Embedded CC/subtitles

[valnar]

Does anyone have this feature on the radar for the miniclient? It's the one feature that ties me to the HD300 boxes (not that I mind), but it does prevent me from recommending Sage to friends. Some of us old timers are hard of hearing so CC support is important, and embedded subtitles in MKV files would be good too.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by valnar

Does anyone have this feature on the radar for the miniclient? It's the one feature that ties me to the HD300 boxes (not that I mind), but it does prevent me from recommending Sage to friends. Some of us old timers are hard of hearing so CC support is important, and embedded subtitles in MKV files would be good too.

This does come up form time to time, and I think the MiniClient does support external subtitles, just not embedded ones. Personally I'd like to see the server extract them then send them (like external subtitles), but I think it's a complicated process.

The good news is that the Players in the MiniClient do support embedded subtitles... someone just has to find the time to make it happen, and I htink, sadly, it's a low priority right now

[valnar]

OK, thank you Stuckless.

[Rob23]

Originally Posted by valnar

Some of us old timers are hard of hearing so CC support is important, and embedded subtitles in MKV files would be good too.

+1 from another hard of hearing old timer.

[graywolf]

Same here but glad that the hdx00s handles them and have some spares

[Narflex]

It wouldn't be all that hard to implement this in the server (the server does all the rendering of CC already). All that's needed is for sage.FastMpeg2Reader.java to extract the CC data while it's parsing the file for streaming to the client. There's lots of fast path optimizations in there to make that as lightweight as possible (so it parses very little); but those can be easily disabled with config setting that would then parse more of the stream to extract the actual UserData field from the video stream which contains the CC data bits (and then they just need to be sent to VideoFrame and then the rest is magic that already exists).

I'd be more than happy to guide somebody through what needs to be done...but it does help a LOT if they are familiar with MPEG TS/PS parsing and also H264/MPEG2 parsing (at least at the top level, it's just header analysis).

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Narflex

It wouldn't be all that hard to implement this in the server (the server does all the rendering of CC already). All that's needed is for sage.FastMpeg2Reader.java to extract the CC data while it's parsing the file for streaming to the client. There's lots of fast path optimizations in there to make that as lightweight as possible (so it parses very little); but those can be easily disabled with config setting that would then parse more of the stream to extract the actual UserData field from the video stream which contains the CC data bits (and then they just need to be sent to VideoFrame and then the rest is magic that already exists).

I'd be more than happy to guide somebody through what needs to be done...but it does help a LOT if they are familiar with MPEG TS/PS parsing and also H264/MPEG2 parsing (at least at the top level, it's just header analysis).

I'm sensing another project for @EnterNoEscape (Maybe in the fall, if no-one has picked this up, I'll take a stab at it... i really do want to get to know the TS/PS parsing code much better, just, I need large blocks or time fully absorb it, and right now, I only have small windows of SageTV development )

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I'm sensing another project for @EnterNoEscape (Maybe in the fall, if no-one has picked this up, I'll take a stab at it... i really do want to get to know the TS/PS parsing code much better, just, I need large blocks or time fully absorb it, and right now, I only have small windows of SageTV development )

Gee thanks.

[graywolf]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

Gee thanks.

Don't you love being da man?
Get the same at work

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by graywolf

Don't you love being da man?
Get the same at work

I get this my own workplace too. You would not believe the kinds of questions I get just because they figured I might be able to fix it/know the answer.

[valnar]

You guys are awesome. Except for the occasional bug/workaround in the miniclient, as far as I know, this is the last major feature to eliminate the need of the HD300. Adding H.265 content to my collection would be nice.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

I get this my own workplace too. You would not believe the kinds of questions I get just because they figured I might be able to fix it/know the answer.

I guess there is No Escape for you.

[trk2]

I have no idea if the fix is similar, but if this does get looked at, can we also look at having the forced subtitles flag honored for mkvs? There is an issue open for this on GitHub.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

I guess there is No Escape for you.

The name comes from how I signed computer edited video presentations in high school: No Escape Entertainment. The origins are even less interesting. Basically, my first production was done using a keyboard what was physically missing the escape key. Me and my friends were very atypical for the time in that we were doing a lot of things with computers that are now pretty commonplace.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by trk2

I have no idea if the fix is similar, but if this does get looked at, can we also look at having the forced subtitles flag honored for mkvs? There is an issue open for this on GitHub.

+1 this. Honoring mkv's forced subs would be wonderful!

[Narflex]

Originally Posted by trk2

I have no idea if the fix is similar, but if this does get looked at, can we also look at having the forced subtitles flag honored for mkvs? There is an issue open for this on GitHub.

Sorry, the CC fix is completely unrelated to forced subs. SageTV just doesn't know about forced subs...FFMPEG would need to output that data bit when SageTV uses it to parse the MKV for the format info/metadata. Then SageTV core would need to be modified to turn on subs by default if that flag is present. Both of those things are likely not hard to implement...you just need to find somebody to do it.