[Kib]

Helix nightlies are currently based on ffmpeg 2.2.1 - make sure you code on top of the master branch and rebase often.
PR's against XBMC should (always) be done against master branch.

[allan87]

If I understand this correctly (and I could certainly be mistaken), as of v. 2.2 ffmpeg may now support ATSC Closed Captioning:

http://git.videolan.org/?p=ffmpeg.git;a=...peg12dec.c

[rd1979]

If I understand this correctly (and I could certainly be mistaken), as of v. 2.2 ffmpeg may now support ATSC Closed Captioning:

http://git.videolan.org/?p=ffmpeg.git;a=...peg12dec.c

So since Helix is based on ffmpeg 2.2.1, as Kib just mentioned, it should be in the beta already, no?

[Wanilton]

Helix beta, use ffmpeg 2.4.2 now.

[rd1979]

Helix beta, use ffmpeg 2.4.2 now.

Even better.

[FernetMenta]

ffmpeg supports extraction of CC. now we would need some libass like lib which creates a bitmap from the low level cc instructions which are like this: print character T at pos x,y.

[magao]

ffmpeg supports extraction of CC. now we would need some libass like lib which creates a bitmap from the low level cc instructions which are like this: print character T at pos x,y.

I don't know technically how CC works, but maybe the SRT machinery could be reused i.e. when receiving CC instructions, create a new SRT fragment with appropriate timecodes and then let the SRT machinery display it.

[oldtvwatcher]

XBMC's dependency on ffmpeg patches already lead us to being rejected on several official linux application repositories, such as Debian and Ubuntu.

I realize it's been over a year since the above was posted but here is my question. From everything I am reading, it appears that both MythTV and VLC have figured out how to modify ffmpeg for their specific requirements, including the support of closed captions. Since I am not a developer or a programmer, I may not understand all the nuances of this, but the last time I looked both VLC and MythTV were available from the official Ubuntu repositories (at least they show up in synaptic). So what are they doing different, and why can't Kodi do whatever they are doing?

My understanding also is that the ffmpeg project has become fragmented and that there was a big split about three years ago where some developers left ffmpeg to start a competing project (libav). So, waiting for the ffmpeg developers to address this issue may be an exercise in futility. As late as September of this year, Carl Eugen Hoyos of that project posted that "FFmpeg does not (yet) support Closed Captions" and further discussion in that thread did not provide any indication that they are in fact working on this, or consider it any kind of priority. I wish they would, because in some cases I have a need to use ffmpeg to do various conversions on recordings and whenever I do, the closed captions disappear, even when the video stream is simply copied and the only transformations are on the audio.

You say you understand the need to enable this support but it seems to me that at some point you need to decide whether you feel the need badly enough to emulate whatever VLC and MythTV are doing, and if you do decide to follow their path then that might get Kodi into the official Ubuntu/Debian repositories, if ffmpeg patches really are the issue now. Your hearing impaired users would really appreciate it.

I would also mention that Kodi is now being included on devices that are sold in the United States, such as the just-announced CuBoxTV which comes with OpenELEC, which is of course based on Kodi. The CuBoxTV at least could be considered the rendering device as discussed in svet-am's post (#17), so the fact that Kodi isn't supporting closed captions could potentially become a big problem for them, if not for you guys directly. I don't know if that matters in the slightest to you guys, but law or no law I just wish that if the ffmpeg developers don't deliver real soon now, that at some point in the near future you'd do the right thing and stop waiting for them, if that's what is happening. You may not consider the lack of closed captions that important or all that urgent to fix, but you might think differently if you had a son, daughter, sibling, or parent that could not enjoy any Kodi content because of a hearing impairment.

[Memphiz]

What content are we talking about that your children can't use VLC or MythTV then? Really - i am sorry for your situation - but trying to give the kodi project any sort of guilty conscience is just really poor acting imo.

[ironic_monkey]

i'm NOT hearing impaired, in fact I hear just fine. i'm not your slave monkey as my user name implies. So knowing that, if you try to play on others bad conscience to add shit YOU want, you're just being an ass.

[FernetMenta]

I don't know if that matters in the slightest to you guys, but law or no law I just wish that if the ffmpeg developers don't deliver real soon now, that at some point in the near future you'd do the right thing and stop waiting for them, if that's what is happening.

Are you visually impaired or why do you ignore my post above? Instead you pull out some statement not even related to the topic of this thread.

[oldtvwatcher]

What content are we talking about that your children can't use VLC or MythTV then? Really - i am sorry for your situation - but trying to give the kodi project any sort of guilty conscience is just really poor acting imo.

TV programs that are played through the Live TV addons. MythTV doesn't works with some types of tuner cards, and VLC simply won't play a lot of content because first of all, it's not designed to access the backend, and second, it doesn't utilize the hardware graphics so on some low-power devices you get about one frame per second if you are lucky.

I'm sorry if I touched a nerve but I was just trying to point out that now that Kodi is being included as the primary or only way to play back certain types of content on various hardware devices, such as the CuBoxTV, users of such devices simply don't have the option to use MythTV, VLC, or anything else. Sometimes as a user you get the feeling that project developers only care about the stuff that affects them directly, and I was just making the point that if one of them had a hearing impaired family member, my guess is that this would have already been done.

In my personal opinion, and you can hate on me all you want for saying this but I will say it anyway, if Kodi is more or less a private project that includes only what the developers want and no more, then perhaps the Kodi developers should not allow hardware manufacturers to include it on their devices. That's not an outcome I would want to see, but when people spend money on a piece of hardware that comes with embedded software, they tend to have higher expectations than for some program they downloaded off the 'net and installed in a general purpose system. Kodi is evolving, and it is being used in situations where it has never been used before. Any device with OpenELEC installed simply gives the user no option to install ANY other type of player; on such systems or devices, Kodi is the ONLY program available, and from the user's perspective the device boots into Kodi. And the fact is that VLC and MythTV both include closed caption support, so it's not like they are being asked to do the impossible. I don't understand why the developers would even want to resist this, but whether they feel guilty about it or not is entirely beyond my control.

[oldtvwatcher]

i'm NOT hearing impaired, in fact I hear just fine.

And therefore you don't give a .... ?

i'm not your slave monkey as my user name implies. So knowing that, if you try to play on others bad conscience to add shit YOU want, you're just being an ass.

If I were the only one wanting this, then you would probably be right. But it appears that you want to view a reasonable request to accommodate the disabled, that has been made at different times by several users, as someone trying to make you their slave. I just can't argue against that kind of twisted logic; it hurts my brain to try and figure out what dark part of the soul you had to go to in order to come up with that conclusion.

Some people probably should only develop software for their own personal use, and never share it with anyone else. That way, they will never need to be bothered with requests for added features, reasonable OR unreasonable. IMHO that is more likely true for someone who looks upon such requests as an attempt to put them into slavery.

[Memphiz]

Sometimes as a user you get the feeling that project developers only care about the stuff that affects them directly, and I was just making the point that if one of them had a hearing impaired family member, my guess is that this would have already been done.

Yes this is mostly correct for our project. And we state this all over the place whenever we can.

if Kodi is more or less a private project that includes only what the developers want and no more, then perhaps the Kodi developers should not allow hardware manufacturers to include it on their devices.

This is impossible for us with for example china in the game. Also we don't have a handle on this - its open source - everyone can do everything he wants as long as he obeys the GPL license and our name usage policy. Also a bit drastic isn't it?

That's not an outcome I would want to see, but when people spend money on a piece of hardware that comes with embedded software, they tend to have higher expectations than for some program they downloaded off the 'net and installed in a general purpose system.

Yes thats something i understand. But thats still nothing the project can do about. You know that we don't have anything to do with hw manufacturers which ship XBMC/Kodi - do you?

Kodi is evolving, and it is being used in situations where it has never been used before.

That sounds like Star Trek to me - but yeah. I wonder when the first astronaut will bring Kodi to the ISS ...

Any device with OpenELEC installed simply gives the user no option to install ANY other type of player; on such systems or devices, Kodi is the ONLY program available, and from the user's perspective the device boots into Kodi. And the fact is that VLC and MythTV both include closed caption support, so it's not like they are being asked to do the impossible. I don't understand why the developers would even want to resist this, but whether they feel guilty about it or not is entirely beyond my control.

Well you better read FernetMentas post finally. He stated what needs to be done. For example this is something i am not into at all - so i wouldn't be able to make this happen with out dedicating alot of time into it. And this stands true for most of our members. The Dev who might know exactly what needs to be done is MIA.

All in all i understand your request - but i don't accept any of your arguments. Hey man this project is like any other Open Source project. Find someone who is an impaired developer - get him attracted to Kodi - make him do the work - we will accept the contribution. But stop demanding(!!) this from the core team (which is not able to realise this feature request as it seems - the reasons for that don't matter at all!).

If anything - then you pointed out to me that its a bad thing for the user when an open source project gets as big as Kodi did - because the project has not the control that the user (in this case you) would expect.

[ironic_monkey]

i was just playing on your signature if you didn't pick up on that. and yes, of course using the term slavery was a slight exaggeration. but you ARE expecting others to do work for you, and play the offended part when nobody wants to scratch your itch.