Systems and methods of processing closed captioning for video on demand content

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a media server, first closed captioning data associated with media content, wherein the first closed captioning data is associated with a first closed captioning format and includes closed captions in a first language;

receiving second closed captioning data associated with the media content, wherein the second closed captioning data is associated with a second closed captioning format and includes closed captions in a second language;

converting the first closed captioning data from the first closed captioning format into a platform independent format and from the platform independent format into an output format supported by a destination device;

converting the second closed captioning data from the second closed captioning format into the platform independent format and from the platform independent format into the output format supported by the destination device;

transmitting the first closed captioning data in the output format to the destination device in accordance with a media streaming protocol; and

transmitting the second closed captioning data in the output format to the destination device in accordance with the media streaming protocol, wherein transmitting the second closed captioning data to the destination device does not interrupt playback of the media content at the destination device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a change request.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising transmitting the second closed captioning data in the output format in response to the change request.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising stopping transmission of the first closed captioning data in the output format in response to the change request.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first closed captioning data or the second closed captioning data is received by the media server, converted into the platform independent format, converted into the output format, or any combination thereof, in response to a request from the destination device.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first closed captioning data or the second closed captioning data is received by the media server, converted into the platform independent format, converted into the output format, or any combination thereof, prior to receiving a request from the destination device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the first closed captioning data in the output format is transmitted concurrently with transmission of at least a portion of the second closed captioning data in the output format.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the media streaming protocol comprises at least one of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) live streaming (HLS), HTTP dynamic streaming (HDS), smooth streaming, or motion picture experts group (MPEG) dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH).

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first closed captioning format, the second closed captioning format, or both include at least one of: action message format (AMF) onTextData, consumer electronics association (CEA)-608, CEA-708, motion pictures expert group (MPEG)-4 part 17, 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) timed text, digital video broadcasting (DVB) subtitling, sistema brasileiro de televisao digital (SBTVD), digital terrestrial multimedia broadcast (DTMB), or world system teletext (WST).

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first closed captioning format, the second closed captioning format, or both include at least one of: scenarist closed captioning (SCC), timed text markup language (TTML), distributed format exchange profile (DFXP), society of motion picture and television engineers (SMPTE) timed text (SMPTE-TT), web video text tracks (WebVTT), SubRip (SRT), synchronized accessible media interchange (SAMI), European broadcasting union (EBU)-STL, or EBU timed text (EBU-TT).

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first closed captioning data in the output format or the second closed captioning data in the output format are transmitted to the destination device with at least a portion of the media content.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising assigning a first font characteristic to a first portion of the first closed captioning data and assigning a second font characteristic to a second portion of the first closed captioning data, wherein the second font characteristic is different from the first font characteristic.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein:

assigning the first font characteristic includes associating text of the first portion with a first color; and

assigning the second font characteristic includes associating text of the second portion with a second color.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the first color and the second color are distinguishable to a viewer who is color-blind.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein associating the text of the first portion to the first color comprises overriding a foreground color indication associated with the first portion.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein assigning the first font characteristic includes changing a value of a particular font characteristic of the first portion.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein assigning the first font characteristic includes adding the first font characteristic to the first portion.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the destination device includes a tablet computer, a mobile phone, a desktop computer, a television, a set-top box, a portable media player, a game console, or any combination thereof.

19. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a media server, first closed captioning data associated with media content, wherein the first closed captioning data is associated with a first closed captioning format and includes closed captions in a first language;

receiving second closed captioning data associated with the media content, wherein the second closed captioning data is associated with a second closed captioning format and includes closed captions in a second language;

converting the first closed captioning data from the first closed captioning format into a platform independent format and from the platform independent format into an output format supported by a destination device;

converting the second closed captioning data from the second closed captioning format into the platform independent format and from the platform independent format into the output format supported by the destination device;

initiating transmission of a first portion of the media content and the first closed captioning data in the output format to the destination device in accordance with a media streaming protocol using a streaming connection between the media server and the destination device; and

initiating transmission of a second portion of the media content and the second closed captioning data in the output format to the destination device in accordance with the media streaming protocol while maintaining the streaming connection between the media server and the destination device.

20. A computer-readable storage device comprising instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a media server, first closed captioning data associated with media content, wherein the first closed captioning data is associated with a first closed captioning format and includes closed captions in a first language;

receiving second closed captioning data associated with the media content, wherein the second closed captioning data is associated with a second closed captioning format and includes closed captions in a second language;

converting the first closed captioning data from the first closed captioning format into a platform independent format and from the platform independent format into an output format supported by a destination device;

converting the second closed captioning data from the second closed captioning format into the platform independent format and from the platform independent format into the output format supported by the destination device;

initiating transmission of the first closed captioning data in the output format to the destination device in accordance with a media streaming protocol; and

initiating transmission of the second closed captioning data in the output format to the destination device in accordance with the media streaming protocol, wherein transmitting the second closed captioning data to the destination device does not interrupt playback of the media content at the destination device.