Closed Caption on TV-OUT

[look30]

Closed Caption on TV-OUT

I'm planing to put together a PVR using BTV and a PVR 250.
Up to now I was converting all the shows into DVD and play them
on TV but this is a lot of work and looking for simpler solution.

Will the Closed Caption still show on TV if I run BTV full screen ?!
If the above won't work will CC work if playing the MPEG file using
Windows Media PLayer (classic)?
Video Card is a Nvidia MX400.

[merrypig]

Captions will work (*) with window or fullscreen display.

Note, the captions are displayed by btv, and are not output on the tv signal for a tv to decode in case you were wondering. I don't think that was what you meant but just wanted to make it clear.


If you are using media player classic or any other player (**) you will need to rip the subtitles out of the mpeg2 file into srt/sami files using the mpg2srt program or something similar.

(**) programs that allow graph customisation will let you hook up the caption pins too - an example would be zoomplayer pro.

[look30]

Thanks Merry.
I will give Zoom Player a try.

[mrgrocery]

I had asked a similar question today. Thanks for your help so far merry. I can get it to work on my moniter and work for recording but now I am trying to get it to work with TV Out as well. It must be the sleep deprevation because I am having troubles understanding your answer so just to confirm, when playing a recorded program with beyond tv, it does not send the CC signal to the TV so the CC won't work for TV out, or am I misunderstanding you? Thanks again?

[merrypig]

I think you got it yes.

Normally a tv signal carries closed caption data encoded into line 21 of the 625 line video signal (NTSC). The tv decodes that and formats it into letters. the output from your computer will not support that . (the chipsets can usually do it, and the pvr350 can too I think, but I haven't heard anyone do so).

Instead, in the case of BTV at least, the captions are decoded from the recorded file and then overlaid on top of the video. So what goes to the tv already has the captions on top. you can't turn them on and off in the tv.

This isn't really a problem; the btv playback captions are usually just the same in appearance as the tv's display too.

To get it to work, the only supported method with btv is to have a capture card that can embed a digital version of the caption data into the mpeg2 data stream. Only the pvr250 variants seem to do this atm (that includes _some_ non hauppauge cards but I've no list of which alas). Alas, the MCE variants from hauppauge drop this support since MCE doesn't use this mechanism but a different one - not currently supported by btv.

Now... as long as you can get captions on your monitor, you should be able to get the output on your tv out as well. If you don't, it might be because you have a different video decoder selected in btv, or have switched from 3d accel to overlay or vice versa?

[mrgrocery]

Thanks for your help. I have confirmed that I am using the cyberlink decoder with overlay. When I have time I will check nvidia to see if there is anything on their end to help.

[merrypig]

perhaps too obvious to ask, but you don't have a clipping issue with your tv picture do you? The captions being off the edge of the screen?

[look30]

Is there any videocard who can output the CC signal raw so the TV decoder can process the signal and display the captions ?
The way I was doing it by now was to author DVD's using the MPEG recorded by BTV through PVR250 and play them in the setop DVD player with selectable CC fro m the TV set.
I find it strange that a $500 videocard can't do the work of a $50 TV set....

[mrgrocery]

No such thing as too obvious a question and in this case it would seem to be a good answer. I don't think it does though, When I am veiwing live TV or a recorded program it seems I am getting more picture than when I am just watching TV directly from the satellite.


One thing I thought of, does it matter to what CC setting my TV is set on. I think there are 7 or 8 of them(CC1 to CC4 and T1 to T4 or something)

[merrypig]

mrgrocery: Your tv won't see any caption data. Are you sure that there are captions in that file? (if you switch back to the monitor you can see them on the same file right?)

look30: all the graphics cards support vbi data on line21 out. Whether built in dac's or external tv chipset. The issue is - does the driver expose the interface to feed the i2c pins that pass the caption data to the chips; and does the application do anything with it.

If you look (google) you'll see lots of efforts to do cc data on tvout for linux setups. I couldn't find any for windows though.

Search for VBI line21 TVOUT as a starting point.

[look30]

Yupp , all projects are under Linux. Maybe sometime will see something for windoze too.

[mrgrocery]

The cc data is definately there, I can see on on my monitor. I will do some experimentation tonight.

Originally Posted by merrypig

mrgrocery: Your tv won't see any caption data. Are you sure that there are captions in that file? (if you switch back to the monitor you can see them on the same file right?)

look30: all the graphics cards support vbi data on line21 out. Whether built in dac's or external tv chipset. The issue is - does the driver expose the interface to feed the i2c pins that pass the caption data to the chips; and does the application do anything with it.

If you look (google) you'll see lots of efforts to do cc data on tvout for linux setups. I couldn't find any for windows though.

Search for VBI line21 TVOUT as a starting point.

[look30]

By now the best solution was Merry's one using Zoomplayer Pro.
Works like a charm and Zplayer is compatible with Meedio.
That will allow me to watch prerecorded shows with CC using Meedio and watch them without CC using BTV.

[merrypig]

look; you _want_ to watch them without CC with BTV? cos I watch mine on btv with cc's just fine...

Still trying to think about your issue mrgrocery. Can't think why you wouldn't see them on the second head other than probably an overlay issue.

[mrgrocery]

Wrote BFGTech last night and they suggested I change the TV to primary display. CC now exists on the TV and not the computer. Perhaps the its a limitation of the card. At this point unless it causes performance issues this is a suitable solution, thanks for the help.

Originally Posted by merrypig

look; you _want_ to watch them without CC with BTV? cos I watch mine on btv with cc's just fine...

Still trying to think about your issue mrgrocery. Can't think why you wouldn't see them on the second head other than probably an overlay issue.