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Closed Captioning support for live TV


jmantoo

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jmantoo

This really needs to be a must.  I have deaf parents and not having captions is forcing me to go back the "BOX" ugh.  Kodi has some support that seems to work but is very buggy.  I have an HDhomerun Prime and Comcast.  I'musing Emby on a Sony Bravia 65" 4k Android TV.   The picture for some HD channels is a bit sketchy  I have heard this is due to a lack of Mpeg-2 support.  but most channel are perfectly watchable except there is no CC support to be found.  

 

From all my searches  the tuner passes the CC text along in the stream,  it's just that the player has to decode it and display it.    

 

 

Please implement this into all Emby clients.   There are a number of people looking for a solution to this and most developers just don't seem to care to add the support.  But I believe Emby is different and from what i have experienced in the 3-4 years I have been using it.

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Hi, welcome. We're going as fast as we can to bring you guys the features that are important to you, and certainly subtitles are important. Thanks for the feedback.

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  • 2 months later...

Sorry if necromacing is frowned upon.  Please.  +1 on this feature.  I don't know if ffmpeg or whatever is being used on the transcode backend is destroying the data in the stream, but I know hdhomerun has a subtitles stream when playing through DLNA at least.  I can hear but I have difficulty picking apart what I hear.  Subtitles on TV make me a lot more comfortable.

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If a dev has some time to talk to me, I'd like to assist in any way I can with bringing this feature into emby.  I'm not a .NET or a Java guy, I'm kind of just a DevOps Python guy.  I'd like to understand the architecture around how livetv works and what components are there if anyone would like to help break that down for me.

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  • 8 months later...
MrRogers

Again, resurrecting a dead topic -- but hopefully, there's been some progress.  This is a must-have for me, and is the primary reason I'm looking to switch from Plex.

 

There is always some confusion between "closed captions" and "subtitles". The original poster of this topic seems to understand the difference, but Toggi3 and even Luke the admin (and perhaps most readers) seem to blur the two, using the terms as if they are the same.

  • Subtitles - These are a separate track in the .mkv container.  These are easily read by most clients, and are easily extracted into .srt files (for those clients that can't handle internal subtitles).
  • Closed Captions - These do not necessarily have a track can be extracted. The Plex smart TV apps do not support closed captions, and I'm hoping the Emby smart TV apps do.  However, I can see them on my iOS devices even when the same program does not show them on the smart TV.

Finally, if closed captions are part of the stream (I'm told) the HDHomeRun passes them on, it does not remove them during the transcoding process (in the case of the HDHomerun Extend, and any others that have real-time transcoding built in). I would assume virtually ALL DVR programs simply record what they get.  Therefore, this is actually a CLIENT issue, not a DVR issue (again, the original poster gets it exactly right).

 

So, has there been any progress on this?

 

Thanks.

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maegibbons

Hi

 

I responded to a thread like this some time ago.

 

I have a Fire TV and HDHR Connect in the UK.

 

Closed Caption on Live TV and recorded TV already works fine for me.

 

Krs

 

Mark

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MrRogers

Mark,

 

I'm completing my Emby installation at the moment, then I'll try the client for my Samsung smart TV.  I'll report back here on the results.

 

Thanks.

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MrRogers

Thanks for the feedback !

And previously...

Hi, welcome. We're going as fast as we can to bring you guys the features that are important to you, and certainly subtitles are important. Thanks for the feedback.

So is the team still planning Closed Caption support for the apps, or was that actually about subtitles? Even if there's not a timeline, how far down the priority list is this?

 

Thanks.

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As @@maegibbons said, we believe it is already there. The best thing to do is let us know where you feel that it's missing by discussing an example. Thanks !

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MrRogers

As @@maegibbons said, we believe it is already there. The best thing to do is let us know where you feel that it's missing by discussing an example. Thanks !

I have a 2015 Samsung smart TV and a 2013 Vizio. Their apps cannot show the closed captions that I can see when viewing the same content on an iOS device. I record live OTA programming via an HDHomeRun Extend (I've tested with and without its transcoding).  The iOS app gets the closed captions, but not the Samsung or Vizio tv apps.

 

Since my situation is a little different from the original poster's situation, I'd be happy to create a new topic if that's what you'd prefer.

 

All my research has led me to conclude that it's the apps, not the server that need to be changed. (edit: changed "player" to "server" for clarity, I hope).

 

Thanks.

Edited by MrRogers
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MrRogers

What apps are you using on those devices?

I'm missing something here (really, I am).  I misspoke, I have not tried the Vizio, I tried it with Plex and it didn't show the captions.

 

But on my main TV -- the Samsung smart TV, I'm using (drum roll...............................................)

The Emby app. ;)

 

Jack

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MrRogers

Update. I also misspoke about CC support on the iOS app. That was Plex. I can't get CC on the Emby app on my iPhone. The same program showed captions on the Plex app.

 

I won't dispute Mark's statement that it's working for him, but I have a feeling he's seeing subtitles rather than Closed Captions.

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clarkss12

I just tested my 2016 Tizen Samsung TV Emby app, and there is NO ability to play closed captions for live TV streams.

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MrRogers

This. Is. Weird.

 

As of tonight, closed captions started displaying on the Plex app on my Samsung TV.  I did not change anything since the last time I viewed an episode.

 

And it's defnitely Closed Captions (not subtitles). I just checked the .mkv file and confirmed there is not a subtitle track. And there is no .srt file to provide them, they're in the .mkv file.

$> mkvmerge -i Home\ Fires\ \(2015\)\ -\ S02E04\ -\ Episode\ 4.mkv 
File 'Home Fires (2015) - S02E04 - Episode 4.mkv': container: Matroska
Track ID 0: video (MPEG-1/2)
Track ID 1: audio (AC-3/E-AC-3)
Track ID 2: audio (AC-3/E-AC-3)
Global tags: 1 entry
Tags for track ID 0: 1 entry
Tags for track ID 1: 1 entry
Tags for track ID 2: 1 entry

So Plex is the clear winner for me.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Jack

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Hi @@MrRogers, I see that is an MKV. We also support closed captions for that. To enable this in the Samsung Tizen app, we need two things:

 

- Ensure closed captions are enabled in the TV system menu. There is probably a CC button on your remote that can be used for this.

- We need to verify the video file is direct playing and not transcoding. If you can provide an Emby Server log then we can check on this. You can learn how to do that here:

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/739-how-to-report-a-problem/

 

Thanks !

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MrRogers

Hi @@MrRogers, I see that is an MKV. We also support closed captions for that. To enable this in the Samsung Tizen app, we need two things:

 

- Ensure closed captions are enabled in the TV system menu. There is probably a CC button on your remote that can be used for this.

- We need to verify the video file is direct playing and not transcoding. If you can provide an Emby Server log then we can check on this. You can learn how to do that here:

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/739-how-to-report-a-problem/

 

Thanks !

Right, the file is .mkv when the HDHomeRun Extend does the transcoding on-the-fly.

 

The instructions for retrieving log files are (apparently) for Windows.  I'm running 

 

I removed the Emby app yesterday, but it looks like the logs are still on the system:

$> ls -lrt /var/lib/emby-server/logs/
total 1988
-rw-rw-r-- 1 emby emby    9374 Apr 25 13:14 ffmpeg-transcode-7bfc6ecb-952a-499a-aebf-507a2312f27d.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 emby emby   11809 Apr 25 13:17 ffmpeg-transcode-41141d81-c787-4d84-8510-af0f14dc31a4.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 emby emby   10641 Apr 25 13:19 ffmpeg-transcode-87ab7007-6819-4137-8d03-8b2cced3fbf4.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 emby emby 1165774 Apr 25 15:12 server-63628715530.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 emby emby    8691 Apr 25 17:22 ffmpeg-transcode-854dbbf8-47f7-4725-83ab-1aacae43352b.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 emby emby   14788 Apr 25 17:23 ffmpeg-transcode-f51e3b36-4456-42bf-b1c2-4f8aa2db9c11.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 emby emby  794573 Apr 25 22:27 server-63628730208.txt
 
It's possible that it was transcoding.  I had looked for a way to turn this off, but I may have missed it.  My ability to troubleshoot is limited, now that I've removed the app.
Edited by MrRogers
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maegibbons

Update. I also misspoke about CC support on the iOS app. That was Plex. I can't get CC on the Emby app on my iPhone. The same program showed captions on the Plex app.

 

I won't dispute Mark's statement that it's working for him, but I have a feeling he's seeing subtitles rather than Closed Captions.

 

Can you explain the difference?  The recording is marked with CC and I can select them in the Subtitle dropdown,  Its embedded in the stream.

 

Krs

 

Mark

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MrRogers

Can you explain the difference?  The recording is marked with CC and I can select them in the Subtitle dropdown,  Its embedded in the stream.

 

Krs

 

Mark

Mark,

 

They're embedded into the stream differently, but you can't confirm that without examining the media file(s).  But if your recording is marked with "cc" AND you can select them via the Subtitle option, it's possible your content has both.  In a nutshell, if you turn it on via the TV's "cc" button or menu, that's closed captions.  Since you selected it via the Subtitle menu, I'm assuming the menu is labeled correctly.

 

I'll admit I was confused and probably assumed the text I saw on my iPhone was subtitles, but apparently it was closed captions.

 

But for me, this is a moot question now.  I think I like the Plex UI better (possibly because I've gotten accustomed to it), AND the Plex DVR is integrated into the media server.

 

Jack

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maegibbons

Embys DVR is very much integrated in the media server - probably more so than Plex's - but each to his own.

 

I have lifetime subscriptions to both.  The support for emby is just vastly superior and generally so is the feature set.

 

Krs

 

Mark

Edited by maegibbons
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MrRogers

Embys DVR is very much integrated in the media server - probably more so than Plex's - but each to his own.

 

I have lifetime subscriptions to both.  The support for emby is just vastly superior and generally so is the feature set.

 

Krs

 

Mark

Mark,

 

I'll give it one more look. If features were identical, it would come down to which one is more suitable for running on a NAS device like the WD Personal Cloud (my transcoding is done on the HDHomeRun).

 

Thanks.

Jack

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  • 4 years later...

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