You may have noticed that when it comes to the "How are you?" screen captures in the above post they're not at all similar, and what you may not remember is that they had been when the TV video captures where originally posted. Well, that's because when I was getting the new closed captioning screen captures from the direct video copy I was able to make of the VHS I discovered something fascinating, or at least fascinating to me: apparently, even though I'd obviously used the VHS version of NoDS for both, when I shot video off the TV screen with my phone and when I made the direct video copy of it, the closed captioning displayed differently depending on what was decoding it. When it came to the TV screen video, it was the TV that decoded the closed captioning, but when it came to the direct video, it was the VCR in which I played the VHS tape that decoded the closed captioning. Who knew that could display differently because one would assume that the same instructions encoded on the VHS tapes would make the closed captionig display the same regardless of what was decoding them. But we know how dangerous it is to assume, so apparently not.
One thing I had noticed when it came to the earlier closed captioning screen captures I've replaced is that the boxes for the closed captioning didn't display on the screen in the same places. But it always seemed as if they appeared on the screen in the same video frames and lasted the same number of frames. However, I discovered that is not the case when it comes to the "How are you?" closed captioning box and those around it. Check out the following side by side frame comparison of how "How are you?" first displays:
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(Click here for a 620X465 version) | (Click here for a 620X449 version |
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(Click here for a 620X465 version) | (Click here for a 620X449 version |
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(Click here for a 620X465 version) | (Click here for a 620X449 version |
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(Click here for a 620X465 version) | (Click here for a 620X449 version |
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(Click here for a 620X465 version) | (Click here for a 620X449 version |
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(Click here for a 620X465 version) | (Click here for a 620X449 version |
When "How are you?" first displays in the direct video, "Well, hello, Carlotta" is still on display in the TV video, and "How are you?" doesn't fully display in the TV video until four frames after that. And when it comes to how long it is that "How are you?" lasts on screen in each version, it's even wonkier. But I won't get into that until my next post...