[oldtvwatcher]

I don't think this is a platform-specific issue since I cannot figure how how to do this under either Linux or OS X. I use TVHeadEnd as my backend for Live TV, and also use it to PVR recordings, but in either case I cannot get XBMC to show closed captions. It always wants to download a subtitles file and that is not what I am wanting to see - I am wanting to see the actual closed captions that are sent with the TV programming. Here in the USA it is a FCC (Federal Communications Commission) requirement that almost all programs have closed captions, and most of the time I don't need them, but there are a few programs where they don't record the sound clearly, or where one or more of the actors has a thick accent, where being able to see the subtitles can really come in handy.

I know that TVHeadEnd is recording the closed captions on the shows that it records, because if I copy the recording to another computer and play it in a different program such as VLC and turn on the subtitles track, the closed captions display with no issues. So how do I display the closed captions in XBMC? I am using Gotham 13.2 running under both Ubuntu and OS X, if that makes any difference.

(I also have some issues with it not playing 5.1 sound correctly on recorded TV programs, though XBMC plays 5.1 sound from movies with no issues, but that's a different problem that I'll worry about some other day.)

[Memphiz]

cc are simply not supported by now

[oldtvwatcher]

cc are simply not supported by now

Seriously? Is there some reason for that?

I would hope it's not that the developers simply do not care about people with hearing impairments, or those who may have difficulty understanding the dialogue.

[helta]

write the code, the source is yours bro.

[oldtvwatcher]

helta, exactly what in my posts gave you the mistaken idea that I know anything at all about writing code?

[helta]

for the same reason that you stated

developers simply do not care about people with hearing impairments"

double standard?

[clubwerks]

Any possibility you could just set up an external player to open from XBMC? You said the CC is there, so any direct show player should be able to render it. Setting up an external player is quite easy, I use one myself (MPC-BE), not for CC but because the picture quality is so much better.

[Ned Scott]

cc are simply not supported by now

Seriously? Is there some reason for that?

I would hope it's not that the developers simply do not care about people with hearing impairments, or those who may have difficulty understanding the dialogue.

Memphiz is simply telling you that it isn't supported right now. That's simply a statement of fact, in case you were wondering if it was a setting to enable or some kind of advanced option. Subtitle and closed caption support is actually a very high priority with the project.

This is on "the list" of things we want, but there's some parts in the code that need tweaking so that the live TV CC track is exposed to us, and we can then render it properly. Last I heard was that we were waiting on something to happen with ffmpeg, which is a library that we use for just about all our decoding. The live TV CC stuff doesn't work like normal subtitles. I'm sure one of our devs can explain it better, but it's something along those lines.

[oldtvwatcher]

for the same reason that you stated

developers simply do not care about people with hearing impairments"

double standard?

No, selective quoting by you, and that's not a reason anyway. You left out the part where I said "I would hope it's not that the developers simply do not care about people with hearing impairments", which makes a world of difference, and Ned Scott's post gives assurance that's not the case. And no matter how you twist or selectively quote that, there is absolutely nothing there that should cause you to think I know how to code. Just feel like being a jerk tonight?

[oldtvwatcher]

cc are simply not supported by now

Seriously? Is there some reason for that?

I would hope it's not that the developers simply do not care about people with hearing impairments, or those who may have difficulty understanding the dialogue.

Memphiz is simply telling you that it isn't supported right now. That's simply a statement of fact, in case you were wondering if it was a setting to enable or some kind of advanced option. Subtitle and closed caption support is actually a very high priority with the project.

This is on "the list" of things we want, but there's some parts in the code that need tweaking so that the live TV CC track is exposed to us, and we can then render it properly. Last I heard was that we were waiting on something to happen with ffmpeg, which is a library that we use for just about all our decoding. The live TV CC stuff doesn't work like normal subtitles. I'm sure one of our devs can explain it better, but it's something along those lines.

Thanks for that clarification. Since Memphiz didn't elaborate I wasn't sure if anyone cared about this. I hope that you can find a way to make this work, since it's rather important for those of us who need it either some of the time or all of the time. I probably wouldn't understand the technical details, I'm just happy to hear that it's on the radar.

I was not aware that you use ffmpeg internally, and that actually explains a lot, such as why the 5.1 sound isn't played correctly in some cases. As best I can determine, ffmpeg is unable to convert the audio in those recordings to a format that XBMC can play, or even to split it out to separate channels correctly. But then, ffmpeg has a ton of options and I don't understand most of them, so my only attempts to break out the channels were by following the instructions I found on some site, that might or might not have been correct.

[oldtvwatcher]

Any possibility you could just set up an external player to open from XBMC? You said the CC is there, so any direct show player should be able to render it. Setting up an external player is quite easy, I use one myself (MPC-BE), not for CC but because the picture quality is so much better.

I don't know how to set up an external player that opens from XBMC, but one issue I have is that I am running Ubuntu Linux on an Acer Aspire Revo that has nVidia graphics as my main HTPC, and I also have XBMC installed on an OS X desktop machine. I do not have anything here that runs Windows anymore. I did a quick search on MPC-BE and that looks like it might be a great solution if one is running Windows, but as far as I can see that is a Windows-only program and does not have Linux or OS X versions.

Linux does have standalone media players, for example Ubuntu comes with "Movie Player" which is a standalone media player, and there is always VLC, but I have yet to find one that will play video smoothly on this Revo other than SMPlayer. Anything other than XBMC or SMPlayer plays video like a slide show, showing new frames about every one or two seconds. I suspect it is because none of the other players utilize the nVidia VDPAU graphics, whereas XBMC and SMPlayer can be configured to utilize them, and I have done so. Unfortunately SMPlayer doesn't offer any better support for closed captions than XBMC, nor does it play the 5.1 audio any better. VLC does display the closed captions, but it has possibly the worst video playback of anything I have tried on my Revo (a newer version of VLC might help, but I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 stable and the latest version of VLC available in the Ubuntu repositories is rather dated).

[boblfoot]

Looks like Kodi-15 will be addressing this. http://trac.kodi.tv/ticket/15523
Thanks from me to all working on this.