Aside from being a basic text editor, it also has many special functions to make editing of subtitle texts efficient. A prep station also handles editing of time codes for subtitles in a file. This is often synchronized directly to video that is played within the prep station. Old systems relied on analogue video, thus requiring extra hardware. Modern prep stations like Tempo uses Windows Media and MPEG video files, for example. This allows for even faster production of subtitles. It also means there is no requirement for additional hardware, allowing the users to run the Tempo subtitle preparation station on a laptop.