Capture the closed caption on PC, what is the problem?

[SuperKevin]

I looked through the posts and I just feel it is strange enough that capturing/recording the closed caption of TV shows on PC is a much harder problem than it seems to be!

So I am thinking why there is no good/general software that can capture/record closed caption from TV shows with the vidoes and sounds?
1) Does the closed caption need special "copyright" such that all the softwares (I am using WinDVR) can only show it when you are watching TV on PC, but can not record them with the video when you press "record"? (say, why not embed the caption in the video, or save to a separate file)
2) From some posts, I know that usually they "overlay" the closed caption to the underlying video using DirectX. I am not a programmer but I wonder if they can do that so we can watch TV with closed caption on PC, why these software can never "record" the closed caption with the video?

Surely, I read that some certain cards (Hauppauge if I remember) can capture the caption with some "hacks and tricks", but that is, as it says, with some "hacks and tricks". What's the point there?

[non-linear]

One of the reasons why capturing closed captioning is so hard is because the data is embedded in the Vertical Blanking Interval on line 21. That part of the video, capture cards don't record. If they did, you would see the VBI data at the top of the video. It's not an issue of copyright, it's just tricky for capture cards to do. With ATI's All-In-Wonder cards, you can time shift video and it'll record the CC in a .cc file which plays with the video. Also, ATI's Multimedia Center can automatically transcribe the Closed Captioning into text, but the timing info and positioning aren't included.

Even if you can get the capture card to record CC, if you trim your video at all, then the timing for the captioning will be off, and if you trim entire commercial breaks out of a show, then it'll be off by a lot.

I've given up on trying to add captioning to DVD video, it's too much of a headache for me to deal with.

[snafu099]

I have not done this with live TV, however from dvd for personal backup I have not had a problem, possibley because of the physical setup of input.

I have a dvd player feed into a vcr which then feeds split signal to a composite monitor (not a Tv) and my capture device (ADS InstantDvd-2). Ofcourse the closed captioning had to be turned on from the dvd menu before it was played.

[Evander]

The way I capture tv is to use an external closed caption decoder with 2 a/v outputs (one for tv, one for capture device). Of course these captions will be forced and you can't turn them off, but personally I don't care. And it might cost you some money to buy an external decoder, but if it saves you a lotta headaches I'd say it's worth it.