CaptionBurn (SDH open captions on the silent video; default-OFF)

Read the name twice: SDH open captions on the silent video; default-OFF. The default is the whole point. OldTimeRadio renders a clean master by default - no burned-in text - and OTR_CaptionBurn is the opt-in step that adds accessibility captions if you want them. It sits after OTR_SilentComposite (which produces the always-silent video) and before OTR_MasterAudioMux (which adds audio last, -c:a copy). Captions burn into the silent video; audio is never part of this node's job.

"SDH" means subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing - dialogue plus the sound cues. "Open captions" means they're baked into the pixels, not a sidecar .srt. That's a deliberate choice here: the pack ships a single playable MP4, and burnt-in captions travel with it. caption_style is sdh_standard by default, with otr_crt as the retro-alternative if you want the captions to match the CRT aesthetic.

How it works

The node takes the silent video path, optionally reads a timed ledger (the captions' timings come from the episode's line timestamps), and burns text onto frames via ffmpeg. The output lands beside the input as <stem>_captioned.mp4. There's a ledger_path override if the automatic resolution from the video stem ever misses.

Where people get burned: the hero title card. OTR_SignalLostVideo emits a title_card_plan_json, and when that's present this node burns the title regardless of burn_captions - and any failure refuses to pass through. That's a hard contract: the title is the only copy left once the procedural draw is suppressed, so it must land. Don't wire a title-card plan in and expect burn_captions=False to skip the title.

The inputs that matter

video_path (required, from OTR_SilentComposite), then flip burn_captions to true, and pick caption_style. fps (25 default) and ffmpeg are standard. Outputs: the captioned video_path and a report string. gate_in is the usual ordering signal; the canonical graph wires it after the procgen blend.

Install and gotchas

Installs with the pack (ComfyUI Manager → ComfyUI-OldTimeRadio, restart; the v2.0-alpha branch is what has these nodes). Needs an ffmpeg binary on PATH - the pack shells out to it for everything video, so that's a system dependency, not a pip one. If captions don't appear, first check burn_captions is actually on - it defaults off every fresh drop, and the clean-master default is deliberate. If a title fails to burn, the node refuses loudly on purpose; check that title_card_plan_json from SignalLostVideo is well-formed rather than trying to bypass it.