I found just about everything BUT the CD standard, known as EIA-608.
Unfortunately there is a $106-110 extortion fee necessary to receive a
copy of the technical standard. I suspect that a copy of this document
may be available on the internet but I simply can not find it via normal
searches on Yahoo, Magellan, or Excite.
There is a book available for $30 which should include this document. I
would have a lot of respect for the individual dedicated enough to go to
such lengths to figure this out. Of course, you could try
reverse-engineering it.
More on that later.
Here is the book:
Inside Captioning
Order a copy *
(or copies!)
About the book
Table of Contents
Excerpt
Glossary
About the author
Email the author
Book logo
CyberDawg Publishing
Inside Captioning
by Gary D. Robson
Order a Book
NOTICE: We will ship your Inside Captioning order within two weeks. We
will not bill your credit card or cash your check until your order is
actually shipped.
To order your copy of Inside Captioning, please fill in all of the
information below. The price is $29.95 plus $4.50 shipping and
handling*. Quantity discounts are available for resellers,
organizations, and users groups. California residents will be charged
sales tax (sorry about that).
* Shipping and handling is higher for orders outside the United
States.
Your Name ________________________________________
Street ________________________________________
City _______________
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Zip/Postal code __________
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Telephone number ____________________
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card type ___Visa
___Mastercard
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If you do not feel comfortable sending your credit card number over
the Internet, you can print this form, fill it out completely, and fax
it to 510/728-1870.
You can also pay by check. Make your check out for $29.95 plus $4.50
shipping and handling (plus sales tax if you're a California
resident), and mail to:
CyberDawg Publishing
27879 Palomares Canyon Road
Castro Valley, CA 94552
----------------
Here is what I did find:
Here is all the relevant CC info I scoped from the net.
The data is encoded in Line 21, field 1. This field is split up into two
portions, for two separate channels. Field 2 is now in use as a 2nd
language thing. I suppose that despite the 2600's dual-field
"noninterlaced" nature that CC decoders should be able to handle the
signal okay, that is, as long as the placement of the 2600 playfield
pixels lines up with the expected placement of the white-on-black slivers
of standard CC data.
-------------------
PLACEMENT:
Currently, four rows at the top and four rows at the bottom of the
picture are available for caption display. Additionally, there are
eight indents to allow left-to-right placement of captions. Full 15
row by 32 column screen addressing has been specified by the FCC for
decoders mandated by the TV Decoder Circuitry Act. This expanded
specification can be used compatibly with TeleCaption II and later
decoders, but it is incompatible with the original TeleCaption
(TeleCaption I) adapter.
Italics and underline:
As in printed text, upper- and lower-case italics and underlining may
be used to indicate emphasis. You may use standard print methods of
setting off the text of a speaker who is not physically present in a
scene, such as a narrator, the voice in a dream, a flashback, or the
voiceover reading of a letter. For example, these may be rendered in
italics. (In documentaries, however, a frequently heard voice such as
the narrator's is usually in roman.)
COLOR:
Do all TVs support color captions?
The FCC strongly encourages, but does not require, manufacturers to
include color capability in their televisions. Most television
manufacturers are including the capability now, and this trend is
expected to continue.
STYLES:
What character formatting attributes are available?
With the latest decoders, caption text can be displayed as white or
colored characters on a black background. They can be normal text,
italicized, underlined, flashing, or any combination of those
attributes.
CHARACTER SET:
The Caption FAQ
Line 21 Captioning Character Set
Back to top
Feedback
Sponsored by Cheetah Systems
By Gary D. Robson
Updated: February 1997
_________________________________________________________________
This is the character set called out by the FCC, effective July 15,
1991. For the most part, it follows standard ASCII. Exceptions are
marked with a * in the "Symbol" column. The set of two-byte codes at
the end of the table require that the first byte be (hex 11) if the
character is being sent to channel 1, or (19 hex) if the character is
being sent to channel 2.
Note that the registered trademark symbol (hex 11,30) and trademark
symbol (hex 11,34) were changed when this standard was enacted. On
decoders manufactured prior to the effective date of this standard
(hex 11,30) was a ¼ (one-fourth) symbol, and (hex 11,34) was a ¾
(three-fourths) symbol.
Additional note: not all web browsers and operating systems can
display all of the characters in this table, which is why the
"Description" column was added. The solid block (hex 7f) and the music
note (hex 11,37) can't be displayed by any browser (that I know of),
so the symbols aren't in this table at all.
One-byte character codes
Hex
Code Symbol Description Hex
Code Symbol Description
20 space 50 P upper-case P
21 ! exclamation mark 51 Q upper-case Q
22 " quotation mark 52 R upper-case R
23 # number (pound) sign 53 S upper-case S
24 $ dollar sign 54 T upper-case T
25 % percent sign 55 U upper-case U
26 & ampersand 56 V upper-case V
27 ' apostrophe 57 W upper-case W
28 ( open parenthesis 58 X upper-case X
29 ) close parenthesis 59 Y upper-case Y
2a á * lower-case a, acute accent 5a Z upper-case Z
2b + plus sign 5b [ open square bracket
2c , comma 5c é * lower-case e, acute accent
2d - hyphen (minus sign) 5d ] close square bracket
2e . period 5e í * lower-case i, acute accent
2f / slash 5f ó * lower-case o, acute accent
30 0 zero 60 ú * lower-case u, acute accent
31 1 one 61 a lower-case a
32 2 two 62 b lower-case b
33 3 three 63 c lower-case c
34 4 four 64 d lower-case d
35 5 five 65 e lower-case e
36 6 six 66 f lower-case f
37 7 seven 67 g lower-case g
38 8 eight 68 h lower-case h
39 9 nine 69 i lower-case i
3a : colon 6a j lower-case j
3b ; semicolon 6b k lower-case k
3c < less-than sign 6c l lower-case l
3d = equal sign 6d m lower-case m
3e > greater-than sign 6e n lower-case n
3f ? question mark 6f o lower-case o
40 @ at sign 70 p lower-case p
41 A upper-case A 71 q lower-case q
42 B upper-case B 72 r lower-case r
43 C upper-case C 73 s lower-case s
44 D upper-case D 74 t lower-case t
45 E upper-case E 75 u lower-case u
46 F upper-case F 76 v lower-case v
47 G upper-case G 77 w lower-case w
48 H upper-case H 78 x lower-case x
49 I upper-case I 79 y lower-case y
4a J upper-case J 7a z lower-case z
4b K upper-case K 7b ç * lower-case c with cedilla
4c L upper-case L 7c ÷ * division symbol
4d M upper-case M 7d Ñ * upper-case enya (N-tilde)
4e N upper-case N 7e ñ * lower-case enya (n-tilde)
4f O upper-case O 7f * solid block
Two-byte character codes
Hex
Code Symbol Description
11,30 ® * registered trademark symbol
11,31 ° * degree sign
11,32 ½ * 1/2 symbol
11,33 ¿ * inverted (opening) question mark
11,34 TM * trademark symbol
11,35 ¢ * cents symbol
11,36 £ * pounds sterling
11,37 * music note
11,38 à * lower-case a, grave accent
11,39 * transparent space
11,3a è * lower-case e, grave accent
11,3b â * lower-case a, circumflex accent
11,3c ê * lower-case e, circumflex accent
11,3d î * lower-case i, circumflex accent
11,3e ô * lower-case o, circumflex accent
11,3f û * lower-case u, circumflex accent
_________________________________________________________________
This document is copyright (c) 1995-97 by Gary D. Robson. It may be
freely duplicated and distributed only in its entirety. No
modifications may be made to this document or any of the files that
comprise it, including removal of this paragraph, and no excerpts
may be taken, without prior written permission from the author. If
you distribute this document, you may not charge for it, or include
it with anything else that you charge for without prior written
permission of the author.
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