Heads-up for caption users thinking of upgrading to 3.7.2

[merrypig]

There is an oops in the 3.7.2 public release that seems to break the capture of closed caption data on a pvr250. It looks like it doesn't set the right stream type (even though it reports dvd stream in the logs) so the 250 doesn't embed the captions.

so for now, if you use the InsertCCInDVD to record your shows, you might want to wait on installing 3.7.2 (build 2420) until either a workaround, or new build is posted.

~Merry.

[Xiadix]

I realise that this is a little offtopic, but a bump couldn't hurt this thread. I also don't think it will be of interest to too many people.

Since I have my BTV capturing CC and can display them when wanted. I was hoping that they would show up as available when I burned these shows to DVD. Unfortunatly, they are not. I have used both not_Shorty's orginal script, and I am now using BTV2DVD neither one have them show up.

Do you know what we might have to do to get them to show up there? I kinda think that we will either just have to tweak the transcode before the burn process, or put something in place to rip CC's out to a different file to include. By WE I do mean the cool programmers and me just testing. I should give you guys all the credit.

KevG

[merrypig]

In theory you just need to modify the ifo to tell the dvd player that closed caption data is present. However, I never found the right set of values to get a good result but I haven't played with it much. Since I watch all my dvd's on the pc, I use a player that lets me hook in the caption decoder automatically so I can see captions on my dvds.

I use zoomplayer usually for watching dvd's I've burnt. It has a nice feature where you can force it to show closed captions without even needing a custom media graph now

The other thing you need is dvd software that won't strip out the 'user packet' data after a gop header. TMPGEnc Author doesn't and thisis what I use. Some of the others, particularly if you are doing a recode - will and in these cases you'll have to strip out the captions using something like mpg2srt (which I wrote and then munge them back into the dvd using another tool.

[Cal]

Thanks for the heads up. No way can I do without my Captions. I don't turn them on very often but they are nice to have when I just can't make out what someone said on a show.

[Edgarmoon]

Ok, here's a pet peave I have with closed captioning that I was hoping the new build might address (of course, they go in a completely different direction)

I get full closed captions in overlay mode, and can turn them off by switching to 3d acc. WHen in overlay with CC enabled, if I press the jump 30 sec forward button too quickly (to get through commercials) it will lock sometimes. I have to do a ctrl-alt-shift and close btv. (just closes playback, recordings are not affected). Anyone else getting this or is it just me? I also get a hesitation every time I jump, if CC is not enabled (overlay or 3d) no hesitation.

[merrypig]

I use jump all the time with captions enabled/overlay. Never had a problem

I suspect you have a more fundamental problem - codec choice perhaps?

[Cal]

Originally Posted by merrypig

so for now, if you use the InsertCCInDVD to record your shows, you might want to wait on installing 3.7.2 (build 2420) until either a workaround, or new build is posted.

~Merry.

Has this been fixed in 3.7.4?
If yes then I'll make the jump this weekend.

[merrypig]

Well, mixed answer for ya. It's not 'fixed' in that I still have a problem with no captions on my first recording/livetv session after a reboot.

However, it does seem to be unrelated to 3.7.4. I am using it, I just start livetv once after any reboot ( I don't do this often, and doesn't appear to be necessary after resume from standby) .

I have found that in the 3.7.x builds using this slice architecture my captions sometimes just stop after a while into the live tv. If I restart livetv they resume. I don't see this in recordings so my hunch is that the slice architecture is breaking the caption flow when a new file is started. SS haven't responded to this issue whatsoever.

I suggest you backup, try 3.7.4 and see how it goes it has been stable in other respects.

[Cal]

Sounds good. I'll backup the system this weekend and give it a go. I don't watch live TV anyway but I'll see if I have the same results about the first recording after a reboot.

Thanks for the Info. Now if they would just take your good work and somehow put it directly into the product so that the TV could display the captions instead of us changing our view settings back and forth.

[boomerang]

How are captions even anabled? I wanted to try this on my system because as someone said sometimes it's just hard to understand what an actor said.

[merrypig]

do you use a pvr250 or 350?

[boomerang]

Originally Posted by merrypig

do you use a pvr250 or 350?

250, why? It's a UI setting somewhere in WebAdmin or something, isn't it? Don't tell me I have to hack the registry or something...

[merrypig]

ok I won't tell you you have to hack the registry

[boomerang]

Sigh...this is what I mean when I talk about getting the product into the realm of non-geeks. When will they get a clue...

[merrypig]

now now.. lets be constructive. They did at least give us a way to have captions.