Closed Captions for Win 10 x64 SageTV Client - solution

[Zogg]

After a lot of experimenting and trials, I finally found a solution that seems to work reliably for CC display. As a latecomer to SageTV, I don't have a licensed v7 to get the decoder from, and Win 10 requires add-on decoders.

I've been looking for a solution that performs well and doesn't cause video issues like interlacing or the captions lag behind the video. With the 32-bit client I could use the ATI Video decoder, which is quite old, but on some of my systems I would see video issues like interlacing.

The Elecard MPEG2 Plugin for WMP seems to work well for me on three Win10 systems. I did have to change the video mode to VMR9, as I saw interlacing a lot using EVR. But with this change, the captions are in sync, no interlacing, the video looks fine, and I can toggle the captions on/off.

[MattHelm]

Does this work for both 32 and 64 bit clients? Just asking.

[Zogg]

Originally Posted by MattHelm

Does this work for both 32 and 64 bit clients? Just asking.

I have the x32 SageTV client installed on my HTPC that runs Win 10 x64, and this decoder doesn't show up in the list.

In the past I believe that I have successfully used the old ATI decoder in 32-bit clients, but that one doesn't show any captions on this system, and I don't have an x32 system anymore to try it on. The ATI decoder is kind of hit or miss IMO.

But, at the Elecard website they have a free trial of the last version of this decoder and it includes an x32 package. Free to try, $15 if it works, and really that's pretty cheap if you use it every day. They have v5.4, and the site I linked to has v5.3.

I would try it but I don't want to risk screwing up my x64 installation, so I suggest you download it and give it a try. If it works, let us know.

[Striker:WG]

So does this provide closed caption support for MP4, MKV, or other videos that would be viewed in the Videos section as well, or just for Live TV?

[Zogg]

It's just decoder for MPG/TS. MP4/MKV use a different method called subtitles, and I have had very mixed results with these.

From my testing, if a video has more than one subtitle language included then often they don't work at all. I have manually manipulated these in a few videos, usually H.265 encoded MKV, and then the subtitles will play. It's a pain so I usually just switch to MPC-HC to watch other videos.

[Striker:WG]

Ahh, I was hoping for something that would work within Sage.

I've noticed that on my HD200 I can access the closed captions within an MP4 or MKV file without issue, but on a Win PC client I don't even get an option to try. Was hoping there was something to help make the PC client more like the HD200/HD300 implementation.