Concern for the hearing impaired initially led Congress to mandate closed captions. But captions have also become valuable to English language learners, barkeepers and restaurateurs. Now Sony XDCAM® HD studio decks make closed captioning infrastructure a little bit easier.

Instead of buying separate transcoders to convert the old standard def-compatible CEA-608 (Line 21) captions to high def-compatible CEA-708 (VANC), you can have Sony XDCAM HD studio decks do this automatically. The PDW-HD1500 and F1600 decks can perform valuable closed caption conversions when equipped with an extra-cost firmware upgrade called the PDBZ-UPG02. The supported functions are as follows:

• Line input SD-to-HD caption conversion. Converts SD-SDI video input with CEA-608 (Line 21) captions to HD-SDI video output with CEA-708 (VANC) captions.
• Playback SD-to-HD caption conversion. Converts SD video file playback with CEA-608 to HD-SDI video output with CEA-708.
• Playback 1080i to 720p caption conversion. Converts HD 1080i video file playback with CEA-708 to HD-SDI 720p video output with CEA-708.
• Playback HD-to-SD caption conversion. Converts HD video file playback with CEA-708 containing “608 compatible bytes” to SD-SDI or composite video output with CEA-608 Line 21 captions.
• Playback 720p to 1080i caption conversion. Converts HD 720p video file playback with CEA-708 to HD-SDI 1080i video output with CEA-708.

The PDZ-BZUPG02 firmware upgrade carries a US list price of $2,950. To arrange a purchase, please contact your Authorized Sony Reseller. To locate an Authorized Sony Reseller, click here.