Concept · Subtitle formats
Burned-in Subtitles vs Closed Captions: What's Actually Different
One lives in your pixels, the other in a sidecar file. That single fact decides everything: whether you can remove them, extract them, re-style them, or translate them — and whether a deaf viewer can turn them off.
The one-line difference
Burned-in subtitles (hardcoded) are pixels — the text is part of the video image, permanently. Closed captions and soft subtitles are data — text in a separate track or file that the player renders on top of the video, which is why they can be turned off, restyled and re-timed.
Side by side
| Burned-in (hardcoded) | Soft subtitles | Closed captions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where they live | In the video pixels | In a sidecar file or stream track | In a caption track (e.g. CEA-608/708, WebVTT) |
| Can the viewer turn them off? | No | Yes | Yes |
| Can they be translated? | No — re-render required | Yes — edit the file | Yes — edit the track |
| Can they be removed by software? | Only via inpainting/eraser AI | Delete the file/track | Disable the track |
| Accessibility compliance | Fails most a11y rules for video | OK if player honors user prefs | Purpose-built for a11y |
| Typical use | Foreign-language films, memes, shorts | Streaming, broadcast deliverables | Broadcast, education, legal |
Why this matters for removal
If your source has soft subtitles, removal is free — strip the track. If it has burned-in subtitles, removal is a computer-vision job: detect the text region and inpaint the background. That is exactly what the Subtitle Eraser API does, and why it exists.
Why this matters for extraction
Extracting text from burned-in subtitles is OCR on video frames — the subtitle-ocr path. Extracting soft subtitles is just reading a file. The Subtitle Extractor API handles the hard case: OCR + tracking + timing, producing SRT/VTT from pixels.
Accessibility angle
FAQ
Common questions
Are closed captions and subtitles the same thing?
Not quite: captions include sound effects and speaker cues for deaf/hard-of-hearing viewers, while subtitles translate or transcribe dialogue. Both can be soft (removable) or burned-in.
Can burned-in subtitles be removed perfectly?
On clean backgrounds and stable camera work, modern inpainting gets very close to invisible. Hard cases are extreme motion and constant overlays.
If I have soft subtitles, do I need an eraser API?
No — just strip the track. The eraser is specifically for pixels that are already burned in.
Keep exploring
Related guides
Subtitle Eraser API
Remove hardcoded subtitles cleanly for localization and short-drama export.
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Extract on-screen text and spoken dialogue with frame-accurate timestamps.
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Video inpainting explained: how modern models reconstruct missing pixels behind removed subtitles and objects — tem...
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