Login at Kodi Home

krustyreturns · 2014-10-01, 19:19

Currently subtitles do not work in our pvr solution that uses windows media center as the backend. We have recently found a way to generate srt files, so for recordings at least, we have a solution (although it would be much better if kodi could handle the wtv file subtitles rather than post processing to make srts).

Our bigger problem is enabling subtitles for live-tv streams. Our live tv streams are ts files we stream to kodi. I have tried multiple types of ts files with subs embedded in them, but kodi only seems to work with ts subs if they are bitmaps. We can also generate srt files on the fly for live tv streams, but the current pvr interface seems to ignore this srt file and the current pvr interface gives us no way to specify or 'stream' an srt file.

So it seems to me that to enable subs in live streams our choices are:
1. Convert all subtitle types to bitmap frames. I don't know how to do this but maybe could figure it out. However this gives the user little flexibility with subtitles since they will be hard coded bitmaps. And the subs for live streams will look very different from recordings.
2. Request that Helix be able to process srt files that are being built on the fly with the 'live' ts file. I don't know how difficult this will be to enable.
3. Request that Helix be able to handle the TeleText and CosedCaption streams we currently embed in the ts file. I don't know how difficult this is either.

Any thoughts on the best way to proceed?

**Ace** · 2014-10-01, 22:19

Can you provide test files of both formats?

krustyreturns · 2014-10-02, 00:53

Yes. Should I open a ticket and put links to them there? or here?

**Ace** · 2014-10-02, 08:33

Open a ticket and assign it to me, thx.

Jönke · 2014-10-02, 09:01

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=142333
@Ace thanks for looking in to this !

**Ace** · 2014-10-02, 10:37

mhm, bad news...

krustyreturns · 2014-10-02, 19:15

@Ace,

Thanks. I created a ticket:

http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/15464

But I couldn't assign it to you (currently its assigned to elupus). I hope you can still take ownership. Thanks again and let me know if we can help.

Silver-Streak · 2014-10-07, 06:21

Routing over here from http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=205853 as Krusty basically already has this going.

I notice a suggestion listed is to use DVB subs, but I unfortunately don't think that is possible for North America (potentially US only) Closed Captioning on Live TV, unless I'm missing something.

Live TV Closed Caption is a pretty big feature for me and my wife, as she's deaf, so any testing/info/etc I can help with I'd be glad to do, if there is any intent on this being implemented.

**Ace** · 2014-10-07, 09:33

https://github.com/CCExtractor/ccextractor looks promising, at least for recordings. I'm not sure how much work it would be to make it functional with live-tv (in kodi).

krustyreturns · 2014-10-07, 17:45

In my testing ccextractor works well for converting CC to srt files. This can be used by our backend to automatically generate srt files for recorded tv - once they are done recording. But like Ace says, this is not a solution for live tv. Although we have a method for generating srt files on the fly for live tv, there is currently no way to get kodi to use this srt data for the live tv stream (as mentioned in the first post).

I don't know which is more difficult, getting ffmpeg to decode CC/TT, or getting it to input srt data that is being compiled for live streams. As a generic solution though for pvr backends, I think there is merit in the second method.

Jönke · 2014-10-07, 19:58

But teletext do works already in kodi , but not in a very good way.
You cant pick teletext subtitle in menus, you have to start teletext (T) and enter the right teletext number page for your language.
And sometimes its ouf sync.
I should be like in VLC, just pick the right subtitle in gui

krustyreturns · 2014-10-07, 20:57

Well TT doesn't work for our users, but maybe that will get resolved with the ticket we started. I still would be interested to know if kodi could support having the backend decode subtitles and then the backend feeds these subtitles to kodi with a live AV stream.

Jönke · 2014-10-07, 21:04

Guess something like Tvheadend do would work ?
But the best would be out of the box cc/teletext support so all video files with subtitle can be used without the need for backend support. I´m thinking of my mpeg.ts recordings from Dreambox

poopyurinal · 2014-11-10, 20:28

(2014-10-07, 17:45)krustyreturns Wrote: In my testing ccextractor works well for converting CC to srt files. This can be used by our backend to automatically generate srt files for recorded tv - once they are done recording. But like Ace says, this is not a solution for live tv. Although we have a method for generating srt files on the fly for live tv, there is currently no way to get kodi to use this srt data for the live tv stream (as mentioned in the first post).

I don't know which is more difficult, getting ffmpeg to decode CC/TT, or getting it to input srt data that is being compiled for live streams. As a generic solution though for pvr backends, I think there is merit in the second method.

@krustyreturns

Did you find a way to automatically run ccextractor on completed recordings from Windows Media Center as the backend? I am trying to do this and struggling to find an automated way. I used to use NextPVR as my backend and I could run a postprocessing.bat file to run ccextractor, but I don't know how to do that using WMC as the backend. I'd appreciate any help or ideas!

scarecrow420 · (This post was last modified: 2014-11-11, 00:34 by scarecrow420.)

(2014-11-10, 20:28)poopyurinal Wrote:
(2014-10-07, 17:45)krustyreturns Wrote: In my testing ccextractor works well for converting CC to srt files. This can be used by our backend to automatically generate srt files for recorded tv - once they are done recording. But like Ace says, this is not a solution for live tv. Although we have a method for generating srt files on the fly for live tv, there is currently no way to get kodi to use this srt data for the live tv stream (as mentioned in the first post).

I don't know which is more difficult, getting ffmpeg to decode CC/TT, or getting it to input srt data that is being compiled for live streams. As a generic solution though for pvr backends, I think there is merit in the second method.

@krustyreturns

Did you find a way to automatically run ccextractor on completed recordings from Windows Media Center as the backend? I am trying to do this and struggling to find an automated way. I used to use NextPVR as my backend and I could run a postprocessing.bat file to run ccextractor, but I don't know how to do that using WMC as the backend. I'd appreciate any help or ideas!

@puppyurinal In ServerWMC you can configure "ExternalActions" to be triggered by recording state changes (eg a recording completing). You have to do it in the config file itself, we didnt add a UI for it. Here is a post explaining more details on what options are available: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid1605365