Since 1987

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Offline Overview

View/Download the CAPtivator Offline datasheet.

CAPtivator Offline is a highly-successful product for two reasons:

1. Productivity: Everything in CAPtivator Offline is designed around productivity. Our goal is to help you get your captioning work done fast! From the drag-and-drop caption positioning to the fast editing functions, you'll find that CAPtivator Offline meets that goal - there's simply no better way to produce high-quality captions on a tight schedule.
2. Service: From your initial training to our 24-hour tech support Hotline, there's nobody out there that can support you better than Cheetah. Remember, it was Cheetah's people that wrote the book on captioning!

CAPtivator Offline actually consists of two separate programs. One (CAPtivator Offline Edit) is used for creation and editing of captions, and the other (CAPtivator PostCAP) is used for the actual encoding of the captions onto the tape. If loaded on the same computer, they become a single, seamless program. If loaded on separate computers, they make two complementary systems.

• CAPtivator Offline Edit
  • Full Offline software, including open caption output capability
  • Users Guide
  • One full year software service
  • Training
• CAPtivator PostCAP
  • Encoding software to produce open- or closed-captioned tapes
  • Users Guide
  • One full year software service
• CAPtivator Offline Bundle
  • Includes everything that comes with Offline Edit and PostCAP

Caption Entry

CAPtivator Offline can accept captions that have already been entered through a word processor or one of Cheetah's realtime products (e.g. TurboCAT or CAPtivator Online). You can also easily create the captions right within CAPtivator Offline, using the caption editing features directly from your computer keyboard.

With the addition of a data recovery decoder such as the EEG DE152, you can even pull the captions from a pre-captioned videotape, make edits, and put them back.

Caption Editing

Nowhere in CAPtivator Offline is Cheetah's attention to detail more evident than in the editing features. All of the capabilities you would expect are there, such as word wrapping, cut and paste, deletion, formatting, special characters and attributes, and many features you just can't find in other systems.

On-screen video lets you see your captions in place even if you don't have an encoder or television, and lets you position captions with simple "drag and drop" using the mouse or keyboard cursor keys. You don't have to type position codes, but you have that option.

Since most captioning is done in upper case, and most scripts are written in mixed case, CAPtivator Offline has a powerful quick capitalization feature that lets you adjust capitalization by the word, line, caption or entire file. The powerful search and replace includes options for case sensitivity, whole vs. partial words, and even prompting you before each change.

Device Control

Every caption in CAPtivator Offline has a timecode, indicating exactly when it will be displayed. The accurate assignment of timecodes requires a lot of stopping and starting of the tape deck. CAPtivator Offline can control most standard broadcast VTRs, offering a control panel you can run from the mouse or the keyboard.

Timecoding your captions doesn't have to be hard work, either. With the ability to autotime sections, transfer times from tape to file, search the tape or file for a specific timecode, "tweak" timecodes by one or five frames, and adjust timecodes throughout all or any portion of the file, the time required for timecoding is reduced dramatically.

Validating (checking) captions

CAPtivator Offline not only has the ability to "play" your caption file, previewing it on the computer screen (or a television screen if you have an appropriate encoder/decoder), but also a verify command that checks your captions for things like:

• Timing Overlap, such as not allowing enough time for one caption to "build" before the next one displays
• Bad Timecodes, like dropframe timecodes with bad frame numbers
• Invalid Erase Codes, such as attempting to send an "erase caption" command in the middle of a roll-up or paint-on caption
• Overlapping Captions when individual caption lines are being "scattered" around the screen rather than all together in a block
• Maximum Reading Rate in words per minute. You can not only define the maximum speed allowed in your captions, but even define how CAPtivator Offline calculates words per minute!

There is also a comprehensive and easy-to-use spelling checker, with a number of additional lexicons (specialty word lists) available.

Caption Output

When you're ready to output the captions, you can create an open-captioned test tape directly from CAPtivator Offline Edit. To make the final captioned master, you need the PostCAP software. You can run PostCAP on the same computer as CAPtivator Offline Edit, in which case caption encoding can happen directly from CAPtivator Offline Edit.

For maximum flexibility, you can also load PostCAP on a separate computer, where it does the encoding independently of CAPtivator Offline Edit. This allows you, for example, to have a number of caption editing stations around your office, but only a single encoding system connected to your master suite. You can even place your encoding system off at a post-production house, and keep the editing in-house.

Computers

VTRs (Tape Decks)

CAPtivator Offline supports many models of professional-grade VTRs from Sony, Panasonic, and JVC. Most of our customers do their editing on SuperVHS (SVHS) decks, but it can be done with VHS, SVHS, Hi-8, 3/4" U-matic, U-matic/SP, Betacam, Betacam/SP, 1", and D-2 digital.

The interface to the deck is RS232 or RS-422 serial. If RS-422 is used, the PC requires either a special serial port, or an RS232 to RS-422 adapter, which is available from Cheetah International.

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