" button, click on that and a small window will appear, simply name the new Preset - I call it "AppleTV 2 CC" then save it.

You can also set your newly created Preset as the default preset so that every time you open a movie in Handbrake that preset is automatically selected. Click the "Gear" button on the right side of the "+" button then select "Make Default" (ALWAYS check your subtitles settings before converting, sometimes it changes because of the subtitle name variations).

Once you've selected your subtitles click on "Start" icon and it'll start converting! This part actually takes a long time depending on your computer. Usually an hour per movie.

Once the conversion completes, drag the movie to your iTunes Movie library and from there you can connect your iPhone or iPod and add the movie to your device. With Apple TV you will need to set up "Home Sharing" and connect it to your iTunes library.

Done? Not really, you may be trying to play your movie but don't see the CC. That's because you haven't turned it on!

For iPhone/iPod, go to Settings > "iPod" then tap on it. In the iPod setting you'll see "Closed Captioning" under "Video", turn it on.

In Apple TV 2 go to Settings > Audio & Video > Closed Captioning and turn it on.

In iTunes, go to the top menu click on Control > Audio & Video > "Show Closed Captioning".

In QuickTime player, go to the top menu and click on View > "Show Closed Captioning".

As you can see, Apple did a great job integrating Closed Captioning in their ecosystem and it looks great! You can see what it looks like in one of my older post here. BTW, I highly recommend the Apple TV 2 especially if you already have an iPhone or an Apple Laptop. If you have any questions leave them in the comments below and I'll try to answer them.

Lance