Section 15.122
Closed caption decoder requirements
for digital television receivers and converter boxes

(a) (1) Effective July 1, 2002, all digital television receivers with picture screens in the 4:3 aspect ratio with picture screens measuring 13 inches or larger diagonally, all digital television receivers with picture screens in the 16:9 aspect ratio measuring 7.8 inches or larger vertically and all separately sold DTV tuners shipped in interstate commerce or manufactured in the United States shall comply with the provisions of this section.

Note: This paragraph places no restrictions on the shipping or sale of digital television receivers that were manufactured before July 1, 2002. (2) Effective July 1, 2002, DTV converter boxes that allow digitally transmitted television signals to be displayed on analog receivers shall pass available analog caption information to the attached receiver in a form recognizable by that receiver's built-in caption decoder circuitry.

Note: This paragraph places no restrictions on the shipping or sale of DTV converter boxes that were manufactured before July 1, 2002.

(b) Digital television receivers and tuners must be capable of decoding closed captioning information that is delivered pursuant to the industry standard EIA-708-B, "Digital Television (DTV) Closed Captioning," Electronics Industries Association (1999). This incorporation by reference was approved by the Director of the Federal Register in accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR part 51.

Digital television manufacturers may wish to view EIA-708-B in its entirety. Copies of EIA-708-B may be obtained from: Global Engineering Documents, 15 Inverness Way East, Englewood, CO 80112-5704, http://www.global.ihs.com/. Copies of EIA-708-B may be inspected during regular business hours at the following locations: Federal Communications Commission, 445 12th Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20554, or the Office of the Federal Register, 800 N. Capitol Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

(c) Services.

(1) Decoders must be capable of decoding and processing data for the six standard services, Caption Service #1 through Caption Service #6.

(2) Decoders that rely on Program and System Information Protocol data to implement closed captioning functions must be capable of decoding and processing the Caption Service Directory data. Such decoders must be capable of decoding all Caption Channel Block Headers consisting of Standard Service Headers, Extended Service Block Headers, and Null Block headers. However, decoding of the data is required only for Standard Service Blocks (Service IDs <= 6), and then only if the characters for the corresponding language are supported. The decoders must be able to display the directory for services 1 through 6.