Universal Caption DVD Player

I don't know if this is a common issue with DVDs, but I have a number of DVDs (mostly Doctor Who episodes) that don't include closed-captioning. Also, I have yet to encounter <i>any</i> DVD that includes captioning for the commentary track.

I find this very annoying, since I prefer reading subtitles to listening to the dialouge (which can be difficult to follow if the actors don't enunciate) - and I don't even have hearing problems. For those with hearing problems lack of closed-captioning could make a DVD completely unwatchable.

Now, I usually watch DVDs on my computer, so it seems to me the solution to this lies in software. Someone whould write a program that combines a simple DVD player for the computer with voice-recognition software - the result being a program that can provide captioning for ANY audio track, albeit not necessary accurate captioning.

Given the current state of voice-recognition programs, the captions might be pretty miserable, but they'd still be better than nothing for hearing-impaired users. This could be worked around by offering an option for the program to 'learn' by having the user listen to and then type accurate versions of a few lines, similar to voice-recognition input programs that ask the user to speak sentences to accustom the program to their voice. (Hearing-impaired users would obviously have to go without or ask a friend to do this.) As voice-recognition software improves, the program's ability to provide accurate captions would increase.