Closed Captioning with VMR9/Cyberlink Codec/HDHomeRun

[sjwoo]

I've been getting CC data via my Hauppage MCE250PVR card + Comcast Motorola STB. Now that I have HDHomeRun hooked up, I can't get CC data anymore. Is there a fix/workaround for this?

[sjwoo]

I installed ArcSoft's TotalMedia with my HD HomeRun setup. In that software, I can see and record Closed Captioning just fine. Why does Sage ignore the CC data that's there? Running mpg2srt obviously results in an error, so the CC stream is not being captured.

[jerryt]

You have edited sageproperties to enable closed captions? Right!

You have selected CC1 orCC2 from options menu? Right!

[ke6guj]

OK, the HDHR records the incoming digital stream and that has the CC stream embedded. However, it is not the same CC stream as the analog cards. So, mpg2srt will not work on it. ccextractor will extract the CC so that you can see that it is there, and then you could use JREkiwi's Closed Caption plugin to display the extracted .smi captions.

Or, you can use a different MPEG decoder that does know how to display the digital captions. PowerDVD's and WinDVD's decoders can display some of the digital captions, but I haven't been able to get 100% accuracy in the display yet. nVidia's Purevideo does not display digital captions at all.

edit: SOme channels display 100%, others are garbled, and others don't display at all. But I am trying to get this to work for digital recordings from both a HDHR and a Firewired STB and that adds an extra layer of troubleshooting.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

PowerDVD's and WinDVD's decoders can display some of the digital captions, but I haven't been able to get 100% accuracy in the display yet.

Using WinDVD 9 filter I am getting great captions from two M780's. No non sense captions at all. Does the HDhomerun have a problem with captions? I was hoping to get one this month?

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by jerryt

Does the HDhomerun have a problem with captions? I was hoping to get one this month?

AFAIK, the HDHR has no problem recording the captions since they are already embedded in the stream. ccextractor will extract perfect captions from every recordings.

Its just during display of the recordings that I have problems with the captions. I got tired of trying to figure out exactly what combination of channel/decoder/source (HDHR/STB) display properly, corrupted with missing letters (may be 1080i interlacing related), and which don't display at all. In all cases, ccextractor shows that there are perfect captions in the recording.

[sjwoo]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

ccextractor will extract the CC so that you can see that it is there, and then you could use JREkiwi's Closed Caption plugin to display the extracted .smi captions.

Thanks, man. I just tried ccextractorwin, but no dice (runs through the file, but it never goes beyond 0%). There's a ton of parameters/settings here, though -- do I need to use certain specific settings?

[ke6guj]

I normally use ccextractorwin.exe -sami filename.mpg to extract the captions into a .smi text file that Sage can use.

[sjwoo]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

I normally use ccextractorwin.exe -sami filename.mpg to extract the captions into a .smi text file that Sage can use.

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, it's still not working for me. No matter what I try, it seems as if the CC stream is not being captured by Sage. My default recording quality has been DVD Extra Long Play, so I tried different qualities, but still, no captions.

But since you are able to grab them, I figure I'm still doing something wrong. Are these ClearQAM signals you are capturing, or are they OTA? Mine are ClearQAM, from the cable company (Comcast). Thanks...

[sjwoo]

And I was wrong -- I'm not getting CC from TotalMedia. I thought I was...I could've sworn I got them once...but I can't get them now.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by sjwoo

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, it's still not working for me. No matter what I try, it seems as if the CC stream is not being captured by Sage. My default recording quality has been DVD Extra Long Play, so I tried different qualities, but still, no captions.

recording quality settings have no effect on digital recordings. Sage meerly captures the incoming stream and records it to disk. Because of that, any CC that was embedded in the stream automatically gets saved along with the video.

But since you are able to grab them, I figure I'm still doing something wrong. Are these ClearQAM signals you are capturing, or are they OTA? Mine are ClearQAM, from the cable company (Comcast). Thanks...

I'm recording QAM as well with the HDHR.

[sjwoo]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

recording quality settings have no effect on digital recordings. Sage meerly captures the incoming stream and records it to disk. Because of that, any CC that was embedded in the stream automatically gets saved along with the video.

I'm recording QAM as well with the HDHR.

Then it's gotta be my setup. Could you tell me if your settings for HDHomeRun Setup look like this (except for the zip, of course)?





Here's what my capture device settings for Sage looks like:



Many thanks...

- Sung

[jerryt]

@SJWOO

Could you test something for me? It may help you troubleshoot your CC problems with the HDhomerun!

I am looking to to get a HDhomerun, but the CC must work perfectly or it is not an option for me. I would be using OTA only and not cable, so "Could you connect your HDhomerun to an external antenna and check CC on a local HD channel?".

My thoughts are that your cable may not have the CC data, but for sure the local OTA signal does. So this would be a good test for you.

Thanks

[sjwoo]

Originally Posted by jerryt

@SJWOO

Could you test something for me? It may help you troubleshoot your CC problems with the HDhomerun!

I am looking to to get a HDhomerun, but the CC must work perfectly or it is not an option for me. I would be using OTA only and not cable, so "Could you connect your HDhomerun to an external antenna and check CC on a local HD channel?".

My thoughts are that your cable may not have the CC data, but for sure the local OTA signal does. So this would be a good test for you.

Thanks

Hi Jerry,

I don't have an OTA antenna, so I'm afraid I can't test this for you. But have you looked at this thread?

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...t=32064&page=2

Looks like it's entirely possible to grab the CC data. But I haven't been able to do it yet in my setup.

- Sung

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by sjwoo

Hi Jerry,

I don't have an OTA antenna, so I'm afraid I can't test this for you.

I have done this test with a "wire FM antenna" and gotten the Local Digital channels fine.

[sjwoo]

Originally Posted by jerryt

I have done this test with a "wire FM antenna" and gotten the Local Digital channels fine.

According to antennaweb.org, I'm in the "violet" area (large directional with pre-amp), so I'm pretty certain I need to hook up to an outdoor antenna. But I'll see what I can do.

I wouldn't be too concerned about the problems I've had, though -- if you look at that other thread, there are many who have had success.

By the way, I do get captioning for HD channels through HDHomeRun via TotalMedia, but they're mostly garbled.

[sjwoo]

I can verify that I get captions from the HD channels via HDHR. It's only the SD channels that get no captions. I'm still trying to figure this out...

[sjwoo]

Problem solved. Because of the wimpy CPU (Athlon 2800+ Barton) in my HTPC, I had to get a cheapo HD-assisted AGP video card. Got myself a Sapphire Radeon HD2400 for $30 after rebate. Took out my Radeon 9600 and uninstalled the old drivers, put in the HD2400 and installed its drivers. Installed the HD reg tweak http://exdeus.home.comcast.net/~exdeus/ati-hd2x00/).

I don't think any of that actually was part of the solution. What I think did it was this. In Detailed Setup:

1) changed Video Renderer from VMR9 to Overlay.
2) changed MPEG2 Video Decoder Filter from Cyberlink to SageTV MPEG Video Decoder.
3) Enabled DXVA.
4) changed MPEG2 Audio Decoder Filter from Cyberlink to SageTV MPEG Audio Decoder.

And just like that, the captions came through for SD channels. And they are garbled for HD, but I expected that.

I had to change from VMR9 to Overlay because of CPU reasons. In VMR9, the video playback was stutterred and load was 100%. With Overlay, the playback is perfect and CPU load is around 30%.

I still don't quite understand what's going on. I've tried both ccextractorwin and mpg2srt, and sure enough, neither program can extract captions. Which leads me to believe that the MPEG2 stream doesn't contain EIA-608 captions but maybe rather EIA-708, and the SageTV MPEG Video Decoder is able to process them.

The captions are there, though, both live and in recordings, so problem solved.

[jerryt]

Try WinDVD 9.0 (intervideo) the captions are not garbled. Also to run captions in Overlay you need to turn off color key? in advanced portion of setup.

[sjwoo]

Originally Posted by jerryt

Try WinDVD 9.0 (intervideo) the captions are not garbled. Also to run captions in Overlay you need to turn off color key? in advanced portion of setup.

WinDVD didn't bring up the captions for me, but I have a different problem. What seems to be happening is that with HD content, video and audio are in sync to start off, but then they gradually lose sync. About fifteen seconds later, it's so off that it becomes unwatchable.

I wish I could try the ATI MPEG Codec, but it gives a video error in Sage. I played the saved HD MPEG file perfectly on my desktop computer via VLC, so I know the stream is good...