Step 2: Plan captions for the outputs - MediaLive
Outputting multiple formats

Step 2: Plan captions for the outputs

If you followed the instructions in Step 1: Create captions selectors in the input, you should have a list of the captions formats and languages that are available for inclusion in the outputs.

You must now plan the captions information for the outputs.

To plan the captions for the output

  1. Identify the types of output media that you plan to create in the channel, for example, Microsoft Smooth and HLS.

  2. Identify the combinations of video and audio that you plan to create for each output media.

  3. For each output media, identify which input captions will be converted to which output formats. For example, you will convert Teletext captions to TTML for the Microsoft Smooth output media, and those same Teletext captions to WebVTT for the HLS output media.

    The output formats that are possible depend on the input formats and the type of output media. To determine which output captions are possible given the input format, see Supported captions.

  4. Identify the languages for each output format:

    • In general, count each language separately.

    • Exception: For embedded passthrough, count all languages as one.

    • Exception: For Teletext passthrough, count all languages as one.

The result

You end up with a list of outputs, and the captions formats and languages for each output. For example:

  • Microsoft Smooth output with TTML captions in Czech

  • Microsoft Smooth output with TTML captions in Polish

  • HLS output with WebVTT captions in Czech

  • HLS output with WebVTT captions in Polish

Outputting multiple formats

You can include captions from two or more different formats in an output. For example, you can include both embedded captions and WebVTT captions in an HLS output, to give the downstream system more choices about which captions to use. The only rules for multiple formats are the following:

  • The output container must support all the formats. See Supported captions.

  • The font styles in all the captions that are associated with an output must match. This means that the end result must be identical, not that you must use the same option to get that result. For example, all captions that are associated with the output must be white for the first language and blue for the second language.

Managing this style matching can be a little tricky. For information about the font style options, see Support for font styles in output captions.