W3C has published a First Public Working Draft for Timed Text (TT) Authoring Format 1.0 — Distribution Format Exchange Profile (DFXP). The draft has been produced by members of the Timed Text (TT) Working Group as part of the W3C Synchronized Multimedia Activity.
The W3C Timed Text Working Group was chartered in January 2003 to "develop an XML-based format used for the representation of streamed text synchronized with other timed media, like audio and video. A typical application is real time captioning of movies on the Web (e.g., integrated in
Why a Standardized Timed-text Format?
On the Web, there is no standard method for displaying text which is synchronized with other elements, such as video and audio. The three most popular multimedia players-- Apple's QuickTime Player, Microsoft's Windows Media Player and RealNetworks' RealPlayer-- support only their own proprietary text formats (QText, SAMI and RealText, respectively). As a result, multimedia authors must write synchronized text files in multiple formats if they wish to support more than one player. A standardized timed-text format
W3C has announced the creation of a new Timed Text Working Group (TTWG) as part of the Synchronized Multimedia Activity (SYMM). The mission of the Timed Text Working Group is to develop an XML based format used for the representation of streamable text synchronized with some other timed media, like audio and video. Working Group members envision that the Timed Text specification will cover "all necessary aspects of timed text on the Web. Typical applications of timed text are the real time subtitling of foreign-language movies on the Web, captioning for
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