Closed Caption help...?

gotuitdan · #1 11-22-2004, 09:59 PM

Hello...

I'm having trouble getting CC to work... I have 3 PVR-350s in my machine. For some reason, closed captions never show up. I'm using output stream 10 (according to the profiles in Sage.properties), I've set the InsertCCinDVD reg key to 1 (on all three cards), I'm running 1.17.270.2121 drivers on all 3 cards (most stable for me) and I've successfully enabled it in Sage (I can cycle Off/CC1/CC2), but nothing shows up... I've tried overlay and VMR9. I've tried Elecard and Intervideo decoders. I'm using Cayars STV...

sigh.

Any help would be much appreciated...

thanks!

Opus4 · #2 11-22-2004, 10:50 PM

If you are trying to display the CC on the 350's TV out, then see the last page of the v2.1 manual: CC is not displayed through the 350's TV out. (Unless Cayars made some modification in his STV for that.)

- Andy

Cayars · #3 11-23-2004, 06:34 AM

CC Display to the PVR-350 can be done in the Cayars, MalDude2 and Malore21 STVs, but this is not done using the built in CC support. It uses external processing to build an "smi" file and then this file is used to display the data out on the PVR/350 (probably MVP too).

If somebody has a PVR-350 that aren't using and wouldn't mind loaning it to me for a week or two I can try and do native CC out on it for you, but I'm not going to purchase one.

gotuitdan · #4 11-23-2004, 07:07 AM

well, as odd as it sounds, I have 3 PVR-350s in my server, and I don't use the decoder output at all. I use my video card for output to the TV. Thus, CC display to the PVR-350 isn't relevant.

Any other ideas? :-)

thanks!

Opus4 · #5 11-23-2004, 11:29 AM

Did you look at the last page of the v2.1 manual that I referenced?

There is a FAQ entry for doing CC outside of SageTV's preliminary CC capabilities.

Have you looked at this site for more info on the CC registry entry? There are a couple different versions of the CC registry entry.

- Andy

gotuitdan · #6 11-23-2004, 11:56 AM

I did look over the FAQ and the other site (Amontillado's). As I'm using an older driver, I fixed the appropriate registry entries.

Hmmm. I may try all of the different methods, just to prove whether or not I'm crazy. (actually, i probably already have proof enough for that...)

:-)

David Lawrance · #7 11-23-2004, 06:45 PM

I have two 250s and I can't get CC to work, either. The Sage manual isn't a lot of help.

mostlyfodder · #8 04-13-2007, 08:59 AM

Hi,

Please help me with Closed Captions (CC).

I'm using a Hauppage PVR-250, my recorded video shows that single line of static at the top of the screen (which represents the CC data), I recorded the video using DVD quality (Sage's "Great" quality setting), I've followed the instructions in Appendix K of the Sage support manual (I'm using VMR not Overlay, and I've set cc_option_enabled=true in the properties file. I rebooted.)

I now see the "Captions (Off)" option in the video options menu. But I can't turn ON the closed caption option; it stays "(Off)" when I click on it from the video menu.

I've searched the forums and can't figure this out. Please help.. I've tried viewing CC on mutltiple recordings and none of them seem to work.

Thanks,

-mostly fodder

ke6guj · #9 04-13-2007, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mostlyfodder

Hi,

Please help me with Closed Captions (CC).

I'm using a Hauppage PVR-250, my recorded video shows that single line of static at the top of the screen (which represents the CC data), I recorded the video using DVD quality (Sage's "Great" quality setting), I've followed the instructions in Appendix K of the Sage support manual (I'm using VMR not Overlay, and I've set cc_option_enabled=true in the properties file. I rebooted.)

I don't think that just because you are seeing the CC data line in the recording, that you are actually capturing the CC. Use the mpg2srt.exe tool to confirm that you are actually capturing CC into the file. Use mpg2srt on the file in a DOS prompt and and it will output some text files that will show if there is any CC in them.

Quote:

I now see the "Captions (Off)" option in the video options menu. But I can't turn ON the closed caption option; it stays "(Off)" when I click on it from the video menu.

That sounds like you are using an MPEG decoder that does not support DVD usage, most likely the Sage MPEG decoder that Sage supplies for free. You need a DVD capable decoder, like the nVidia PureVideo decoder, or a decoder from a DVD software package.

A DVD decoder will let you turn on the Closed captions in the menu and see any recorded captioning.

mostlyfodder · #10 04-13-2007, 06:18 PM

Jack-

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. And especially for posting the file. I will d/l and test as you suggested. Also, I confirmed that I am using the sage DVD decoder which (as you said) doesn't support viewing the CC's. Thanks again and I'll post F/U with my results.

-fodder

mostlyfodder · #11 04-13-2007, 06:48 PM

Jack that did the trick. I changed decoders and the CC menu option now allows me to choose CC1, CC2, or OFF. You made one Israeli girl very happy. my gf, not me

-greg

(Edit: By the way, to clarify, you said this:

"I don't think that just because you are seeing the CC data line in the recording, that you are actually capturing the CC. "

I am able to see the CC's properly on an old recording of the show "24" which I tested b/c I remembered it had that annoying white line of static across the top of the recording. So, I guess if you do see the CC data line, then you are capturing it and the decoder & Sage can display it.)

ke6guj · #12 04-13-2007, 11:19 PM

Glad to hear you got it working.

hemicuda · #13 05-27-2007, 10:17 AM

let's drag this thread back up for a bit...

I just reinstalled the NVidia PureVideo decoder that I got w/ Sage from pcalchemy. I still can't get the CC option to show anything but Off. If I use "Default" in the mpeg decoder section recordings will play, but no CC. If I specifically select the NVidia decoder I get the following error:

sage.PlaybackException: Error (-4,0 x80040217) There was a problem rendering the video portion of the content for playback.

I have the nvidia decoder set as Preferred w/ deccheck.exe. Color keying is disabled. VMR9 is on. the cc option in properties is "true". i think everything else relevant is default. i don't use FSE. The Intervideo NonCSS decoder for hauppauge will display CC, but I doubt it's the better decoder of the 4 in the list.
Also, it displays CC text pink over a translucent green background. UGLY; any way to change it?

ke6guj · #14 05-27-2007, 10:33 PM

I uploaded a small video clip that has CC embedded in it (It is white over a translucent black background. Put it in you imported video folder and take a look at it. IF it displays white, then you have a capture problem, but if you still get pink, then it is a display problem.

http://www.jackofsometrades.com/video/Friends.mpg

surge · #15 12-12-2007, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ke6guj

I uploaded a small video clip that has CC embedded in it (It is white over a translucent black background. Put it in you imported video folder and take a look at it. IF it displays white, then you have a capture problem, but if you still get pink, then it is a display problem.

http://www.jackofsometrades.com/video/Friends.mpg

Before trying to figure out if my tuners are capturing CC information I want to figure out why I can't see the CC info from a file that is known to have the info. I downloaded your sample clip and the video menu only shows Captions (Off).

I've tried specifying other decoders "MPEG2 Video Decoder Filter" -- Intervideo Video Decoder / NVIDIA Video Decoder / and the SageTV MPEG Video Decoder but the only option is still Captions (Off)

In sage.properties, I set cc_option_enabled=true as directed in the FAQs.

Do I need the "STV Import: Closed Caption Playback" for this sample clip?

thanks

ke6guj · #16 12-12-2007, 02:15 PM

what tuners do you have? Embedded CC only works on Hauppuage tuners and with the correct drivers. There is some embedded CC available from digital recordings, but we haven't completely figured it out yet.

Since you see the Captions (OFF), you did the cc_option_enabled=true edit correctly. The Nvidia Video Decoder should let you change the captions to CC1 and CC2 since it is a DVD decoder. The Intervideo decoder should as well. The SageTV decoder will not.

No, you don't need the STV import for this clip. The import is for playing extracted CC. It will also give you additional functionality in controlling your embedded CC options, but is not needed to merely play embeddded CC.

surge · #17 12-12-2007, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ke6guj

what tuners do you have?

In my MCE machine I have a PVR-500 and an NVidia NVTV Dual tuner card.
I have a test machine setup with Sage and it has the HVR-1600.
If I decide to switch to Sage, I'll only move the PVR-500 over since the NVTV isn't supported.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ke6guj

Since you see the Captions (OFF), you did the cc_option_enabled=true edit correctly. The Nvidia Video Decoder should let you change the captions to CC1 and CC2 since it is a DVD decoder. The Intervideo decoder should as well. The SageTV decoder will not.

Using the NVidia Video Decoder, I'm not able to change the CC option.
I'm trying this against an install on my laptop without a tuner.
Does the option only change if I'm connecting to the Sage Server with the tuner?

ke6guj · #18 12-12-2007, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by surge

I have a test machine setup with Sage and it has the HVR-1600.
If I decide to switch to Sage, I'll only move the PVR-500 over since the NVTV isn't supported.

sounds good. The PVR-500 will do embeddded captions, and I've heard that the 1600 might be able to do them as well. To test to see if you have embedded captions, you can run mpg2srt.exe on a recording and see if it spits out a .smi file with captions in it.

Quote:

Using the NVidia Video Decoder, I'm not able to change the CC option.
I'm trying this against an install on my laptop without a tuner.
Does the option only change if I'm connecting to the Sage Server with the tuner?

on the laptop without a tuner, you are running SageTVClient? or the main SageTVMediaCenter, but without a tuner?

Have you tried to get the Captions to enable on both the test box and the laptop?

edit: What video renderer are you using, default, overlay, VMR9? IIRC, it has to be either overlay or VMR9. Default (VMR7?) doesn't work. And if set to overlay, you will have to turn off "overlay color keying"

surge · #19 12-12-2007, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ke6guj

sounds good. The PVR-500 will do embeddded captions, and I've heard that the 1600 might be able to do them as well. To test to see if you have embedded captions, you can run mpg2srt.exe on a recording and see if it spits out a .smi file with captions in it.

I have a recording over QAM and that didn't have any CC info.
I'll try a recording over the NTSC and see if that supports it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ke6guj

edit: What video renderer are you using, default, overlay, VMR9? IIRC, it has to be either overlay or VMR9. Default (VMR7?) doesn't work. And if set to overlay, you will have to turn off "overlay color keying"

Thanks for the edit

I was using the default overlay. I switched to VMR9 and it works!
Hopefully this works on the HD extender.

ke6guj · #20 12-12-2007, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by surge

I have a recording over QAM and that didn't have any CC info.

a digital QAM recording does have embedded CC in it, but not in a format that the nvidia decoder will display. I have seen that the PowerDVD and WinDVD decoders will display digital captions, but I had problems with PowerDVD corrupting them during display. THe WInDVD decoder would display captions on some digital channels, but not all digital channels, and was running in software mode (instead of hardware-assist), which maxed out my CPU. I haven't had a chance to further troubleshoot getting digital embedded captions to display.

mpg2srt will not extract digital captions. ccextractor will. If you extract the captions into an .smi file, you can then use the Closed caption STV to display them. And you may need to do that on the HD extender.

Quote:

I'll try a recording over the NTSC and see if that supports it.

let me know.

Quote:

Thanks for the edit

I was using the default overlay. I switched to VMR9 and it works!

sweet!!

Quote:

Hopefully this works on the HD extender.

+1 on that. That would really be nice, but Opus's comment in another thread didn't sound good.